As like last year's event, ToyCon gets bigger as teams it up again with PopLife Entertainment and the Salt Lake City Comic Convention FanXperience which brings international celebrity guests here in Manila to meet and greet with the local fans. Last year, they brought international celebrities such as Dean Cain from Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Kristian Nairn who played Hodor from the hit series, Game of Thrones, Daniel Logan (who played the young Boba Fett from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones) and even Stan "The Man" Lee is also a guest at the event (via live feed). This year, they will be bringing new list of guests that will bring the inner fanboy and fangirl in all of us.


As revealed before, the 1st and 2nd batch of guests that will be coming to ToyCon are Kevin McNally (Gibbs from Pirates of the Caribbean movies), Lindsay Mckeon (known for her role as Tessa from series, Supernatural), Charlie Bewley (who played Vampire Dmitri from Twilight), Karen Fukuhara (who played Katana from movie, Suicide Squad), Carla Perez (Rita Repulsa from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV series, courtesy of Bully Boy Collectibles), Stefan Kapicic (who played Colossus in Deadpool movie), Cas Anvar (who voiced Altair in the hit video game, Assassins Creed: Revelations) and recently revealed yesterday, the final batch of guests are also coming to Manila: former NMB48 member Nana Yamada, Greg Cipes (who popularly voiced Beast Boy from Teen Titans /Teen Titans Go!, Michaelangelo from Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Kevin Levin from Ben 10: Alien Force, Ultimate Alien and Omniverse) and the J-POP duo; Yanakiku.

Aside from the usual Toy selling, contests, E-Sport, Cosplay, Toy Group collection gallery, Artists Alley, and PopLife exhibits; the highlights at this year's ToyCon are the upcoming line of movies from Warner Brothers, which will be showcased in their exhibit booth: IT, Ninjago, Justice League and even the original movie prop doll of the horror cult classic, Annabelle which will be displayed at the event, talk about creepiness. Also, Mars Ravelo’s Superheroes which featured in their classic art and comic form; courtesy of the Mars Ravelo Estate and ABS CBN Licensing with a gallery of Mr. Ravelo's works will be showcased at the ToyCon Gallery. A toy collectors’ exhibit: The ToyCon Toy Club Gallery will feature top toy brands from Kotobukiya, Enesco, Bandai, Hero Cross, Hasbro, Mattel, Hot Toys and Lego which will exhibit their new and upcoming toys and merchandise that will be released this year; all under one roof. And speaking of Cosplay, The Philippine World Cosplay competition is coming back to ToyCon where cosplayers from all parts of the country will compete with the finals which will be held at the event where the winner/s will represent the Philippines in the World Cosplay Summit that will be held in Japan, later this year.

If you think ToyCon 2016 was already bigger where the event was held in all 4 halls of the SMX Convention center, it gets bigger this year as the event will not only occupy all of the 4 halls, it also includes the halls on the 2nd floor of the building as well (which I previously mentioned in my last post). A first for ToyCon: the entire 2nd floor will be dedicated to digital bloggers and creators as Pop Life Entertainment brings your ideas to life with their Creator Stage, now ToyCon goes digital! Con-goers, even seasoned bloggers and Youtuber aspirants will experience how to create their own digital content right at the heart of the event where they can work with professional content creators and YouTube celebrities and might get a chance to be part of a global leader in multi-channel networks using the latest technology and equipment, courtesy of Pro Am Studio. Check out a few sample images of what the Creator stage looks like and what you might expect at the event.

Save the date, people: ToyCon x PopLife FanXperience 2017 will happen on June 30 (this coming Friday already), July 1 & 2 at the SMX Convention Center, SM Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay City. See you there!

Tickets for ToyCon x PopLife FanXperience 2017 are now available at the SM Tickets website. The regular ticket price sells at Php 500 while the 3-day pass sells at Php 1,200. There's also a VIP and Legendary pass (both with exclusive freebies) priced at Php 3,000 and Php 10,000 respectively. Details of freebies for the VIP and Legendary passes will be posted later.

This event is co-presented by GLOBE and other major sponsors: MaxiCollector, Arigatoys, The Gaming Library, Warner Brothers Pictures, Bankee, Toy Empire, Ano Toys, Great Toys Online, Hygienix, Bully Boys Collectibles, Big Boys Toystore, Hubbyte, Kramer: Toy Warden, Devant, MoguMogu, and Bruder Toys.

ABS-CBN, History Channel, Psicom, Manilascape, PBNet and Retro 105.9 DCG FM are the official media partners for ToyCon 2017. Other event partners: Anime Alliance, FLIPGEEKS, The Fanboy SEO, DAGeeks, Reimaru Files, Robot Pilipinas, EX-LINK, and Uptown Mall.