Top Ten Best…and Worst…of the San Diego Comic Con, 2006

Top Ten Best…and Worst…of the San Diego Comic Con, 2006 

Ah, another year gone by, another SDCC passed.  Once again this year I made my annual pilgramage to San Diego to hang with my geek brethren, and to partake in the orgy of pop culture.  And as always, I’m exhausted.

I’m doing general coverage of the various new toys over at my regular site, but here I’d like to chat a bit about what made this year’s con stand out amongst the many years, both good and bad.  Because you can never have the good without the bad – that’d just be boring.

 

 

I’ll throw out my lists, and let’s compare notes:

Number 10 on the good side:  The lottery system for con exclusives.  Ah, no more running nut cases, trampling small children in their path to get an exclusive, or ridiculously long lines of exclusive-craving fanboy zombies, desperate to get that repainted figure of a third rate character.  Now you just pick up a ticket at most booths, and wait for the drawing.  While this practice started several years ago, it’s now almost universal, and makes life a lot easier.  To go along with this, I’d like to commend companies like Sideshow, Mezco and Gentle Giant who allowed you to pre-order your convention exclusives in advance, and pick them up at the show (or in some cases, have them shipped to you).

Number 10 on the bad:  But those convention exclusives can still be tricky to get, and I’m betting everyone has one exclusive on their list of ‘bad’ from the show, one exclusive that no matter how they tried, they just couldn’t get it.  For me, it was the LEGO Batman set, and it now goes on my list of stuff to watch for on ebay in the coming months.

Let’s here it for 9, 9 on the good:  There were some truly amazing costumes this year, and I’m always impressed by the folks that not only take the time and energy to create them, but put themselves out there for public display and, in some cases, dehydration from sweating.  Don’t get me wrong – I wouldn’t want to be them.  But I have to admire the work a really great costume takes, and the pair required to wear it in front of thousands of people.  That, or the complete lack of self awareness.

 

 

Ah, but what about 9 on the bad:  That goes to the costumes as well.  Or more accurately, the goofy little half assed costumes.  Did you think that you’d look silly dressed up like a Klingon, in full costume and makeup, but a pair of diddy boppers and a raccoon tail on your ass was somehow ‘cool’?  Look, if you’re going to do a costume, do it right – go all out.  You look just as silly in pair of cat ears, and you lack committment.

There’s 8 for the force:  Futurama is back!  Woo-hoo!  It’s about time someone picked up this license again, although I think that the announcement on the continuation of the show (Comedy Central has ordered new episodes) certainly helped get it back on the pegs.  Toynami will be producing a line of figures in scale with the old MAC stuff.  Add to that the tremendously cool line ups that Mezco has planned for their cartoon lines, Family Guy and South Park, and you have a great looking year for fans of action figures based on more adult animated comedies.

 

 

And 8 for the dark side:  The price of food and drink at the convention.  Ouch.  Oh, I know, what do I expect.  But you still have to admit that when you pay $2.50 for a bottle of water and more for a bottle of pop, or $2.50 for a chocolate chip cookie just so you don’t pass out from starvation on the convention floor, your wallet cries a little.  Not the wailing it does anytime you get close to the Sideshow or Master Replicas booth, but just a little cry, the kind that breaks your heart.

My number 7 wearing a white hat:  Two words – Ray Guns.  Actually, that’s what Weta is calling the line.  They are producing prop replica-like ray guns, with a very retro sci-fi appearance and style, but they aren’t really prop replicas, because they aren’t based on any particular license.  These are new designs, created specifically for the line up, and they looked terrific.  I’ve been bugging folks for ages now to do a line of replicas of famous B movie weapons, but this idea might even be better.

And my number 7 wearing a black hat: Companies that hold stuff to put out on certain days of the con.  They might put 90% of their stuff out on preview night, but hold back stuff til Friday or Saturday.  Why is that annoying?  Because it ignores that there are people who have one day tickets earlier in the week that would like to see everything, and it ignores that people with multiple day tickets may not be able to make it past the booth a second or third time.  There’s no point either – put out your stuff on Wednesday, all of it.

The big  6 spot goes to: Creativity.  There was plenty of it this year in the smaller companies, and that’s what it’s going to take to keep the specialty market industry alive.  Not all of it spoke to me personally, but that doesn’t mean it won’t find an audience.  And not being mainstream and being for everyone is part of what truly creative products are all about.  Two are worth mentioning – the first is the Smart Bombs from Creatus Maximus.  The designs are based on Fat Boy and Little Man, the two bombs dropped on Japan to end WWII.  But they have little brains sculpted inside the top, and the outer casings are decorated in elaborite satirical ways.  They had convention exclusives featuring a pair of Star Wars look alikes, and a couple based on some famous DC characters – I bet you can tell which ones from the photo below.

 

 

Another company that impressed me was Rocket World.  They are doing a line of vinyl-like figures called I.W.G.  These guys are various animals, mostly those on the endangered species list, that have become sentient with the help of some aliens, and are now armed and fighting back against the evil humans that have done them harm.  The character designs were terrific, part of the proceeds goes to help various wildlife organizations, and this was a line that really caught my eye.  These types of creative lines would never see the front of a peg if we only had the large companies, and they are a great indication of the importance of the specialty market.  I broke down and bought a Sasquatch – the Yeti (see below) and Sasquatch have joined up with their animal friends in the battle.

 

 

And of course, his evil twin number 6:  Redundancy.  Perhaps that’s not the best word to describe it, but there was an awful lot of ‘sameness’ from the past year.  There were many lines at many companies that were also at SDCC last year, and haven’t yet been released.  On top of that, what was new was generally a continuation of already existing lines, with very little in the way of new lines being produced on new licenses.  That’s definitely unfortunate, and doesn’t bode well for the next few years.

