March was a pretty hectic time for me. I went out to Chicago on March 20th for C2E2 which was taking place that weekend and the weekend after that I had WonderCon. I tried to do what I could to get some content out in between but having a daily job made it really hard which is why I’m here several weeks later.

This year’s WonderCon seemed a bit chaotic. For whatever reason parking at the Anaheim Convention Center was closed and they had everybody parking at Angels Stadium and taking a shuttle to the convention center. Me being an inattentive dumbass missed the turn to Angels Stadium and thinking I could still park at the convention center spent the next hour and a half listening to parking attendants telling me there’s no convention center parking and fighting traffic as I tried to make my way back Angels Stadium. Eventually we were able to get to WonderCon about 2 hours later than I hoped to get there. At that point I was just scrambling like a mad man running around the convention center trying to cover as much ground and gather as many cool photos as possible.

Looking back at my experience at WonderCon I’m having doubts that I’ll be able to do a good job of covering conventions. I don’t mean any disrespect to WonderCon or any of the other conventions I’ve attended in the past, they all do really good jobs putting on good conventions it’s just that with my current level of commitment to going to conventions I’m just unsure in my ability to tell a great story from my trips. I really need to be able to commit more of myself to conventions and also find new ways to get stories out of them. Committing to conventions is tough though, even local ones likes WonderCon and LA Comic Con I’m having trouble fully committing myself to. The big factor is costs. Just trying to get into the door costs money with needing to buy passes. Factor in conventions that aren’t local to me and now I’m dropping an extra couple hundred to at least an extra grand for travel and room and board. Another big factor is time. Like I said earlier I do have a regular job and unfortunately I can’t just take off and go to conventions which is why most of the time I’m only able to attend on Saturdays.

I’ve said this before but I’m hoping I can someday be recognized as a legitimate media outlet and be granted media credentials. Aside from getting admission costs out of the way being a media partner would hopefully open new doors and opportunities for me, allowing me to offer more detailed behind the scenes looks at things or at least an alternative way of seeing things. I’m also hoping that I can pick up a sponsor or advertiser or something that will help offset the cost of attending events making it so that I can attend more events more often and that are further away.

All I can really do right now is do the best I can with what and hopefully I’ll be able to grow. Grow enough where hopefully my Ad Sense placements will start paying out some serious money, and  grow enough where companies and organizations will be impressed enough with me that they’ll be seeking me out and asking me to work with them and not me going up to them and begging for something. This is why I mentioned in my last post about C2E2 that I should really get into video–it’s another skill set that I feel I need to add to my repertoire and also it’s another way for me to impress people.

In any case I should really stop going on these rants when in my posts but honestly it’s really fucking hard to come up with good intros.

Back to WonderCon, this is how the exterior of the Anaheim Convention Center looked. With Shazam! set to be released the weekend after WonderCon you can bet that DC was doing all they can to hype it up.

Exploding Kittens was on site again with their Vending Machine Experience. I really wish I hung out to see their other troll responses but between showing up late and wanting to cover as much as possible and the crowds they were attracting I just didn’t feel like hanging out around there for too long. I am kind of wondering what it’s like for the people who have to work that thing. I doubt it’s pleasant sitting inside that thing for hours at a time reading slips of paper from people and waving signs at them.

So I think I finally figured out what this company’s name is, it’s Bluefin Distribution. I’ve been so confused with all the times I’ve seen them because of all the names they have on their banners but after staring at them long enough I’m like 99% sure they’re Bluefin Distribution.

If I thought things were hectic with me with back to back conventions these guys had it way rough. These guys had a difficult schedule. They had Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle followed by C2E2 in Chicago, then they come to Anaheim for Wondercon, and then they were back into Chicago for the Star Wars Celebration all over the course of four weeks.

Originally, I was a bit reluctant to see to check them out because I had seen them the week before at C2E2 and I figured it would be the same stuff. I was glad I did take a closer look because that actually wasn’t the case. It was probably about a good 60% different stuff compared to what they brought to C2E2.

These Transformers are from I believe Flame Toys’ Furai model collection caught my eye, although I was a disappointed when I looked at the boxes in the booth and found out that they’re basically just Gundam models and don’t transform.

Some DBZ figures from SHFiguarts.

