Malaysia International Toy Fair 2011 – The Review

            The much anticipated 2^nd ever Malaysian International Toy Fair (or MITF 2011) was held over the last weekend from the 9^th to 11^th Sept 2011, at Hall 1, Mid Valley Megamall. The 3-day event, which showcases some of the most comprehensive and not to mention, impressive collectible franchises such as Transformers, Star Wars & Macross, and also an ensemble of online games, received overwhelming response – attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors from all across the country and beyond. 

A Merc in Action - I think

             Throughout the entire event, there were numerous Cosplay characters, depicting various characters such as the Imperial Stormtroopers and Darth Vader from Star Wars; Old Master Q and Big Potato (老夫子); Ultraman; mascots; anime girls wearing skimpy outfits (nice… ehem…); and also various combat characters that looked like some sort of commando/ SWAT/ Seal/ Merc/ army-ish, I don’t know, roaming throughout the arena, and all of them looked impressively convincing and realistic.

The Author with a Changyou Girl

The Author with 2 Imperial Stormtroopers

            I even had the opportunity to take photos with some of them such as Darth Vader himself, two anonymous Stormtroopers, some hot girls and even with Ultraman Mebius himself.

Kingsoft Games

Chang You

Ultraman Mebius

            While all those are cool, I was at the Toy Fair mostly for the various touted Action Figures. The little boy in me was beginning to feel restless the moment I came across the first of these lineups, i.e. the Macross Fans of Malaysia booth. The sight of this awesome collection invoked some of my fondest childhood memories watching the Macross/ Robotech series on TV. Heck, I never knew that Macross Universe had this much variety of mechas – whoever says this Fair wasn’t educational?

Various Macross Figures

            Next on my list was none other than the TransMY booth itself, which showcases some of the most amazing ensemble of Transformers figures ranging from those released in 1984, up until the latest Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon line. Some of the figures that really caught my attention here were the huge collection of Bumblebees figures from various generations (touted to be owned by a female TransMYian); a black-colored Super Ginrai; the Armada Optimus Prime-Overlord-Jetfire combo; G1 Trypticon; Deathsaurus (from Victory) and of course the customized DOTM Ultimate Optimus Prime by Alan Mark (Toy Picasso).

TransMYian Alan Looney with Customized DOTM Ultimate Optimus Prime by Alan Mark (Toy Picasso)

            I also had the pleasure of chatting with several TransMYians such as Hafeez Hillmin (aka Prime85), Farid Ab Ghani, Alan Looney and the founder himself, C.Y. Wong (Admin Prime), sharing our thoughts and love for this amazing franchise, and also discussed about some of the rare figures that were on display.

The Author with TransMYians (from left): Hafeez, Farid, Azran & C.Y. Wong

            The group has been actively involved in promoting the franchise in this country for many years and this year alone, they have been involved with the Transformers Exhibition in One Utama, Kuala Lumpur; the Queensbay Transformers Expo in Penang; and the DOTM premiere and mini exhibition in Genting Highlands.

Malaysian Customizers

            Then there was the Malaysian Customizers – an organization that specializes in producing customized action figures. Although majority of their DIY robots are Transformers, they also do customizations works to other figures as well. 

Customized Imperial AT-AT Walkers

Personally, I thought MyCust – as they are fondly known as – stole the show on the last day, with the display of their most ambitious and prized labor of love – the approximately 4.5ft tall Generation-1 character named Metroplex, which has been a work in progress since almost 1 and a half years ago – in a large scale diorama depicting the Decepticons assault on the Autobot City on Earth. They took more than 2 hours to properly setup the diorama, and I think it was well worth the effort.

Decepticons Assault on Autobot City on Earth Diorama

            During my short interview of one of their senior members, Fine Arts lecturer Azwan Abdul Karim (Wan De Real), he said that application to the Malaysia Book of Records for the biggest Transformers Figure in the country has been sent and would most likely be approved. The challenge is, however, would be the attempt to send application to the Guinness World Book of Record for their Metroplex to be recognized as the biggest transformable Transformers figure in the world.       

Wan and his Labor of Love - Metroplex in Base Mode (with Mohd Nizan at the back)

Wan also showed another of their masterpiece – the iconic Triple-changer Astrotrain, approximately 1ft tall, which transforms from a robot to a space shuttle, and then a locomotive that has won them the Sector70 Triple-threat Challenge competition in 2010, which has saw them beat numerous customizers from North America. 

DIY Astrotrain

Another one of my favorite characters that they did was none other than Sixshot – the Solo Transformer Assault Group or S.T.A.G. – that could transform into 6 different and yet convincing modes. 

Masterpiece-scaled Sixshot

Dooodolls

While there are many booths that appeal mostly to boys, the girls too are not left out. There are also loads of booths featuring various dolls in a variety of getup (by the Pullips Collector Club), Dooodolls, cute anime figurines and many more. 

Showcase by Pullips Collectors Club

            There were also various activities held throughout the 3-day event such as an appearance of Old Master Q and Big Potato dancing on stage, interview with artists from Gempak Starz, interviews/talks with various collector clubs representatives and many more.

            This exhibition has been quite an amazing journey for me, being able to learn and see so many unique products on display, meeting and making a lot of new friends from different backgrounds and origin, all brought together by our common passion for toys and action figures. I hope that this event will be back again next year with even more things to show. 

For further information of those societies mentioned above, kindly visit the links below:

Malaysia International Toy Fair official page: http://www.malaysiatoysfair.com/

TransMY: http://www.transmy.com/; http://www.facebook.com/#!/transmy

Malaysian Customizers: http://derealtransworks.blogspot.com/;

Macross Fans of Malaysia: http://www.hasrimy.com/macross/; http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/136221716403846/

Chang You: http://ldj.changyou.my/