Out of all the franchises and properties that were being represented at the 2022 edition of San Diego Comic Con, nothing had a bigger presence than Dragon Ball. There were numerous activations and displays spread throughout the convention as well as a whole lot of swag they were passing out-and these were not some rinky-dink attractions, these were some massive exhibitions. In fact, I remember we met this woman who was in charge of the staffing agency that Bandai Namco contracted out to run activations for them and she said they brought in like 200 people.

Looking back, I feel the reason was two-fold. One, it was done to promote the then upcoming North American release of the latest Dragon Ball movie, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero (the title could use a little work but I feel something was lost somewhere in translation). The other reason I think was that this was an attempt by Bandai Namco to flex their muscle and let their presence known. If you saw my post on them from Wondercon you’ll have learned that Bandai Namco was originally known as Bluefin Distribution, until some mergers and acquisitions led to them rebranding themselves and all of this was them getting the word out that they’re around.

My family and I got to San Diego the day before the convention started. Unfortunately we didn’t have preview night passes so we couldn’t walk around the exhibition hall. Luckily, Bandai Namco had a huge activation set up behind the convention center filled with numerous displays that didn’t require a Comic Con pass to enter.

The center piece of the giant outdoor activation was a full-sized statue of the SHFiguarts Great Ape Vegeta figure.

A big ass version of the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie poster which was plastered throughout the booth to dress up some empty walls.

Some Cell figures from SHFiguarts. On the left is the Cell Shell and Imperfect Cell AKA Cell’s first first form.

A few models/figures from Figure-Rise Standard.

Figures from the Limit Breaker Series.

Some mini figures from Adverge. While these are better proportioned than some of the other minifigures I’ve seen, they’re still a bit deformed for my taste.

The Ginyu Force by SHFiguarts in their iconic team pose. I wish I double checked this photo when I took it, otherwise I would have caught Burter, Jeice, and Recoom being slightly out of the depth of field.

Here is my favorite piece from the entire outdoor activation, a diorama using what I think are figures from SHFiguarts to recreate some of the major storylines from Dragon Ball Z.

Here’s the Buu Saga.

The Frieza Saga.

The Cell Saga.

And Dragon Ball GT which is technically a whole other series and not saga by itself.

A few more pieces from SHFiguarts which according to the signage are event exclusives.

SHFiguart figures of Porunga, the Namekian dragon with Dende.

SHFiguarts figures of Pan with Android 19 and 20/Dr. Gero. It’s a bit random to have Pan in this case. You would think it would make more sense to have Andorids 16, 17, and 18 in there instead.

SHFiguarts “Super Hero” versions of Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, and Piccolo.

SHFiguarts Premium Bandai Gamma 2, Gamma 1, and Tulece. For those who don’t know, Tulece is supposed to be Turles, the main antagonist from the Dragon Ball Z: Tree of Might movie. From what I’ve seen online sometimes Turles’s name is translated into Tares and Tullece, so I’m really curious how it turned into Tulece. You would think they would have done a better job at checking their translations.

Imagination Works Goku and Vegeta figures.

Some SHFiguarts figures of Goku in his various Super Saiyan forms.

More SHFiguarts Goku figures including versions of him as a kid.

A statue recreating that scene where Future Trunks used his Shining Sword Attack to kill Frieza.

The Dokkan Battle 7th Anniversary Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta figure. I’m not going to say anything else about this figure just because the name of it is mouth full.

A miniature version of the Great Ape Vegeta statue.

Inside the exhibition hall Bandai Namco had several more statues and displays setup.

Here’s a lifesize version of Gamma 1.

Gamma 2.

And Piccolo.

Some figures from the Dragon Stars Series.

Some figures from the DXF line.

Gohan versus Gamma 1 complete with energy effects.

Other than SHFiguarts I’m not really sure what line these are from.

And I’ll close this post out with some life size statues of Goku and his crew arranged to recreate the end of the North American Dragon Ball Z intro. Looking at this I really wish they made Goku Super Saiyan and figured out a way to include the energy aura to make it more accurate, but I figure adding the aura would make it too bulky.

Thanks for reading and don’t forget to check back for more.