HW Xtreme Sports | Surf's Up

Hot Wheels has constantly reinvented itself to keep ideas fresh while maintaining its core interest in die-cast cars as its primary identity. There have been several castings that don’t solely focus on the “usual stuff” that would try to appeal to the general public, to catch them putting something that won’t appeal to their regular collectors. It’s an ongoing experiment that other brands don’t have the courage to dive into. Speaking of diving, the Hot Wheels team has produced a non-vehicle type casting that’s human-powered. It’s not even a bicycle, but it was produced before the ill-fated 2020 Tokyo Olympics that commemorate the inclusion of surfing as a sport. This is the introduction of “Surf’s Up.” It’s certainly one of the radical things from Mattel.

MoCAF 2025 | VoV: Silver

This year’s MoCAF (Modern Contemporary Art Fair) is about shining a spotlight on some of the best visual artists in the industry. If last year’s diverse talent featured under one booth, Vinyl on Vinyl focuses on one such talent who has been long enough during the time of the art galleries’ evolution as one of the known exhibitors to bring their artist that might have flown under someone else’s radar. That artist is none other than Iyan de Jesus, she has come a long way to carve her own niche and style that you might have not noticed. Her works has been featured in the international art scene as her works have been a subtle favourite among art collectors who have acquired her past works is here shining like Silver.

HW Justice League | Bully Goat

Superman is a celebrated comic book hero who is now 87 years old. Today, the character is celebrated for his first appearance in Action Comics #1 in 1938. The comic book has been published by DC Comics way past its 1000th issue, and they did celebrate that back in 2018. Fan all over the world would post their appreciation as their favourite character, and then there are some even clutching their action figures. There has been A LOT of Superman merchandise out there, but in die-cast form, you can only count a few that Corgi would produce, as they were the first to be licensed to produce DC-related characters into their vehicles, and Superman is one of them. But Hot Wheels would expand beyond what everyone knew.

PH Book Festival 2025 | Meeting Tablay Creators

This year’s Philippine Book Festival has made changes, and not only the venue, but the way the floor plan is getting used to. The last day was bustling with last-minute activities, book sales, and something you’d expect in a book expo or anything that a large event would do during its last few minutes before everyone had packed their stuff and dismantled their booth. Heading to the venue, my initial thoughts were just to pick up the preview comic book of Tablay and just go as planned. I didn’t expect that the author and artist would still be there. I’ve been supportive of Komiket from afar and have been to their last event in February. But this was just too good to see both Kat Olan and Paul Medalla.

World Bex 2025 | Beyond Sustainnovation

Construction and design to conform to the current climate in the world has to work around, which would be sustainable at the same time innovate. Every year, World BEX International is something worth seeing for those who don’t have any knowledge of architecture, construction, and design to educate the consumer what’s the latest technology in building homes and finding the best interior concept. The Philippines is one of the countries that has the hardest working, talented, and innovative individuals in this field in bringing their work to the forefront of this type of industry. World BEX is not just a Building Expo about construction and what the industry has to offer, but every year they bring something to the new consumer to educate more about finding sustainable and innovative ways to build business.

Book Launch | Si Migoy, Ang Batang Tausug

Book Launches are a rare event prominently held in bookstores rather than in huge public venues or inside a shopping centre. But this one is a partnership between the publisher the author and illustrator with the NBDB (National Book Development Board) promoting literacy in the country. The event is about a book launch featuring a Children’s book, and not just an ordinary book for kids. It is a story about an Indigenous Boy named Migoy, a Tausug an ethnic group of people who live in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The book promotes Filipino Culture and Cuisine. This is a reason why reading is important and why this launch was special for the kids out there.

Vinyl on Vinyl | DIKO ALAM

“Diko Alam” is a pun and loosely translated in English as “Don’t Know” as one of the exhibits to close out 2024 for Vinyl on Vinyl Gallery featuring Diko aka Gabriel Tiongson, a visual artist born and bred in the Philippines who now resides in New Zealand carving his artistry at Kiwi Land is something always to look forward to the shows he gets the spotlight with his works. This is Diko’s second show following a two-artist exhibit with Mimaaaaaaaaw at the Grey Space Gallery in September of the same year. For this exhibit, Diko let his visitors express themselves through art using chalk on the floor, which you don’t see in most exhibits as the artist wants to show his visitors their hidden artistry.