Transformers Dark Of The Moon Rollout is a huge success not only to the Malaysian Transformers fandom but to TransMY as a personal record. This is the first time we were paired with Chevrolet, one of the biggest car giant in the world along with UIP, the big kahuna of the movie industry and this classy venue that we are having this little playground of ours – 1 Utama’s Oval.
When we proposed our plans in the boardroom, the scale of our exhibits are supposed to be bigger. Due to unforeseen circumstances that we are not allowed to talk about over here, our showcase cabinet has been downsized to two 6ft by 7ft for the legacy toys with 3 additional glass displays. The 3 smaller glass displays were actually two at the beginning. To cater the Chromia’s (Azlin) personal Bumblebee collection, Admin Prime has requested that Chromia’s collection to be expanded into two cases.
The one single 4 by 4 is reserved for custom toys by Wan de Real and Onizuka’s. The Bumblebee was split into two thematic cases – one for the old school 1980’s and the second one is for the newer / modern version of Bumblebee originated from the movie line.
The Bumblebee was suggested by TransMY to be located at the rear of the Camaro so that both displays could relate to the car almost immediately. It serves its purpose to educate the audience of how Bumblebee had originated from before having it’s current Camaro form. So there you go 3 smaller cases that served their purpose in the event.
The 6 by 7’s were installed in-situ while our team check-in their stashes with the help of Blur (Anis) and Muscular_Convoy (Syamaizar), Admin Prime took the opportunity to label the showcase cabinet before anything else. We started abit late though having prepared and unloaded our exhibits while awaiting the workmen to install the glasses, painting them and cleaning them.
The toylines featured on showcase one are as follows – 1) Transformers Collections, 2) Japanese Generation One, 3) US Generation One, 4) Masterforce, 5) Generation Two, 6) Beast Wars, 7) Beast Machines, 8) Robots in Disguise/Car Robots 9) Energon / Superlink, 10) Armada / Micron Legend 11) Binaltechs & Alternitys and 12) Masterpiece
Showcase two features 1) Cybertron / Galaxy Force, 2) Universe & Classics, 3) Generations & Reveal The Shield, 4) Animated, 5) Titaniums, 6) Robotmasters, 7) Transformers Labels and first 8) Movie, 9) Revenge of the Fallen, 10) Hunt For The Decepticons and 11) Dark of The Moon toys respectively. Altogether we had ‘An Evolution Over Eon’ as our theme for this event.
Here is our journey throughout the week.
Day 1 (7th June 2011)
We were done doing our setup at around 4am. With only a dozen of us left we took some pictures with the Camaro in a very close range. The guards were kind to us and allowed us to have our pictures taken with it. We fulfilled our promises by not touching the Camaro at all though some of us did silly stunts on it. We left around 5am and treat ourselves a few hours of sleep.
Members who is not working is all our full force for the event launch at around 10am. What is 10am if you are talking about Malaysian time? The event launch was delayed an hour further. While witnessing the event launch from far, we queued for our One Card where 1U is giving them away FREE for the first 500 person who queued up. Our members all queued and grab theirs.
Since we are not involved with the event launch, we just stood watch from far. There were a lot of formalities going on as all the VIPs and journos are doing their stuff on stage.
Tuesday was rather slow with some stuff going on such as Alan Mark’s custom’s tutorials are filling in the day’s slot. Thankfully these programs were made part of the event or else punters will be bored to death. Not to mention MC Stewart is doing his job so well. How would a prestigious event like this sustain without a good MC?
On that day TransMY manage to spoke to prominent people from the Transformers toys and movie franchise such as James Tan of Hasbro and Kara Lee from United International Pictures (UIP).
Day 2 (8th June 2011)
Nothing much going on as traffic is slow. However, there’s a funny incident experienced by one of our member TFBoy. A Taiwanese family approached TransMY and asked what is the name of Optimus Prime. The Taiwanese lady seemed to have known the name for sometime but have forgotten about it.
So there she was trying to find a ‘saviour’ to her question, until she found TransMY.
So, TFBoy (Henry) was summoned and TFBoy mentioned the names of Optimus Prime – first in Mandarin Chinese and second in Taiwanese Chinese, and the lady almost gone haywire as she was screaming her lungs out and hopped along the way running towards her son and said ‘Yes yes yes, is Kē Bó Wén (柯博文)!’ to her surprised son and daughter. She praised TFBoy by telling her children that TFBoy is awesome!
They exchanged contact and TFBoy finally had a Taiwanese family of his own! LOL. It is such a great help if we had knowledgeable members in extensive Transformers related stuff.
On that day we spotted some local celebrities too like this one in the picture:
Other than that is just a session of mingling with fellow members and long lost members who drop by to say Hi and a quick chat.
Second day is a good wrap with good things coming the next day.
Day 3 (9th June 2011)
Today’s crowd is much better and more responsive towards the stage activities organised by the MC. There is also colouring contests for the minors and as well as fun activities that involves parents and kids.
Also pop quizzes that revolves around the DOTM movie prepared by yours sincerely. Among other quizzes was the guest the character, which was also supplied by TransMY.
We chanced upon a conversation with PIKOM PC Fair officers during the event. They were planning to invite TransMY to do an exhibition in KLCC under the Recreation and Lifestyle theme. We exchanged business cards and look forward for their proposal. At first, it was quite surprising that a computer related event want us there. Until they revealed that it was for a separate theme then we understood. From the info that we got, the Optimus Prime is going to be there too to act as crowd puller. Way to go PIKOM.
