Crazychildren: HobbyCon '08

DISCLAIMER: Below article are solely written by me based on what I've experience and seen during the event. Any offended remark(s) by me. Too bad - you just have to live with it !! TQ

Ahha !!! Finally I uploaded my long overdued pictures of HobbyCon '08. Not professional taken of course since I'm still using my crappy 'point 'n shoot' Canon Ixus65 camera. Enough naggin' bout my crappy camera.

It was on 6th & 7th December 2008 in KAC (Komplex Asia City) Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.

I was there, way too early on the first day where the lights and air-conditions systems are not even operational yet. I was so "semangat" (hyped in Malay) on this event that I've actually boarded a flight and flew over just to participate this event and showcase my "children".

As soon as I start setup my displays, few members approached me and some of them new I'm "Nerdpride"!! mainly because I dragged my luggages around the hall.

A special thanks to those who helped me on getting those shoe boxes - Here's a special respect to you all !!!

The crowd started to coming slowly. Mostly are CSPian. Most surprisingly was the Maid Cafe that was actually just right next to my display booth !!! WEEEEE.. Lotsa lolitacons !!!

Took me around 1 hour just to set my figures right and halfway through my setup, here comes Hangmen with his brother and friends.

Waste no time, Hangmen too quickly setup his collections. I felt kinda bad as I took too much of the space provided by the organizer. But hey !! I thought we'll get 3 tables, but yeah 2 big ones and 1 tiny 1 ones. But we did managed and improvises. This is why I needed those boxes.

After we setup our figures, Hangmen went to transformed into his "Pointman Mark II" (think that's the name he mentioned) together with his slightly de-formed P90 rifle.

More and more cosplayers arrivedso as more and more visitors came for the event. Still most of them are CSPian mainly because they wore the CSP tees.

Other booths managed to setup in time. There are the PVC figures by BaKaNeKo, GundamXToysXCostumes by J.H Printing ???, an IT station (with only two rigs) , card&board games, Digital gaming stations , manga & artist station, magic the gathering tournament ring ???!!?? and of course the Maid Cafe. Not forgetting the "serve as barrier" book fairs surrounding our event.

Overall, this is not such a BIG event as the name carries [HobbyCon], but this is the 2nd year in the making and hopefully it'll grow bigger.

Another fellow SDKian came to my aid, eehsitna his nick in CSP Forum. Of course not forgetting few fellow CSPian volunteers came to our booth to help out on securities. Sadly and sorry that I can't recall their names nor nicks. If you're reading this, please feedback on the comment sections so that I can credit your name here >.<

Moving on are the environments, well - given the venue are not the over-rated shoppers paradise. Patrons are few. Visitors are either from friends among friends of CSP or just simply a passer-by or of those who actually came for the book fair.

The sound systems are just below the OK mark. Sorry for this comment as I've attended too many live performance during my days following Dragon Red around (no, I'm not their groupies - I'm their so-called on-site manager !!). To make the matter worst is the notorious kiddy-high-on-valiums voice singing the DragonBall Z tune. Song list are so repititive for the course of 2 days. Suffering indeed.

The main attractions of this event are solely on the cosplayers. On the 1st day, hats off to the group that cosplayed the Akatsuki from the anime Naruto (the bad guys of course). They actually came out 2 by 2 to attract the crowds. Kudos on their efforts and myterious-ness.. hahaha.

There are alot more cosplayers that are eye-catching even to the extend of below-the-knee snapper lurks during the event. Too bad no one tell me 'bout it else I'll stretch my bones to break his bones !!!!

Back to my booth, I was asked if my collections are up for sales or not. Man, I should have printout a sign saaid"FOR DISPLAY ONLY". There is this particular lady who actually taking pictures for awhile and asked alot questions until I realized she's actually a reporter. HAHA, I am that slow and yes, me and my children are arcticled in New Sabah Times on the 7th December 2008 (Sunday) prints. *blush*

I was surprised that alot people actually interested in our 1/6 hobby. It's just that they do not have a right connections for the parts and items. Me and Hangmen are there to explain our passion for 1/6. Of course, Hangmen too explained his passions on 1:1 scales as well. HAHAHA

Thanks to my bro Clarence that help me buy those mineral waters. Since I've checked CSP donations funds. There are a small sur-plus so I decided to donate waters and KFCs. ^^

Unfortunately, those KFCs ain't enough to go around. So next year, I will order 10 large pizzas and hopefully organizers able to provide a necessary space.

On the 2nd day, thanks again to my bro Clarence that drove me all the way to buy those KFCs.

On the side note: Hope next time someone can offer help to clean up the place after their meal. Don't just "eat 'n' run" !!!

Thanks to the support of my family which happened to be in town as well on the 2nd day of the event.

Move on the 2nd day, business as usual as I was abit late. I arrived around 10am while the event start at 11am. Thanks to eehsitna and fellow volunteers, we able to setup my figures in just 15 minutes. During the setup I just realize that I broke one of the M4 rfiles... sob sob

Even more cosplayers show up on the 2nd day mainly of the competition held later in the afternoon. I notice there's a flaw in the voting systems. Well, not that I voted but I was chatting with BaKaNeKo. He did mentioned that the voting system needed to be revamped. If the voting ticket are not to registered - well you can guess the outcome of the winners.

I'm not a judge here but I think a fairer voting system need to be design. Cosplayers profiles should be shown as who are they cosplaying sort of like a pageant thingy.. haha

Well, who am I to judge anyway - just my personal opinion. This is my blog, I'm free to write I deemed fit. Which is why I didn't mentioned in CSP forum. WHY you asked?? CSP forum are governed by same bunch of people running HobbyCon. So outsiders like me to feedback or give opinion will most likely be blocked out.

Overall the event was a success but there are alot of way to improvements. To my understanding, it was the matter of manpower and "one voice one vision" plan. Seems to have internal conflicts within the committee members. Well, since i'm not one of them, I have to right to judge that. This is just my personal opinions.

Hope what I can see during the next course of HobbyCon '09. If given the right size of the venue. I hope that selling booths and display booths can be seperated out in sections. Some CSP members already pointed out that simply selling the items doesn't reflect the passion of the hobby itself.

Maid cafe definitely deserves a larger space. Since with only 2 small table, visitors/patrons wasn't even sure where they can be sitted.

Hopefully organizer able to attract more different kind of hobbist out there to join this great event and not just by playing it safe by making the HobbyCon small within and group of friends.

Again, my opinion may offend certain parties. If so, again - you just have to live with it !!!

Enough of talking/typing - below are my uberish pictures taken by me.