On Saturday I spent a few hours wandering around Wizard World LA.  It’s still a very small show, so it was a perfect time to introduce my daughter to the world of comic book conventions.  She even went in costume!   We ran into a few special folks, such as Aaron Douglas aka Chief Tyrol on Battlestar Galactica, and her first love… R2-D2. 

There wasn’t much this year as far as action figures go.  Not even Diamond Select was in attendance this year. Wizkids was there with a cool Daily Planet display/board for their Heroclix game. Marvel and Top Cow had booths, DC Comics was not in attendance.

You can see the pictures here in the Gallery section of AFI. 

Once again, Mike "Sdcomics" Walker has braved the crowds, attended the panels, and stood in line for 4 hours to get a bad hotdog just to bring you his amazing reportage directly from the floor of the San Diego Convention Center! Julius Marx risked his life to bring you all the pictures! And ToyOtter sat at home watching reruns of "The Cable Guy" waiting for reports to trickle in so he could type them up and put them all online for you, our loyal readers! So what are you waiting for? Go get reading!!!

BOTCON 2007!

A look at the madness and the machines by Erik "Superfriend" Skov

Prologue
I never thought Rhode Island was big enough to have a convention. So it came as a surprise when my kids came home last Wednesday and said they had seen a sign for BotCon. I ran to the computer and googled it. This weekend, starting tomorrow in fact, was the biggest Transformers Convention ever. And it was going to be here, practically in my back yard. How could I not go? I checked with the other folks at AFI. Sure they would run a feature on BotCon if I went, took the pictures, and wrote the article. I printed down the schedule and was ready to go.

Saturday I collected my digital camera, a few granola bars and a bottle of water and I was off. Parking was easy. I walked in to be greeted by a giant picture of Optimus Prime, banners for the movie, and a giant robotic hand holding a bomb. The time shown on the bomb = the time left until the movie premiered. Then I went and stood in line.

Getting In
While waiting in line I spied a bunch of AttackTix. It was the remains of the AttackTix tournament, which had been held earlier. When I asked a Hasbro person if I could take pictures of the AttackTix, Chris here asked me if I would interview a fan. I said sure! Chris has been a fan of Transformers since he was 4 years old in 1984. (Trick question – when did Transformers start? Hint – Chris was 4.) So he’s been a fan since the beginning. Chris is posing here with his two best pieces he bought today so far. Chris was also one of a whole bunch of volunteers helping out at BotCon.

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This year we’re trying a little something new: blogging about Toy Fair 2007 while we’re at the con!

Julius Marx and ToyOtter will be braving the winter cold in NY for the next week and we’ll be sending back reports as we’re able. Holding down the fort at home will be our crack team of bloggers: Dare, Jeff Cope, Peter Fires, Superfly, SD Comics, JJJason, and Vader! These guys will be making sure that you know where and when any toy fair news hits the web so you don’t have to search for it.

And once we get the pics formatted, they’ll show up on the right in the "Galleries" sidebar.

Enjoy!

What A Long Strange Trip It’s Been…

Well, we’re trying something a bit new this year here at AFI. After spending the past 6 or 7 years being beaten down by the glory and the chaos that is SDCC, I (Jason ‘ToyOtter’ Geyer) am staying behind to man the fort while our intrepid team (Daniel ‘Julius Marx’ Pickett, Cuban Zod, and Mike ‘SDComics’ Walker, along with a few friends and colleagues) will send back reports and pictures from the con floor. With any luck we’ll be able to update more frequently than if we were all there. Helping me tremendously in keeping the fort secure is the rest of the team: Ryan ‘The Superfly’ Prast, Jeff ‘Jeff’ Cope, and Darren ‘Dare’ Chia. So check back here throughout the four days of the convention, and take a gander at our special SDCC forums set up for all sorts of discussion. Daniel will also once again be moderating his famous toy panels, so if you hit the con be sure to go check them out!

For more good coverage and pictures, the only places you need to go visit are Fwooshnet, Raving Toy Maniac, Action-Figure.com, Rebelscum, and YoJoe.com .

Now on with the show! Click Here to go to our full SDCC 2006 Coverage!

By Mike "SDComics" Walker and Jason "ToyOtter" Geyer.

In the theory of better late than never, here are a good portion of the pics taken by AFI of the stuff shown at Wizard World Los Angeles, along with commentary on what was revealed by the always comprehensive SDComics! For SD’s full report including more pics and some of the local talent, check out this thread in our forum.