Super Saiyan Broly versus Super Saiyan Goku looks pretty epic. I really wish I didn’t mess up with my F-stop settings so I could have gotten Goku in focus.

Here’s a close up of the Tamashii Nations’ Honyaku Karakuri C-3PO. After taking a closer look at it I don’t think I’ll get it now. He looks pretty lame. If you’re curious what the name means, karakuri means “mechanisms” or “tricks” and is used to describe traditional Japanese mechanized puppets while honyaku means “translation” so I guess honyaku karakuri could be translated to “mechanized translator,” a pretty accurate description for C-3PO given his function as a protocol droid and a translator.

Here’s the Onmitsu Black Spiderman, this thing is basically just the Samurai Spiderman figure painted black as a reference to when Spiderman had that black costume which would end up becoming Venom. The term Onmitsu was a name given to secret government agents and was also another name for ninjas. Like “Honyaku Karakuri” for C-3PO Onmitsu is a very appropriate name to give to this version of Spiderman.

Here are some Power Ranger toys. The Megazord and Titanus are from Bandai’s Soul of Chogokin line while the Ranger figures I believe are from the Tamashii Nations line.

Soul of Chogokin translates to “Soul of Super-alloy” between this and the fact they’re known for making robots I’m assuming this means that these are made of metal.

Here’s a black version of the original Megazord from the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Fun fact, in the original Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger which was the basis for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers the Megazord was known as “Daizyujin” which translates to “Great Beast God.”

Here’s Titanus the Carrier Zord. Titanus along with the Dragonzord would merge with the Megazord to form the Ultrazord. In the original Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger Titanus was named King Brachion.

More Power Ranger Megazords, these ones from Bandai’s Shokugan line.

Here’s the Astro Delta Megazord from Power Rangers in Space. Power Rangers in Space was based off of the Denji Sentai Megaranger which translates to “Electromagnetic Squadron Megaranger”. In the original Sentai series the Astro Delta Megazord was named the Cho Denji Gattai Super Galaxy Mega.

The Shogun Megazord from I believe season 3/3.5 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. This season of Power Rangers was based on the Ninja Sentai Kakuranger where the Shogun Megazord was known as Muteki Shogun which translates to “Invincible General”.

Ninja Megazord with the White Ninja Falconzord. This is also from season 3ish of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and was also the featured Megazord in the Power Rangers movie. In the original Sentai series the Ninja Megazord was known as Kakure Daishogun which translates to great “Hidden General” while the Ninja Falcon Zord was called “Sacred Ninja Beast Tsubasamaru.” When combined they were called Super Kakure Daishogun or the Super Great Hidden General.

Here’s a Voltron or as he’s known in Japan, “GoLion”. Yeah, I guess the guy who thought up Voltron’s name wasn’t as imaginative as the guys who worked on the Super Sentai shows.

Here’s #218 Narrative Gundam A-Pack from the Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative movie. I know those are supposed to be weapons strapped to this Gundam but it reminds me too much of a pod racer from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

Here’s Sinanju Stein from the Mobile Suit Gundam UC /UC-MSV games.

Full Armor Gundam Unicorn from the Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn OVA series.

Wing Gundam from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.

I was a bit disappointed PCS Collectibles was absent from WonderCon again this year but there was this huge booth ran by Tokyo Zerostar/Koto US that had a lot of cool statues and figurines.

One of Tokyo Zerostar/Koto US’s big eye catchers was this huge statue of EVA Unit 01 from Neon Genesis Evangelion going berserk.

Dr. Strange, Spiderman, Gamora, and Thanos circa Avengers Infinity War/Endgame from the ARTFX + line.

I think this is supposed to be a monster from Godzilla. I don’t remember since I forgot to take notes from the information card.

A few variations of Ultraman. Staring at these statues I don’t see Ultraman as this strong heroic type. Instead, I see a performer in a superhero costume in a low-budget production. I’m not sure if they did this on purpose to make things seem meta or if they designed these statues based on how Ultraman looked in the original series from the ’60s.

More Avengers statues. I don’t really get this display because it’s just a mishmash of time periods. We have classic versions of Scarlet Witch, Antman, Vision, and Thanos looking like they did in the Silver and Bronze Age of Comicbooks while we have a movie version of Black Panther and then there’s Falcon who’s wearing the costume he wore when he became Captain America which I believe happened after 2010.

