The Boston Science Fiction Film Festival present Anime After Dark, a twelve hour film festival event at Boston's historic Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville on October 18th, 2008. It will start at dusk, 7:00 PM, and run continuously until dawn, 7:00 AM.

Resonance Features and SF34: The Boston Science Fiction Film Festival present Anime After Dark, a twelve hour film festival event at Boston's historic Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville on October 18th, 2008. It will start at dusk, 7:00 PM, and run continuously until dawn, 7:00 AM.

The festival will bring some of the best in new and vintage anime to the big screen, in many cases for the first time. Ticket holders will be treated to an array of cinema treasures by masters of the genre like Studio Ghibli, Satoshi Kon, Leiji Matsumoto, Kenji Kamiyama, and others in a program that will run from dusk until dawn and include rare 35mm prints. Special events and more surprises to be announced.

In the spotlight of the lineup is "Grave of the Fireflies" in a special promotional screening of its upcoming 20th anniversary pay-per-view release. Anime After Dark will be one of the first times that this masterpiece has been projected on an American screen. Roger Ebert has called the film, "an emotional experience so powerful that it forces a rethinking of animation."

New features include the recently released "Tekkon Kinkreet" winner of the 2008 Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year. Other notable films in the lineup include Millennium Actress, Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society, and Project A-Ko.

The Somerville Theatre is located at 55 Davis Sq in Somerville right next to the Davis Sq Red Line T station. The festival will unspool in the classic 900 seat auditorium. Built in 1914, the theatre has become a landmark location for film festivals and concerts.

For a full schedule of films and special events visit the official website www.animeafterdark.net. Tickets go on sale Wednesday, September, 10th 2008 for the introductory price of $20.00. Prices will rise to $25 on September 20th and $30 if purchased at the door. Order now because space is limited.

Resonance Features is a licensing and distribution company based in New York City with theatrical, home video and pay-per-view agreements in several major markets. Headed by Dekker Dreyer (www.dekkerdreyer.com), Resonance Features strives to bring critically acclaimed entertainment together with the best in new releases.

The Boston Science Fiction Film Festival is the oldest event of it kind in the country. Every President's Holiday for 34 year science fiction films screen, science fiction films screen fror 24 straight hours.
Special promotional consideration provided by Rasmussen College.

CollectionDX's own EVA_Unit_4A visits a small Transformers convention in Tacoma, Washington

So, there was this little get-together these guys would have once a year at one of their houses. And they would share stories, the latest rumors, toys, books, and food. A nice little yearly summit between friends. Then after six years of this, the summit got a little bigger because friends were bringing friends, and then the friends were bringing friends... And so, to expand the exposure of the public to the venue, they decided to move into a small convention center. They weren’t looking to become a huge annual event, but still a get-together where people could enjoy what they knew best.

And they called it the Cybertron Conference. And it was good.

2008 was the third year that CybCon was held at the King Oscar Motel & Convention Center in Tacoma, Washington, on August 23rd.

I regret that I was only able to attend the last hour and a half of the con before they started packing up, so I missed most of the highlight events (in no particular order)-

• Table displays of Transformers-related art, oddities & rarities
• Screenings of random TV episodes across the franchise
• Play “Beast Wars: Transformers” for PS1 in head-to-head matches on a big projection screen on the wall
• Trivia throughout the con
• Speed transforming contests for both kids (10-and-under) and adults- how fast can you change a Transformers from alt. mode to robot mode?
• Silent auction

Several tables were set up along the walls, where pre-registered dealers could put up their wares, as well as for simply displaying your collection.

I can tell you- those second-hand prices were killer-deals- I filled a few long-empty holes in my own “Beast Wars” collection, as well as a replacement for a G2 Constructicon that I accidentally broke right out of the packaging over 15 years ago.

One notable toy manufacture made an appearance, CyberFembot.com. Their largest agenda- promoting toys of female Cybertronians, which Takara and Hasbro largely ignores- is to create the first mass-production, fully-transformable Generation One Arcee figure. Parts of the prototype(s), molds, and a finished model were all on display at their table. (Their website claims two original Cybertronian female designs not seen before on-screen are in pre-production stages.) Also on display were several completed designs of their in-house built G1 Devastator [the fusion of the six Constructicons], and one of the repaints. (I mean, this thing stands 18” tall, and has ridiculous articulation & elaborate detail!)