Mattel Toys

As it’s already been stated, Mattel is restricted to just the Superman and Batman family of characters for the comic based line for 2007. They’re still talking to WB though, and they have hopes for 2008 so all is not lost.
I asked about the possibility of Silver Age characters like Composite Superman showing up in the 6" line, and Boy Wonder said the sky’s the limit. They won’t restrict themselves to one particular era.
Catwoman is a go for the 6" line.
I asked about the comic book pack-ins, and yes, that’s going to be ending soon. Because Mattel is on the opposite coast from DC, the logistics were a nightmare. It’s too difficult and costly to add them in.
The dioramas that will be included will be made of cardboard.
Justice Lords Hawkgirl will be showing up in the JLU line.
I mentioned those clear plastic stands that ToyBiz sometimes uses with Marvel Legends to Boy Wonder and asked him if Mattel might do something similar with the 6" line, and he said no.
It’s too soon to say if Mattel will be making toys based on the upcoming Wonder Woman and Flash movies, but Boy Wonder did confirm that yes, Mattel will indeed make action figures based on the new Legion of Super-Heroes cartoon. They haven’t started yet, but the designers are excited.

Boy Wonder introduced me to one of Mattel’s top designers, Mr. Ruben Martinez. Ruben was great fun to talk to. I could tell that he really, really loves his job and he’s having a blast. A few quick items:
We’re going to get another Huntress figure in the JLU line in addition to the one they had on display, and this time she’ll be wearing the Jim Lee inspired costume, the one with the white cross. Ruben worked very closely with Bruce Timm on this.
Ruben says one of his goals for JLU is to make every character that appreared in the old Super Powers line that they’re contractually able to do. Kalibak will be a challenge, but he wants it to happen.
We talked about articulation and tooling, and how cool the 6" line was for posing. I mentioned how cool it would be to have a Creeper figure to put in weird Steve Ditko style poses, and Ruben laughed. He said that Creeper is on their approved list of characters and they’re looking at him for ’07 or ’08.

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Well, it’s that time of the year again: no, not Valentine’s Day! But TOY FAIR 2006, where all the goodies for most of the year are unveiled to a greedy public anxious to buy the latest and greatest gadgets for their kiddies. But for us, the fanatics, Toy Fair is a bright and shiny wonderland full of mystery, magic, and wonder. I wonder what we’ll see?

Come along, then, and find out. 2005 was a transitional year for toys- Toys R Us, KB Toys, and the Musicland chain all had financial difficulties, leading to a smaller pool of reatilers to purchase toys from, as well as fatally crippling companies like the much-loved Palisades Toys. Will 2006 bring light to these sad tidings, or will our last refuge be at the doors of Wal-Mart with the Hot Wheels collectors? A possible hint of things to come was the surprising aquisition of the Marvel license by Hasbro. More on that in our coverage below. And is Toys R US on the upswing finally, now that the man behind Target’s success has taken the reins?

So join us as we take a look at what’s in store for the new year (at least until SDCC 2006 rolls around). Daniel is in NY getting the scoops, Jason is back at the ranch putting it all together, and Dare, Mike, and Ryan are hanging out in our new CHAT waiting to discuss it all with you! (You must be registered in the forum to use the chat.) And below the company icons down there we added some nifty pictures of the snowstorm in NY!

Click here to check out all of AFi’s coverage!

The Act You’ve All Been Waiting For…

"San Diego Here We Come…"

Well, it’s that time of the year again: time to be beaten down by the biggest nerd gathering known to man. Yes, my friends, I’m talking about the San Diego ComicCon International. As you can see by the picture at right, Daniel "Julius Marx" Pickett and Jason "ToyOtter" Geyer are on their way down there as you read this, ready to bring you the best Con Coverage on the web! This year looks to be unbelievably huge, with estimated attendance topping 100,000 people. Comic Con has come a long way from being a tiny gathering of locals. These days, all of genre Hollywood turns out to "wine & dine" their target audience, and more importantly for us all the major and minor toy companies show off their upcoming goodies. In terms of brand awareness and consumer relations, SDCC has become a more important event for the companies than the New York Toy Fair. Nowhere is that clearer than in the massive amount of exclusives being offered this year. So enough with the preamble, let’s get to the coverage!

Click Here For AFi’s Full SDCC 2005 Coverage!

This was the second year for WizardWorld Los Angeles, and while it is still a relatively small show, it’s still manageable and easy to get through in a day. Once again the convention was held in the Long Beach Convention Center in the re-vamped downtown section of Long Beach. CubanZod and I headed down early Saturday Morning to see the sites and grab the exclusives. it was drizzling that day, but that didn’t seen to scare away any of the local fans.

Wizard has high hopes for next year’s convention and will be moving it to the convention center in downtown Los Angeles next year which will be a much easier drive for me. Thanks Wizardworld!

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