Hong Kong Transformers Madness Event June 22nd 2017

[Bladestorm]

A few pictures from the event that took place last Thursday night.

VIP passholders lined up ready to get into the event.


Optimus helped out with the event.

Battle damaged figures.

Close up of battle damaged Optimus.

Sample toys on display.

It started with a VIP screening of the movie in 3D at a nearby cinema (the one used for the AoE world premiere in 2014) followed by exclusive access to the store to get toys released for the event.
Based on a certain spend you could also get a Battle Damaged Optimus Prime (50 available) or Battle Damaged Bumblebee (100 available) and Battle Damaged Barricade for those who had an exclusive letter (must have spent HK$1200 on Transformers toys in one receipt during the claimable period).

They also gave out free Optimash Primes, Transformers stands, plastic folders, and card holder lanyards.

There was also a prize draw. Every HK$500 spent on the night gave one entry form for the draw.
Major prize was the Gunmetal black "Nemesis Prime" voice changer helmet. The guys who won those refused to tell us what their unique numbers were though.
Other prizes included complete sets of voyager toys, remote controlled sqweeks, Hot Toys Optimus Prime (Megatron Version), SDCC Fort Max and SDCC Devastator (I won that one!) and a few others I'm probably forgetting.


Some of the goodies we bought/were given.

Someone we know won one of the bigger prizes (unfortunately not the one with the Gunmetal voice changer).

I won SDCC Devastator.

Photo op with Optimus.

I was pretty excited to get a Battle Damaged Optimus Prime.

Expect more photos and commentary from someone else who flew over to join me for the event.

If people want to see more pics of the event or the battle damaged figures let me know and I'll post more up. But... I'm keeping the figures all mint sealed in their boxes for now so they'll all be in-box pics.

[Jetfire in the sky]

Great stuff Bladie!! Winning that Devvie is Boss!!

Booo to the nerds who wouldn't reveal their number. I have never got that amongst fans and never will. D!ck$

[BruiseLee]

Nice one! Congrats on the lovely prizes!

Now I may be missing the obvious by why wouldn't people reveal their number? Something dodgy?

[griffin]

Some of my photos, finally...

Before the event, to get some context.

The original promotion started on April 28th, in which minimum purchases earned people one of 100 pairs of entry passes to the June 22nd Madness Event and a free Battle Damaged Barricade.... or one of 300 Battle Damaged Barricade toys. (a total of 400 Barricades)

Member Bladestorm got one of the VIP packs and offered me a pass, as she would only take her husband if I didn't go. For a several weeks I was wanting to go, but employment problems made it difficult to commit.
I wasn't able to go until the last minute, obtaining the money for flights and accommodation the day before the event.
I wasn't able to fly in until about 6pm on the 22nd, which was enough time to go to the Toy Event... but not the movie screening before it (which was fine by me, as I had already seen it two days earlier).

The evening was to start with a screening of the movie at about 7.30pm, which would then get out at about 10pm, giving those people time to walk to the nearby ToysRUs store for the Toy Madness Event... which was scheduled to start at 10.30pm.
People could skip the movie and just line up at ToysRUs store if they wanted, and a few people did. (according to Bladestorm, there was only about 30 people at the movie screening... and I only saw about 50 people at the most at the ToysRUs toy event, so quite a few VIP passes weren't used - considering there were 100 pairs)

Details from April, to earn the VIP passes and Barricade toys.

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An example of what the VIP pack should look like, with two VIP passes and two movie tickets. (but you only get one Barricade toy to fight over)


The passes.


The clean images from the VIP badges (from the HK Transformers facebook page).


The promotion on the HK Transformers facebook page, detailing the event and the free toys and competitions.


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Official images of the Battle Damaged toys and black chrome helmet from facebook.

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Closer to the day, the toy items that were going to be released at the Madness Event.


Special T-shirts, which I saw the Hasbro staff wearing at the event, but I think they were given to people who posted something on facebook.


The ToysRUs at the Ocean Terminal shopping centre (Tsim Sha Tsui)... it is all the way at the end of the shopping centre.


