TransMY at Malaysia International Toy Fair (MITF) 2011

Transfans Malaysia (TransMY) was invited again for the second time to the Malaysia International Toy Fair (MITF) 2011 that was held in Mid Valley Convention Centre. We were privileged as being a non-profit group, we get to enjoy the benefit of our booth being sponsored.

Since it was a sponsored booth, we were not allowed to do any direct sales, vending and chargeable service. Our preparation took place as early as March when we were informed by the person in charge that we will be give two booths with two tables.

Since the theme is loosely Transformers by general, our members tried to rally whatever Transformer they could find that encompasses most of the popular line such as Generation One, Movie lines and Classics/Generations/Reveal The Shield lines.

Apart from MITF/Nicodemus’s sponsors, we also enjoyed sponsorship from AirAsia Megastore for some AirAsia Transformers Dark of The Moon freebies like t-shirt, lanyards, luggage tags, and notebooks. Not to left out V-Hobby in the form of two extra tables that made our booth look superfluously large. Finally, ToyPicasso who’s going to ride under our flagship to offer the crowd a free airbrushing service for those who bring in a Movie line deluxe class toy.

Eve Setup (8/9/11)

TransMYians assembled as early as 6.00pm and hurried to our site located in booth 145-146. To our surprise, the location is almost as similar as the one that we had last year – in front of the stage. Since we were allocated two booths, the space does look spacious. As promised we were given two tables, with an extra courtesy table.

While planning to solve what we are going to do with the spacious space, our member Nazree come up with an idea by booting two banquet table available in Carrefour. The tables were arranged in an L shaped arrangement. We managed to get two pieces of table cloths measuring 3m and 4m respectively thanks to his idea. Hady as the usual decor man of ours manage to do some wall decor by putting up our labels.

Thanks to Airpool, we got our standee, the one we obtained from 1U thanks to Oredia. He manage to get them all the way from Klang driving over to Mid Valley with his Ironhide. Other decors include small banners that Hady did for our previous event in Genting Highland.

Around 20 of us were there at that time and we were proud to say that our mock setup works and just before 10pm we managed to pack up and leave for a yumchar.

First Day (9/9/11)

A handful of us were free so we rolled out at around 9.00am. Arriving on site was Alan Mark, Alan Yap, Vic, Bad, Airpool and Admin Prime. Soon, few more arrived helping out with the setup like Shahril, Marwan, Syed and Hady. The early birds managed to get the L shaped table settings ready and followed by the detolf glass cabinet for Azlin’s Bumblebee’s. The detolf setup were headed by Airpool and assisted by Syed, Marwan and Shahril.

Around 11.00am, our AirAsia Megastore was delivered to us. As soon as we got them, 4 stacks were distributed around the tables and our members personally hand them out in public almost immediately after receiving them.

Hady and Bad continue the decor part that they have left the night before. On Alan Yap’s side, he managed to mount a shelf for his Legoformers and for Alan Mark, we have prepped a table for him exclusively for his airbrushing work.

Since the crowd is going to cramp around the frontal side of our booth, we placed our loose items facing the corridor walkway for ease of monitoring. On the frontal row, we have established a perimeter for all the custom Transformers to be placed there which includes customs from Symon, Alan Looney and Alan Mark himself. They will consist of loose customs and cased customs. All of them are at least a deluxe sized custom.

Special thanks goes to Stewart for contributing three of his holy grails – Shadow Command Megatron, Lawson Exclusive Black Voyager Class Optimus Prime and a Mail Away Exclusive Ravage. Though it was Day One, it feels like we have been out full force. Provided if we managed to secure a larger perimeter, our booth will look like the absolute real deal!

On the first day, traffic was rather poor as it was still a working day for most people though we are still in a celebratory Raya mood. Our team start distributing the AirAsia Megastore flyers instead of wasting time in the booth.

Alan Mark took the stage with his slot ‘From Plastic To Diecast, Everyone Can Repaint’ for the evening and that basically wraps up the rest. There were few guests and some band play on stage.

The Friday is a slow but a good start to an exciting tomorrow.

Second Day (10/9/11)

Traffic is really good today and we are all early! We managed to get our booth setup and running right before the entrance was open to public. Our setup and arrangement differs a little bit compared to yesterday’s.

Today we are giving Energon, G1, Classics, Generations and RTS more screen time by giving them the main table. Beast Wars has been shifted behind placed on the shelve belongs to Alan Yap. Customs placements remained the same.

We had Beatmix Bumblebee dancing to the tune which is a definite crowd attaractor. Not only that, we manage to get Azlin’s Ultimate Bumblebee out in public where public can choose to interact and take pictures with the toy.

