San Diego Wrap-up

July 29, 2008 on 8:34 pm | In Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Well, I’m back home on the East Coast, and I obviously didn’t end up blogging every day from San Diego like I wanted to. But once again I’ve gotta put the blame on how overwhelmingly busy I was and how much there was to do. Here are my show highlights and lowlights:

HIGHLIGHTS
* My favorite moment of San Diego has got to be the live Rifftrax session Wizard Conventions Programming Director (and former ToyFare Managing Editor) Adam Tracey and I went to on Saturday night. For those who don’t know, Rifftrax is a series of downloadable commentary tracks from some of the minds behind Mystery Science Theater 3000 (specifically Mike Nelson and his posse), which you can play at the same time as a movie and get the MST3K experience for films like Revenge of the Sith and Roadhouse.

I missed the big MST3K reunion panel, but the event I went to see Saturday night was Mike, plus the actors behind Tom Servo and latter-period Crow, riffing on the justifiably notorious Plan 9 From Outer Space. I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in several years. Thanks, guys!
* One of my perpetual favorite things about cons is meeting the actual people who like what we do. While there wasn’t a concentrated WUMBer presence like there was at Chicago (though I had an all-too-brief run-in with Tripper McGee), I did get to meet some folks who told me they dig ToyFare. One of them (who I met at Hasbro’s very neat “Lucasfilm Happy Hour”) was Kyle Newman, the director of Fanboys, which you probably know as “the movie about the people who try to break into Lucasfilm so their friend who’s dying of cancer can see Episode I but then they tried to take the cancer plot out but then the fans got pissed off and now it’s back in and finally coming out.” I always like when famous people tell me they like ToyFare, but Kyle did one better by actually emailing me after the show to reiterate how much he digs ToyFare. As a result, everyone should go see Fanboys when it comes out in September. Yes, I’m that easy.
* Seeing new toys is always a highlight, of course. I was pretty impressed by Hasbro’s new 3 3/4-inch Marvel Universe line, definitely the biggest toy announcement at the show. I’ve never been a huge Joe-scale collector, but these guys might just make me start, especially if they get as obscure with the character selection as the Marvel team was telling me they’re itching to do.

On the opposite side of the company largeness spectrum, this was my first chance to check out GoHero’s upcoming 1/6-scale Buck Rogers figures, and they’re amazing to look at (and each contain an MP3 player, which is a pretty nifty gimmick). While I was sitting there talking to the company president, Tom “the other Punisher” Jane walked up and was so blown away he signed up for their mailing list. Yes, it’s going to be one of those name-droppy kind of blog posts. Deal.
Just about everything Sideshow was showing off, from their own internally developed stuff to the items they import and distribute from other companies, looked uniformly fantastic. But boos to whoever walked off with some of their items overnight. The toy gods hate you.
Kotobukiya’s new comic-based Marvel statues are jaw-dropping. It’s at least partially a testament to Ed Brubaker’s writing, but every time I see a piece of Winter Soldier merchandise I want to open my wallet.
My wife and I share a lot of interests, but toys aren’t really one of them. But I bet I could get her to proudly display Diamond Select’s Chef Duff MiniMate (known from Food Network’s “Ace of Cakes”) in the house. Could reality TV toys expand the audience of our hobby like casual gaming has for video games? I don’t know, but I do know that cake is delicious.
Plus way, way too many more toys that I saw to mention. Square’s new PlayArts figures, all the crazy Bandai Japan stuff that Toynami’s going to be importing, SOTA’s new (long-awaited) Robot Chicken toys…it was an embarrassment of riches for toy fans. And if you didn’t see something you liked…customize it! That’s why I was happy to sit on Joe “Jazwares” Amaro’s toy customizing panel with a bunch of really talented people, even though I have no talent myself. Maybe some of that talent will rub off on me. Speaking of that panel, check out the amazing designs of my fellow panel-mate Matt Doughty at Onell Design. I know the indie toy movement can seem kind of impenetrable to mainstream toy fans, but Matt does indie toys that I think action figure fans can definitely get behind.
* I was thrilled to get to see panels for two of my favorite cartoons of all time – Futurama and Venture Bros. Big ups to Cartoon Network for getting me into the Venture panel even though I was in the middle of a 1,000-person line that seemed to stretch all the way around the building.
* I got Twittered by my buddy, Marvel’s Agent M. Right back atcha, man. Also, special thanks to Mezco Toyz’ Jesse DeStasio for sharing with me the best con exclusive you can offer a busy reporter: a couch in their booth to sit on for a few minutes at a time. Holy crap, did that help.
* Hanging out with 100 other people, and probably 1,000 other things I’m forgetting. My brain hasn’t recovered yet.

LOWLIGHTS
* The crowds, specifically costumed people who pose for photos in the middle of crowded aisles. Take it to the side, people, or stick to the lobby!
* Being away from my family for basically a week when all was said and done.
* Sitting cross-legged for 20 minutes to blog on Saturday, having both my legs fall asleep, and then having weird pains in my leg all of Sunday and Monday, resulting in me hobbling around the convention for the last day.
* Having to miss the Watchmen panel due to a scheduling conflict.
* Whoever at the show decided to put the Venture Bros. panel in a room that held about 300 people, resulting in literally about 1,000 people left waiting in the cold (uh…pleasant warmth, actually – San Diego’s weather was another highlight). The MST3K panel was held in the same room later that night and I can’t even imagine how many people got shut out.

So, except for the 1,000 things I’m forgetting, that was San Diego Comic-Con, or at least my experience of it. Everyone has a different experience. I know the Wizard and Anime Insider staffers who got sent out got to meet entirely different amazing people than I did.

What was your experience like? Anything else you’d like to know about the show? Let me know on the Wizard Universe Message Board!

– Posted by Justin