Out-of-this-World Event Services by Fans for Fans from Outpost Productions

With the  proliferation of geek pop culture in media and merchandising, indulging our geeky passions can certainly be an expensive endeavour. For Malaysian geeks collecting life-size statues and replicas, or venturing half-a-world away to attend San Diego Comic-Con, these indulgences easily amount to five-digit figures in MYR. Besides, geeks still need basic life necessities that equate to bringing food to the table and bills to be paid lest we go extinct like dinosaurs; at least until replicator technology as seen on Star Trek becomes real, or Jurassic Park opens in Isla Nublar.

To fund such livelihood with geeky garnishes, we could readily accept mundane employment working 9-to-5 and live only for the brief respite of public holidays. But instead we prefer to tap into our professed geekiness to bring forth events for geek pop culture to the Malaysian audience. Outpost Management Sdn Bhd was established in 2006 for such purpose, launching as a hobby centre in Cineleisure Damansara (now known as eCurve) for geeky endeavours like cosplay, fan gatherings, toy collectors, scale modelling workshops, and more. Concurrently Outpost began participating in events from requests to engage fan communities for engagements associated with movies, carnivals, and charity as well as projects for marketing brands.

Outpost Productions was subsequently formed as our dedicated team to create thematic engagements and support our clients' events. Now with over a decade of events experience, our Principal Services today encompass:

1. Thematic Events

As geeks ourselves, we understand what fans want and enable us to create thematic events appealing to their fandoms. This allows us to craft experiential elements of geek pop culture into events that fans can appreciate whilst also presenting the opportunity for non-fans to be more deeply assimilated into the fandom.

Captain America Civil War Roadshow; client GSC Cinemas.

Marvel movies have certainly been a BIG hit bringing geeky comic books to mainstream audiences. Outpost had the opportunity to bring this Marvel geekiness to GSC Cinemas with a thematic Captain America Civil War roadshow leading up this movie release in April 2016. Cinema patrons were challenged on a series of activities inspired by superheroes like Iron Man and Ant-Man for the chance to win movie premiums.

The inaugural live-action movie for popular video game franchise Assassin's Creed was released in December 2016. That month in Comic Fiesta, Malaysia's largest Anime, Comics & Games (ACG) convention, we deployed a team of “Templars” versus an “Assassin” to perform sword fights in the event halls.

Assassin's Creed combat performance; client 20th Century Fox. 

For sci-fi horror movie Alien Covenant in May 2017, we served cinema-goers a slice of “terror” from the movie with a Xenomorph Facehugger attacking a crewmember. Some of their reactions were captured on video for social media.

#FacehuggerAttack in Malaysia!
Posted by 20th Century Fox on Friday, 5 May 2017

2. Fan Engagements

Over the last decade, popular entertainment franchises have been and continue to be adapted for movies and television, such as HBO's Game of Thrones based on fantasy novels by G.R.R. Martin. In cinemas, successful movies are often lined-up for sequels so much that often the Hollywood summer blockbuster season is padded with them such as Avengers Infinity War (19th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe), Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom (5th in the Jurassic Park saga), and Mission Impossible Fallout (6th in the series since 1996). Geeky franchises often have an avid fan-base and therefore every sequel movie or new season on television are occasions for fans to come together.

Heroes Homecoming Fan Gathering; client TGV Cinemas.

TGV Cinemas have come to recognise these fandom and recently collaboration with Outpost to invite cosplayers to their Heroes Homecoming Fan Gatherings for Justice League, Avengers Infinity War, and Ant-Man & The Wasp. This year, Outpost also managed the Cosplay Competitions for their most recent event in Sunway Putra Mall and the Deadpool 2 Party at Sunway Pyramid.

Deadpool 2 Fan Party; client 20th Century Fox

Recognising that fans are often passionate to discuss their fandom, we have arranged Fan Panels sessions for Assassin's Creed at Comic Fiesta 2016 and Ghost in the Shell in March 2017.

