WonderCon 2018

Travels

March 31, 2018 By Joshua Ching

This is my second year going to WonderCon and it is an alright Con. Managed by Comic-Con International, the same company responsible for holding San Diego Comic Con you can see that WonderCon is essentially SDCC’s little brother. I don’t mean to talk WonderCon down. As a Con it is fairly well done but honestly it has nothing on San Diego. The vendors at WonderCon are pretty so so. Other than a few comic book companies and television stations WonderCon doesn’t really attract any big name vendors. In fact, most of the vendors I’ve seen at WonderCon are the same ones from Frank and Sons which is the place I go to to buy most of my comic books and toys. Some of the programming at WonderCon is pretty decent and I think they can attribute this to their connection to San Diego Comic Con. Most of this year’s programming consisted of panels and previews of a lot of upcoming shows which brought out a few stars and celebrities but with these panels we’re not talking shows like Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad. The biggest panels I could think of from this year’s WonderCon were for Krypton and I think Fear the Walking Dead. Even with WonderCon’s shortcomings it’s still a good event to go and I can see myself coming back next year.

WonderCon 2018 seemed a lot smaller than last year. I think this can be attributed to them not using all of the Anaheim Convention Center’s halls like they did last year. This year’s WonderCon also seemed to be like 50% artist alley. This combined with the lackluster vendors and displays made it quite difficult to find noteworthy things to photograph. I did get a lot of pictures of cool cosplays but I’ll be saving those for another post. I tried to find some cool artists who had stuff I liked, but honestly it was hard. I mean most of the artists I found I just wasn’t into.

Anyway enjoy my pictures from WonderCon 2018.

Here’s some artwork by Tim Von Ruedon AKA Tvonn9 aka Vonnart. His style kind of reminds me of James Jean’s who did the covers for the Fables series and Umbrella Academy.

Here’s Jamie Tyndall. One thing I really like with Tyndall is that aside from paper prints he also offers prints that are on metal, kind of like how graphics are printed on soda cans.

Nat Miramontes AKA Parakid. I really like her Miyazaki stuff. I kind of regret not taking a closer look at her stuff. Oh well there’s always another con.

Here’s some stuff from the PCS Collectibles booth. I was a little surprised seeing them at Wondercon since I saw them at New York Comic Con and I figured they would primarily be East Coast-based. I looked them up and it turns out PCS is based in North Carolina. I guess they like to get around.

At first I thought this is was a Game of Thrones thing but it turns out it’s Klauth from Dungeons and Dragons.

Raiden from Mortal Kombat.

Here’s Kotal Khan. It’s pretty similar to one I saw at New York Comic Con but this one is missing the macuahuitl war club.

A Shao Khan statue. Considering how buff they made him I’m actually surprised they made him fairly proportionate. I was expecting them to make him super top heavy. The warhammer is a really good touch.

Another Shao Khan, this one sitting on a throne with a scepter.

A Judge Dredd statue.

Here’s a Green Ranger statue. Like the Kotal Khan statue this is similar to another 1 I saw at NYCC. The only difference between that one and this one is that the one from NYCC had him standing on the Dragonzord’s tail instead of a giant Dragonzord powercoin. They really should have had him holding the Dragon Dagger instead of the Sword of Darkness.

A Chun Li. I know it’s supposed to be here chi or something but I really don’t like the ribbon thing that wraps around her.

Juri. Judging by the fact she doesn’t have an eye patch I guess this is Juri from Street Fighter 4.

Cammy White. By the stand I’m guessing this is when Cammy was going through her Shadoloo phase. Also I didn’t notice this at first but this Cammy has some thick ass thighs.

Here are some Teen Titans figurines that were on display in the DC Comics booth. I didn’t catch this at first but these figures and the way they are arranged are supposed to be a throwback to the cover of New Teen Titans Issue 1 Volume 1 which came out way back in November, 1980.

Here’s a Superman vs. The Flash statue. I was trying to see if this statue is a throwback to any specific issue where Superman raced the Flash but I can’t find it.

