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| He's gonna rant, as always |
If one was expecting a full-on show floor level expo, well it's not. It's just located as a carousel-sized booth in the mall atrium. The booth was beside some display cars and a condominium show floor, which equates to about the same size.
Since it's the 1st day, I was expecting a whole crap ton of humans. And I was correct. By the time I got there by 10:45, the booth was already jam packed with people who lined up to buy merchandise.
Maneuvring around the booth was a chore due to the volume of people. The area itself is split into 2: The showroom where all the kits (including the future release kits) are displayed, and the shop floor.
The show floor itself was decent. We got to take a more detailed look at the Gundam Bael (both in 1/100 and 1/144), the Gundam Vual, and the MG Providence Gundam.
There's also a 3 meter RX-78-2 Gundam based on the MG version 3.0, where you get to take pictures.
There's also a show case of customized Gunpla by local modellers. The customized Dijeh was absolutely stunning.
There's also a Ver.Ka display to the left of the custom display. I got to see just how huge the MG Psycho Zaku booster is. I also realized just how long the legs are for it... a signature of Katoki, but does not really suit the Zaku very well imo. the HG thunderbolt has better proportions.
In one area, the human sized Build Fighters Try suits are also in display. The Winning Gundam actually looks good here.
You see that line to the left of the Lightning Gundam? That's the line to the cashier... which brings us to the Achilles heel of the "expo". The area where you can browse and buy Gunpla is cramped. The scenario feels more like an MRT on rush hour. I was not able to take pictures since I can't lift my arms since we're all squeezed together. To the left was the MG and IBO area, where it's super jam packed. I was looking for a Helmwig Linker, but they ran out. It's also mostly full priced. The right area was the Build Fighters/ HGUC area. Not as much people here (still crowded AF), but that's because there's nothing new.
Also if you were looking for discounted Gunpla price ala ToyCon, you will be severely disappointed. Most are at full Department store retail price. To give you a picture on prices, the HG Rouei is 1200 yen (1300 plus Japan taxes). 536 php directly converted. It was being sold for 850 php, just add 350 more and that's the Japanese price. I know you have to pay taxes and stuff but last year, these kits would often come out during it's 1st release at a discounted price, probably 700. The Vidar costs the same there. The Flauros was on sale for 850, but at full price was over 900. There were a few items on sale that I actually want, the HGBF Megashiki at 850 and Zaku Amazing but the queue was long so I didn't bother. Didn't want my weekend to also feel like a weekday. Also, if you want an expo item, you need to buy at least 1 kit at full retail price. I left after 30 mins of squeezing in and out, as I know we can buy these cheaper somewhere else (unless you want the expo exclusive, none of which I wanted). I was hyped, but I should have known better as the event was sponsored by SM. I ended up with nothing on my hand.
Well, guess that's what you get for expecting too much. You're better off preordering from online re-sellers. That's it! Not much really to say. Should have played Witcher 2 instead and relaxed. Hope you (whoever reads my blog, if there are any) enjoy the pics of the future kits. Cause that's all that's worth looking :P
Yeah. I was already disappointed when they announced that SM would be handling the event.It was just a chance to sell their stocks.
ReplyDeleteThe main issue is how they marketed it. People (well I was) were expecting to have an "expo" level size. I don't have experience with other Gunpla expos so it could be that it's always like that (in HK for example)
DeleteThanks for sharing your experience at the Expo and sharing pictures - great pictures. The way you described the"expo", I'm glad I didn't go haha.
ReplyDelete