3. Mascot Management

Outpost has over 10 years of handling official mascots as an agency for corporate clients. These mascots for franchise movies and toy brands are often deployed for meet & greet appearance on roadshows at cinemas and stores. Mascots we have managed include Transformers, The Smurfs, Spider-man, Angry Birds, Hotel Transylvania, Madagascar, The Minions, Despicable Me, Monster Hunt, LINE Friends, Bananas in Pajamas, etc.

Angry Birds; client Sony Pictures.

Despicable Me 3; client United International Pictures.

Hotel Transylvania 3 Monster Vacation; client Sony Pictures.

Mascots are usually associated with new movie release or licensed merchandise and collaborative events. We may assist to facilitate brand partnerships with the respective licensors.

4. Marketing Roadshows

Outpost Productions also extends event agency services for on-ground marketing by brands. We have conducted in-store brand marketing for toys like NERF, Transformers, My Little Pony and Monopoly for Hasbro. This year we undertook roadshow for 7-Eleven promoting their Minions Da Da Da! redemption programme at Klang Valley shopping malls.

Minions Da Da Da!; client 7-Eleven.

For movie marketing, we recently setup thematic activities at Comic Fiesta 2017 for Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle and Maze Runner The Death Cure. 

Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle; client Sony Pictures.

Maze Runner The Death Cure; client 20th Century Fox.

5. Geek Pop Culture Consulting

Our resident “Vulcan” on assignment to study human Geek Pop Culture is a valuable resource that may be tapped to provide valuable insight on how to engage various fandoms. By knowing what fans want, Outpost is able to offering consulting services to corporate clients, event organisers and NGOs on how to effectively engage the growing fan audience and leverage on potential opportunities.

Late 2017 in conjunction with Publika's Comic-Play, we organised a mini-conference titled “The Growing Influence of Geek Pop Culture and How to Profit from It” with panels featuring geeks sharing what they want, and industry reps from film entertainment.

Other ancillary services:

• Blaster sports activities & tournaments (using NERF or other equivalent); see here.
• Costumes & props sourcing / rental.
• Talent & promoter outsourcing for on-ground events or video shoots.

To stay tuned on local geek pop culture happenings as well as the latest geeky news, follow us by social media as OutpostMY on Facebook / Instagram / Twitter as well as subscribe to this blog (submit your email on the lower right panel).

Live Long and Prosper #LLAP

May the Force Be With You #MTFBWY

All work and no play makes Drac a dull vamp, so it's time for A Monster Vacation in Hotel Transylvania 3

The Outpost blog lately has been serving up articles on sequel movies so this week continues the trend as the third outing of the Hotel Transylvania animated movies flows into cinemas nationwide with the title A Monster Vacation.

For readers needing a recap, the first Hotel Transylvania was released in 2012 by Sony Pictures Animation. Pretty much an original production unknown to the world at its time, the premise of this kids movie is that classic monsters like vampires, werewolves, mummies and the Frankenstein creature exist, but instead are the ones living in fear of humans who has prosecuted them for centuries. So as a safe-haven for monsters, vampire Count Dracula, or Drac for short (voiced by renown comedian Adam Sandler) has built a 5-star hotel as a safe-haven for monsters and to raise his daughter Mavis (voiced by Selena Gomez).

All's going well at Hotel Transylvania until a hapless young American tourist named Jonathan (Adam Samberg) strolls in nonchalantly. In order not to panic his monster guests over a "fearsome" human, Drac disguises Johnny as a Frankenstein-type monster to partake in Mavis' 118th Birthday Party. Well "Johnnystein" and Mavis expectedly “zing” and after some drama involving Drac's disapproval and human-monster relations, the duo come together romantically and all's happy again in Hotel Transylvania.

Breaking boundaries between humans and monsters are lovey dovey couple Mavis (Selena Gomez) and Johnny (Adam Samberg)

The movie proves a hit at the box-office which Sony execs deem suitable for a sequel, hence Hotel Transylvania 2 was released in 2012. In the animated world, seven years have passed where humans now know and tolerate the existence of monsters. Mavis and Johnny are married and have a  five year-old child named Dennis (Asher Blinkoff). Grandfather Drac is greatly concerned that Dennis has no vampiric powers and may have to live out his life as a human far away in California. Much of the movie premise then revolves around associated familial issues complicated further by the introduction of Drac's father Vlad (Mel Brooks) who is rather intolerant of humans. Since all kids animated movies end on a happy note, Dennis does eventually manifest some vampire abilities and therefore safe to remain in Transylvania to grow up with his monster family.

