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NYCC

24

Oct
2018

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In NYCC
Shows
Thoughts

By aw177

AW177 New York Comic Con 2018!

On 24, Oct 2018 | No Comments | In NYCC, Shows, Thoughts | By aw177

New York Comic Con 2018 happened between October 4-7, of which I attended 3 days (Thursday, Friday and Sunday).  I was fortunate enough this year to earn a professional pass and I didn’t want it to go to waste, so here in one post is a summary of my adventures at NYCC 2018!

I know many of the artists in the section known as The Block, and I am a PROUD member of the Tenacious Toys Collective, but decided to head there later and check out the floor first for some goodies.  What is The Block? Here is the official description: “The Block brings together art, design, collectible toys, pop-tech and fashion of the underground pop culture scene along with the tastemakers, trend setters, artists, thinkers and the brands that they create”.  Basically a whole bunch of cool, underground/indie artists, sculptors, creators, etc.

However, best time to grab cool merch and exclusives would be Thursday before they run out! So I hit the floor running, and thank goodness for my pro pass, allowed me to get straight into the con via the blue entrance.

In no particular order, my adventures on the floor of NYCC 2018:

Sideshow Collectibles was giving away a really cool Infinity Gauntlet pin if you went to their booth and grabbed a card with 7 booths on it, where you had to go to at least 3 of them and get a stamp.  Once you collected all 3 stamps, you make your way back to the Sideshow booth and show them the card and they’ll give you the free pin.  I knew they were only giving away some pins each day of the con, so wanted to knock that out of the way first.  It’s a good thing I researched the night before which booths had stamps and went to the three closest to the Sideshow booth!

I was done in about 10 mins and came back to this long line:

But I got my free pin! Looks awesome!

Sideshow Collectibles was also selling the Hot Toys Neon Tech Iron Man figure if you got to the booth early enough and picked up a card that had a unique code on it.  You would then have to log on the their website, enter the code and was allowed to purchase one.  Since I collect Hot Toys, and Iron Man is my favorite, I had to pick up a card.

And with this card, you can buy this:

While at the booth, I took pics of all the cool Hot Toys that will be coming out:

Not a Hot Toy, but who can not like 1/6 scale Picard (forgot which booth this was at)?

Marvel Battle Lines booth – where you can wait and play the game.  If you took a pic of something of their booth and post it to social media with #marvelbattlelines, you can earn a free pin.

I did it and got this one:

You can earn more, but didn’t want to waste time.

Since I was at the Marvel booth, had to stop by and see my friend Beth, who was working there and haven’t seen her in about a year!

This year at comic con, I designed a logo for the Tenacious Toys Collective, to be printed and used as the official booth staff shirts: “2018 is the year of the dog in the Chinese calendar, and Outsmart Originals is back and once again, collaborating with AW177 (Allen Wen) to bring out a brand new t-shirt design, a Foo Dog logo based off the pitfall mascot of Tenacious Toys! This is the AW177 version of the Tenacious Toys blue dog logo, twisted and hammered into a ferocious Foo Dog, standing guard outside the bodegas of East Harlem and the temples of Flushing, Queens”.

You can read more about the process of how I came about creating this logo here: AW177 x Tenacious Toys x outsmART originals

This is an example of how the official Tenacious Toys Collective booth staff shirt look likes (as worn by the boss man, Benny):

Front and back of the official booth t-shirt:

I also created (for the first time in a really long time, coming out of ‘retirement’) a one-of-a-kind custom art toy using the Tenacious Toys pit bull mascot vinyl toy as a base figure. Titled “Danger Foo”, this custom was painted with gold Chinese accents and designs, along with a large Foo Dog design (as seen on the booth staff t-shirts) on the back of the head!

Adorned with a lucky red collar and gold spikes, yet painted black to give it a touch of danger, this is a unique custom art piece that will not be reproduced by me, and was on display and SOLD at the Tenacious Toys booth #780:

The Boss Man Benny and me!

The way this custom art piece was sold comes with an interesting story; I stopped by Tenacious Toys booth #780 after having arrived at NYCC on 10/5, with the goal to buy the 1000toys Toa Heavy Industries 1/6 Synthetic Human Test Body figure.  While I was in the process of buying it, at the exact same time, someone came by the booth and bought my custom Danger Foo art toy! The irony here, is that the guy who bought my custom is the president/CEO of 1000toys! Chuichi Ono!! What a trippy but awesome coincidence! I had Ono and his friend sign my 1000toys figure!!! So cool!!!

