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| Movie Optimus and Megatron welcome earthlings to Cybertron Con 2012 |
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| The Allspark cube crash-landed at the convention |
Rant? Yes, there were many hiccups and lots of room for improvements. Reading through local forums and even their official Facebook page, a lot of fans feel the same way. Personally, the main thing that cheese me off is their announcement of ticket pricing and discount.
I had bought the VIP package early on. Even though the package was not attractive (it cost more than 4 individual one-day passes, and I'm unlikely to attend all 4 days), I wanted the organisers to see that there is strong interest in Transformers in Singapore. However about a week before the event, it was announce that buying the VIP package with a certain credit card (which I have) would have discount of 8 bucks!
So again, early supporters were left with paying more for their tickets with no benefits. Previously I was also 'burnt' by STGCC 2010, where those who bought tickets later had more benefits and even free gifts. This is a disturbing trend among toy conventions in Singapore. I will definitely not buy anymore early-bird tickets.
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| Queue to go into the convention centre ballroom |
The event was held in a convention centre ballroom at Resorts World Sentosa. While big and spacious, I feel more could have been done to convert the whole area into a Cybertron-like atmosphere.
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| Entrance to the convention centre. Notice the flower ceiling? It will appear again in many photos! |
The convention itself is mainly an exhibition of Transformers toys from the beginning G1 era, to the Bay movies, up to the current Transformers Prime animated series. Unfortunately not every Transformer ever made was on display (as their media release seemed to imply). In fact there were many missing, especially from the Japanese series like Victory, Masterforce... even Binaltechs/Alternators were not featured.
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| Crowd in front of the G1 displays |
Another attraction of the convention is definitely the merchandise area. I admit I was hoping to score some good deals there. Although I did find some rare and sought-after Transformers, most of them were selling at marked-up prices. Still, there were lots of folks who were grabbing armful of toys! Maybe it's the convention atmosphere that drives them into a buying frenzy...
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| Excuse me, are you queueing or still shopping? |
The centrepiece of the convention ballroom is this 22-ft (6.71m) Optimus Prime statue. You can choose to take photos with him from ground level for free, or pay 20 bucks and climb up a platform to take a photo at his head-level.
The main attraction of the convention for me are the Panel Discussion sessions. For the first time, we in Singapore get to learn of new products ahead of the rest of the world!
Overall, I think it is worth to attend this convention just for one day to see the displays, grab some merchandise and soak in the Transformers atmosphere. But don't think it is worth the price of the VIP package.
Bonus pic of my loot from from Cybertron Con 2012!
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