The third day also marked as the third day we are ‘enjoying’ our McDonald’s voucher. We introduced some cut as for the first day we have overspent, especially for meals during the evening.
Day 4 (10th June 2011)
Thanks to Kosmonaut (Hady) our showcase are properly labelled now with promo banners of our website URL, Twitter and Facebook. Thanks to him too that we now have our own dogtags so to differentiate us from the promo crews from Oredia.
Not to mention, rekindled fans from the public or curious parents who want us to give a pep talk about the importance of appreciating stuff given by their parents and grandparents. On an occasion Monkticon was approached by an elderly grand dad of 3 grand kids. He was in need of someone to educate his grand kids about appreciating their hobby. So Monkticon had to sit down and have a little pep talk to those younglings about the importance of ‘playing their toys right’. That elderly gentleman was so inspired by our story that we wanted his grand kids to follow our foot steps as a good example.
We had a few old members who drop by and those who can’t be with us due to work commitments. I salute some TransMYians who take the effort to travel to the event to help out as far as Kuantan, Penang, Kedah and Seremban. You guys rock.
Some was even here only for a couple of hours to be on duty to experience the DOTM atmosphere and the camaraderie in our group.
Day 5 (11th June 2011)
The event is in full swing as the weekend is a crowd puller. Though school holidays are on their last days, it does not deter parents from bringing in their kids. Overall it was a great family outing. Our showcase is packed with people from all different age groups, posing and snapping pictures with the exhibits. A few of them did approached us for a quick chat. Most inquiries are in regards of how to get those items. We have had tourists as far as Australia who asked us about where to hunt for vintage Transformers.
We were amazed that Malaysians regardless of age and classes they were from, they were all seen very appreciative about the stuff that we collect and the hobby that we were involved in. So far from the conversation with the public, we did not get any nasty comments about our hobby being belittled in any form. Majority of them are talking with us with enthusiasm and curiosity.
Our resident customizer representing TransMY was given 2 slots on Saturday to present his customizing lessons to the public about the importance of customizing your Transformers and making a business out of it.
In a surprising twist of events, we were also approached by a prominent figure behind the Perhimpunanan Hari Sejuta Belia, national level – Mod Nadzri, an executive from the Ministry of Youth & Sports. He wanted to invite us to next year’s youth assembly in Putrajaya for the next mammoth gathering for youth, amounting 2 Million participants. We will be given a budget, a venue and props for us to work on.
To think about it, this will be the best chance for us to do it convention style. The fifth day is productive with a lot of new faces to meet and a network of opportunity for us to embark to.
Day 6 (12th June 2011)
Today is last day of the event and the traffic is on it’s peak. As for TransMY, our members who were absent during the weekdays redeemed themselves by turning up full-force on this event.
For us, it was a moment for socializing among members who have never met, or members who have less time appearing in our activities to catch up with the rest. This is an occasion where virtual friends eventually became real friends in the name of a passion that they all share dearly.
Here are some pics of one of our most memorable day being a collector and a TransMYian. We were eventually invited on stage by MC Stewart. We owe MC Stewart so much for pimping us during this event. If it is not because of him, we wouldn;t enjoy overwhelming traffic to our exhibits and our website. Also special thanks to Alan Mark for his support towards the Transformers fandom and also kitbashing.
Towards the closing of the event our videographer, SentinelPrimus did a video review of DOTM Ultimate Optimus Prime presented by our members – Monkticon and Jetwingoptimus. Credits to Alan Mark who lend us his figure, which was one of the first in Malaysia in Toy Picasso’s hands thanks to Hasbro.
Here is the video version, thanks to SentinelPrimus:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9JZ2r4mG6M[/youtube]
The figure had some custom paintjob on them with battle damage and smoked effects, the video has gone viral now, so watch this holy grail of DOTM of all figures!
The last day of dinner we throw a small party at McDonald’s by using up all our vouchers. We occupied 6 tables and chilled for more than an hour before heading to the tear-down ‘ceremony’
Past 10pm, TransMYians start to assemble with their boxes to claim their stuff. Blur and Muscular_Convoy was the people in charge of the toy registrars. Visitors still loiter around our exhibits up to the very last minute before we got the green light to cordon off the area with the barricades so that no one is allowed in during the exhibit claiming.
All was done orderly as members took turns to claim their stuff and marked by registrars. The process goes smoothly up until the last exhibitor. Before we all left, we became witnesses of the Chevys rolling out of the concourse of the Oval. Some members chance upon a life time experience getting in the Camaro and have pictures taken with them.
Soon after the Chevys rollout, the forklift and workmen came in. The lights were dimmed and the showcase cabinets were wrapped and taken away to their new owner’s back of the truck. The last TransMYians assembled as they tidied their boxes and arrangements in their cases to be transported home.
To us, 1U’s Transformers Dark Of The Moon Rollout was another good exposure for us a s a group. We would wholeheartedly thank United International Pictures (UIP) Malaysia for our group promotion since 2007, Oredia for the good job done catering us and accommodating our little Cybertronian brothers in those pretty showcases, Chevrolet for having us here, MC Stewart for the endless pimping on TransMY, Toy Picasso for new friendship and networking and finally, a big applause for my TransMY team for making this happen. We wouldn’t have done this if it weren’t you guys!
Till All Are One!