A Monster Vacation sets sail in cinemas now..

Now in Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation, Mavis surprises Drac with a family voyage on a luxury Monster Cruise Ship so he can take a vacation from providing everyone else's vacation at the hotel. The rest of Drac's Pack cannot resist going along. But once they leave port, romance arises when Dracula meets the mysterious ship Captain, Ericka. Now it's Mavis' turn to play the overprotective parent, keeping her dad and Ericka apart. Little do they know that his "too good to be true" love interest is actually a descendant of Abraham Van Helsing, ancient nemesis to Dracula and all other monsters.

#HOTELT3
New Adventures? ✅ New Monsters? ✅ New Trailer for #HotelT3? ✅ ?
Posted by Sony Pictures on Wednesday, 21 March 2018

The monsters dress down for the holidays!

Director Genndy Tartakovsky takes the reins again for the third time and reunites with the voice cast from previous movies. Together with the vamp family Drac, Mavis, Johnny, Dennis and Drac, the all too friendly monsters are back for the ride: “Frank”-enstein (Kevin James), Murray the Mummy (Keegan-Michael Key), Wayne the Werewolf (Steve Buscemi), Eunice (Fran Descher), etc. An assortment of new characters will also be introduced such as the infamous Van Helsing monster hunters.

Lonely Drac (Adam Sandler) sees potential romance with ship's Captain Erika (Kathryn Hahn)

Apparently as part of their monster cruise, some of the monsters stopped over in tropical Malaysia for their vacation! Check out these videos of Drac spotted in Penang absorbing some local culture and later in historic Malacca visiting A Formosa. He must have applied super-thick SPF 100 sunblock not to melt under our sunny weather!

HT3- Penang
Drac was real busy this week as he makan, travel, mingle, repeat! To all Penangites, he thought your food ‘chin chiak ho chiak’! And the street art? Amayyyzingggg! Let us know if you think there are other places Drac should visit too! Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation in cinemas 19 July 2018.
Posted by Sony Pictures on Monday, 25 June 2018

Drac at the gate of of A Formosa, a Portuguese fort build in the 16th century in the historic city of Malacca.

HT3
Pappa Drac went like, WALAOEHH! Let’s get him a cup of Malacca’s signature Coconut milkshake after this! Can you guess where he will be heading to next? Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation in cinemas 19 July 2018.
Posted by Sony Pictures on Friday, 29 June 2018

Since then Drac has met up with his good friends Frank and Murray to continue this vacation in Kuala Lumpur this week and later Johor.

The Outpost Movie Recon Team (M.R.T.) has reliable intel that these friendly monsters may be found at the following cinemas:

Friday 20 July

2:00pm @ GSC Midvalley Megamall

6:30pm @ TGV Sunway Pyramid

8:30pm @ MBO Subang Parade

Saturday 21 July

4:00pm @ MBO Setapak Central

8:00pm @ GSC Pavilion KL

Sunday 22 July

2:00pm & 6:00pm @ GSC IOI City Mall

Friday 27 July

1:00pm @ GSC Palm Mall, Seremban

6:00pm @ GSC Aeon Bandaraya Melaka 

Saturday 28 July

1:00pm & 8:00pm @ GSC Paradigm Mall, Johor Bahru

4pm @ TGV Bukit Indah, Johor Bahru

8pm @ GSC Paradigm Mall, Johor Bahru

Sunday 29 July

1:00pm @ GSC Paradigm Mall, Johor Bahru

4:00pm @ TGV Kulaijaya, Johor

Meet Murray, Drac and Frank “live” in Malaysia at selected cinemas this month.

Find out more about Hotel Transylvania 3 from the official website and follow Sony Pictures Malaysia on Facebook for local movie engagements including plenty of flash contests.