My flight was on time, so I got to my Hotel (four blocks from the ToysRUs store) by 7.30pm, cleaned up and walked to Ocean Terminal Shopping Centre.
When I got there just on 9pm (an hour an a half before it was to start), there were already 8 people lined up. Three more showed up before the rush of people at about 10pm from the movie screening... including Bladestorm, who skipped the end credits scene to get into the queue before most of them, because she really wanted an Optimus toy. The exclusive Optimus toy was limited, but ToysRUs had decided to implement a one-per-person voucher system for the toys, so as long as she was one of the first 50 people to make the minimum purchase and get to the redemptions desk, Optimus would be hers. And since there was only a small number of people there, and we were about 15th in line, that wasn't going to be a problem.
(there was also about 20 non-VIPs crowding around the entrance, who were allowed to go in too, but had to wait until the VIPs got in... and they couldn't get the Optimus or Bumblebee toys)


Two of the Hasbro people (or ToysRUs people), monitoring the VIP line... keeping me from lining up because I didn't yet have a VIP pass from Bladestorm (I wanted to line up early for her, but had to wait until she got there anyway).


A quick look inside at the display at the front of the store (a lot more photos later). The HK ToysRUs facebook page also posted up some photos just before we were let in.
I had to stand around the exit of the store for about an hour, until Bladestorm arrived with my VIP pass.


Just before they closed the store at 10pm, they roped off the front Transformers section and started bringing out the new stock for the product launch, including a mountain of RC Sqweeks.


Now that we were in the VIP queue, Dispensor took charge of the line of people.


At 10.15pm, this guy started making announcements and welcomes... but all in Chinese, so I didn't understand any of it, and Bladestorm was catching as much as she could, when he wasn't talking too fast.


A cosplay Optimus showed up... sponsored by KFC. (not really)


The Hasbro guy gave him his sword...


...and he stood guard at the front of the store.


Dispensor with a selfie in front of the big bot.


At 10.30pm, the front door rolled up, and the first person in the queue was given the honour of "cutting" the ribbon, before being first into the store.


(to be continued...)

[griffin]

10.30pm and people were being let into the store... and it was madness.
People pushing into a small corner at the front of the store, grabbing at toys, filling their bags, and rushing to the registers to make purchases to then claim their free toys and freebie items.

Since I was too busy grabbing toys and buying them, I didn't get to take any photos of the rush of people inside the store... but a video of the event can be seen on the HK ToysRUs facebook page here.

What I did take photos of, were all of the Transformers toys in this store. This is why I love this store... it has the biggest range of Transformers toys that I have seen in any store in any country I've been to so far (especially in Australia).


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That's just the temporary front section of the store... this here is the regular section at the back of the store...

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Near the registers at the front of the store, was the redemption counter, for claiming your Barricade, Bumblebee and/or Optimus toys... as well as other freebies of the night (a figure display stand, colour folders, card holders, and Optimus Potato Heads from 2006).



All of the Battle Damaged toys ready to be picked up - 100 each of Bumblebee and Barricade, and 50 of Optimus... and lots of Potato Heads. (I ended up getting six of them, and gave them all to Bladestorm to give to people in HK)


(to be continued....)

[reillyd]

Oh you are SO lucky to be over there right now Bladestorm. Those photos are awesome and give us a vicarious taste of what it must be like. I thought the Optimus Prime cosplay was a statue not a costume! Very cool.

And I see they also have the Primus/Cybertron and Siege on Cybertron sets. I'd kill to be able to buy these, lol. Yes, literally!

[griffin]

(final part)

Twenty minutes later, I had made my first purchases, and obtained a free Bumblebee and Optimus (along with a number of the other freebies mentioned above).

Purchases were put into these really nice paper bags.


These were the plastic folders given with each purchase (the two on the ends, not the middle one).


The figure stand with any purchase made with a Star Card (like the VIP card in Australia). Bladestorm lent me her card, to get six of the figure stands.


The card holders.


The toys I bought on my first run through the store... including several Potato Heads... guarded by my Trypticon toy (which I took with me in my luggage, after just buying it an hour before getting to Brisbane Airport... to tease the fans in HK who still have to wait until July 1st to get one).


After getting a Barricade from someone at the event, I was very lucky to end up with all three Battle Damaged toys. Photos of the three toys out of packaging can be seen here.
(this photo here is actually Bladestorm's toys)


In the next hour, both of us went back into the store for a second round of purchases, and freebies... and filling out many entry forms for the prize drawing at midnight (one entry per HK$500 spent... and we spent a lot between us). I gave half of mine to Bladestorm, since she made all of this possible for me.

