When I first came upon CollectionDX a few years back while searching for diecast robots, I never imagined I would get to the point where I would be doing reviews and coverage for them. While most would think that's the highlight of the experience, I would have to say that it's meeting all the people involved and seeing how CDX continues to progress and break new ground. Of course membership, as they say, has it's priveleges. One of those happens to be being given the opportunity to attend awesome shows like the New York Comic Con. It also helps that I'm 10 miles from NYC.
My NYCC visit consisted of only two actual visits out of the four days available. Why? Well life likes to throw curveballs when it can. It's called Murphy's Law. And I'm not talking about the band. Also requesting the wrong weekend off at work doesn't help with matters.
I was lucky enough to enlist the help of a cute "videographer" which I ended up going home with that night... 'cause she's my wife. If it wasn't for her I probably would not have any video whatsoever of the event.
Since I had a Press pass, I could just walk in. My wife wasn't so lucky. She had a standard pass which wasn't so bad. It was the line to get in that was bad. It wrapped around the entire building and thensome. Once inside, we did a quick run through for fun and to get the "oohs and ahhs" out of the way and then we comenced with shooting. At times she shot with the camera, at other times she shot wiht the video camera. Whatever she was doing, I was doing the opposite. We actually managed to knock out a fair amount of footage the first day which happened to be the only day I would have her help.
If you don't already know, the Comic Con is a HUGE event pretty much taking up all of the available space at the Javitz Center.
Friday was pretty much uneventful. Mostly because I had to work and wasn't able to attend Comic Con. So I had to wait until after work on Saturday. During work I topped of my cameras. At around 1pm, I zoomed out of work, hit up a bus and made the trek to NYC. Every time I go to Javitz I stop by a 2 Brothers pizza for a $2.75 combo which consists of two slices of pizza and a can of soda. Steal.
So I went inside the center as usual all psyched to get some video done. So I pull out my video camera to shoot the outside of the center and realize my video camera's battery is in the red with only 14 minutes of shooting left which is really only like half that. I had a small panic attack. How did it not charge? My back up would probably have to be my DSLR but I only had one battery for that one and the video files are insanely huge compared to my dedicated video camera.
So that meant relying on only taking pictures the rest of the event. Therfe was so much to photograph. Photographing the entire event would be a very huge undertaking requiring about 5-10 people. I bring you the highlights that fit into this site. Even then there are some things that slip through the cracks, like when I forget to jot down the name of this cool booth that had some cool Godzilla stuff. Anyone know who this is?
At certain points during my visit I would just get so overwhelmed that I would literally freeze. As hard as I tried to keep organized, something always caught my attention. Like these guys who played cool dance music with Gameboys.
Sometimes I would stop and admire actual video game machines like I used to remember playing a few years back before consoles became the norm. Kids these days are less likely to know what its like to plunk down a quarter to play a game. During the tail end of the coin-op machines, we were pushing dollar bills into them. Now we have machines at home that deliver much more intense graphics than their coin hungry relatives. Anywho, seeing people standing in front of a machine was cool.
There was so many booths to see and for some I was only able to catch but a quick glimpse of what was offered.
Including one with this. Interesting.
There was even a booth where you could be turned into a "walker" and also take a family picture while inside this zombie destroying Hyundai.
In the farthest corners of the show, there were little shops set up with toys and other things for sale. You could find most anything you've ever wanted here at a price. Whether you like My little Ponies or G.I. Joe or cosplay items, they had it all. Oh and they also were selling comics. Transformers fans could also find their favorite characters for sale.
While visiting Toy Tokyo, I was told by the owner of a Jumbo Jeeg, which I know from my Chogokin Summit visits, that Seth Green had an interest in buying said Jeeg. Mr. Green had seen the Jeeg from afar and just had to have it. The results of this conversation are unknown to me at this point.
He also took the time to show possible buyers the contents of some of the cool gokin that was for sale there. Someone was interested in the Astro boy which was so awesome it hurt. I myself had a craving for a little Groizer X which I unfortunately did not have the funds for. One day Groizer...one day.
