Wizard World Exclusive Mighty Morphin Power Rangers GID Green Ranger Tokyo Vinyl Figure by Touma

Last weekend at Chicago Comic Con, Wizard World teamed up with Bandai America to release this super limited Mighty Morphin Power Rangers “Glow in the Dark” Green Ranger Tokyo Vinyl Figure designed by Touma! This is the first time Wizard World has teamed up with Bandai, and it marks a new initiative by WW to start offering high end limited edition collectible figures at its pop culture conventions.

The Wizard Exclusive Glow in the Dark Green Ranger Tokyo Vinyl Figure is the first GID figure produced by Bandai as part of this popular toy line. This is the sixth figure in the Mighty Morphin Tokyo Vinyl Series and is limited to just 1,500 pieces. The first 500 figures were released exclusively last weekend at Wizard World’s Chicago Comic Con, with the remaining 1,000 pieces released at future WW conventions.

Con Report: New Orleans Comic-Con 2012

The Blot kicked December 2012 off with a bang by traveling to New Orleans for the day to attend Wizard World’s New Orleans Comic-Con! Unfortunately I could only attend that Saturday, but the show had a line-up that was definitely not to be missed. Because of scheduling conflicts this was actually the second NOCC of 2012, meaning there won’t be another Wizard World event in the Big Easy until the beginning of 2014. Thankfully they crammed this convention chock full of amazing guests and events.

The Blot’s main driving force to attend New Orleans Comic-Con this year was Stan Lee! I’ve never met the comic book legend before, and I wanted to make sure that happened before twins arrive and my traveling days for comic conventions is indefinitely suspended. So I booked the earliest and latest flights to and from NOLA and set off on an adventure. All I can say is the trip was well worth it! I got to meet Stan Lee a few times, got a picture with The Man, and even got a few things signed by him. Just listening to him talk about comics to fans was a real treat. He seriously is a living legend.

Getting to the con before it opened meant I was able to get my Stan Lee fix in early and still enjoy the rest of the show. I had heard from many fans and artists that New Orleans was a smaller, laid back convention compared to Austin Comic-Con, but that was honestly not the impression I got at all. This show appears to be growing by leaps and bounds, and by Saturday afternoon the convention floor was packed!

I might even say I enjoyed New Orleans Comic-Con more than Austin, because it had a much wider variety of vendors. I’m never sure how a vendor chooses which convention to attend, but NOCC was packed with comic book stores from around the country including some awesome toy booths. While I only had a small messenger bag with me, I definitely ended up buying more stuff at this show than the past two comic conventions I attended.

Along with NOCC’s Star Trek: The Next Generation 25th Anniversary Cat Reunion, the show had huge lines for the cast of The Walking Dead, Eliza Dushku and Adrienne Curry. I was pretty excited to finally meet Curry in person, who was as friendly and approachable as she portrays on Twitter. Getting a picture with her was definitely one of the highlights of the show. After that I roamed the artist ally, got a few Booster Gold commissions, and chatted with some very talented artists.

While I never had the time to brave the line for Kevin Eastman (co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), I did watch him sketch for a while which was real treat! I’ve never met Eastman in person but you could tell what a huge following he and the TMNT still have today. His lines for free sketches were hours long and seemed never ending! If I had been able to stay for Sunday I would have just camped out at his table the whole next day.

All in all New Orleans Comic-Con was excellent and I’m already thinking of ways to convince Alyson to take a family trip with me there in 2014! If you’re considering traveling for a convention in the next year or so, definitely consider heading to the Big Easy for New Orleans Comic-Con February 7-9, 2014!

The Blot’s Heading to Wizard World’s New Orleans Comic-Con 2012

As we start the final month of 2012, The Blot’s heading to New Orleans on Saturday for my last convention of the year! I’ve had December 1st marked on my calendar for at least the past 8 months. Pretty much the moment I heard Stan Lee was confirmed for New Orleans Comic-Con I knew it’d be my opportunity to finally meet “The Man”, the myth, the legend! When I saw I could book a round trip flight from Houston to NOLA for around 5,000 miles on Southwest my fate was sealed.

I’ve wanted to meet Stan Lee since pretty much forever, but for a number of unfortunate events it’s never happened. And this trip almost didn’t happen either when Stan fell ill and started canceling appearances earlier this fall. Thankfully he’s doing much better and if all goes according to plan I’ll be having my picture taken with him Saturday at 11:30am. Can’t wait to mark this one off my bucket list!

