On Saturday 16 March, in a now Spring climate, the new edition of Giocattorino was staged under the porticoes of Piazza Statuto in Turin, organized by the Casa Malta Association with the Artistic Direction of Paola Paolucci. An event that has the ability to make visitors return as children, among vintage collections and games, with the aim of cheering up entire families who can return home where they may have purchased some unique piece or simply amarcord.
The event involved many exhibitors with toys from various eras from Marklin toy trains, to Burago cars, Barbie from the 70s, Snoopy soft toys, many toys that we had forgotten such as the “Foodfighter” but also the models of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the legendary robots of the 80s from Japan with the boxes containing the description in kanji. Board games, the first portable videogames: the mono-games of Sony, Nintendo, Konami, Sega…, Subbuteo and the legendary teams.
A day also enriched by associations that made the public interact with board games such as Compagnia della Fenice, NerdHouse or the screenwriter Marco Ventura with the game “Sushi & Cats”.
The various conferences organized by Mondo Japan magazine were welcomed with great interest and saw the participation of the writer Elena Romanello, who explored the world of Lady Oscar which continues to be of interest more than 40 years after its creation. The meeting with the Artistic Director Alessandra De Stefani of AleComics who told us the background of the event and the news of the new Edition which celebrates 10 years in September.
Participation was intense during the vintage moment, in which the ex-president of the Japan Fan Club Association, the first association that dealt with this topic with Giuseppe Cutrì, recounted the first steps that the fan movement took of Anime and Manga, pointing out that if there hadn’t been this hidden ferment, perhaps today there wouldn’t be all this media interest around pop culture.
As a final intervention, Luca and Martina from the Doctor Who Association participated, telling and summarizing almost 60 years of the Doctor’s adventures. A report that made me and the participants travel, into fantastic realities on a journey that transcends space and time.
A pleasant and rich day in which it was possible to exchange opinions with other enthusiasts or simply have a coffee with dear friends in an atmosphere of celebration and memories.