Alan’s airbrushing is quickly attracting crowds. Many people as far as Ipoh came to see him for this airbrushing. For those who don’t come for the airbrushing, looking at Alan doing his stuff gave all of them the awesome experience they will never forget.

Second day is also a presentation day for TransMY where 3 of us will be representing the group in giving presentations that encompasses growing a collector’s group and of course – custom toys. The venue of our presentation will be Function Room B which is next door to the MITF main hall. The session will run around 4pm onwards.

First speaker is Admin Prime with the topic “How To Establish A Collector’s Group & Growing It”, followed by Symon with the topic “Anyone Can Customize Toys” and finally Alan Mark with “From Plastic To Diecast, Everyone Can Repaint”. The reception was great and thanks to our fellow members, allied-groups like Sembangtoys and the public who have attended the hearing.

Activities back to normal at the booth where Alan continued his airbrushing and we continued our flyer distribution. We start packing up around 9.30pm when things are quieter and headed off for yumchar. Before that we manage to photo ourselves.

Last Day (11/9/11)

There is a surge of traffic as early as Sunday morning when thronging visitors jam-packed our walkway and headed to our booth. Many shutterbugs today talking pictures from many different angle. Some even resulted in storming in the booth to take a closer glimpse of the figures. We had no choice but to tell them off as it was too packed.

Our flyers are out as usual and by 1.30pm, all our AirAsia Megastore has completed distribution! We even managed to take the picture of the last flyer being given away!

Today our team do alot of talking and interacting with the visitors. We had many long distance members who visited the event just to drop by. Some even offered to man the booth for a couple of hours before leaving. Kudos to Negeri Sembilan members like Sunny Wong and Khoo. Fadzlizan and Jason Lim from Penang and Jerry Wee from Malacca.

To keep the booth pumped up, Mike restocked undistributed DOTM posters into our booths for free giveaways. In the posters, we include the flyers for the ease of distribution. Thanks to our team who managed to get their hands dirty with the tapes and dusty wrappers. The posters was soon out almost immediately as visitors grab whatever freebies they could even assuming flyers as one of them!

Around evening, before dinners, the crowd was packed and to spice up our booth Alan decided to throw out some freebies along with some quizzes. Those who win them will stand the chance to grab a Transformers Dark of The Moon Cyberverse class figures. It does attract the crowd and visitors were almost seen as mobbing our booths!

MITF person in charge soon approached me and informed that Alan and Becky will go on stage for their customizing presentation which is a good news. We learnt that Function Room does not attract many crowd as it was secluded from the main hall. Though the changes made was sudden, we were delighted with this development.

At around 5.30pm, Alan and Becky went on stage with their presentation kits. Crowd soon amassed the around the stage. Though other clients were disrupting the presentation a little bit with their loud music, our presentation went pretty smoothly as both Alan and Becky countered the noise with their own tuned up volume.

Becky talked about her Gunpla customization experiences and her experience jumping into the Transformers bandwagon hence being with TransMY this time to share her knowledge. Being one of the professional female customizer, her presence on stage draw a round of applause from visitors.

Alan threw in some surprises too by offering what’s left of his freebies by offering them to the crowd if they get his quizzes right. Again, it drew a lot of attention even from senior citizens who wish to answer them correctly. The presentation ended with a blast when the end crowd inclusive of girls start to pay attention on what Becky was saying.

The presentation wrap up an hour later and we were left to chill at our booth after a very pumped up evening. What we have achieved so far:

• Freebies and free service that was given will be returned with support, attention and most important of all, being remembered as the cool part of the event
• Interaction drew more traffic to our website, blog and forum not to mention our Facebook pages
• As we grew further, there were nice people we met along the way that were generous in helping TransMY out. Special thanks goes to AirAsia Megastore, V-Hobby, ToyPicasso, MITF/Nicodemus and Hasbro for the special attention given to our group
• Team work forged better camaraderie among members and being a muhibbah bunch, the appreciation of Transformers franchise brought people together regardless of race, religion, background and creed.
• The attention given to us will further boost our presence and reputation in future events.

Special thanks goes to TransMYians who tirelessly attended the event and putting so much effort in manning the booth to make our booth an effective crowd puller in MITF 2011.

A shout out goes to Ahady, Rezall, Mike, Alan Yap, Syaiful, Nor Azlin, Hafeez, Christe Raja, Azran, Vic Low, Syed, Badrul, Qamil, Henry, Khoo, Sunny, Syamaizar, Anis, Symon, Becky, Nazree, Farid, Faizal, Fadzlizan, Jason, Jerry, Tiam, Zodie, Ardian, Thong, Admin Prime, Stewart, Alan Mark, Alan Looney, Catherine, Shahril, Zeck, Marwan, Idham etc.