Thank you Ono and Takashi (sorry if I spelled your name wrong)!!!! Enjoy the custom as I will enjoy your figure! You can read the entire story at this post:

“Danger Foo” Custom Tenacious Toys Pit Bull Mascot Figure

Picked up this dope pin from Benny at the Tenacious booth!

Blank DIY Danger Dogs for sale! One of the best platforms I’ve worked on!

A small part of the Tenacious Toys Collective!

While in The Block, I met up with a few old friends and made new ones as well:

“Miss Zukie” Alison! Check out her cool Zukie creatures and her works of art here: Zukie Art

“Playful Gorilla”, my man,  Alex Rivera! Check out his awesome artwork here: Playful Gorilla

Stephanie of Tenacious Toys! Love this girl!

Klim from Bigshot Toyworks!

Met this cool dude named Alvin, who heads up Furry Feline Creatives with his wife Cheri Lynn; they make really cute and funny products, where my daughter loved their poop pin!  My wife loved their poop sh*t t-shirt so much we ordered one from Alvin since he sold out!  Dude came through for us and wife is happy, which makes me happy!  There are some people  out there that you meet one time and feel like you’ve known them for all your life, that is what I felt when talking to Alvin! Check them out here: Furry Feline Creatives

I also made it a mission to head to Artist Alley to say hi to one of my favorite comic-book writer, artist, actor, and musician, the Godfather of G.I. Joe, Larry Hama! Had him sign my 25th Anniversary G.I. Joe Snake Eyes figure and favorite Joe comic, G.I. Joe #21, “Silent Interlude” (I’ve had that comic for about 30 years)!  Yes the comic is old, in bad shape and is a third printing, but it’s part of my childhood! If you don’t know Larry Hama, you should know, and knowing is half the battle! Learn about him here: Larry Hama

Here are a few observations and cool things I found at different booths on the con floor:

J. Scott Campbell’s booth – one of my favorite comic book artists!

Alex Ross Captain Marvel:          

Alex Ross booth!

Alex Ross The Beatles! I love The Beatles!

Titan Entertainment booth: more Beatles goodies!

Got this exclusive Beatles 5 pack pin set for the wifey!

The Beatles Yellow Submarine graphic novel and novel set, includes mini sub, prints, cards and other goodies – nice but too much $ for me!

Artist and author Bill Morrison signing copies:

They also had an art book, The Art of Iron Man, signed by Ryan Meinerding, Marvel Studios Head of Visual Development:

The Headlocked booth always has a bunch of wrestlers there and this year was no exception:

Sting!

Trish Stratus and Lita!

Christian!

Saw this wrestler at another booth: The Godfather!

Another booth had some of the original and secondary Power Rangers (autographs were $60!):

Austin St. John, the original Red Ranger, along with Karan Ashley, the second Yellow Ranger!

Walter Jones, the original Black Ranger!

David Fielding, the original Zordon!

Walked by this booth and saw a crowd, on the screen was someone interviewing some celeb – was Zachary Levi, who will portray Shazam!

Below is a gallery of pics I snapped while walking the con floor; artwork, merch, toys, clothes, plush, figures, posters, cosplayers, booths, etc!  Some of the pics are of rare and truly expensive comic books (are they really worth that much?):

 

This gallery is from my exploration of Artist Alley, which is a great place to go not only for meeting and talking to your favorite artists, but for getting inspiration and motivation!  Can you name some of the artists you see in the pic gallery below?

This was my adventure over the course of 3 days at NYCC (October 4, 5, and 7).  There were many other things I could have took a photo of or many people I could have talked to, but these photos capture my journey overall.  Sunday, October 7, was kids day and I spent most of that day walking with my two daughters.

Some of my swag from the con this year (the G.I. Joe figure and comic are mine already but I just got them signed).  The encased Pokemon card I got from the PSA/DNA booth for playing a game with them (card is mint rated 9, however it’s a common card and I figured PSA gave them away as signs of how they grade and encase products). The card is not worth any money! The Cobra Rattler t-shirt was just too cool to pass up – I bought that from the Super7 booth! Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. lanyard was for my wife.

Overall, I had a great time and hopefully was inspired enough to make me do more and show more art for the next con (props to Benny Kline and the entire Tenacious Collective).  I leave you with this parting shot of the Jacob K. Javits convention center, home of NYCC 2018, one of the best cons I’ve had and experienced in a long time! Until next year!

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