Every year San Diego Comic-Con draws hundreds of thousands of fans for a celebration of all things pop culture making it the premier convention in the United States if not the world. The biggest companies show up to show off their newest products. With over 1,000 exhibitors the show floor of San Diego Comic-Con covers everything from toys, collectibles, movie, television, games, books, comics, and news. From the smallest of booths to the mammoth exhibitors there is something for everyone which would be nearly impossible to cover so here’s a slice of the booths I was able to check out San Diego.
LEGO
LEGO always has a slew of activities throughout the convention. Withing the booth there were two main activities this year; a minifig building station allowing fans to create their very own personalized minifigure and a personalized comic book making station. Fans could create their very own minifigure and then take the around the booth to any number of pre-made dioramas to take photos of their character in various situations. The personalized comic book station allowed fans to digitally create a character and pick various superhero scenarios and then print a personalized comic book throughout the booth.
The booth also featured three full scale models this year. First up a Star Wars Sith Trooper from the upcoming Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker standing at 6-foot and 2-inches tall with 34,307 bricks this figure took 259 hours design and build and weighs 169 pounds. A full size Marvel Avengers Iron Man from Avengers: Endgame with light up parts and an Infinity Gauntlet was made up of 35,119 bricks and took 255 hours to design and build and weighing 188 pounds. Finally in celebration of Batman’s 80th Anniversary a full size Batman (44,051 bricks) stood in front of a Batman Detective Comics #1000 Variant Cover Mosaic.
Of course no Comic-Con would be complete without Lego Exclusives. This year the three exclusive sets included a Marvel Captain Marvel and the Asis, DC The Dark Knight of Gotham, and a Star Wars Sith Trooper bust. Along with the sets LEGO also gave away three minifigures throughout the show a Marvel PS4 Spider-Man, a Stranger Things Barb, and a DC Zebra Batman. The sets were part of the Comic-Con lottery pre-show while the minifigures went back to a instant win draw.
Mezco
https://www.mezcotoyz.com/
Mezco Toyz, based in Long Island City, makes action figures and other collectibles based on original and licensed properties. At the convention Mezco continued to showcase their products including many figures from their One:12 Collective as well as other product lines including the Living Dead Dolls and Mez-its. Getting to the booth on Thursday or Friday was nearly impossible as they had a continuous line selling their convention exclusives which included a DC Commissioner Gordon, a Marvel Spider-Man Far From Home Deluxe edition and a Agent Mez figure. On top of the exclusives the booth showed off more of their upcoming figures in the One:12 Collective line including a new Iron Fist, Bluto, and Conan figure. In addition to the one:12 Collective Mezco continue their Living Dead Dolls, Mez-itz, and Mezco Designer Series lines
Mondo
https://mondotees.com/
Mondo continues to be a focus for hardcore print collectors. They continued to bring a wide array of artists to produce prints for the show. Along with their prints Mondo had plenty of other products on display including vinyls, toys, pins, and games. This year that included prints for Jurassic Park, The Worlds End, Transformers, Batman, Detective Pikachu, Marvel Golden Age of Comics, and more.
Gentle Giant
https://www.gentlegiantltd.com/
Designers, developers, and manufactures of three-dimensional printed figures, statues, busts, and full size replicas Gentle Giant is one of the leaders in the game. It’s always amazing to see their figures on display at Comic-Con whether it be Star Wars, Marvel, DC, or even busts of Jim Henson and George Lucas.
Dark Horse
https://www.darkhorse.com/
As one of the top publishers in the comic industry Dark Horse always has a large presence at Comic-Con with plenty of activities including panels, booth signings, exclusives, and product reveals. Dark Horse Direct also showed off a new The Witcher 3—Wild Hunt: The Leshen Statue figure and a StarCraft Terran Battlecruiser Ship Replica.
Dark Horse always seem to have timely and relevant products to hot products. This year that included Hellboy and The Umbrella Academy as well as normal standbys The Witcher which has a new show from Netflix coming and Game of Thrones.
Convention Exclusives included comics based on popular properties The Umbrella Academy, Hellboy, American Gods, Henchgirl, Game of Throne, and more
Weta Workshop
https://www.wetanz.com/
WETA a creative development, publishing, weapons, props, creatures, make-up, miniatures, public art, and merchandise workshop works on top rated films such as Lord of the Rings, Ghost in the Shell, Warcraft, Alita and more. This year though Weta seemed to have stepped up their game with many more products including a line of smaller scale Micro Epics and slightly larger scale Mini Epics from plenty of properties including Ghostbusters, District 9, Lord of the Rings, Anthem, Alien, Men in Black, and Planet of the Apes
World Of 3A
http://www.worldofthreea.com/
Ashley Wood’s World of 3A creates some of the most unique figures and art out there and most of what they produce is low run ensuring the highest quality. They produce figures based both on original IP material including the WWR and World of Isobelle Pascha lines as well as licensed material from the hottest brands. Some of their stuff is adult themed so word of caution when heading to their site.
DC Entertainment – Warner Bros. Entertainment
This year DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. combined their booth space into one massive booth featuring multiple signing areas, tons of costume displays, and plenty of booth activity. Warner Bros. held over 40 in-booth signing throughout the convention including the biggest panels such as Game of Thrones, Westworld, Veronica Mars, and many many more. They also had a display of many of their figures and other licensed products including a Batman booth published through Insight Editions.
McFarlane Toys
https://mcfarlane.com/
Nestled in the Diamond Select booth McFarlane Toys had a display of their figures from The Walking Dead, Stranger Things, Call of Duty, and Five Night’s at Freddy’s as well as some of their new properties including Game of Thrones including the dragons in and out of packaging as well as Harry Potter. Nothing yet from their upcoming DC license but hopefully by the time Toy Fair 2020 rolls around.
ANOVOS
https://www.anovos.com/
Anovos produces high-quality costumes for serious cosplay as well as emblems and other quality odds and ends.
Insight Editions
https://insighteditions.com/
Insight Editions produces illustrated books that cover a wide range of topics in pop culture, entertainment, history, and the arts. From their Walking Dead cookbook, Harry Potter Wand Collection and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Grimoire to their work with Mondo on the Art of Mondo and previously the Art of Jock books Insight Editions are producing some of the highest quality books that reaches a wide range of fandoms. At Comic-Con they had a wide range of products on display including their Popcraft collection. In booth activities at the show included a signing with Lisa Henson for her Dark Crystal book.
RockLove Jewelry
http://www.rocklove.com/
Creator and designer Allison Cimino has made a line of jewelry that fuses her love of history, fantasy, and sci-fi with her training as a silversmith to develop RockLove’s exclusive sterling silver collections. Handmade in NY the RockLove line uses the highest quality precious metals, genuine gemstones, antique relics, and fair trade organic materials. They mostly had a display of Star Wars products having been in the Star Wars area of the show floor however the company has worked with a wide range of properties and companies including Marvel, Disney, Star Trek and Weta.
Star Wars Costumes
Netflix – The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance
The Netflix booth this year focused on one show and one show alone The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. Fans that were lucky enough to get through the line experienced a quick booth tour with some clips from the show, some of the real puppets used in the filming of the series and some swag!
