This year’s Singapore Toy Game Comic Convention (STGCC) was held at Marina Bay Sands Expo on 8th and 9th September. At the same time and place, Good Game Experience (GGXP) was held there as well. Double fun.
This was my first time, so naturally I was a little excited to check it out. And since I’m quite a noob when it comes to this, I brought along my kaki, Justin along. Outside the entrance, there were a shit ton of cos players hanging outside. Some were pretty cool and can see there was effort put for their costumes and there were some I have no idea who or what they were supposed to be. My guess, it’s definitely something Japanese related. Cool.
After the usual security checks, we made our way down to collect our passes and went straight in. There were some pretty big booths. Spiderman had one which was perfect because the game had dropped recently. Venom had one as well which I attributed to the upcoming movie featuring Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom. There was a model of the motorbike he used, so you could take pics with it. Too bad, I didn’t wear my Venom tee shirt for a photo op.
We headed to, in my own opinion, the main attraction of the event. The statues from XM Studios. By the way, these guys are Singaporean ah. And they have some f**king breathtakingly beautiful statues of comic characters. The detailing of most of their statues are amazing. Small wonder that everyone there was getting googly-eyed by over the prototypes on display.
We shuffled off to the comic-con section where they had first edition issue displays in cabinets. It was an eye opener of sorts as the only time I saw these covers, were in issues of Wizard back in 1989. First time seeing these classics in the flesh!
For the rest of the comic-con section, it was unfortunately mostly empty with Frank Cho sitting at his booth in the corner. Come on Singapore! Have you no love for comics? Show some love leh, it’s FRANK CHO yo!!!
After gawking for a bit, we decided to look for the games section (GGXP), which was what we were there for before we got distracted by XM’s displays. It took us quite a while to find. We found it weird that the games section was like cordoned off to one corner and there are guards at the entrance and exit. Like kenna apartheid sia. There wasn’t much general lighting for the area which gave the impression that the area was closed-off.
Considering that the “G” in STGCC stands for games, we’re not quite sure what the rationale for fencing off sections were.
Anyway, one of the main things we wanted to check out was the Singapore Pavilion. Local indie game developers showing off their new games! Swee lah! Had a short chat with the chaps from Avertigos which was great! The game looks fantastic!
Even though our local studios and creators were scattered about through the hall, it was really interesting looking at the stuff that they did like games, statues and comics. I do wish there was a little bit more focus on them though. Perhaps a more prominent and brightly lit area to showcase what we got and made of. Singapore Represent mah.
All in all, STGCC 2018 was a pleasant experience with some interesting content. Perhaps they’re exploring certain new ideas for the show as there were certain components that felt a bit wierd. In any case, we’re definitely looking forward to seeing the results of such exploration in STGCC 2019!
