Life In Borneo

Posted by Daniel on December 13th, 2008 in Events

HobbyCon 2008 was held last weekend (6 & 7 December). Games, figurines and costumes were the main attractions at the main event floor of Asia City Complex, KK. Organized by members of the ClickStartPlay.com forum, HobbyCon 2008 was a showcase of hobbies and activities that the modern generation of Sabah are into right now.

Bringing hobby to the public

HobbyCon (short for ‘Hobby Convention’) stem from the web-based forum known as ClickStartPlay.com, a community website based in Sabah that gathers hobbyists from around the state to share their favourite past-time activities with one another. The members, lead by the founders Mr. Hanafi Light and Mr. Lim Tzyy Shyong, came up with the idea of holding an event to enlighten the public about the hobbies that Sabahan youngsters are into. The idea then turned into a serious discussion, which then turned into a community effort. Finally, in December 2007, the first HobbyCon (dubbed HobbyCon 2007) was organized. The event was so successful, the organizers decided to turn it into a yearly event. The rest was history.

Welcome to HobbyCon 2008

HobbyCon 2008 is quite possibly the largest (and only) hobby convention in Kota Kinabalu, and perhaps all of Sabah. There were boardgames, cardgames and computer games on display, figurines at 1/6 scales and a maid cafe, where waitresses attired in Victorian maid costume served the visitors with homemade cakes and cookies.

One particular booth had a team of artist that sketched portraits for visitors. They also produce their own comic book titled The Da Dinci Code – A Party Parody, made especially for (and only available on) HobbyCon 2008.

There were also competitions held during the two day event. One of them was Magic: The Gathering cardgame tournament which was held on both days. A second one (and arguably the most attention-grabbing) was the competition for the ‘Best Cosplayer Award’, held on the second day. More than a dozen cosplay participants were involved, displaying their costumes inspired from video games, animes and mangas.

Cosplay Winners List

• 5th Place: Kenny cosplayed as Ichigo from the anime Bleach.
• 4th Place: Cheryl Lo cosplayed as Al Azif from the anime Demonbane.
• 3rd Place: Fara cosplayed as Death the Kid from the anime Soul Eater.
• 2nd Place: Melody Fung cosplayed as Rokudo Mukuro from the anime Katekyo Hitman Reborn.
• 1st Place: Kelvin Kok cosplayed as Reno from the hit video game Final Fantasy 7.

Hobby makes the world go round

HobbyCon 2008 is the biggest and the most successful event ever organized by ClickStartPlay.com so far. It’s fun, it’s entertaining and it’s informative on the ever-changing social lifestyles of Sabahans both young and the young at heart. We hope to see HobbyCon to grow even bigger and better next year. See you in HobbyCon 2009!

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