One of the interesting things about con is how you can technically spend your entire time never going to entire segments of it. You could never make your way to a single panel, content exploring the floor and neighboring hotels with all the booths it has to offer. There’s hundreds of booths that you can visit, you can easily miss out on some just from the sheer number and size of the place.
Some booths are massive, elaborate places, reminiscent of a whole store front or even shopping centers with several stores within a single booth. One such massive booth is the Star Wars booth, within this booth are over a dozen smaller booths with all manner of merchandise dedicated to the sci-fi/fantasy behemoth. Here I was lucky enough to talk with the folks at Arcade1Up showed off their new arcade cabinet for the classic Star Wars arcade games. For five hundred dollars you can hop into the seat of an X-Wing star fighter to take on the Death Star, among other missions. It was a blast in the past and fascinating to see an arcade that goes for roughly 1/6th the usual asking price for an arcade cabinet goes for. This is the latest in their collection of home arcade cabinets, they also have Marvel and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to name a few more.
The Lego booth was probably one of the more popular booths, its an expected delight to see what kind of massive creations they will have on display. Statues made with tens of thousands of Lego blocks to create life size representations of heroes and villains, this year’s being Batman, Iron Man, and a Sith Trooper. The statues made being in line for their exclusives a bit of a headache for anyone waiting, though. The Batman one came with a recreation of a recent comic book cover but there was a bit of a snafu on Preview Night and one corner was left behind and had to be specially shipped to join the rest. That’s part of the wildness of con, it’s basically like trying to control a tornado by being spun inside it. Lego has lots of new sets coming out including one that reminds us all that Star Wars the Phantom Menace came out twenty years ago. Time just wont stop doing its thing.
Tamashii Nation is known for making those amazingly accurate and articulate S.H. Figuarts figures. If you’re a fan of Marvel, anime, or Godzilla, you are likely familiar with them and may even own a few of them. Their booth was filled to the brim with all their latest goodies including the monster cast of Toho’s latest King of the Monsters film, Gundam figures (not complex models, but figures that will go for around twenty five dollars), Star Wars and Marvel samurai and Voltron vehicle figures that do combine. There were so many wonderful things to see and the Gundam figures will sure to please when they come out later this year in Japan and hopefully soon followed by a North American release.
Viz Media is home to a lot of the manga and anime you probably read or watch of any of the popular series here in North America. My Hero Academia, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Naruto/Boruto, Sailor Moon. They cover the lot of them and are constantly bringing new stuff over from Japan. Their booth was massive images of their popular shows along with merch that was for sale or being given away as gifts. They also were showing off their new original property, Seis Manos for Netflix, it has Danny Trejo doing a voice in it. There was always some fun thing to be found at the booth, I enjoyed seeing the massive Deku poster because I like seeing that kid become the hero he wants to be.
The Warner Bros booth had combined with the DC booth to become one for a two story beast of a display. Massive banners of their superhero shows along with other CW series, a seating area up above for talent and interviews. Posters and other knick knacks were given out on the main floor as you had screens showing off new shows and seasons. Also on display were the outfits worn in the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy of films. Warner Bros was nice enough to let me take photos from upstairs so any photos you see of the floor looking down at the crowds, those are thanks to them.
Nintendo isn’t in the exhibitor floor proper, they are right next door in the hotel lobby area with their Nintendo Lounge. Here, you can brave the line of eager fans to not only get a chance to play games that aren’t out yet, but if you play at least three of the six games on display, you get a free gift like an adorable Link’s Awakening keychain or Pokémon starter pins. There were also life size statues of Luigi and his wobbly doppleganger Gooigi, the Galar Pokémon starters, and a display that looked like they pulled the sets from the Link’s Awakening remake. Just outside the Lounge, Mario and Luigi were on hand for a meet and greet with plenty of chances for photos. You could also spend your time competing in their Mario Maker 2 competition to win even more prizes.
There you have it! One article left to go and it’s our interview with Toho about Godzilla’s past, present, and future as it’s his 65th anniversary. Join us next time as we finish up this year’s San Diego Comic Con, it’s 50th anniversary, with more likely to come. Lots of big anniversaries this year, guess there’s a lot to celebrate. See you next time!
you can check out Part One right here!
Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