Two of their current projects were also on display. The first is an attempt to make a steam train engine version of Optimus Prime! Standing almost 12” when completed, the coal tender would change into a small fold-out base- of which details they did not have on display, but were planning on. The other was a fixed-pose 3” figure of the nine year-old human girl Sari Sumdac from “Transformers Animated”; several of which they sold throughout the con for others to paint up.

For all four of these projects, a photo album was available to view painted finals, pre-production sketches, early molds, prototypes, and finished models. Regretfully, they were closing up shop when I walked in, so I got little time with their rep!

It was indeed a small venue, taking up only three small conference rooms with the dividing walls retracted. The guy who was running the con, Greg, said that over 88 people showed up during the entire eight hour event- most of those walk-ins. But he said that even with the pre-registration closed a week earlier, a few walked in from off the street, so that number might have been a little higher.

As promised, I must send out a big thank you to Greg. I missed the registration deadline without realizing it, but when I said that I wanted to cover the CybCon online, he let me come down anyways! So if he hadn’t approved, I wouldn’t be writing this article! (It’s a two-and-a-half hour drive south from my home to Tacoma, so to show up and be denied entrance at the door would have been a huge waste!)

Well, hopefully I can make it in sooner next year so I can give you better coverage and more photos than this!

View the remainder of the photos from EVA_Unit_4A's trip to CybCon 2008 here!

See the official CybCon 2008 homepage here!

A woman’s perspective on the TOYS, the restaurants, the people, and sharing a hotel with 2 stinky men!!!

A woman’s perspective on the TOYS, the restaurants, the people, and sharing a hotel with 2 stinky men!!!

The plane ride

The plane ride down was surprisingly delightful. Dan, Josh and I figured it for the best to upgrade to business class (as the chairs are way bigger and free booze). Upon lift-off I was getting myself ready for a relaxing and fun flight. And it was; the drinks flowed, the Steward (ess) were super helpful and nice. The whole last hours of the flight were spent with Dan and I chatting and laughing with the steward he even gave us tips on how to keep our skin GLOWING. As we departed the plane, they even gave me a bag of vodka nips for our room! Can you imagine?? We finally arrived in San Diego on Tuesday July 21st at 11:30 am.

The Hotel Room

As the booking for our trip was relatively last minute, all the rooms at the Hilton, the Clarion, etc. were taken. Which leaves us with the Quality Inn...If you research the Quality inn you will see it has much less than sparkling reviews. We had prepared for the worst, but it was surprisingly not bad. It would suffice just fine. After putting away some of our stuff we decided to check out the Con one day previous to it opening to the public.

The Calm of the Con the day before the storm

Now, the workers at the Con WILL NOT let you in pre show without an exhibitor's badge. So with our friend Matt’s help, I became exhibitor Fridge and Dan became Boris. We donned our passes and headed down to set up some of Josh's wares at our table. It was like the calm before the storm. The place was alive with people setting up some of their life’s works. Toys, art work, comic books, life size Stormtroopers, just to name a few. I have never attended anything of this magnitude. There were new Soul of Chogokin toys being displayed, a lot of my husband’s favorites and old favorites of us both. He immediately was compelled to buy a Giant Robot from the 80's and waited to pick up his Getter 1 Comic Con exclusive.

That night we went to have dinner at this Mexican place called Fred's and the whole gang was there. Sanjeev was there with Mark, Jesse, Matt and Megan Doughty, Jennileen, John, Josh, Dan and I. We ate and chatted about the weeks festivities but it was to be an early night as we were all super tired from our traveling

On sharing a Hotel room with 2 men.

Back at the hotel, we were all getting all set for bed. I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth as Josh exited it. It smelled like septic death in there. But I didn't want to be rude and make Josh embarrassed, so I just brushed away, until I got really ill from the stink and started puking. My husband and Josh rushed in checking to see if I was okay. I said ”it stinks too much in here! It made me puke!!”. Josh was all glowing with pride, WOW! I made Nadia throw up!! AWESOME!! We all laughed our asses off. The rest of the night was peppered with farts and snoring. It's a good thing I am used to all this stuff, living with Dan and all..

The Waffle Spot and the Rickshaw ride

We woke up at 7:30am, or I woke up at 7:30 and made the other 2 get up with me. Josh had been talking about this magical place where you could get waffles with bacon baked right into them.... I was mesmerized. So we headed out to get a cab to take us to this almost mythical place. And you would have thought it was mythical. As the cab driver had no idea what or where Waffle Spot was. After some looking we found it.

