FORT90

Jesus, it’s March already?

So Toy Fair 2013. It was a lot like Toy Fair 2012, as in, the show is not nearly as exciting as it was once was. But aside from the fact that it’s mostly the same old same old, the really good stuff was all held behind closed doors.

It used to be the place where you not only found out what would be on Toy R Us shelves later that year, but what you’d also be seeing at the movies, since actions figures and associated goods need to be made (and distributed) in advance. And while it’s still an industry only affair, and they just don’t let anyone with a blog inside, the internet has drastically changed how business is conducted, hence the amping up of secrecy.

Seriously, the most noteworthy thing was getting sucker-punched by Sonic plushie vendor. But I still managed to get a few neat pics of stuff. Including the very first thing that greeted me when I first set foot…

Giant mecha Batman was part of the Funko booth, which is where internet celebrities are immortalized in the form of vinyl toys and bobble heads, even if their fifteen minutes are officially up…

Sometimes you see things that people have long stopped giving a rat’s ass about (like KISS) glom onto others things that are still popular (like Hello Kitty), in a desperate and transparent attempt to remain semi-relevant…

Back to Batman, across the way was the NECA booth, where they had this insanely detailed Adam West as Batman figure…

Next to him was Michael Keaton, aka the BEST Batman ever, even better than Christian Bale, sorry kids…

NECA excels in re-creating famous faces from famous scenes, in pint-sized, collectable format…

ED-209 here is just as accurate as the rest of the gang, except he’s but not nearly as creepy…

I guess there’s some Gremlins 2 fans out there, aside from myself. Hopefully they’ll be interested in getting these two, cuz I sure as hell am not…

NECA also makes assorted toys based on games, which I’ve highlighted in the past. By far their best offering on that end this year was this replica of Bioshock Infinite‘s Motorized Patriot…

Not sure if it’s a mistake or something, but their take on Iron Man’s mark 7 suit (note the color of the bottom half of his jaw) is a VAST improvement on the original design…

Meanwhile, over at the Kotobukiya booth, they had their Iron Man mark 8 figure on display, and the abundance of gold doesn’t look half bad up close (where it looks gawky as hell elsewhere)…

When it comes to Femsheps, do you prefer redheads or brunettes?

Sucks to hear that Dead Space 3 is such a stinker since I loved the first two, plus survival horror on Hoth always seemed like a good idea. At least bundled up Isaac still looks kinda cool…

Another Toy Fair, another Tekken Tag Tournament 2 figure…

So Han and Leia had a daughter and she turned out both hot and anime…

Nothing says summertime more than a ice box filled with beers that have been chilled by gigantic, Star Wars shaped ice cubes…

Across the way at another booth was something I had long wished for: a pizza cutter that’s themed like R2-D2 and even makes noises like him when making slices…

I found this Twitter mug fairly cute, especially the hashtag handle…

So the one booth that I went absolutely gaga for was the Magnote booth, which was filled to brim with all sorts awesome papercrafts from Japan…

Some of them incorporate pieces of wood, like the rapper here, plus the guy with the ray gun and surrounded by cats…

At one point I ran into Steve Flack and his crew. Here he is, trying to learn the ins and out of competitive cup stacking.

… Steve ended up doing fairly well! Though he has a ways to go before he reaches her level.

And here’s everyone checking out kinetic sand, which is basically regular sand, but treated with some kind of futuristic process that makes all the grains stick together, so kids can make sand castles indoors without also making a mess. Weird is perhaps the most apt description…

And here we are, watching some guy riding a super teeny-tiny surf board that’s supposed to work on hard surfaces. He like wiped out twice during the demo…

Another nice little corner of the show floor was The Loyal Subjects booth, who had these rather neat Transformers vinyl figures (sorry for the piss poor lighting, but it’s always a pain in the ass at Toy Fair, which makes no sense, since half the people are there to take pictures)…

Even better was their line of shirts. Such things are fairly common, but these are something I’d actually wear!

They even do Canzo Empyrean figures…

Lego Titanic. Lego dead/frozen poor people not included…

And that’s maybe enough pics for one post. To be continued tomorrow!

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It’s been another crazy week; Toy Fair recently wrapped up, and the very first IndieCade East just kicked off. I’ll pass along reports for both when I have the time, but real quick, some clarification on something that happened at the former that you might have heard about.

So here’s the deal: I was going down the aisles of the Jacob Javits when a sign caught my eye. It was for a Sonic The Hedgehog plushie that allows you to roll him up as a ball. Which I thought was pretty neat! After all, half the time in his games, he’s all curled up. So I decided to investigate.

The booth was manned by one guy, who was in the middle of a conversation. I looked around for a sign that said no photographs but didn’t see one. And there it was, the toy in question. So I took the following picture…

… And immediately got punched in the back. At first I had no idea what hit me. I turned around and saw the guy (who was now by himself) ask, “Excuse me?” It’s not often I get sucker punched, so I was literally dumbstruck.

At first I thought it was an accident and his words to me were along the lines of “Oops, I didn’t see you there!” I looked around for some kind of object, like a pole, that would have caused the jabbing sensation. But it became immediately clear that what he was trying to say was “What the fuck are you doing?”

The dude demanded to know who had given me permission to take a picture. Again, I was totally stunned by what was happening, so I blurted out “Umm, no one, I suppose” or something to that effect. He then immediately began screaming “What the fuck is your problem?!?!” and the such.

I told him to call down and that there was no need to lay a hand on me. But when attempting to explain that I was simply a journalist… one who looks for any signs of NO PHOTOGRAPHS, which I always heed… that’s when he got right in my face and I honestly thought that he was going to deck me.

“Listen asshole, I hear that bullshit all the time, from people trying to pull a fast one on me!” From the corner of my eye I could seem people in the booth next door, looking on, wondering what the hell was happening.

Again, I stated what I was doing and that there was absolutely no reason for assault. I believe the realization that there was no signage, along with usage of the “a” word, is what caused something to click inside his brain, so he apologized. But it was clearly a half-hearted “I’m in big trouble here, gotta try to cover my ass”.

He stated that he was having a bad day or that he allowed his emotions get the better of him. Whatever. Still not much of an excuse. His name Tom Deluca, and he works for Fabrique Innovations Inc (at least he gave me his card when I asked for who he was). I think he’s the president of the company? What a douche.

BTW, my favorite reaction to the incident…

Again, will have my full rundown of Toy Fair 2013 sometime next week. In the meanwhile, and as mentioned last time, the episode of the Fangamer Podocast in which I talk about the time I tried making a dating sim for a New Jersey mobster and filled it with tons and tons of hot dog references is now available for download!

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