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[Pete The Greek]

-Meeting everyone, was cool meeting board members, Mike, and even our American friends that came from far.  The name escapes me right now, but one guy, came from San Diego, he is one of the top collectors apparently, cool guy, had long chats with him and his buddy as they were right behind us in line. 

That would be Drew aka dryhawk37....or Stealth Viper jr. 

[roshan]

Oy!  Finally woke up after getting home last night.  Best con outside of sdcc I've ever been too.  The way you guys throw a con shows that you don't need a huge con to have a lot of fun.  You've perenially hooked me now.  The only part that sucked about it was I wasn't able to stay awake through the whole thing having driven through the night to get there.  I fell asleep in the car around 10 planning to wake up at 11 and didn't actually wake up til 2   Thankfully, speed painting ran long so I could jump in.   I'm still on a sugar hangover from eating at least 100 timbits.  There should be a warning label on those......and there should be some hortons in iowa. 

suggestions:

The con set is the perfect size.  MC should take a page from you guys.  Spending $500 for all the exclusives at a con is NOT cool and also making it enough so everyone gets one and not multiples is nice, because you don't have people coming from all over just to resell on ebay.  $125 is not enough to scare people away, yet still gives a nice set of action figures.  MC makes the mistake of assuming that everyone is an army builder and pumps the set full of them (well fine, I'm an army builder, but a lot of us are not). 

CUSTOMS! (the bad kind, not the nice plastic ones)  In the info section when telling americans about crossing the border, warn them that customs agents can be real jerks.  I brought a bunch of  joes with to trade and the terrordrome and the canadian agents were trying to make me itemize everything I had since I was going to a toy show and wouldn't believe what I was bringing was for trade and not sale.  Fortunately the way back the american agent was a star wars collector and he just drooled over the con set  

[NeoDragonKnight]

-Meeting everyone, was cool meeting board members, Mike, and even our American friends that came from far.  The name escapes me right now, but one guy, came from San Diego, he is one of the top collectors apparently, cool guy, had long chats with him and his buddy as they were right behind us in line. 

That would be Drew aka dryhawk37....or Stealth Viper jr. 

yup, great guy, had a lot of fun talking to him and his friend from detroit

[Stealth Viper]

That would be Drew aka dryhawk37....or Stealth Viper jr. 

Lol.

[Scramble]

CUSTOMS! (the bad kind, not the nice plastic ones)  In the info section when telling americans about crossing the border, warn them that customs agents can be real jerks.  I brought a bunch of  joes with to trade and the terrordrome and the canadian agents were trying to make me itemize everything I had since I was going to a toy show and wouldn't believe what I was bringing was for trade and not sale.  Fortunately the way back the american agent was a star wars collector and he just drooled over the con set  

Wish I could have seen that border agent Star Wars collector.

I heard a lot more stories about problems at customs this year than ever before. Maybe it's because we're only a couple of months away from mandatory passports for driving across the border. They could be cracking down now to discourage people from getting in as much border crossing as they can between now and the change in policy.

[roshan]

Wish I could have seen that border agent Star Wars collector.

He had me freaked at first, he was a big dude with an even bigger grimace.  When I told him where I came from he looked at me like I was lying and then I showed him the boxed set his eyes lit up....and then squinted when he was blinded by the shine from the H.A.T.E   

[Colonel Abernathy]

This year's convention was really well done. Everyone involved should be happy with their effort and achievement. The only improvement suggestions I can offer are:

- A better PA system with more announcements. Work it out around the TV journalists

- More signage. A huge banner for specialty areas (i.e. free table, customs table etc.) Yes, most people will eventually find everything from walking around; however, excessive signage adds to the excitement and bombastic-ness of a toy convention IMO. Actually, banners for everything would be great - it would really add to the visuals if vendors could bring signs for their tables as well. I believe a convention, especially a toy convention, needs way more visual overload than common sense would normally allow

- the aforementioned idea of a section with constantly-running Joe episodes. A larger multi-media component in general would be cool - how about an NES running the two 8-bit Joe games? Or a JAMMA cabinet running the Joe arcade game?