Like with many of Wizard World’s conventions, New Orleans Comic-Con will also feature the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation (albeit this reunion is sans Patrick Stewart and Wil Wheaton). Along with the cast of ST: TNG, Wizard World will be hosting actors Eliza Dushku, The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus, Michael Rooker and Jon Bernthal, WWE Champion CM Punk, Kevin Sorbo, and one of my all time favorite celebrities, Adrianne Curry!

NOCC will also be hosting comic book superstars Greg Capullo, David Mack, Neal Adams, Ethan Van Sciver, Greg Horn and Ron Garney. But the one creator I have to meet this weekend is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles creator Kevin Eastman!!! There aren’t many comic creators The Blot gets really excited to meet but Stan Lee and Kevin Eastman in the same room? This is going to be one awesome convention.

It should be a fun event and The Blot will be live tweeting from the convention all day on Satuday, December 1st (unfortunately I can only attend one day). So if you’re not already following me at Twitter.com/TheBlotSays go do so now!

Con Report: Austin Comic-Con 2012

Last weekend The Blot traveled to Austin to attend Wizard World’s 2012 Austin Comic-Con. This is the second year in a row I’ve attended the event and it just keeps getting bigger and better (literally). The convention floor was larger, the crowds were bigger and overall, the event felt bigger. This year’s show was all about one thing…Star Trek: The Next Generation. As it turns out, Austin Comic-Con would be the only time the show’s entire cast would reunite (including Wil Wheaton) to celebrate TNG’s 25th Anniversary and fans showed up in droves!

Everywhere I looked there were Starfleet captains and Vulcans roaming the convention floor. Lines for photographs with their favorite actors were hundreds deep and the lines for autographs were never ending. I haven’t seen this much enthusiasm for Star Trek in years and it was very cool to see so much for TNG. The Blot personally grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and it’s still my favorite version of Star Trek. I even geeked out a little meeting a very sick Wheaton (what a trooper for being there!) and took a picture with Mr. Reading Rainbow, LeVar Burton! Burton was hilarious, and everyone was raving about all five Star Trek panels held throughout the weekend.

The only crowd that even came close to rivaling that of Patrick Stewart’s was The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus. That guy is a freaking rock star! Seriously, fans of all ages were going crazy every time he appeared. I never saw him without a completely full line every time he was at his booth. The Walking Dead mania is definitely sweeping the country! While the comic book presence over all was down at ACC, every vendor I spoke to was selling crazy amounts of Walking Dead comics at insane prices! I personally saw multiple high dollar comics sold to Walking Dead fans who proudly professed they had never read a comic in their lives.

Even though I was bummed the show didn’t have a larger comic book focus, all in all I was really glad to see the show continue to grow. Hopefully some of that will rub off on the comic scene as well! Regardless, I got to catch up with some of my favorite local artists and retailers throughout the weekend, and marvel at the artwork of Jim Cheung!

The Blot had a killer weekend and saw some amazing costumes as well. While I loved the Kid Predator and the homemade Wonder Girl costume, my favorite has to be the two girls dressed up as Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo from Mystery Science Theater 3000!!! When was the last time you saw two girls cosplaying as characters from MST3K!?! It was amazing. I’m already excited for Austin Comic-Con 2013, but scheduling it the weekend before Thanksgiving is going to make it almost impossible to attend. It’ll be interesting to see how that affects out of town attendance for the convention’s 4th year.

The Blot’s Heading to Wizard World’s Austin Comic-Con 2012

This weekend The Blot’s heading to Austin for Wizard World’s Austin Comic-Con! Last year’s convention was surprisingly big, and with Austin just 2.5 hours away I felt like it was a show that I couldn’t miss. Once again the line-up is incredibly strong, with an impressive line-up of both comic book creators and Hollywood superstars. Without a doubt the biggest event of the convention is Saturday night’s Star Trek: The Next Generation event. The show’s entire cast is reuniting for their first US even in honor of the show’s 25th Anniversary! The Blot grew up on ST: TNG and I’m more than a little excited to see Patrick Stewart, Wil Wheaton, LeVar Burton and more!

Austin Comic-Con will also feature comic book superstars Neal Adams, Humberto Ramos, Jim Cheung, Greg Horn, and some of my personal favorites Hope Larson, Nick Pitarra, Rob Guillory and Joe Eisma! Along with the cast of ST: TNG, Wizard World will be hosting actors Eliza Dushku, The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus and Michael Rooker, WWE's CM Punk, Ray Park and Dean Cain. It should be a fun event and The Blot will be live tweeting from the convention all weekend. So if you’re not already following me at Twitter.com/TheBlotSays go do so now!