Welcome to part two of my big rundown of 2014 thus far, in which I attempted to say goodbye to New York City, but was told by the Canadian government “not so fast now…”
In case you missed it, here’s part one, in which I had just begun my tour of Toy Fair 2014. Continuing now, at Bandai’s booth, here we have Mario…
And at Good Smile Company, you had his brother Luigi…
Way in the back one could find the headlining mech from Zone of the Enders…
Though Kill La Kill’s star was much easier to spot…
Here’s a shocker: Attack On Titan was kinda popular at the show…
Tokidoki X Uncle Karl…
Not sure about MJ’s face, but at least they got the lean…
The Undertaker, pre his Dark Souls-esque makeover…
Get ready for a massive influx of Sailor Moon goods coming soon…
Heavy Metal Mazinger-Z…
While I wish folks would make toys out of Venom’s latest incarnation (believe it or not regular true believers, Marvel has managed to make the character cool again), I still dig this old school Venom as a Bearbrick…
God exterminate the Queen…
According to the artist behind I Heart Guts, many who purchase the stuffed testicle are <“em>girlfriends who like giving their boyfriends blue balls”…
And for the ladies you have…
Plus your dog Charlie, who is actually Captain Charlie of the USS Valiant (NCC-74210)…
Do you know how hard it is making a dog sniffing another dog’s ass/Prime Directive joke?
Around the time of Toy Fair was when I finally caught a Late Show taping, as tourist-y as it may sound. Though I simply can’t overstate what a profound impact the original Late Night With David Letterman had on me in my youth. Even though Letterman is not the late host that he once was, he’s still miles above Leno, Fallon, and pretty much everyone else out there (but I am becoming a huge fan of Craig Ferguson)…
Too bad the show Colleen and I caught was kinda lame. An Olympic gold winning snow boarder was on, and she was boring as hell. While Letterman didn’t phone it in by no means, you could tell that it was just another day at the office. At least the musical guest was Little Dragon, and that was pretty rad, as was the video birthday message for Dr. Phil that he taped during a commercial break, which was Dave at his best: totally surly…
Finally cashed in my ticket for a free bowl at Rai Rai Ken, perhaps my favorite ramen joint in the entire city…
That same day and a few blocks away as a shoot of some kind, and surprisingly, it wasn’t Law & Order: SVU! Was something that took place back in the day, when taxicabs looked much cooler…
Passed by the Anthology Film Archives on my way to a business meeting in the East Village, and they sure know how to pepper up a mediocre movie’s screening. By adding a fairly fab Japanese edition poster to help bring in the crowds. Though as someone on Instagram noted: ”Mediocre back then maybe. We haven’t seen much better sword & sorcery since.” Wise words…
Also passed by what I consider to be the modern face of St. Mark’s, the tanuki that protects Kenka…
And just around the corner, we have the guardians of Toy Tokyo…
Toy Tokyo is actually where said meeting took place. Can’t get into the details right now, so instead, enjoy these pics taken while I was killing time for my appointment to arrive…
Decided to swing by VideoGamesNewYork. Their collection cannot be beat, though their prices are another story…
At least what they charge for arcade parts are somewhat reasonable. After-all, Japanese buttons are the best buttons…
Round two of IndieCade East recently took place. And top to bottom, it blow away last year’s initial offering. And I’m not just saying that cuz I finally got to play Tenya Wanya Teens…
The programming this year in particular was much better than last year’s (though, and this is always the case, the stuff that no one talked about was where it was at). Was especially fond of the talk ”When Indie Games Came In Plastic Bags”…
… I particular, the following statement by speaker Laine Nooney: ”It’s like porn; I know [indie games] when I see it”. There was also a talk dedicated to video game zines and over 70% of the things covered were stuff the speaker found in the Attract Mode store…
Sticking with zines, John Pham’s latest arrived, and safe and sound, thank God. I can’t tell you how many zines I’ve ordered over the years have been legit destroyed by my a**hole mail carrier…
My LA Game Space shirts also showed up in the mail, on the same day…
As my time left in the Big Apple began to dwindle (or so I thought), I had to get in “one last drink” with assorted friends and colleagues, like Glomag here, who we see drunkenly texting; I believe my eyes were just as blurry as my iPhone’s lens at this point of the evening…
You what’s good for a stomach that’s almost entirely filled with booze, around 3am in the morning? A Donut Pub cruller, that’s what…
With the clock ticking, I also caught up with my ex, to pass along stuff that was left behind when moving out. Though it was mostly a chance to be reunited with mai dum baby…
Yet I also tried my best to sample some of the more recent delicacies to pop up around the city, like Petey’s Burgers near Dave. And while it can’t touch In-N-Out, it’s stil one of the better options for those craving a west coast fast food burger on the east coast…
Had to swing by my alma matter to pick up my transcript for the border. Come to think of it, I wonder if the reason why I wasn’t let in was due to my F in storyboarding class…
Being near SVA also afforded me the chance to grab a slice of Anthony’s, which was a staple for this broke ass art student back in the day. It’s by no means the best slice in the world, but I still love it…
Though George’s, which is down the street from where I live, might seriously be the best slice in all of Manhattan that no one knows of…
Speaking of home, the novelty of pulling in a full eight hours in your boxers died a long as time ago. Hence why I often work out of the New York Public Library…
An issue with my brand new MacBook Air meant a stop by the Genius Bar at the Apple Store; the one I’d recommend the most is at Grand Central (and the one I’d avoid like the plague is the Upper West Side location; everyone there is a bonafide f*cking moron)…
I had no idea that there was a designer toy shop in Grand Central…
Nearby is Kinokuniya, NYC’s premier (and only, at this point) Japanese bookstore. Figured I may as well pick up a couple issues of my fave Japanese periodical for the flight to Canada, despite the fact that A. the entire trip is like an hour, and B. I don’t understand Japanese…
Also with the Katsuhiro Otomo special, figured I might as well finally pick up the official Genga exhibition catalog also…
Back to Brutus; it’s by far my favorite Japanese mag. Each issue is dedicated to a particular theme, and this one is all about crazy collectors…
Like this woman who collects video games…
Or this guy who collects toy monsters…
Or this guy who collects nudie pics of women…
Or this guy who simply “collects” candy…
Swung by Peter Kassel’s one last time, while he was in the midst of reorganizing. Which afforded me the chance to dig deep into his collection of Japanese art and photography books…
… And is that it? Nope, still more to go, in part three!
