Blog Post: Hasbro Toyfair 2009

Hasbro Toyfair 2009

After just visiting the Annual Mega Warehouse Sale and surviving to tell the tale, I’ve got big reservations about going all the way to SM Mall of Asia to visit this one.

This event is infamous among local toy collectors for a few incidents with scalpers being unruly. Hasbro/Playkit often decides to release new stocks here, so many of our friendly neighborhood horders like to line up and see what they can score. It’s not uncommon to see new figures showing up in various stores or on eBay at a 50-100% markup the day after the event. Luckily, the local distributors and the great guys at Cybertron Philippines have since put up measures against this kind of thing. One is the One-Per-Customer rule. Another is having popular items placed with customer service in the retail stores. Another is having stores stock items in waves, maybe 2 or 3 at a time. These are all proving very effective.

Still, the venue is a long way off for a lot of us. SM Mall of Asia might as well be Pampanga for me. With traffic back and forth, my whole day would basically be shot. Plus with the aforementioned measures they’ve put in place, I’ve got a good chance of scoring the toys I’m looking for (RotF Bludgeon, please?) here in Ortigas.

I guess I’ll wait for the annoucement of new releases. My guess is that they’ll have the new Marvel Universe figures (they’ve already been released in specialty stores), along with Bludgeon. Sure as shit, they’ll have GI Joes, since that seems to be their big mover right now. Maybe a few more surprises.

I’m more excited about the December Toy Con in Megamall, which happens on the 16-22 at Megatrade Hall 3. There’s more chances of getting deals on more collectible stuff there, and probably less of a crowd.