March Weekend Blast...
This past weekend was just full of surprises. What I mean by surprise is a good dose of activity, events, and of course, doing what comes to mind at a moment's notice. This past Saturday though was a full day, and I'm still recovering from all the activity and travelling.
After a successful lunch meeting with some clients that day, I made my way to Cubao to attend the 2nd Annual "TagCom" convention. I didn't think too much of it since there will be several other cons to go to later this year, but I make no exceptions anyway and it was on the way coming from work. Getting to the mall was easier than I expected (it was a Saturday after all, and typically people crowd the malls at those times), though trouble started brewing as soon as I got there. I wanted to cover the event, so I double checked my PSP if it had enough battery life to cover the event... and guess what - only 9% battery life left. Fudge. Fortunately, it was enough to get some good pics (some of which are posted below), while the others I had to take with my cellphone.
So anyway, it took a while to find the venue of the event itself inside Gateway, but on the way I happened to chance upon a gathering of Cosplayers up in the theater lobby. Some dressed up in the usual anime fashion, while others took the movie character approach, especially one guy who suited up as Iron Man (see pic above). My favorite shot though would have to be the quartet who represented characters from one of my favorite videogame series - Resident Evil. We had Jill Valentine, Rebecca Chambers, Ada Wong, and Jack Krauser in the house right then and there, and I couldn't help it but get a shot with the girls later on, as seen on the pic below.
After some snapshots and photo moments, the cosplayers pointed me to the location of the event, which was tucked away in an alleyway beside the foodcourt (where DIY Shop used to be if I'm not mistaken).
The path to the TagCom was lined up with some cool display cases containing figs from popular lines such as DC Direct and Helboy (as well as more Cosplayers), but that was just the tip of the iceberg compared to what I experienced when I arrived in the main showroom housing the event.
A shot of the TagCom ticket. Entrance fee was P30 bucks, so I paid for the ticket and made my way to the showfloor. I thought navigating through the area would be a piece of cake. How wrong I was... dead wrong.
See the crowd in the pic? The.House.Was.Packed... literally. If you were present in the event, I'm sure you wouldn't last even 10 mins in there and just call it quits and get out immediately. By this time my PSP died, so I had to use my phone to take some shots. It didn't discourage me from trying to look at some shops though, and I scored a couple of comics (namely USAgent #2 and Ult. Iron Man#1 Sketch cover) so I wouldn't go out of the place empty-handed.
During the event, I ran into my friend Bim, who had quite a haul in his own right as he purchased some figures from the now classic ToyBiz series of Marvel Legends. In addition to to that being widely available in the show grounds, there were lots of Anime Merchandise and other toys ranging from Transformers to the newly launched G.I. Joe Anniversary figures, so anyone looking for bargains and deals were in for a treat that day. Problem was, you'd have to fight through the crowd and contend with a Cosplay event that was too big for its own good to be housed in such a tiny area.
Overall, I had fun in the show, and it was great to see a couple of friendly faces along the way. My only complaint would be the crowds and the size of the showroom. Fortunately, the cosplayers who dressed as fan favorite characters made things interesting that day. Afterwards, I grabbed a late lunch in KFC at Farmer's, shopped around a bit a scored a couple of posters, and the proceeded to leave the mall. Traffic was terrible though, so I had took a detour and waited around V-Mall til the evening (with expected shopping tendencies kicking in as a result, haha).
Sunday was a thankful change of pace, spending quality time with the folks and going around Megamall. That same morning, I finally defeated Azazel and beat the arcade version of Tekken 6 using my character of choice - Jin Kazama. He's one bad ass boss... armed with a barrier that's hard to penetrate and a slew of high damaging moves, one that's literally a "power geyser" that does guard damage! Check the video below that clearly illustrates the monstrous power of this abomination.
Though he's tough to beat and has the cheeziest moveset that's only comparable to bosses from SNK games, I KO'd that sucker after one game run. Unfortunately, no FMV or ending will be available until the home version comes out for the PS3, so all you'll get is game credits at the end. Kinda disappointing, but still worth the challenge. After leaving the mall, I wrapped the day up with some R&R and a dinner trip around the fort. Things are looking up this month, so I hope this trend continues.
