TOYCON Celebrates its 18th Year in the Asian Pop Culture Scene

The Philippine Toys, Hobbies and Collectibles Convention, better known as TOYCON PH, is celebrating 18 years of serving pop culture enjoyment to its fans both local and international. It is, simply put, the longest-running and premiere pop culture event in Asia. Early this year, TOYCON PH presented a fresh visual identity, through a new logo, to cater to the growing millennial crowd, and also attract visitors from all over the world with a global perspective to promote the Philippines as the leading pop culture playground in Asia, that showcases Filipino creativity, innovativeness and talent through toys, games, entertainment and digital content. 

TOYCON PH – Where Asia Comes to Play!

TOYCON’s new tagline indicates the direction of where it is going. It is now an International event that will flex its muscle to further increase the international visitors that are coming. This all means that a better and grander line-up of activities is expected for this year. These activities are guaranteed to give its enthusiastic followers and the casual fans more to enjoy in TOYCON. TOYCON has had 17 years of excellent experience in making the Philippine pop culture scene the most dynamic and the most fan-centric experience in the region! It started the pop culture revolution in the country. And now it is capturing the heart of pop culture enthusiasts in the whole Asia Pacific region. This year is the 18th year of the event, and through the years it has been adding value and uniting the different toy and pop culture communities in the Philippines.

TOYCON’s Exclusive Toys and merchandise

One of the things to anticipate this year are the exclusive toys, collectibles and merchandise that will come out of the event. This year, there will be more exclusive toys that will come out in TOYCON. And if you are a toy collector, it will be one of those events that you can call heaven sent. Headlining as the marquee TOYCON exclusive is the Zeta Manila Killa PH Colorway designed and created by Quiccs Maiquez, who was awarded Toy Designer of the Year and Toy of the Year in the recently held Designer Toy Awards in New York City. In addition, the much-anticipated Jollibee Flocked variant Funko Pop will also exclusively be distributed by the Funko Funatics Philippines during the event this year. We also have Filipino-inspired toy exclusives of Tiny Ghost by Bim Toy, Dino by Ziqi Toys and the first release of the Batman Imperial Palace warrior vinyl toy by Mindstyle.

TOYCON’s Toy Designer Line-up Gets Bigger!

When there are exclusive toys, not far behind are the big toy brands and toy designers. There will be more local and international brands and toy designers that will grace this year’s event. Brands like Lego, Funko, Bandai, Good Smile, Hot Toys and XM Studios, along with internationally renowned toy designers: Ron English (the legendary godfather of street art), Quiccs, Wetworks, Anatoy, Yoii, Hariken, Creon Chkn Head, Happy Garaje, Jessica Emmett, Daniel Yu, Fanny Kao, Mumbot, Rusho Toys, Jwon, Kaze Studio, Messymaru, Mupa, Non World, Siam Ruf, Tangent and Too Natthapong will line up the event with their distinct brand of collectibles. These designers from all over the globe certainly get the art toy enthusiasts excited in all the international toy shows and certainly, art toy aficionados will get spoiled in this year’s event!

TOYCON’s International Influencers and Celebrity Guests

The era of the digital influencers is here. TOYCON, with our partner Pop Life Global, is giving the community a taste of the future and beyond. First up are influencers from the Pop Life’s Pro-Am Studios, which is in the business of making movies out of their studio and post-production facilities in China. They are slated to release five movies this year and next. One highlight of this year’s FanXperience event will be the Battle Dance Champions featured in the Pop Life produced movie, No Dance, No Life. World-class dance will take over the FanXperience stage featuring talents such as Former Bboy of the Year: Bboy Morris, World of Dance 2019 Champions: The Kings, World of Dance Team of the Year: Academy of Villains, and The Creator of the dance style, Krumping, Tight Eyez. The international artists are a staple of TOYCON. Through our partner, Pop Life Global, we have had guests from Game of Thrones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Power Rangers, Superman and X-Men, and other great franchises. This year two guests confirmed to arrive are from the hit AMC series The Walking Dead. These are actors Michael Cudlitz, who played Sergeant Abraham Ford, and Steven Ogg, who played Simon and also plays Trevor in the hit video game Grand Theft Auto V.

TOYCON’s Sound Arena

We love music, who doesn’t? This year, fresh new talent will hit the stage of TOYCON with band performances and idol groups joining the fray. This TOYCON, you will cheer your heart out, guaranteed! Up and coming bands Souldrift, Lila, The Lock Pickers, The Glass O, Project:Materia, Kanjiru, Asterysk, Lunar Rhythm, as well as fan favorites Aidoru Sozai, CH4U, and Pastel∞Mix will be performing at the TOYCON stage for its Music Festival. 

TOYCON’s Comics and Gaming Exhibition!