As per usual, the Outpost M.R.T. has scouted local movie goodies that Hotel-T fans can attempt to loot. Firstly GSC Cinemas are rewarding their customers exclusive soap with purchase of two Hotel Transylvania 3 tickets, plus a family purchase of two adults with at least one child ticket will take home a special drawstring bag. Refer to terms and conditions with info on participating cinemas from their official website.

In addition, those purchase of two tickets stand a chance to win one of three Dream Cruise vacations for two pax on luxurious ocean liner to Singapore or Phuket. Participate by posting in Comments of this Facebook post by 29 July 2018 and refer to full terms and conditions at GSC's website.

Finally, there is a simple free to join Facebook contest with movie premiums to be won just by Like / Love / Wow this post and tagging 5 friends before Sunday 22 July.

Premium-X Cinemas in One-City USJ also has a similar Facebook contest. Just follow instructions from their post.

TGV Cinemas is conducting a special Family Screening session this Saturday 21 July, 11am at Sunway Putra Mall, Kuala Lumpur. Thematic activities are included with tickets are priced at RM25 per pax whereby adults must attend with kids in tow. Drac, Frank and Murray might even be there to greet them! Get full terms and conditions at TGV's website then buy your tickets.

MBO Cinemas has a slew of Hotel Transylvania 3 promos, starting with a movie edition of their AllStar member card. Once again, members can utilise their Star Points in attempt to redeem movie premiums through "Name Your Own Points".

Purchasers of minimum two tickets for Hotel Transylvania 3 then stand a chance to win major prizes of a 50in Sony TV or PlayStation 4 Pro, as well as movie premiums. Don't wait too long though as contest ends this month on 31 July 2018.

For concession counter promos, only MBO Cinemas is offering a thematic cup as part of a single combo for RM28 or share combo for RM55 inclusive of soft drink(s) and popcorn. Find out more at this dedicated landing page on their website together with submission forms for the aforementioned contests.

Finally, mmCineplexes has movie premiums to giveaway via their Facebook post here. Participation requires proof of purchase for two Hotel Transylvania 3 tickets and submitting details via online form by 29 July 2018.

Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation is now showing in cinemas everywhere.

#HotelTransylvania #HotelT3

Disclaimer: Hotel Transylvania and its trademarks are copyright to Sony Pictures Animation, referenced here for fan service announcements without intent to infringe.

The Minions are Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-na-na-ing their way into Cinemas

by contributing writer Michelle Chee

These iconic little yellow creatures that resemble bananas (some are slightly rounder), became famous after they were featured as background characters in the successful Illumination Entertainment films “Despicable Me” and “Despicable Me 2”. At first, fans only knew then as villainous Gru’s massive pack of tiny assistants. However, they soon got a fandom of their own as people fell in love with their impromptu slapstick humour and adorable gibberish language, known now as Minionese.

Just for the fun of it, here is an official list of English words translated to the Minion Language. 

Prior to this full length feature, the minions have been actively appearing in short clips, either promoting certain brands or just having fun.

Cute and tiny, and they love bananas

Due to the overwhelming love the minions have generated, it’s no wonder that they have finally been given a film of their own. In this installment, we are treated to the history of the Minions’ origin. So far, three trailers have been released by Illumination, and they give a pretty good impression about what’s to come.

Trailer one:

Trailer two:

Trailer three:

The story begins when three minions, Kevin, Stuart and Bob set out on an adventure to find a new villain for the Minions to serve. In the distant past, the Minions emerged from the sea, having evolved from single celled organisms. They make a living serving the most evil person or creature alive at a particular time and place in history. Their previous bosses have included T-rex, Genghis Khan, Napoleon and Dracula. Unfortunately for all these bad guys, the Minions have always found accidental ways of unwittingly killing off their bosses.

Meet Bob, Kevin and Stuart (left to right).

