Why ToyCon? Why Toronto?

Hey all! Chris here from Mindzai. Some of you may know that I've been running the Mindzai shop with Shan for over 12 years now. It has been one of the highlights of my life. Our designer toy retail shop has seen so many changes and challenges in our 12 years of existence and the one thing we've always wanted was a show that featured homegrown talent right here in Canada.

As fans, we've been to many shows in the US and Asia and I've always wondered when we would have a toy show in Canada. I thought that maybe one of the more established brands or media companies would see that our country has so much to offer and would want to create a show up here in the largest city in Canada...Toronto.

Many years passed and nothing ever happened. We certainly have the Comic Con type shows but nothing dedicated to this world of designer toy.

There is so much great design talent here and Canada needs to be introduced to this wonderful world of designer toys in more great detail. Many toy artists from Japan, China, Singapore, USA that are well recognized need to see that Canada has a lot to offer both in terms of talent and demand. My own retail shop and the explosion of toy shops in the city are proof that the demand is here.

Last year, I wanted to attend more shows so we went all over the country and in the USA as well. I met with some really influential and inspiring people that created their own events large and small and I was really amazed at what they did. Creating events is not an easy thing to do and they did it with flying colors.

Designercon, Collectedcon, Happy Cute Mart, Stationery show, Game Expo were all shows that started small and grew to great success. More importantly, these shows were run by awesome like-minded people that I actually knew. That made me feel confident. Just enough to be dangerous. Haha.

A couple months ago, I decided to take this dangerous confidence to the next level and book my first show venue and set a date. I figure...if I don't do this. No one will.

This is our first show. A spark of something great. I feel it. If you're an artist or toy maker / designer, I'd love for you to apply. Let's make this happen together. Let's start here in the largest city in our great country, Toronto.

Chris