Series: Surviving San Diego Comic Con
- San Diego Comic Con -Surviving Day Two
- San Diego Comic Con – Surviving Day One.
First I should let you know that I actually don’t care much for humanity. I prefer to be surrounded by legions of plastic and vinyl then people. So I enter the whole Comic Con experience with a mixture of anticipation (for the toys) and dread (for the humans). But as we know, not all homo sapiens take on a mortal form here at SDCC. The first otherworldly beings, that I almost had a head on collision with, were the above pictured bigger than life Ugly Dolls. Seeing them totally cushioned the blow, like a big soft hug, that is the brutality of convention life.
I quickly made a B-line for the designer toy ghetto, ducking Storm Troopers, aliens and Gothic Lolita chicks. The first toy booth that I stumbled upon was the dazzling kingdom of MINDStyle. One of the sizzling hot items is from the “first lady of MINDstyle” Kathie Olivas 16” white Scavengers pieces, that are only being sold in the low low quantity of twenty five each day, as well as the Masao above (a silver cat with a limited edition of 200) and the teaser of the DIY Benny and Red Bird. There were a couple teasers on display that caught my eye (keep in mind my eyes were blurry seeing that I got up at 4:30 in the morning to catch a plane down here…so forgive me if I start to write some gibberish) was the Conehead by Germs, the “giant size” Slaphapy exclusive Brandt Peters piece, and the hot new big Buff Monster pink magic. Yeah, the biggies stole the toy thunder.
Next stop on my booth crawl was to the super hopping Munky Kung booth and I found myself, while snapping pics of the upcoming Luke Cheluh pieces, in a line for sketches by Pocket Full of Monsters, might as well hang around a bit right? Got myself a sweet Panda rendering by one of the guys of PFOM. Check out the sweet bunny suited figure proto type by Luke that should be ready by the end of the year and of course the much anticipated Mecha Sad Bear in clear (100 produced).
(pictured: the PFOM crew, Clear Luke Chueh, Black in White Luke Cheluh,)
Next up, the Gama Go booth with their plethora of pretty tees and their brand spanking new toys like the chrome Gama Goon numbered (limited edition of 100) that came out yesterday (retails for $120 – they are the excess from the store membership program) and the Deathbot for $45 (400 made).
As the chaos continued, I went over and gave a big howdy-do to Frank Kozik, who’s booth was understandably hoppin’ with kids young and old (I saw a range from like five to fifty) getting their pieces signed by the man, the myth, the toy legend. A couple things that were super cool to see in person were the pink anarchy sign (one hundred made) and the Smash the Labbits (each labbit is sold separately but comes with all the accessories). And I’m totally loving the Big Army Men that are slated for a holiday release. Frank shares a space with DKE who distributes so much amazing toy magic that I feel as if I’ll have a spontaneous seizure from being surrounded by so much coolness. It was a treat to see the Amanda Visell Poopicorn in person and the super sweet Joe Ledbetter “Mushroomland” prints.
Next stop was a vist to my homies at the Strangeco booth (San Francisco in the house! Hollar!). When I stopped by, they were doing an extremely swift biz with their new Tokidoki Tiger release, yeah I picked up one up, I’m a girl…I can’t help myself! The boys behind Strangeco gave me a great tour of all their new release and show exclusives. A handful of highlights include the gold Amos show exclusive, the King Kun (only fifty available), the Max Toy Co. hand painted gold eyezon (only 16 were finished), and some upcoming goodies like the Cap n’ Rotn Claw, the Vivisect Playset (that quickly sold out at the show but will be available later), and some super one of kind Mark Nagata kaiju’s like the one of a kind Eyezon that sold for a cool grand.
(above in the Amos by James Jarvis in gold, the gold Eyezon, the Cap n’ Rot n Claw, King Kun and the upcoming Tenacious D Set.)
I spent some quality time at the Super 7 booth checking out some of the sweet prototypes and the like, but fellow toycyter Nic is buddies with them, so I’ll let him give the low down on Super 7 town. I did get to talk the punk rock with Brian Flynn, anytime I can talk Crass at a comic convention is a good day. (Their upcoming Gorilla Biscuits piece is gonna be killer).
By this time, I was pretty shell shocked and over stimulated, I (literally) stumbled upon the Rotofugi /Squibble Ink/ Shawnimals booth and got to meet the ever so charming Shawn Smith. (who I interviewed a couple months ago for ToyCyte here).Got the chance to check out a couple of the Plushform customs in person. To celebrate facial hair, there was Shawnimal mustache show exclusive and a sneak peek of the upcoming blind box zipper/charm pulls (they have hooks so can be used for both) that feature Ninjas and also 64 Colors Marshall piece. Also on display in the booth was the new House of Lui gold figure as well as the sneak peek of the stunning big blind box Tear Drops by Travis Lauper (that will be produced later this year) and the Marshall piece by 64 Colors.
As I battled my way out of the con (I had to cut out a wee bit earlier than I wanted since sleep deprivation had started to rear it’s ugly head), I happened upon a full on traffic jam. The cause? The Skeletal Carnival 3 release and signing (with Usugrow and Mike Sutfin). I managed to stop by and give a shout out to Mr. Pushead as the signing started to get underway. Although I was envious of the peeps getting these amazingly cool kaiju’s, I was pretty damn happy I was headed to my own slice of heaven, in the shape of my pillow.
July 25th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Great photos! Some favorites: Kozik’s Ludwig Van Vinyl and the Gama-Goon. And the new Vivisect Playset is already sold out at SDCC and 3DRetro too! I guess people really did want more colorways!