We went in, and had our Waffles. The reality of those waffles was not as good at our hopes for them. But many pictures were still taken and are glad we went.

We then took another cab to the Con. The traffic was so thick we asked the driver to just drop us off a block or two away. Immediately we got accosted by these poor souls who make their living dragging people around in carts attached to their bikes. This one extremely spindly fellow begged us to let him take us the rest of the way to the Con. The three of us looked at him and asked him if he was aware that us three weighed like 800lbs! We are certainly not an ideal fare. He INSISTED.. I have never laughed so much in my life, this poor fellow carting the three of us up the hill on the way to the con. We oozed over the sides of the cart, and the poor guy had to get off his bike and push at certain parts. Poor guy. And what's worse - as he was nearing the crest of the hill, and was explaining about how terrible the cops were about rickshaws. (He said he had like 5 unpaid tickets, that those damn cops HATED rickshaws probably hated him.) And just as we got out, a cop ticketed him. Needless to say, I gave him a big tip.

Exclusive Lucasfilm after parties and unbelievably good Mexican food.

We went to many after parties, the first was IDW comics party which was really awesome. Open bar with really good drinks, good appetizers, and slammin’ music. As we got our drink on a BIG BRITISH man decided Josh was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen.. (OOO do I see a love connection in the making?) We danced and drank and bumped in to Robbie Musso, an incredible artist, he does all the banners for CDX, did Dan's and Josh's business cards too. He's a cool cat and a good guy.

The next party was the G4 party; you would think this party would have been really super cool. It was okay, kinda packed no open bar, but fun nonetheless. At the very least it was good exposure for us. We then headed back home as Dan and I were really drunk and we wanted Denny's.

I got Moon Over My Hammy.

The next evening was the most important party, The Lucasfilm super invite-only party. We were going with Frank from Kotobukiya, but needed to get some chow first. We all wanted to get Mexican, so we stopped at a bar for a drink and asked the bar tender where the BEST Mexican food was. She told us to go to this little place called Casa Loma, a few blocks up. So we walked to the Casa Loma, and it was a dirty little hole in the wall and showing all the earmarks of an awesome Mexican place where good food was sure to follow. The three of us sat at this little high top table, the AC was broken, and it was dark in there. We all ordered Margaritas which set Josh and My mouths on fire after eating the salsa. Dan is some sort of freak so he wasn't bothered by the heat of the salsa at all. Then our plates came.. This food.. Oh my God this food...So good, everything was HAND MADE! The tortillas, both corn and flour, everything. The BEST I have ever had! And to top it off, the bill came to 42.00 dollars.. FOR ALL THAT FOOD and DRINKS! We left the Mexican place promising we'd be back the next night, and we were!

Time for the Lucas party, walking to the cab I found this homeless guy sleeping on a bench. He had 3 shopping carts expertly engineered together kind of like a cart-a-bago. Poor guy, I woke him up and gave him $20.00 to ensure my good Karma for the rest of the trip, he was so thankful. Remember to always be kind to the homeless and less fortunate. You’ll get it back ten fold.

We hail a cab which pulls up to The BEAUTIFUL Westgate Hotel. We get out and wait for Frank, enjoying the people watching and freak show of sorts.

Frank shows and we go upstairs to get these exclusive swag bags. One was an ammo case painted white with a Clonetrooper's face painted in black on it. It held a patch of the next Star Wars film coming out next month. The other was cool, it had a Darth Vader Nesting doll in it. Another Lucas party exclusive, I bet it could fetch a penny on EBAY. But we decided to give it to Josh's son Nate as he would just love it. We all filed into the elevator to get to the rooftop party.

When those doors opened and we saw the spread it was akin to when Dorothy opened her front door to view OZ. I have never been to a party of this stature, and dare I say I had no idea just how Hollywood Josh is!

Josh and Dan talked to George Sohn of Toynami as I went up to get some wine for us. George is a great guy, we hope to be reviewing some toys for him soon. Bruce Campbell was also there, I think Fred Durst, and Josh's British boyfriend too! Sucklord made his appearance as well. As Josh, Dan, and I stood in front of an ice sculpture, it really hit home. This had been an awesome trip! Awesome parties! Awesome people! Awesome traveling companions.

I am blessed to have gotten to go with Josh and Dan. I absolutely can't wait till next year.