TOYCON is also our country’s undisputed Comic Con with top-caliber comic book artists gracing the event. The line-up this year includes: Berlin Manalaysay: Creator of the well-loved cyborg, ‘Combatron’, one of the most well received characters in Funny Komics in 1992. Ed Tadeo: A prolific Filipino comic book artist, colorist and inker for Marvel, DC, and Image Comics. Titles of his works in coloring and inking include: Wolverine, Silver Surfer, High Roads and District X. Heubert Khan Michael: Former guidance councilor turned legendary comic book artist. Judged by Neil Gaiman himself, Hubert won 3rd place in the Philippine Graphic Fiction Awards back in 2010 and has been inking since then! Some of his awesome works include: Vampirella, Unstoppable, and The Owl. Miguel Mercado: Miguel is a Cosplayer and Illustrator. Miguel has is known within the Comic Book community for his epic cover art for Back to the Future (2015), Buffy The Vampire Slayer (2019) and Over The Garden Wall (2017). Harvey Tolibao: Harvey first got involved in the comics industry in late 2006 when he penciled and inked the twelfth issue of Dark Horse Comics' Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. He also did the art for Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Psylocke, the Avengers and has also done some work for Top Cow and for DC. Pol Medina Jr: Pol is a Filipino cartoonist best known for creating Pugad Baboy, a comic strip about a community of fatsos and a dog named Polgas, highlighting domestic life and the characters’ commentary on relevant societal issues and pop culture. Pol is the 2018 recipient of the TOYCON Pinoy Pop Culture Icon Award. Raymund Bermudez: Filipino Comic Book Artist, Penciler and Cover Artist for DC Comics. Some of his notable works include: Justice League, Pathfinders and Lex Luthor. Raymund Lee: Professional Digital Comic Book Colorist who is known for his painterly style and classic renditions of superheroes. And finally, Steve Gan: One of the most accomplished Chinese-Filipino Comic Book Artists to date. Best known for co-creating the legendary comic book “Ang Panday” as well as Marvel’s “Star-Lord” and “Skull the Slayer”. Another exciting comics-related news is that ABS-CBN will launch the Ravelo Komiks Universe in TOYCON 2019, the first ever unified comics universe in the Philippines, with a legacy display of new merchandise for its prominent stable of heroes, Darna, Captain Barbell and Lastikman. Watch out for life-size statues of these character on display! 

Other TOYCON 2019 Highlights

Exhibits from epic movies coming soon will make the TOYCON scene more engaging. Headlined by movies from Sony Pictures, Spider-Man: Far from Home, and Warner Brothers’ line-up of movie icons from the horror genre, the Annabelle doll from Warner Brothers upcoming Anabelle Comes Home, Pennywise the Clown from IT: Chapter 2 and Chucky from Reality Pictures’ 2019 adaptation of Child’s Play. Meet them up close, but don’t blink! This year’s TOYCON will also feature a new fun zone, the Play Hub! This is where fans of comics and gaming will find the young and upstart artists in the design, graphic and digital spheres come together to exhibit their craft and talents!

The Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP) will host TOYCON’s Gaming Conference, while the Animation Council of the Philippines will showcase more than 50 short films in the Theater Room. TOYCON POPLIFE FANXPERIENCE will also be the stage for the unveiling of the biggest Batman statue in Asia, the 22-foot tall Imperial Palace Batman which is a likeness of the Dark Knight never seen before until now. Celebrating the 80th Anniversary of Batman, DC Collectibles has announced a collaboration with Pop Life Global and China’s Imperial Palace for a special series of figures featuring DC Comics characters in costumes themed after ancient Chinese warriors and soldier armors. This Batman statue is going to be one for the history books!

This year’s World Cosplay Summit Philippines (WCSPH) National Finals will also be held at TOYCON 2019, with Japanese Cosplayer Reika and WCSPH Alumni Ming Miho and 2018 Philippine Representative Team Sekai (Sergio Sta. Ana and Kai Raito) headlining this activity. Five cosplay pairs selected from parts of the country will compete for the right to represent the Philippines at the 2019 World Cosplay Summit in Japan. Aside from these, TOYCON 2019 will host a number of activities such as a Mobile Legends gaming Tournament in partnership with InFlux TV, The TOYCON Cosplay KO Competition and bestow the Pinoy Pop Culture Icon Award, which honors the icons that made our Filipino pop culture heritage truly distinct and long-lasting. TOYCON’s line-up of vendors and exhibitors also gets bigger and better every year with more than 300 merchandise booths of toys, pop culture memorabilia, apparel, collectibles and more, with more international brands coming to town.

TOYCON Pop Life FanXperience 2019 – It’s a Whole New Playground! TOYCON PH and Pop Life FanXperience is proving indeed that it is the leading pop culture playground in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia. There will be more sights to share for your various channels and social media, engaging activities, shows and panel discussions, interactive brand activations, collectibles and merchandise, and YOU are definitely going to be a part of what will make TOYCON great this year! TOYCON POPLIFE FANXPERIENCE happens on June 28-30, 2019 at the SMX Convention Center, Pasay City. [The event is made possible by PLDT Home Fibr, MaxiCollector, Big Boys Toy Store, Filbars, Great Toys Online, Ano Toys, Arigatoys, Hobbiestock Collectibles, De La Salle College of St. Benilde, Kramer Toy Warden and main media partner, ABS-CBN. With thanks to our official residence partner, Tryp by Wyndham Mall of Asia Manila.] So cheers for TOYCON’s 18th year and we hope you join us in this ground-breaking international event. Always check out the TOYCON website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts for more updates: www.toyconph.com www.Facebook.com/ToyconPH www.twitter.com/PHToycon www.instagram.com/PHToycon toyconph@gmail.com