Here are some X-Men figures based on the ’90s X-Men cartoon.

This is crazy, it’s a 1/10th scale reproduction of the Discovery from the 2001: A Space Odyssey. Before you say “But wait, 1/10th scale?” I just want to clarify that it’s a 1/10th scale reproduction of the model that was built to film 2001: A Space Odyssey which in real life is about 54 feet long.

Cinema Makeup School was on site again. This year’s demo looks like some sort of aquatic creature transformation.

Skybound Inc. was on site with a pretty significant presence. Looking back I really regret not buying a few Walking Dead trade paperbacks for my personal library. Skybound and TopCow were the only Image imprints that were on site at WonderCon. I really wonder why they didn’t just pool together to have 1 big Image booth although I think they just did it because booth space at WonderCon isn’t too expensive and also to further emphasize the independence Image’s different studios have from one another and Image itself.

Aside from promoting Shazam! DC Comics was still celebrating Batman’s 80th anniversary which is why a lot of stuff they had in their booth like this wall was very Batman-centric.

As part of the celebration of Batman’s anniversary DC Comics had these cowls on display representing the different actors who played Batman in the movies over the years. I’m not sure if the cowls were screen used or just reproductions. Notice the difference in times with the ears. In the ’90s they were super aggressive and pointy almost like they’re horns instead of ears. But when you get to the 2000s they become less aggressive until you get to Justice League and at that point they’re just little nubs.  Sorry for the reflection and glare off of the display case but there wasn’t that much room to work with in the DC booth.

A Shazam costume that was on display to help promote movie.

To help further promote the Shazam! movie DC also had the stars of the film on site for meet and greets and autographs. I tried to get a photo of them but between all the people mobbing them and convention center security telling people to keep moving it was just too hard.

Here’s Zachary Levi, the titular Shazam.

Mark Strong who played Shazam’s nemesis, Dr. Thaddeus Sivana.

There were other actors on site but like I said it was just too hectic to get clear photos of the rest of the cast but at least I got the main hero and villain.

While taking a break in the convention center lobby I ran into this tri-color corgi named Chewie. I’m not sure why, but so far every time I go to WonderCon I always run into somebody who has a corgi with them.

To help promote their Hollywood Dream Machine exhibit the Petersen Automotive Museum had these two machines on display. The one on the right should be pretty iconic, it’s the Batmobile from the 1989 Tim Burton Batman movie. According to the information card this was not a screen-used vehicle. Instead it is one of three studio-authorized models which were built for publicity and promotional uses. The other car on is The Black Beauty, a 1966 Chrysler Imperial customized by Dean Jeffries and used in the 1966 Green Hornet television series starring Van Williams and Bruce Lee.

While walking around Wondercon I was a bit surprised when I found this booth promoting Geek Magazine. The reason I was surprised was because the company I work for actually owned Geek but due to restructuring and budget cuts they had to cancel it. I told one of the reps that story and they told me that after my company had canceled it the assets were sold off to another company who decided to restart it.

I’ll finish this up with some pictures of some of the artwork that the Thomas Kinkade booth had on sale. These pieces remind me of something I came across called Everly Originals which was this deal on the Home Shopping Network where you sent them a photo and they turned it into an oil canvas painting. While most people thought Everly Originals painted actual portraits based off of the photographs instead what they did was scan the photos and run them through Photoshop where they add on an oil painting filter then they print them out and apply a special material called glace to give the pictures an oil painting texture. I’m not sure if Thomas Kinkade Studios actually does this but ever since I read about Everly Originals and found out how they did things I just can’t look at an oil painting the same way.

Here’s the Flash doing his running towards you pose.

And here’s a pretty cool piece featuring the Justice League. Batman and Aquaman are pretty obvious but if you take a closer look you can see Superman in the top middle of the painting, Cyborg towards the bottom left corner and Wonderwoman a few inches left of Batman. I really wonder why they made Wonderwoman so small.

Thanks for checking this out. Sorry I couldn’t do that great of a job with this post but between getting to WonderCon so late and me going through a bit of a personal crisis I just had so much trouble trying to tell a good story here. I still have crap ton of cosplayer photos from WonderCon so hopefully I can redeem myself with those.