In addition to the Doctor Who round table, I also got to sit in on the Torchwood round table with the executive producer of all three WHO shows, and Torchwood star Naoko Mori (Toshiko)

In addition to the Doctor Who round table, I also got to sit in on the Torchwood round table with the executive producer of all three WHO shows, and Torchwood star Naoko Mori (Toshiko).

At the time, I didn't realize that Julie Garder was executive producer of all three series - Doctor Who, Torchwood, and Sarah Jane Chronicles.

Torchwood is a spin-off of Doctor Who, but its edgier, made for a more adult audience. If you haven't seen it yet I suggest you check it out.

The Clone Wars were in full swing at the Hasbro Booth, but the real star of the show was the HUGE Millennium Falcon

This thing is absolutely beautiful, and even though I have no place to put it, I am SORELY tempted to buy it. I figure better to get one now than kick myself later when having to chase one down on the aftermarket.

So yeah, lots of figures from Clone Wars and the classics line. Cool new vehicles, build a figures - seems like Hasbro is on a roll. Oh, and that giant walker looks sweet as well.

It figures, I would forget the biggest toymaker at Comic-Con.

So yeah, Hasbro at Comic-Con. Never before have I seen such a feeding frenzy. People waited in lines that seemingly wrapped around the convention floor to get the Hasbro "Exclusives", which will no doubt available on online soon. I don't know about you, but no toy was worth waiting in those lines.

Hasbro had some neat stuff out though - another reissue of the classic G1 prime, lots of new animated and classics and other cool stuff.

The summit is over, the trading is done. Thanks to all who attended, we look forward to seeing you next year!

Another year, another summit has come to pass. This year was a good year, with a record number of signups, but with only about half actually attending. Still, it was a good turnout and we met a lot of great new people. Thanks to everyone for coming out, and thanks again to our sponsors for providing items for the raffle.

• HobbyLink Japan
• Yamato Toys USA
• Rinkya
• UniToy Zone
• Onell Design
• Mega Brands

Without further ado, onto the pictures!

ShogunDan mans the grill

Shogundan and Shogunnadia

Yours truly (JoshB)

All of the raffle / trading stuff was set up in my garage due to the threat of rain

Jesse from Onell Design

Bren is fantastic artist from the Boston Area - check out his work here.

Atom and Anavel

Sanjeev throwin' gang signs next to Scott from Aint it Cool News

The crowd gathers for the raffle:

Matt spends the whole time at the summit building a Glyos powered suit.

Sanjeev set up a nice display of some of his Glowies with a Blacklight

Well, thats about it. Make sure to listen to the audio podcast from Destroy All Podcasts DX that was recorded live at the Summit.

See you next year!

So much Revoltech news I had to put it in its own post.

So much Revoltech news I had to put it in its own post. Gurren Lagann, Doko Demo Issyo, Fist of the North Star, Street Fighter, and Assemble Borg.

Images by GGG from ToysDaily

New items from Bandai, CM's Kaiyodo and more.

I wish, as much as you do, that I could attend Wonderfest in Japan. Unfortunately, real life gets in the way, so instead we have to view the convention through the eyes of these intrepid bloggers

Danny Choo

• Eechi and Mecha - Eechi is kind of perverted, and Mecha, well is Mecha. this post is NSFW.
• Resin Kits - once again, mostly NSFW
• General Wonderfest Otakery

ToysDaily

• GGG has a full report of the whole event up
  • Volks resin cast gurren-lagann
    
    
  • CM's Black Mospeada Ride Armor
    
    
  • Cm's Brave Gokin Dotabattan, Mekabuton and Kuwagattan?
    
    
    
    CM's Brave Gokin Galient and Mugen Calibur with Armor (and check out the little powered suits!)
    
    
    
    
  • CM's Brave Gokin Baldios (2 versions)
    
    
  • CM's Brave Gokin Gakeen
    
    
  • CM's Mecha Action Machine Blaster
    
    
  • Max Factory DRAGONAR (Kit? Gokin?)
    
    
  • Fewture EX Gokin Great Mazinger (new version?)
    
