Wizard World Philadelphia 2009

June 21, 2009

Wizard World Philadelphia is in the books for another year and this was one of the better years in my opinion.

I rode down to Philly with my buddy Joe K. and we got to the PA Convention Center just about 11:30.  The check-in was smooth and the line for the opening was stretched out through the halls of the center.  The doors opened right at noon and we were on the floor by five after.

The Convention

There were plenty of dealers again this year, 105 according to the last update on Wizard’s website.  The mix between toys and comics was pretty decent, there were plenty of choices for each.  While there were a lot of statues and busts for the various comic properties, there seemed to be a lack of Gentle Giant Star Wars items this year.  A few booths definitely had stock, but the choices were kind of slim.

On the toy front you would expect a comic convention to be heavy on the superhero toys and that is definitely how things appeared this year.  A lot of booths had ToyBiz Marvel Legends figures while Mattel’s DC lines were also represented.  While quite a few booths had a selection of Star Wars toys, NECA, McFarlane and Mezco movie, TV and horror toys also had a pretty sizable presence.

As I mentioned earlier, there were buts and statues representing the various comic heroes.  Toys from various Sideshow and Gentle Giant lines were present with Sideshow’s 1:6 scale having the most offerings.  Busts and statues from GG included not just Star Wars but Harry Potter and a few of their other lines.

Tonner was again in attendance with their highly detailed dolls from movie properties Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean as well as Lara Croft and their heroes.  Tonner was offering exclusive dolls of Circe and Wonder Woman.

Comics ran the gamut from $0.50 “reader” copies to slabbed classics worth multiple hundreds, even thousands, of dollars.  Original art could be had along with custom sketches from the talented artists in Artist Alley.

Pricing on many items were decent and deals could be had with a little haggling.  For the most part things seemed about the same as last year.

In my opinion the only part of the convention that's lacking, and has been for a couple of years, is the lack of presence by the big comic industry companies.  There are no booths for Marvel, DC, Dark Horse or any of the other big houses.  While artists from those companies were on hand over the weekend, not having a booth for each company kind of sucks.  It's an expensive trip to any convention and some companies (not any of those I mentioned) have even said they won't do shows smaller than San Diego Comic-Con.  Unfortunately, EVERY show is smaller than SDCC.  NY Comic-Con does get a nice presence, but I guess the WW events just don't get the draw.  Maybe that will change in the future.

Guests

The guest line-up was one of the best at Philly.  Edward James Olmos and Michael Hogan from “Battlestar Galactica” were on hand as were Star Wars guests Peter Mayhew, Ray Park and Tom Kane.  If you’re a fan of the ladies you would not be disappointed either.  Kristanna Loken, Emma Caulfield, Cerina Vincent and Marina Sirtis were all scheduled over the weekend.

Philly has always had a large presence of professional wrestlers and this year was no exception. 

Our first stop this year was the autograph aisle just to see the stars.  I picked up Tom Kane's autograph on a small poster and hope to add the other main character voice actors in the future.  If you have a chance at a show to see Tom Kane, take it.  He's a very nice guy and took the time to speak with us and even hit us with some of the many voices, both Star Wars and not, that's he's created over the years.

Exclusives

Any show worth its chops has to have exclusives and this year they ranged from comic books with variant covers to posters to toys to busts and even a board game.  A few companies had exclusives from previous shows available so even if you hadn’t made the NY Comic-Con, for example, you had a second chance this weekend.

The only two exclusives that stood out to me this year were the Shocker Toys Maxx figure ($35) and Tonner's NYCC Lara Croft doll, which hadn't sold out at the earlier show.  I didn't pick up either but don't think either would have been a bad choice.

Merchandise

While Joe and I combed the entire show, we spent a lot of time this year digging through comic boxes looking for back issues.  I was particularly looking for some Star Wars trade paperbacks and a few back issues of the Devil’s Due G.I. Joe run.  I think we hit about every 50% off TPB bin we came across and both of us found some good deals.

As I said, I thought the selection of Gentle Giant Star Wars busts was a little lacking this year.  I was only looking for two busts, Aayla Secura and Shaak Ti.  I only spotted one Shaak Ti and two Secura busts (both at the same booth) on the floor.  I picked up Aayla for a good price so all was good.  I also snagged an Entertainment Earth exclusive Joker Squad set so I didn’t completely skip the toy buying.

At other Philly shows there has been more of a selection of Japanese toys, especially Godzilla and other anime items, but this year I didn't see as much.  Some of the retailers that have had decent stock of gashapon toys also didn't seem to have as good of an assortment this year.  Some of it may be due to a bad exchange rate on the US dollar or some may be due to raised prices in general.  Kubricks is a good example.  We've usually found Star Wars 'bricks in previous years but not this weekend.

People

The crowd at the show was decent this year for a Friday.  It wasn’t packed but it seemed like there was a steady flow of people through the booths and I saw a lot of people buying, at least at many of the comic booths we visited.  Although I do recall several people walking about with Tonner boxes, nothing stands out in my mind where I saw a lot of people buying toys and busts.

There was a steady, if light, stream of traffic through the autograph section while Artist Alley was as busy as normal.  There were fans in costume but not as many as we’ve seen in the past on a Friday.  The rest of the weekend may have picked up, Saturday is normally the busiest day.

Panels

The panel rooms were buzzing from the opening bell Friday and included panels with actors, comic creators, sculptors and toy industry insiders.  Gamers were not left out as there were games and panels for them as well.

There was only one panel I was interested in this year and that was the Big Toy Industry Panel.  Justin Aclin moderated and the panel included Jesse Falcon, members of the Four Horsemen and several others.  While I didn't stay for the full panel, the opening comments about the state of the industry were interesting.

One thing that all of the panelists mentioned were increased manufacturing prices and how that had impacted their lines.  Reusing parts (i.e. limbs and/or torsos on figures) was one thing mentioned to cut costs.  Cornboy, of the Horsemen, specifically mentioned how the price had doubled in less than 10 years on some of the figures that they have sculpted.

One bright spot, according to the panel, has been Toys-R-Us and their support for more collector oriented lines such as "Battlestar Galactica," "Heroes," "Halo" and other NECA, McFarlane and similar companies offerings.

Wrap-up

I have gone to Wizard World Philly for both Friday and Saturday in the past but Friday has historically been my first choice.  This year, though, I really thought about going two days as the line-up of guests and panels was that interesting.  From just the list of attendees I’d think this was probably the best show yet.  Hopefully the fan turnout for all three days is as impressive and we see this type of show again in the future.  Next year’s show is set for June 11th – 13th and I’ll be marking it on my calendar.

Whether you are into comics, movies, toys or gaming, there was a panel, guest or merchandise for you at Wizard World.  If you are on the East coast you should definitely attend a Wizard World Philadelphia event.