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Part 1 / Part 2 Back to A Big Piece of Garbage Main Site  Toynami had a booth again and had their new Futurama I-Men on display. The only bummer thing was that they were not selling them. 
ACME Animation was again on hand this year but unfortunately did not have much new production animation drawings for sale. It sounds like they are scaling back the release of drawings in favor of producing more limited edition art and prints. On display for the first time was a one of a kind first ever Futurama animation cel! It is based on the Morbo Attacks picture from the 2003 calendar with the background printed as a giclee and the images of Fry, Bender and Leela painted on a cel The print run is very low - only 200 total prints with the first 100 being signed by Matt Groening. The signed editions are running out very fast so if you are interested in these get to them quick!! ACME also mentioned that Matt is really scaling back doing sigings for limited prints for the Simpsons but he was very excited about doing this one for Futurama! That is great news for us Futurama fans and judging by the response this first print is garnering I can almost bet we see another one perhaps by years end. While I think this is an excellent piece I would really like to see them do more original stuff like the Space Pilot 3000 giclee released a few years ago. Something based on Roswell That Ends Well or I Dated A Robot would be great! Probably the biggest news from the show, however really wasn't an announcement at all. On Saturday at the Bongo booth there appeared a little flier which had emblazened on it: Attention Meatbags! Since I am a meatbag I stopped to read it. Seems as though it was an interest list for those interested in purchasing a plush Bender toy. Since it was Futurama (and since I assumed it was a Bongo run thing) I went ahead and put my name down. The next day I found out that the list was dropped off by none other than David X. Cohen! The story goes that he has purchased the rights to produce a Bender plush toy and first wanted to see what the interest in the item was. I would guess that by the end of the weekend there around 20 email addresses written down.  The unfortunate thing about this is that it was not planned out correctly nor was it presented correctly. Many at the Bongo booth were not aware that one, the sign-up sheet was at their booth or two, what or who put it there. The idea being that those who put their name down would be contacted in the near future (presumable by DXC) to let them know the status of this project and how to go about ordering the plush Bender. Since it was done the way it was I don't think it was very effective. Had I not been making daily trips to the Bongo booth I would definitely not have known about it as I am sure others were in the same boat. To try and help out with the situation I am thinking of possibly having people send me their email addresses and when I get notified or updated I will forward all the email addresses that I have to DXC to let him know there are more people out there who are interested. I think this could be a fun little item and who knows maybe it could open the door to more stuff down the line.  So that just about wraps it up for another year at the Greatest Show on Earth That Isn't A Circus!! I had fun and have already started making preparations for next year as I have already pre-registered (have you?). With all that goes on at this show and all the things there are to see I am glad it only comes around once a year. It is sensory overload to be sure. It was nice running into a few cyber buddies on top of all the great people working the booths - both retailers and industry people. If you didn't make it this year this is something that is definitely worth doing at some point in your life at least once. Besides the comic book aspect there is a whole slew of other stuff going on such as programming, autograph signings, in-booth give raffles and just an oppurtunity to meet up with some folks who share in the same types of hobbies that you do. We always seem to meet up with some interesting folks from all over the world (we met somebody from the UK) which goes to show you the clout that this show has. So, until next year - Peace out Y'all! |