    
  • Yamato GNU (Big size! Hagane?) Baxinger
    
    
  • Yamato GNU Gravion
    
    
  • Yamato 1/24 Ingram
    
    
  • Yamato 1/6 Scale Chirico and Scopedog! (likely just for display)
    
    
    

July can be a busy month of the year, especially if you live in Southern California. A lot of great events seem to get tied up here in one short month: the San Diego Comic Con, Anime Expo, Macross World Con, Ed Keller’s Kit Collectors Exposition & Sale not to mention some other interests I have such as Old Fort Mac Arthur Militaria & History encampment and two vintage record swap meets in Pasadena and Buena Park.

July can be a busy month of the year, especially if you live in Southern California. A lot of great events seem to get tied up here in one short month: the San Diego Comic Con, Anime Expo, Macross World Con, Ed Keller’s Kit Collectors Exposition & Sale not to mention some other interests I have such as Old Fort Mac Arthur Militaria & History encampment and two vintage record swap meets in Pasadena and Buena Park.

Two events I hit up in July was Macross World Con ’08 in Long Beach and Ed Keller’s Kit Collectors Exposition & Sale in Buena Park.

I have not been to a Model Kit exposition since the 80’s and over the last few years I have started building model kits again and I felt it was time to hit up this show again. Ed Keller has been putting these kit conventions on for 32 years now and if you are into OOP model kits this is the place to be. The event is held at the United Food & Commercial Workers Union Hall about three times a year. It is a little known event outside the Military Modelers circle.

I arrived there at about 9:00 when the doors opened and grabbed some great deals when the doors first opened. The secret is if you are a Japanese model collector great bargins can be had. Within 10 minutes I grabbed some great deals from the same dealer who just seemed to have what I was looking for. I picked up a NOS MPC The Black Hole Maxmillian model kit still sealed in the box for $25.00, two Spiral Zone Extra figures also NOS for $10.00, two NOS die-cast Matchbox Robotech Excalibur for $1 each. Later I found the Macross Modeling and Fact pocket book for $4.00. It really was like the 1980’s all over again!

I was quite surprised that I didn’t find as much Japanese toys and models that I was looking for. Just like all vintage collectables markets these days the older items are starting to dry up. But I did leave a lot of great items behind including some Dirty Pair vinyl model kits for $15.00.

One of the dealers was pure Aurora! He had a great display of original Aurora Super Hero model kits. All in all it was a great morning grabbing some fantastic items. Right afterwards I headed out to Long Beach for another event…Macross World Con ’08.

Macross World http://www.macrossworld.com/ is one of the premier websites devoted specifically to Macross. Macross World has gotten me out of a lot of corners as their Model Kit box gallery is nearly complete and they have a lot of good resources for the Macross collector. So it was nice to know that the Website is Southern California based.

It was a small but completely involved event, maybe 150 people through the day but it was good vibes and all Macross centric! Although I visit the website frequently I still had not registered on their site. I was welcomed with opened arms and had a lot of great conversations throughout the day on Macross. One person even told me about the sad fate of Pony-Toy Go Round, a mystery to me until a long time local toy collector related the story to me. Many rare Macross items were displayed throughout the day, many that I have only read about, some I have only dreamed about!

The band Boobytrap started the day off with a set of great 70’s and 80’s punk and new wave and a great hard rock version of the Macross Theme song.

A couple of dealers brought some great original Macross items for sale and display. Some highlights were the very rare Minmei wind up doll at $50.00 (a steal!) and a bootleg Valkyrie 1/55 toy.

Some of the super rare display items include a Macross Rubber raft (the benchmark of Macross collecting is the Rubber Raft…. everything else is entry level!), the ultra rare Nichimo Zentraedi translator (“….This is the build one…..I have an unbuilt one at home…”), an AMAZING 1/1 scale Valkyrie Helmet and chest piece from Do You Remember Love, and a Macross Frontiers Pizza Hut Box. Later another collector brought some original artwork from many of the people who worked on Macross. Speaking of original artwork another drawing was made specifically for the MacrossWorld Con '08 and was raffled off at the end of the day to a lucky winner.

The model kit contest was actually a Macross Custom contest and there were a lot of great entries, my favorite being the giant Plush VF-1J and the Max VF-1A in disguise. I did not know customizing Macross Valkyrie toys was such a big sub-culture, the most popular customs being VF-1D toys as they never made 1/55 one back in the day.

Part of the price included a free Pizza lunch and to have a slice of Macross Cake. Fantastic job on the cake my friend!

By 5:00 I was all Macross-ed out, and it was time to close shop. I had a great time talking to a good bunch of people and I wish much success to future Macross World Cons.