Goodbye Toy Flea Market @ China Square Central CSC

Last Sunday was the last round of flea market @ CSC. I managed to drag my tired body after my night shift duty and after attending AFA 2017. This marks the end of another toy era, but rest assured there would be start of another new era... Maybe @ Fook Hai Building just across the street or Havelock II. 

For what I know, many of the toy shops would shift to Havelock II by early next year and the flea market would start at Fook Hai Building. Fook Hai Building flea market is likely to accommodate more antique stuffs and I hope that once most of the toy shops had shifted to Havelock II, it would start another flea market solely for toys! 

My affiliation lays with Havelock II because I have a strong attachment to 'Pastime Toys' which is shifting there as the respectable owner is such a passionate guy, real friendly and generous whenever I rent a booth at his shop. "Ah Lau", I'm talking about you. I began seriously collecting toys before the CSC era during the days of Clark Quay flea market and also felt that same feeling of lost when flea market ceased at Clark Quay. 

Thankfully, I continued my journey with CSC. It's also at CSC when I first tried out selling toys by renting booth, hoping to recoup some money for more new toys on many occasions. More importantly, giving out my old toys and finding them a new owner who would treasure them more. I also enjoyed those times sharing booth with my like-minded friends, chit-chatting about toys.

Katsuden @ Anime Festival Asia AFA 2017

Ramen at Japanese food corner with enticing anime art

Almost forgotten to attend this year's AFA till I saw my friend's posting on Facebook. Looks like this year AFA has a new anime cover girl which is very kawaii too! As usual, the ticket prices has gone up again still I have make it a point to go. Upon entering the site, I'm greeted by the big scale Exia Gundam with Bandai taking the most strategic booth. Perfect Grade Exia Gundam is the launching Gunpla. There are also cool displays of Figure - Rise Dragon Ball DBZ with Broly as the next badass newcomer!

I'm thrilled by the light-up poster of the new season 'Full Metal Panic' anime by Katokawa and hell to those licensing issues and give us Fumoffu... I have waited a DAMN long 10 years ... Passing by Kotobukiya booth makes me want to watch 'Frame Arms Girls' anime and maybe fall in love with mecha girls and burnt my pocket deeper. Kotobukiya had also launched an exclusive AFA event 'Frame Arms Girls' model kit in red and white. So Singapore colour! Don't play play... 

Banpresto had many non-posable figures in their arsenal, casting their net with more licensing to games and anime characters, all thanx to the support of Ichiban Kuji fans... People just love gambling... errrr... I meant participating on lucky draw.... AFA 2017 is a grand booth from IdolMaster with costumes and figures on display. Never mind that cos I'm interested in 'Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend', recently enjoyed watched the anime and two thumbs up! Hence, I had spent more time at their booth admiring the drawings and artefacts related to the anime with lots of anticipations that the season 2 is coming next year Feb. To resist those bishoujo I must!

Other booths that also caught my attention included Bilibili, a video sharing website themed around anime, manga, and game fandom based in China... That's my kind of Japanese invasion... Lolz... Last but not least, NHK booth featuring 'Domo! World'. I'm always a supporter of NHK on my network T.V following their daily news, J Melo and especially like 'Imagine-nation' which the programme talks about anime, manga, and Japanese game. Awesomely Japanese! Now, I'm inspired to save up for my next Japan trip! Banzai!