A Spy vs. Spy statue. Out of all the figurines DC Comics had on display this was hands down my favorite one.

A Harley Quinn. I didn’t realize this at first but her shoes are heels which is a good touch.

A Joker. This 1 is alright but I think they should have made him look a little bit more crazier.

After the DC Comics booth I stumbled upon what I think is a Tamashii Nations/Bandai booth. I’m not exactly sure what exactly their name was since I didn’t see a sign other than some Tamashii Nations and Bandai labels and also the fact they sold a shit ton of Gundam models.

Here are some SHFiguarts figures based on the upcoming Batman Ninja animated movie. I thought they looked cool but I didn’t really like them that much probably because they seem a bit small for my taste. They are probably the same size as the Tamashii Nations Star Wars figures that I’ve been collecting but for some reason I don’t think they’re that great.

The Ninja Batman figure looks alright. I feel they could have given him more detail or something to emphasize the fact he’s a ninja. At first I’m thinking maybe give him a samurai helmet but he’s not a samurai he’s a ninja but if this is the case why did they give him samurai armor? I mean the guy is wearing kusauri which is the armor plating to protect his legs and a dou which is the chest plate. Like I said I think this figure needs some work if he’s a ninja. It probably would have been better to just call him Samurai Batman instead so they can give him all the samurai armor and weapons.

This Joker figure on the other hand is pretty cool. The styling is a good fusion of Joker’s modern look with Fuedal Japanese clothing.

Here is according to the title card The Joker, Demon King of the Sixth Heaven. Bonus points for this guy for having the coolest name out of all the figures. There’s no confusion with this guy. You can tell he’s supposed to be a samurai. From the armor to his naginata/spear, there’s no doubt what this guy is supposed to be. Also a good touch with giving him a Tengu-style facemask with the elongated nose.

Here’s some Marvel figures that are also from SHFiguarts’ Hall of Armor set representing the armors of Iron Man 3. Right now I think there are only 2 armors from this set out but if you remember Iron Man 3 Tony had like 40 armors built and if they ever decided to build them all I would go bankrupt trying to buy them all.

These Spidermen are cool. Although I don’t like the mounts used to hold them against the wall. I feel they should have put more thought into making the mounts smaller or less noticeable.

Some Pacific Rim: Uprising figures. I was a bit surprised how cheap they were compared to some of the other stuff on display although I’m guessing it’s because these things pretty small and more than likely made out of a cheaper quality plastics.

Some Dragonball Z figures. Notice in the corner how for an extra 10 bucks they’ll thrown in a Super Saiyan Aura effect to any DBZ figure. Although I’d rather have the Dragonball stands instead.

Bowser from Super Mario.

A Mazinger Z. I kind of fucked up on this photo. I should have changed my F-stop settings to get a different depth of field or at least tried a different angle.

Megaman doing his slide and firing his Megabuster at the same time. I wish you could do this for real in the game.

Megaman X doing what I think is a dash.

Chogokin Megaman X x Giga Armor X. I really like the Gundam-style armor. The armor can be combined with the reimagined version of Rush or whatever that dog thing is on the side to form a hoverbike.

Woody and Buzz from Toy Story wearing some crazy exo-armor. It’s a bit creepy how Woody’s armor is obviously made from his fellow toys in some sort of weird and twisted Megazord/Voltron fashion.

Mechagodzilla doing what I’m guessing is his lightning attack.

Here’s Godzilla. Judging by how his body is so segmented this must have a lot of articulation.

Here’s some Gundams. Honestly I’m not a really a Gundam guy. I kind of was into it when I was younger when Cartoon Network tried to make it mainstream by showing it on Toonami. But as I got older I just lost interest in them.

Hulkbuster Iron Man Armor. At first I thought this was from 1 of the movies but now I’m thinnking it might be from the comicbooks because those plates on the forearms are supposed to be solid gold and not red with a gold trim. My mom really liked this one and was actually almost tempted to see if she could buy one.