Transformers Cybertron Con. What could you say more about it? Lots of Transformers fan swarming & flooding the place like there's no tomorrow? Or bunch of adults pretending they are kids once more and need to treat themselves as a younger human being? Oh well, anything you want to say about it, it surely a place where a Transformers fans can hang out, meet lots of other fans from around Asia especially from Malaysia & Singapore plus few fans from US, UK or may be Europe.I have the chance to go there myself. It's just a coincidence. I bought Air Asia Promo Tickets December last year hoping that me and my family can take a longer rest from the busy street of KL and the congested road in Kajang and Bangi. Managed to bought the tickets from March 10th until March 14th with the price around RM90 per head. Considered the cheapest tickets i bought so far for our holiday trip.
I got the news about the Con a month before my trip to Singapore and only God knows the feeling, the excitement, the enjoyment, the happiness i felt that time. Bought the tickets to the Con and of course, bought the VIP tickets for me & 2 tickets for 1 day pass for my wife and daughter. Total damage is around SGD92. What the heck, it's the Cybertron Con for Transformers fans & i'm one of them, i'm sure don't want to let go this oppurtunity to go there.
March 10th, arrived in Singapore around 5pm, rainy day as we looked for a cab, a Mercedes cab, not bad and it cost us SGD20 to the hotel, The Fragrance Hotel.The hotel itself cost us SGD98 per night, the cheapest we can find so far based on the family room & easy food can find around that hotel.
Joined by my friends, who came by car from Malaysia, we, 5 of us, went to Sentosa Island using the GPS and finally we arrive there around 10.30am. Entered from the parking lot, we arrive at the main door with few bunch of people and an angry fan who can't control his emotion. I don't know what is his problem but from what i understood, he's pissed off with the Resort World staffs on how to queue. Great isn't it? My first impression of the Con.
My friend kept saying that i have been conned because there's are only few bunch of people queueing for the Con. Where's other fans? Are they not interested in coming for the Con? Weird...
I asked 1 staff, he said the queue starts upstair and if you are lucky enough, you can queue for the 1st 100 fans to get the exclusive toy from Resort World and a signature from a designer himself who came directly from Japan. Enough said, we ran to the lift and arrived at the main door and voila! Hundreds of fans already queueing up to enter the con.
Frustrated with the situation, we decided to take a break, grab some breakfast for 5 of us at Malaysian Street Food, where, i queued for almost 40 minutes to get myself 5 drinks. What a turned off already!
After a fast swallow of my Nasi Lemak, we raced back to the Con with less people now queueing infront of the main entrance. After showing our tickets,we got ourselves the tag and me, got the Con lanyard, the Kre-O figure for the VIP ticket.
The 1st impression of the Con was like, wahhhhhhhh, nice! Good! I skipped the display of the toylines. Separated with my family and friends, i went straight to the sales area.
1st i saw, RID Transformers Prime Arcee & Ratchet, SG 32.90 (RM80), already scalped from it's normal RP, SGD27.90! Even in it's RP SGD27.90 if convert to RM, still around RM68!! Which is still expensive from Malaysia Retail Price!! What a turned off!! Again!! Resort World, a rich company, with lots of resort around Asia, a major scalpers of all.
Frustrated with the price, i went to another sale area, Roborobo, a toyshop from Singapore, a local shop where i heard few years back also sell scalped items to the fans. When i reached there, it's true, the story is true. Roborobo also, a big major scalper of all time, even worst from Resort World. Just imagine, a deluxe class figure cost you more than SGD60!!! Can you imagine that!!
I took TakaraTomy First Edition Transformers Prime Vehicon and Cliffjumper, both priced SGD 70 and 60 respectively. Can't decide which 1 to buy, took them both to queue, a very long queue, python queue i guess and it took me nearly 1 hour to purchase the figure when finally 1 guy told me that if you pay cash, can go straight to the counter for payment. After nearly 1 hour queue, i managed to pay for Vehicon ONLY. A price that more pricey than a voyager class figure! Damn it! What to do, missed Vehicon when it came out in Malaysia and now, looked like i'm supporting a big scalper in Singapore. Thank you roborobo. I will not forget your name, forever.
After purchased it, went straight to get my family and friends and we get to my friend's car and went to Hard Rock Cafe Singapore.The t-shirt there cost me lower than Vehicon, the classic HRC t-shirt and a pin cost me around SGD52, still cheaper than a deluxe class TakaraTomy Vehicon!
Beside HRC Singapore, there's a shopping centre named The Forum, inside there got Toy R Us and i race there after our short lunch at McD. Found RID Soundwave with the retail price of SG27.90! After calculating the price converts to Ringgit Malaysia, i decided to skipped SW as it's still cost me more than RP in Toy R Us Malaysia. SGD27.90 cost around RM68 and which i can get it for RM59.00 (SGD25) or less for a figure like that.
Sadly, have to skipped normal retail price of a deluxe class Transformers figure which a hot item in Malaysia local stores.
A total dissapointment to the Transformers Cybertron Con 2012 in Resort World Sentosa Singapore but nonetheless the best experience i have so far as a Transformers fan.
I went to the Con for the 2nd day for my photo with Optimus Prime and suprisingly, there's no crowd to push, surely less people than day 1. Bought myself another Transformers item, a t-shirt that cost me SGD40!! What another turned off. What a memory to visit the Con. A very bad one and a trully frustrating Transformers Con to visit.
In the future, i will visit the Con, yes, will visit again but may be this time, no more helping scalpers. I had enough already!!
Well, it goes back to Buy 1st Regret Later eyyh AND a very bad experience.