While I was drooling over gokin, my wife was outside of the booth filming this dude just dancing like it was necessary to sustain life. This guy was just moving to the music in a very mesmerizing way. Don't know who he was, but he needs an action figure of him.
Normally when I go to a convention, it is focused on specific things, for example something like Transformers. The great thing about Comic Con is that it is not limited to Comics. In fact, that seems to be the least busy part of the show in my opinion. The actual comic books just hang out back in cardboard boxes waiting to be bought. When I first walked in and saw this figure below, I knew I was going to have fun. This exists? Nice.
A good percentage of people hit up the Comic Con for Exclusives or to buy some goodies. I had my eye on a blue Axe Cop Exclusive, but opted out of buying it since I wouldn't be displaying it. There was a 6" Walter White in Hazmat suit also but it was sold out. So I just bought a Bobble Head of Mr. White.
Of course there are also tables set up with artists. I didn't visit the dedicated artist section but there were a few on the regular floor. This is the only one I managed to snap a pic of. He was drawing up Silver Spectrum and my wife dug it.
As very few people know, I am a guitarist in a punk/hardcore band so it was really nice to come across Jerry Only of Misfits fame. Even if you don't know who the Misfits are (Shame on you!) you will recognize their skull face logo which has been printed on pretty much any object possible. I even saw a Pop! Vinyl figure of the skull! I was gonna take a picture with him but he seemed busy. The bassist in my band knows him and I figured that would be a way to start a conversation but the Comic Con swept my attention away to other things.
I would be very surprised if you reached this far into my article. It's mostly just some sensless babbling. But thats what the Comic Con does to you, you walk in normal and then your senses just go nuts and its very hard to keep focus on anything! Especially when writing about it.
Even though my prescence at this event is of miniscule scale, I did manage to leave my mark there for all the thousands of people walking by. Unless some nerd came by and erased it. It was time to go home and prepare for Sunday.
That night I sat down to fix my charger. It turns out that the insulation had pulled away from the charger itself and the wires shorted together. Even after seperating the short, the charger wasnt working. So I decided to pry it open to see what I could do. Well a bunch of electric thingamabobs came out so that was enough to seal my fate. My purpose for Sunday was to catch up on missing video. I made the decision not to go since I already had what I needed in pictures and my funds were running really low.
Anyways, I leave you with this. The very last picture I took when I called it a night.
Full 2013 New York Comic Con Gallery
Since I had a Press pass, I could just walk in. My wife wasn't so lucky. She had a standard pass which wasn't so bad. It was the line to get in that was bad. It wrapped around the entire building and thensome. Once inside, we did a quick run through for fun and to get the "oohs and ahhs" out of the way and then we comenced with shooting. At times she shot with the camera, at other times she shot wiht the video camera. Whatever she was doing, I was doing the opposite. We actually managed to knock out a fair amount of footage the first day which happened to be the only day I would have her help.
If you don't already know, the Comic Con is a HUGE event pretty much taking up all of the available space at the Javitz Center.
Friday was pretty much uneventful. Mostly because I had to work and wasn't able to attend Comic Con. So I had to wait until after work on Saturday. During work I topped of my cameras. At around 1pm, I zoomed out of work, hit up a bus and made the trek to NYC. Every time I go to Javitz I stop by a 2 Brothers pizza for a $2.75 combo which consists of two slices of pizza and a can of soda. Steal.
So I went inside the center as usual all psyched to get some video done. So I pull out my video camera to shoot the outside of the center and realize my video camera's battery is in the red with only 14 minutes of shooting left which is really only like half that. I had a small panic attack. How did it not charge? My back up would probably have to be my DSLR but I only had one battery for that one and the video files are insanely huge compared to my dedicated video camera.
So that meant relying on only taking pictures the rest of the event. Therfe was so much to photograph. Photographing the entire event would be a very huge undertaking requiring about 5-10 people. I bring you the highlights that fit into this site. Even then there are some things that slip through the cracks, like when I forget to jot down the name of this cool booth that had some cool Godzilla stuff. Anyone know who this is?