- A specific area for photo ops with the cosplayers. The costumes I saw were amazing and yes, there were many photos taken of them. It would be even cooler if there was a large Joe logo standee where the cosplayers and fans could stand and pose for photos - less background clutter (simple is better, as my college photojournalism instructor constantly says

- A specific area for the kids (the real ones, not the kids at heart . Could probably be combined near the free table (for playtime-fodder) and the NES setup. I'm sure there were kids at the free table already but I'm thinking something a little more for them, like putting a playmat down for them and some kind of barrier so they can play on the ground and people don't trip over them. Maybe a variety of scrap items for playing...I used to make bases out of cardboard tubes and boxes, sheets and foil etc. - that kind of thing.

[narceron]

fantastic con, but to me, the morning was a little bland, but the afternoon more than made up for it.

You guys really put a lot of work and love into the con and it shows, so don't lose that as it grows.

Yeah, bellarmo was a hoot, F'ing this, this is Sh!t, etc. . . LOL.


And man, that kid saying "there are too many snake eyes figures" to the hasbro rep, LOL.

Great con.

[BHMike]

I wanted to give the vendors a solid two hours to sell product. Some of them came from very far to set up - thus, it may of appeared "bland" in the morning.

Not everyone is into the Q&A sessions and presentations, true. But I still wanted a solid two hours for them. ;-)

[Storm.Shadow]

Not everyone is into the Q&A sessions and presentations, true. But I still wanted a solid two hours for them. ;-)

Speaking of Q&A, is there any information anyone can share with those of use who weren't able to attend?

[BHMike]

The Hasbro one, we respected the wishes of Hasbro and did not allow any video, audio or still images to be taken.

But there is a Tan Armadillo tank coming out for the movie - with guns on the side - just like our own Dead Eye tank. :-)

And the Viper Elite looks cool.

[K.B.]

I had fun and enjoyed meeting people but here are my suggestions for next years...

For vendors

- more product. I know at first this seems kind of werid but a wider variety of toys is needed as most of us do collect more then just Joe. Yes, the meet (well..con now  ) is Joe specific so bring a massive selection of Joe stuff but don't forget a few other lines to add to the mix. No detriment to the dealers this year (you all had awesome stuff and dare I say, this year it seemed like you had way more and way better Joe stuff then last year  ) but last year it seemed like there was more then just Joe without it being an average toy show.

-5 dollar 25th anniv. Joes =AWESOME idea! Keep that going next year please.

For Joe Con staff

- Your a friendly bunch of guys and very respectful and helpful to fans (and the non fans we drag along lol) so keep it up. Not all conventions have a staff as helpful as you guys and you make doing the con rounds worthwhile.

- Guests: I like talking to Bellarmo, he's fun so please bring him back (I'm kind of hoping he is a Jon con mainstay) but ,and no disrespect to other guests, maybe try to land some "bigger" names as well if you know what I mean. There are so many names to pull from the hat from writers to artists to voice actors etc etc. I know sometimes it is easier said then done though.

- Annoucments: As others have said, work around the camera crews. It's great they are there to tape and promote it but the bottom line is it is YOUR show and they should be respectful of such.

-Signage: This is a bit of a problem and others have talked about it. Weather your a dealer or Joe Con, signs do help. I agree with what others have said and offer this: If you are interested in signs please visit these guys here
http://www.majersigns.com/index2.htm
They do awesome work, are fantastic to work with, are very accomodating and can do pretty much anything you could asks for and for a fair price.

- Toronto: This isn't a slight to Hamilton but I garuntee you put the show in Toronto and you will see attendence spike. I know a ton of people that would love to have come but Hamilton is a bit far.

- Kids/rest area: As others have said both of these would be a good idea with videos, games etc running.

- Box of meat: I'm guessing it was left over but you decided to give it away anyways but man, for me, I would have loved to have won it over the SDCC combat heroes SE and Timber. You should give away a box of meat every year. Also, if someone really dosen't want a prize there should be the idea that its okay not to accept it and re-raffle it. (Poor kid looked like he was going to cry when he came up to get the box lol)

I think that's it for now but I may think of some more later. Once again, great show and I'm looking forward to next years.