Just a few minutes after midnight, everyone gathered around the entrance to the store for the prize drawings.



But first there would be some "special prizes", with a number of big expensive toys given to people who were first to show a particular toy that they just bought. Bladestorm was first when a particular toy was called out that she bought, and won an SDCC Devastator!


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I was at the back of the people here, and there weren't too many who stayed until the midnight drawing. But I think only one person didn't come forward, so most of those entering the draw stuck around.

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Then the prize drawings began.
There were three lots of prizes...
- 8 Deluxe packs (a selection of Deluxe Movie toys and some others, worth at least HK$2000).
- 6 Voyager packs (a selection of Voyager Movie toys and some others, worth at least HK$3000)
- 3 Leader packs (a black chrome Optimus helmet and some other toys, worth at least HK$4000)

One guy must have had so many entries, that his name was called out at least 6 times. After claiming three prizes, he told them to redraw for someone else.

This was someone claiming one of the Voyager packs. Each person would be photographed by the Hasbro photographer (in case they wanted to feature the event on a website or facebook), and a second photographer who gave a mini-polaroid to the winner as a souvenir of the occasion.


This was the Voyager pack that I won (the announcer apparently said in Chinese to the crowd that I was from Australia just for this event - he was telling me in English to smile for the photo, but I was already very tired from the long day and little sleep the night before).
Unfortunately, of all of the toys in this prize pack, I had already bought them... and the big heavy Optimus statue was something I wasn't too interested in, so I gave it to someone who would better appreciate it - a big Optimus fan (Bladestorm). She also didn't have the RC Sqweeks or Grimlock yet, so I gave them to her, and brought the remaining three Voyagers back home with me (to sell or give away).
All in all, the prize pack was probably worth about AU$600, so it was definitely a big prize to win... it was just worth nothing to me though.
I, like most people there, only really wanted the black chrome Optimus Helmet in the Leader prize pack.


At 12.45am, the drawings were over, and everyone left rather quickly... except the Hasbro staff who had a group photo taken inside the store with Optimus.


Just before the display panel was torn down. Four of us who were left were allowed to take home the small "prize pack" signs. I got Megatron, and then wondered how I would get it home on the plane.


Since Bladestorm and I were hovering around the store for a while, the Hasbro people came out and were heading off, when some of them offered to help carry some of our bags for us (we both ended up with more than we could comfortably carry, thanks to the prizes we both won adding to our bag count).
That was so awesome of them (we had spoken to a couple of the important people at the HK Hasbro office during the night... particularly when they found out from Bladestorm that I was from Australia), and they helped us both get all the way to the main street outside the shopping centre, and hailed us both separate taxis.
(I was only 4 blocks away from my hotel, but I was not going to be able to carry all of my stuff back with me.)

The total haul for the night for me.
And this was only just the start of a big 24 hours of Transformers fun for me in Hong Kong, leaving me feeling like I had just been at a convention by the end of it (with this special Hasbro event, heaps of toys bought, a meal the next day at a Transformers themed restaurant, and a Transformers Movie exhibit, plus the exhaustion I get after every BotCon).


The items on the left against the bed-board are the unwanted items or items bought for other people back home.
I didn't end up going to sleep until about 4.30am that morning, and then had to get up about 3 hours later to get ready for the big schedule of events for Friday.

[griffin]

I thought the Optimus Prime cosplay was a statue not a costume! Very cool.

And I see they also have the Primus/Cybertron and Siege on Cybertron sets. I'd kill to be able to buy these, lol. Yes, literally!

There was an Optimus statue in the toy area inside the store, but there was also a cosplay Optimus as well outside the store.

They had a lot of the Cybertron toys at first, but they mysteriously seemed to disappear quite quickly, despite not seeing too many people with one outside the store.
The Siege on Cybertron set was a big surprise to me, and very welcome, as I missed the BBTS pre-order.

[Paulbot]

Great pics, and so many TFs on the shelves. Amazing.

I was wondering though, which Prime is this, with the opening cover, at the bottom of this pic?

[aching878]

Saw your little interview too with one of HK more prominent toys news/social media group