Sunday, November 13, 2016

Over A Hundred Heart-Warming Photos From Toy Con New Jersey – And It’s All About The Funko

Hannah Means-Shannon writes,

A few weeks ago, I found out about ToyConNJ through Facebook, and was surprised to find that such a large toy convention had been running in New Jersey for some time. I had been occasionally attending smaller shows, though it had been a couple of years since I checked one out. ToyCon seemed really on the ball, promoting through a Facebook events page as well as a website and Twitter account, listing 250 tables at the upcoming event. It seemed worth the longish drive for me to see what they were all about.

In comparison, the occasional shows I’d been to before usually had one or two rooms in a hotel, about an hour or less of time needed to fully explore them. ToyConNJ struck me as being massive in that context–filling three gymnasiums, hallways, and even had a food truck. I comfortable spent over 3 hours touring the full show twice and easily could have spent longer. For the admission price of $10.00, this was definitely a solid pop culture event. It was popular and well-attended on the Saturday of the two-day show, but not uncomfortably crowded.

Since I hadn’t been to a toy show in a couple of years, this was a good chance to update my observations on what fans are looking for right now. Previously, shows seem to be heavy on nostalgia memorabilia (I’m sure all toy shows are and will continue to be), with at least 80% of the items for sale from vendors hailing from the 90’s and prior. At the ToyConNJ, this ratio had considerably flipped. First, there was the strong presence of Funko products, not just random poppage, but really specific variants, exclusives, and signed Funko POP vinyls were for sale from savvy vendors. About  25% to 30% of the stock at the show was Funko related. If you are a Funko fan, it was a great opportunity to see a lot of rare items and make your choices among a range of pricing systems. If one booth’s prices seemed high, you could check out a different booth for the best price.

Funko items gave the show a more current feel, however, the rise of fandoms around new TV shows and films has resulted in a surge in collectibles (as any pop culture geek must have noticed) in recent years. That meant that there was a wide range of “newer” toys and collectibles available, particularly focusing on the Star Wars franchise and the Marvel and DC films.

This brought up more “current” items to around 30-40% of the products at the show, which was a good balance and, in my opinion, brought in a younger crowd. There were plenty of kids with their parents, of course, but also young people in their 20’s and the 30-somethings who could appreciate the newer items as well as the 90’s or 80’s nostalgia items. It seemed like a win-win combination and really shows how the rise of fandoms as well as conventions has influenced the tradition of collector shows on a local level.

I’d definitely attend ToyCon again and recommend it to friends–its another of the expanding options to represent fandom which is finding its audience.

Here are 100 pictures from the show, from Smurfs to Star Wars and more!

img_01001-1 img_00702 img_0071 img_00881 img_00841 img_01001 img_01052 img_01082 img_01011 img_01062 img_0091 img_00931 img_01151 img_01211 img_00941 img_00791 img_0148 img_00761 img_01092 img_01291 img_00771 img_00741 img_01131 img_01112 img_00951 img_00821 img_01122 img_0144 img_0143 img_0145 img_01281 img_0169 img_01072 img_00811 img_00871 img_00981 img_0116 img_01241 img_00751 img_00781 img_0134 img_00731 img_01032 img_0139 img_00891 img_0136 img_01022 img_00851 img_0170 img_00801 img_01191 img_00971 img_00831 img_00991 img_0120 img_00861 img_0147 img_00901 img_01251 img_0142 img_0122 img_00921 img_00961 img_0132 img_01102 img_01042 img_01141 img_0151 img_0149 img_0150 img_0167 img_01331 img_0155 img_01261 img_0156 img_0165 img_01531 img_0171 img_0157 img_01521 img_0166 img_0146 img_01271 img_0130 img_0141 img_0160 img_0154 img_00681 img_01171 img_0135 img_0137 img_0163 img_0138 img_0131 img_0162 img_0175 img_0168 img_0158 img_00691 img_0161 img_0176 img_0159 img_0172 img_0173 img_0174

Over A Hundred Heart-Warming Photos From Toy Con New Jersey – And It’s All About The Funko


via http://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/11/13/over-a-hundred-heart-warming-photos-from-toy-con-new-jersey-and-its-all-about-the-funko/
Rich Johnston


Entertainment Earth