Toyeban Brings Warhammer 40K, Tabletop Games And More To Ipoh
A Tabletop Games & Hobby Mini Roadshow was held at Ipoh’s AEON Mall Kinta City last Sunday. Organised by Toyeban, a subsidiary of Toyriffic, the roadshow showcased several tabletop games, such as Exploding Minions, which is based on the Despicable Me film franchise, Jaipur and Forbidden Island.
The top featured game was Warhammer 40K by Games Workshop. This game involves using many intricately sculpted miniatures to play the game, with each individual miniature having different functions, much like the pieces in Chess.
One major aspect of the game is to paint those miniatures, so Toyeban held free miniature painting sessions for the children who came by to visit the roadshow. They were given miniatures, paint & tools and taught how to apply those paints.
Also available were displays of beautifully painted miniatures, to showcase how good they can look, when fully painted by someone with a little bit of experience. On top of that, both adults and children were invited to play some of the games available.
When asked why they decided to hold the roadshow, Toyeban explained that it was to create awareness on the presence of tabletop gaming in Ipoh and to introduce tabletop gaming as a hobby which everyone can enjoy.
On top of that, they wanted to use tabletop gaming as a tool for learning Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM).
When asked how tabletop and trading card games can help in STEAM, it’s explained that these games promote STEM skills such as deduction, logic and pattern recognition.
For example, Snakes & Ladders is a classic game from everyone’s childhood, but it’s a game that’s entirely based on how lucky you are at rolling the dice, and the theme is a bit nonsensical. But games like ‘Whitehall Mystery’ promote deduction skills where the player needs to identify the location of the villain of the game. While games like ‘Illusion’ promote logical thinking whereby the player needs to arrange the cards in ascending order based on the area of the colour on the cards.
Much like how the TV series Star Trek has famously inspired many NASA scientists such as the Malaysian born Florence Tan (You can read about Florence on NASA’s site here and here), tabletop games such as ‘Cytosis’ can spark an interest in biology while ‘Power Grid’ uses engineering as the main theme of the game
The founder of Toyriffic and Toyeban, Isqandar Afif and his partner Syahmi Syafiq, plan to hold another roadshow in Ipoh in the coming weeks. Those interested at looking into the hobby can visit their office at Level 1, 313A, Jalan Gunung Rapat, Taman Ipoh Jaya, Ipoh, Malaysia (next to Billion Ipoh Jaya), or call them at 013-449 4748. They can also be reached on their Facebook at Toyeban or Ipoh Tabletop Gamers.
They are authorised traders for Games Workshop UK and sell Warhammer products in Malaysia.
By KT Leong
