Wizard World Chicago 2005 continued
Page 1: Entrance, goodies, gaming areas and artist alley
Page 2: Mattel, WizKids, Mezco, Gentle Giant Studios, NECA and more.
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Marvel had a large booth at the show, but very littl in it. Most of the space was left open to make room for lines for
signings. They did have the new Hulk video game available to play along with free demo disc and some of the few booth
babes.
There were a few Minimates on display at Art Asylum as well as two sets of exclusives: the Fantastic Four and Dark
Phoenix/Cyclops.
Funimation had a booth to promote their shows. They were playing slips on a projection TV throughout the day, but due to
the bright lights in the show room and the noise, it was all but completely unwatchable. But they also had a screening
room elsewhere where they were showing complete episodes. They also had drawings for prizes such as signed TMNT postcards.
Both Nintendo and Sony were present as well. Sony had a large booth with multiple PS2's and PSP's available to play.
Nintendo had a much smaller booth, in truth, their main attraction was the large Piccachu that was walking the floor and
generally causing traffic jams where ever he went. Darn six foot tall yellow rats ;-)
Palisades was one of just a few companies that really had a lot to show, though none of it was new from SDCC. The Invader
Zim line, Sesame Street, and Fairly Odd Parents were all very cool lines that I have not paid much attention to in the past.
Their Adult Swim line seemed to be oddly under represented given that I would think con goes would be the core audience of
that line. They certainly seemed popular in the dealer booths. I think they also managed to have the more exclusives for
sale than any other booth.
Palisades not only had a lot on display, they had a lot on sale. Invader Zim in his old man disguise, Super Grover, Buffy
the Vampire Slayer Palz Gentlemen 4 pack and Kendra Palz figure were all available.
Diamond was another booth that had a lot of items on display. A few of the highlights include a packaged Thanos figure from
the Marvel Select line, Corpse Bride figures (sorry, no photos allowed) and a very cool castle playset. The castle looks to
be in scale with 3 3/4 or 4 inch figures and should make a very cool display piece. But at $144, the price is a bit steep.
I was surprised to see that Diamond Select was actually running a seperate booth. Most of it was just Marvel statues, Marvel
Select figures and Buffy the Vampire Slayer items, none of them new. But it did give me a chance to see the BTVS Library
playset and MS Watcher figure in person. And of course they had a large stock of Marvel Select She-Hulk figures which are
exclusive to the conventions this year.
One of the local radio stations had a booth as well. I have no idea what type of music they play, but they had a cool truck
and several attractive booth babes.
Of course no convention would be complete without several thousand square feet of dealers. As usual, just about anything
and everything a geek could want was available from bootleg DVD's to toys, to weapons. Oh, and there were a few comic
books too. I mean, where else do you see Speed Racer cookie jars? But the coolest thing I saw this year was the booth for
Bolt Gallery.com. I've seen similar pieces of scrap metal art before, but this
was the first time I have seen licensed characters done this way. And the prices were even reasonable.
Page 1: Entrance, goodies, gaming areas and artist alley
Page 2: Mattel, WizKids, Mezco, Gentle Giant Studios, NECA and more.
Cosplayers View them if you dare.
Back to the reviews page
