The annual PAX AUSTRALIA event for 2014 began on Friday 31st October – Sunday 2nd November 2014 at the Exhibition Centre located in the heart of the Melbourne CBD.
The 3-day sold out event saw table top gamers, video game and pop culture enthusiasts from all over Australia (some from overseas too!) engaging in all the latest as well as classic games in the card, figurine, video and role-playing categories.
Banter Toys & Collectibles participated in the event in the Table Top area of the exhibition centre, presenting ‘learn-to-play’ demonstrations for the Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) and the My Little Pony Collectible Card Game (CCG). For the full three days from 10.00am until 6.00pm, the hardworking team of Banter Toys card demonstrators engaged with over 400 new players across both card games. With having four card demonstrators present at the one time each hour, this was an incredible effort!
For each new player learning the Pokémon TCG, Banter Toys offered a free Yveltal keychain. This was soon out of stock after the first day so new players were then provided a choice of 3 special promo foil cards of the current XY base Pokémon (Snivy, Oshawott and Tepig). New players of the My Little Pony CCG received a free Mane card, which we found we also ran out of stock and therefore provided extra special Coco Pommel cards as a gift. All new players also received a voucher that entitled them to $5.00 off a Pokémon TCG or My Little Pony CCG theme deck when purchased at PAX AUSTRALIA. Banter Toys would like to thank their supporting retailers who participated in this promotion, these retailers include: Games Laboratory, Good Games, Mind Games, Next Level Games and Retro Morley.
Banter Toys also hosted one tournament for each game at 2.00pm every day of PAX AUSTRALIA. Thank you to all players who participated and engaging in the spirit of table top gaming! Tournament winners were awarded with collector tins, play mats, booster packets, deck protector sleeves and posters, with every tournament player receiving a special foil card for participating.
In addition to the demonstrations and tournaments, Banter Toys also ran a giveaway competition on its social media pages. PAX AUSTRALIA attendees simply had to take a photo of themselves at the event and use the hashtag #BANTERPAX14. During the event we gave away Pokémon TCG blister packets and My Little Pony dog tag packs, thank you so much to everybody who was involved and we hope you enjoy your collectible goodies!
It is always a pleasure of Banter Toys to be present at these kinds of events and meet the people who love the card games, but this wouldn’t happen without the great work from the organising team for PAX AUSTRALIA, the staff at Melbourne Exhibition & Convention Centre, suppliers of the card games Pokémon International and Enterplay, the amazing card demonstrators who put their hand up to volunteer their time to teach others how to play, the retailers who consistently support the range of card product, and of course the players who live and breathe the Pokémon TCG and My Little Pony CCG. Thank you all so much!
PAX AUSTRALIA 2014 was yet another great fun-filled event for Banter Toys and we are already looking forward to another big event for next year!