These unfortunate chain of events made the Minions disappointed with themselves, causing them to retreat to an obscure corner of Antarctica. However, not being able to perform their primary function as servants of a great and evil overlord caused them to fall into malaise and depression. That is, until our three yellowish heroes step up and offer to go on a journey to save the entire clan. After a long and perilous excursion, they end up in Villain Con in Atlanta, USA, where they meet Scarlet Overkill (voiced by Sandra Bullock), a famous villainess who takes them in. The rest of the story looks at how Kevin, Stuart and Bob navigate their new found boss and her antics.

Why, hello there beautiful?

Visit the official website for tonnes of virtual goodies like clips of the Minions from previous movies and a behind the scenes game.

Get your own Minion goggles from MBO Cinemas.

On the Malaysian side, the Outpost Movie Recon Team (M.R.T.) has found numerous promos and special offers for Minion fans. For those who aspire to be a Minion, get your very own Minion goggles from MBO Cinemas with a special popcorn combo for RM22 (see above). Meanwhile, Cathay Cineplexes has their own popcorn combo for RM19.90 including a Minion stress ball with 3 types available for each primary Minion (see below).

Stress? Then squeeze a Minion available from Cathay Cineplexes.

Plus TGV Cinemas are releasing 5 cup topper designs of the cute Minions throughout the ages. These come with a Minions cup as part of popcorn combo priced at RM22.90. And TGV MovieClub members can grab them first by 17 June before the general public swarm the concession counters.

Then there's McDonald’s offering different Minion figurines with Happy Meals over a period of four weeks starting from 28^th May and ending 24^th June. Grab the chance to collect all ten as stocks are limited and the rush to get them will be intense leading to various ruckus at the fast food outlets for these toys during the last Despicable Me movie. Expect long lines and patient waits as there will be many fans clamouring to complete their collection.

Minions in period costumes are a rare sight

HSBC Bank has two separate promos:

• The first one  allows you to apply for a HSBC card an spend with it to stand a chance to win a Huawei Tablet with a limited edition Minions Case. 

• The second promo is an event at the Centre Court, Mid Valley Megamall from May 28th to June 14th 2015. Fans will get a chance to redeem Squishy Minion figurines by spending RM500 to RM2500 in an accumulated two receipts in Midvalley. HSBC card holders will get special privileges at the meet and greet with Kevin, Stuart and Bob at certain time daily. There will also be a special Augmented Reality photo booth for the whole family to capture memories with Minion characters.

The Minions have invaded Midvalley Megamall Centre Court.

Pose with the Minions.

Meet Kevin, Stuart & Bob (left to right) everyday at 12pm, 4pm, 7pm.

Toys R’ Us Malaysia is selling various Minion toys and plushies from the movie, where you can find Minions in Dracula costumes, cavemen outfits and many more. Apart from finding them at your local outlet, you can purchase Minion plushies and other related toys on their online store,

Some of the lovable Minion plushies available

Take Kevin, Stuart and Bob home

Minions, Minions everywhere!

If looking to take home some Minions on a budget, consider picking up cheap the Minion figures from the preceding movie "Despicable Me 2" as discounts upto 70%. However only the Minion Stuart is available as a figurine from this movie as Kevin and Bob are new Minions in the upcoming movie. Find them as selected Toys R Us stores.

Get more Minions for your $$$ with these Despicable Me 2 toys on major sale.

Unfortunately Dave is not one of the main 3 minions in the new movie.

More good news for Minion fans: look forward to meeting up Minions Kevin, Stuart and Bob live as they travel nationwide from down south Johor to up north Penang plus stops in between during the upcoming weeks. Take this chance to snap photos, and even give them a hug! Just monitor for announcements by McDonald's, MBO Cinemas, GSC Cinemas, or the Outpost Productions Facebook Page.

Meet Kevin, Stuart and Bob in the flesh on their nationwide roadshow.

The Minions swarm cinemas this week 18 June in Malaysia, so be amongst the first in the world to experience the Minion invasion!

Follow The Minions on their official Facebook Page, or United International Pictures Malaysia on Facebook for local updates.

Disclaimer: This blog post is written for fan engagement only. All referenced trademarks remain copyright to Illumination Entertainment and Universal Studios.