At certain points during my visit I would just get so overwhelmed that I would literally freeze. As hard as I tried to keep organized, something always caught my attention. Like these guys who played cool dance music with Gameboys.
Sometimes I would stop and admire actual video game machines like I used to remember playing a few years back before consoles became the norm. Kids these days are less likely to know what its like to plunk down a quarter to play a game. During the tail end of the coin-op machines, we were pushing dollar bills into them. Now we have machines at home that deliver much more intense graphics than their coin hungry relatives. Anywho, seeing people standing in front of a machine was cool.
There was so many booths to see and for some I was only able to catch but a quick glimpse of what was offered.
Including one with this. Interesting.
There was even a booth where you could be turned into a "walker" and also take a family picture while inside this zombie destroying Hyundai.
In the farthest corners of the show, there were little shops set up with toys and other things for sale. You could find most anything you've ever wanted here at a price. Whether you like My little Ponies or G.I. Joe or cosplay items, they had it all. Oh and they also were selling comics. Transformers fans could also find their favorite characters for sale.
While visiting Toy Tokyo, I was told by the owner of a Jumbo Jeeg, which I know from my Chogokin Summit visits, that Seth Green had an interest in buying said Jeeg. Mr. Green had seen the Jeeg from afar and just had to have it. The results of this conversation are unknown to me at this point.
He also took the time to show possible buyers the contents of some of the cool gokin that was for sale there. Someone was interested in the Astro boy which was so awesome it hurt. I myself had a craving for a little Groizer X which I unfortunately did not have the funds for. One day Groizer...one day.
While I was drooling over gokin, my wife was outside of the booth filming this dude just dancing like it was necessary to sustain life. This guy was just moving to the music in a very mesmerizing way. Don't know who he was, but he needs an action figure of him.
Normally when I go to a convention, it is focused on specific things, for example something like Transformers. The great thing about Comic Con is that it is not limited to Comics. In fact, that seems to be the least busy part of the show in my opinion. The actual comic books just hang out back in cardboard boxes waiting to be bought. When I first walked in and saw this figure below, I knew I was going to have fun. This exists? Nice.
A good percentage of people hit up the Comic Con for Exclusives or to buy some goodies. I had my eye on a blue Axe Cop Exclusive, but opted out of buying it since I wouldn't be displaying it. There was a 6" Walter White in Hazmat suit also but it was sold out. So I just bought a Bobble Head of Mr. White.
Of course there are also tables set up with artists. I didn't visit the dedicated artist section but there were a few on the regular floor. This is the only one I managed to snap a pic of. He was drawing up Silver Spectrum and my wife dug it.
As very few people know, I am a guitarist in a punk/hardcore band so it was really nice to come across Jerry Only of Misfits fame. Even if you don't know who the Misfits are (Shame on you!) you will recognize their skull face logo which has been printed on pretty much any object possible. I even saw a Pop! Vinyl figure of the skull! I was gonna take a picture with him but he seemed busy. The bassist in my band knows him and I figured that would be a way to start a conversation but the Comic Con swept my attention away to other things.
I would be very surprised if you reached this far into my article. It's mostly just some sensless babbling. But thats what the Comic Con does to you, you walk in normal and then your senses just go nuts and its very hard to keep focus on anything! Especially when writing about it.
Even though my prescence at this event is of miniscule scale, I did manage to leave my mark there for all the thousands of people walking by. Unless some nerd came by and erased it. It was time to go home and prepare for Sunday.
That night I sat down to fix my charger. It turns out that the insulation had pulled away from the charger itself and the wires shorted together. Even after seperating the short, the charger wasnt working. So I decided to pry it open to see what I could do. Well a bunch of electric thingamabobs came out so that was enough to seal my fate. My purpose for Sunday was to catch up on missing video. I made the decision not to go since I already had what I needed in pictures and my funds were running really low.
Anyways, I leave you with this. The very last picture I took when I called it a night.
Full 2013 New York Comic Con Gallery