After a successful lunch meeting with some clients that day, I made my way to Cubao to attend the 2nd Annual "TagCom" convention. I didn't think too much of it since there will be several other cons to go to later this year, but I make no exceptions anyway and it was on the way coming from work. Getting to the mall was easier than I expected (it was a Saturday after all, and typically people crowd the malls at those times), though trouble started brewing as soon as I got there. I wanted to cover the event, so I double checked my PSP if it had enough battery life to cover the event... and guess what - only 9% battery life left. Fudge. Fortunately, it was enough to get some good pics (some of which are posted below), while the others I had to take with my cellphone.
So anyway, it took a while to find the venue of the event itself inside Gateway, but on the way I happened to chance upon a gathering of Cosplayers up in the theater lobby. Some dressed up in the usual anime fashion, while others took the movie character approach, especially one guy who suited up as Iron Man (see pic above). My favorite shot though would have to be the quartet who represented characters from one of my favorite videogame series - Resident Evil. We had Jill Valentine, Rebecca Chambers, Ada Wong, and Jack Krauser in the house right then and there, and I couldn't help it but get a shot with the girls later on, as seen on the pic below.
After some snapshots and photo moments, the cosplayers pointed me to the location of the event, which was tucked away in an alleyway beside the foodcourt (where DIY Shop used to be if I'm not mistaken).
The path to the TagCom was lined up with some cool display cases containing figs from popular lines such as DC Direct and Helboy (as well as more Cosplayers), but that was just the tip of the iceberg compared to what I experienced when I arrived in the main showroom housing the event.
A shot of the TagCom ticket. Entrance fee was P30 bucks, so I paid for the ticket and made my way to the showfloor. I thought navigating through the area would be a piece of cake. How wrong I was... dead wrong.
See the crowd in the pic? The.House.Was.Packed... literally. If you were present in the event, I'm sure you wouldn't last even 10 mins in there and just call it quits and get out immediately. By this time my PSP died, so I had to use my phone to take some shots. It didn't discourage me from trying to look at some shops though, and I scored a couple of comics (namely USAgent #2 and Ult. Iron Man#1 Sketch cover) so I wouldn't go out of the place empty-handed.
During the event, I ran into my friend Bim, who had quite a haul in his own right as he purchased some figures from the now classic ToyBiz series of Marvel Legends. In addition to to that being widely available in the show grounds, there were lots of Anime Merchandise and other toys ranging from Transformers to the newly launched G.I. Joe Anniversary figures, so anyone looking for bargains and deals were in for a treat that day. Problem was, you'd have to fight through the crowd and contend with a Cosplay event that was too big for its own good to be housed in such a tiny area.
Overall, I had fun in the show, and it was great to see a couple of friendly faces along the way. My only complaint would be the crowds and the size of the showroom. Fortunately, the cosplayers who dressed as fan favorite characters made things interesting that day. Afterwards, I grabbed a late lunch in KFC at Farmer's, shopped around a bit a scored a couple of posters, and the proceeded to leave the mall. Traffic was terrible though, so I had took a detour and waited around V-Mall til the evening (with expected shopping tendencies kicking in as a result, haha).
Sunday was a thankful change of pace, spending quality time with the folks and going around Megamall. That same morning, I finally defeated Azazel and beat the arcade version of Tekken 6 using my character of choice - Jin Kazama. He's one bad ass boss... armed with a barrier that's hard to penetrate and a slew of high damaging moves, one that's literally a "power geyser" that does guard damage! Check the video below that clearly illustrates the monstrous power of this abomination.
Click to viewThough he's tough to beat and has the cheeziest moveset that's only comparable to bosses from SNK games, I KO'd that sucker after one game run. Unfortunately, no FMV or ending will be available until the home version comes out for the PS3, so all you'll get is game credits at the end. Kinda disappointing, but still worth the challenge. After leaving the mall, I wrapped the day up with some R&R and a dinner trip around the fort. Things are looking up this month, so I hope this trend continues.