The panels provide number 5 on the cool side:  As with every year, there are plenty of nifty panels.  I enjoyed many, including Family Guy, Simpsons, Bones, Lost and Sony.  But my favorite was the panel on Veronica Mars, a show I just recently started to watch.  It just finished up it’s second season, and after many folks had recommended it, I decided to pick up the first season DVD and try it out.  My wife and I are now both hooked, and I’m doing what I can to spread the word.  The panel was made up of several of the key actors, including Kristen Bell, who plays Veronica.  She was as sweet and bright in person as she is on the show, and the panel did a great job of selling me on the new season.  If you want to see a witty, well written show with great character development, give it a chance.

Ah, and but the panels also managed to give us a number 5 on the minus side:  Hmmm, this is Quick Stop Entertainment, and our own Kevin Smith was scheduled for a panel on Saturday afternoon.  Unfortunately, traffic destroyed the best laid plans of mice and Silent Bob, and he had to cancel very late.  He did manage to make it down later in the day, and I believe they moved the schedule around to accomodate, but there were still an awful lot of bummed out fans.

Number 4 goes to an actual toy, rather than a collectible: Sigma 6.  And more specifically, the new vehicles for the Sigma 6 2.5″ figure line.  These vehicles have tremendous play value, with all kinds of cool action features, that allow the vehicles to interact not just with the figures, but with the other vehicles in the line.  Hasbro continues to impress me with their work on the latest incarnation of the classic G.I. Joe.

And no, the photo below isn’t the 2.5″ line, but rather the 8″ line – but I liked the photo.

 

 

Here’s a weird one for number 4, but a lot of people I know think it’s a bummer: Time.  There’s just not enough, and yet, by the time Sunday comes rolling around, you’re definitely ready to be done.  It’s impossible to see everything in 4.5 days, including all the panels.  Saturday is a seething mass of geeks, so if you can only make it one day, do NOT pick Saturday.  The best panels are on Saturday though, making it tough for a short visit.  Even those of us that stay the entire time can’t see everything and do everything, and this year I never made a single full pass through the dealer areas.  And yet, while I have this lack of time a negative, I’m always more than ready to call it quits by Sunday.

For the number 3 good slot, we have another Star Wars item: Gentle Giant’s Slave Leia statue.  One of the most realistic statues in the Star Wars universe I’ve ever seen, it’s also every drooling fanboys dream.  I have some additional photos here, just to show you how, uh, amazing it is.  It blows away every other version we’ve ever seen, and makes the Kotobukiya version look silly in comparison.  Now, let’s just hope it makes it to the shelf.

 

 

Bad number 3 is one that there really isn’t anyone you can blame, nor is there much you can do: Crowds.  This year’s show is sure to break the attendance records of the previoius years, and Wednesday’s preview night was insane.  The tremendous success of the show is actually becoming one of it’s problems, which is a problem most of us would like to have.  It will be interesting to see if the continued growth leads to any changes…

The number 2 on the good list is a general shout out to the amazing likenesses I saw.  It’s clear that sculpting and paint have become number one across the board, and every company is rising to the challenge.  From Mcfarlane, who showed their Lost line, to Gentle Giant with the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings busts, and even on to newcomers like Kaching, who had some amazing sixth scale Bruce Lee figures, the ability to capture a likeness has become required, but demonstrated.

 

 

My bad number 2 is another that you can’t do much about, but that doesn’t make it any better:  The weather.  Damn it was hot this year.  Oh, not as bad as LA, where I stopped off for a couple days before heading down to the show.  When you’re sweating while you’re taking a shower, you know it’s hot.  No, it wasn’t that bad, and the convention folks were great about cranking up the AC, especially on Friday and Saturday.  But the elevator at my hotel was obviously some sort of portal to a Lovecratian Hell dimension, and the ride up and down 22 floors was better than a half hour in the sauna.

But for number 1, let’s switch them up, with bad going first: Traffic.  Hey, we all hate it, but it seems to be getting worse and worse every year.  Now, of course this directly relates to number 2, the huge attendance, but it’s more than that.  You can’t blame someone for lots of people being there – that’s the whole point.  If the place wasn’t going to be packed, you wouldn’t get the huge number of stars, directors, writers and producers coming down from LA to give us all the info.  But the traffic snarls seemed far, far worse this year, and this is something that the city will need to deal with.  It’s not just the amount of traffic, but how it’s dealt with, especially the shuttle buses that are so critical to so many coming in from hotels in the surrounding blocks.  If it takes 45 minutes to an hour just to get a mile to the convention, it’s going to hurt the reputation of both the show and the city.  And yes, there are ways to alleviate and plan for that traffic.

We switched them up, because it’s always good to end on a high note, or in this case, the number 1 of my top ten bests: Last year, Sideshow stole the show by announcing the Star Wars sixth scale license.  Since then, they’ve produced three terrific 12″ figures, with many more already pre-ordered.

Not to be outdone, they stole the show again this year.  And again, they managed to do it with the Star Wars license.  Oh, the full scale Yoda was cool, and the Buffy fans were mighty pleased to see Giles.  But the sixth scale Jabba the Hutt, along with his full throne base, was the number one for me.  Not only will this make a truly amazing museum quality display when added to the Boush Leia, Jedi Luke and Bib Fortuna, but the price was amazing as well.  Just $120 for Jabba?  What’s he made out of, paper mache?  Oh sure, the throne is another couple bills, but it’s a huge hunk of gorgeous polystone, so I’m not surprised.  This is going to be one of the best sixth scale items Sideshow releases in the Star Wars license – and perhaps in anything they ever do.  Can you tell I have my hopes up?

 

 

Now you’ll have to excuse me, as I have to get my hotel reservations set up for next year.

 

 

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