Another toy fair bites the dust.
An announcement has been made that Melbourne Toy Hobby Licensing Fair 2022 a.k.a Australian Toy Fair is canceled for the second year in a row.
While the live event is canceled, a digital event will take place in lieu. However, Hasbro’s participation is not announced.
Melbourne Toy Hobby Licensing Fair usually emphasizes on Hasbro‘s Transformers brand with special fan events. It is sad to see it not happening once again due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
You can check out the official statement, after the jump.
Official announcement:
“It is with much regret that the ATA Board and Management inform our members and the industry that the 2022 Toy Hobby Licensing Fair, which was set to take place at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, will not go ahead.
The current situation is quite concerning with the spread of COVID through the community and while borders are remaining open, this not only raises concerns around the safety of an event but also its success due to a potential low attendance rate.
Both are vitally important for a successful in-person event.
We understand that this is a disappointing outcome for all and while there was so much positivity prior to Christmas, the current environment proves that things can change quite rapidly and there are no guarantees of improvement in time for the Fair in March.
We are pleased to confirm that the Digital Fair will still take place and with the new dates of Monday 28th March to Friday 1st April. The online fair will provide a platform to promote and source brands and products safely and effectively. While nothing can replace a live event, this will still bring the industry together again in March.”
Fel1x
Damn this is not good, Australia doesn\'t seem to get a brake given that they also lossed like half the entire earthrise series from what I\'ve been told.
galvatran
I feel for the smaller vendors. It's a few opportunities in a year to get in front of so many buyers under the one roof.
… but it's the right decision. Don't want more interstaters coming into town specifically for the toy fair to add to the already high Covid numbers. As they say… No use crying over spilled milk.
T-Hybrid
Titans Return felt like the perfect opportunity for that. Triple changing voyagers with cockpits and those little $5 dudes that had the double changers with a pilot.
Mugenlazlo
Who's the sick troq behind this?
Chaos Muffin
Am a bit worried, Hasbruh doesnt seem too hyped. Im still hoping they can collaborate with Bandai somehow and bring us G1 Gobots. Or atleast give us a Turbo.
Also dreaming for a TF/MASK crossover, or TFs with alt modes that can do MASK stuff! Or bring back Armada. That line only suffered from poor articulation which can be fixed now.
kwanzaabot
Honestly at this point I think we should just operate under an assumption of "cancelled unless stated otherwise".
Glad to see the heads of the Australian Toy Fair erring on the side of public safety. Lord knows the people of Melbourne aren't gonna protect themselves. Melbourne and Sydney are the covid capitals of Australia, anything that tries to stop another outbreak can only be considered a good thing.
TFXProtector
I do not blame them for this course of action. Regardless of personal feelings on this situation, you have to agree it is more sensible for them to err on the side of caution than to have potential lawsuits and issues due to attending.
Black Convoy
T-Hybrid
As long as HasTak continue to see success from their fan streams they're not going to risk a live event in the current climate. They have the name value that they can issue pressers when they want to show off anything to wider audiences/press, so there's really no pressure on their end to rejoin the convention circuit.
Dinocon93
They might as well cancel events next year too since WW3 is about the pop off any minute!
Hadlen_Weltall
Inevitable. Again.
theestampede
Man I miss convention reveals. So much more intrigue, from pouring through images of dioramas to trying to figure out the transformation from a random set of photos. So much more of a buildup to the final release that I don’t get from just having a video of the figure right away.
I’m not surprised by this though, if US shows are being canceled, there’s no way a place as broken as Australia is gonna hold them.
Hicks_Royel
Eh, "advance copy" reviewers are doing a fairly decent job of keeping people in the loop on new releases anyway. In person convention show case is an outdated and needlessly expensive format.
SilverOptimus
Thank you. News Post linked to Ozformers.
griffin-of-oz
Just announced today, the Australian Toyfair (scheduled for March 27-30) has been cancelled for a second year, reverting to a digital format like last year (which Hasbro didn't participate in).
.