SQUIBS INVADE E3 2011

you should never invade a place on an empty stomach. sooo, we had to eat before running around E3 for a couple of hours. our Hyperactive Monkey pals stumbled across this place last year while we were exhibiting at Anime Expo last year. we go there for the Pupusas, but i call them Poopas, cuz it's more fun to say.

let the advertising/marketing begin. it was a non-stop barrage of lights and sounds with a side of free stuff.

at this booth you had to earn your prize. 4 out of 5 shots had to hit a single duck with a Nerf Maverick. my years of shooting co-workers in the face has finally paid off. well, paid off more than the instant gratification of their wincing faces. ha. unfortunately, the mini devil duck prize was lame.

i'm a huge Gears Geek, so i had to take a photo. gonna murder me some Locusts come September.

i'm not a huge Sonic fan, but he loves Squibs. a free Klondike Bar was a good reason for us stop and take a break.

i'll have that shield someday, but the suit is unlikely.

i can't wait to play Arkham City, and by that i mean, i couldn't stand waiting in line at E3 to play Arkham City. we wasted at least 40 minutes in the shortest line ever. we later found out they had been letting the fat cats in through another entrance.

just some cute stuff i saw, except Rachet, he's not so cute.

in the battle between Squib Vs. Dragon........... Squib won.

some of the cool things on display.

E3 always has a lot of booth babes and cos-play characters. here are just a few of the characters we saw.

looks like Indian Jones was havin a garage sale. his self respect wasn't for sale though, he lost that while filming Crystal Skull. abomination.

another year, another E3. this show was ok. the crowd wasn't too friendly though. too long of lines, not enough game stations to play at, too many self important big wigs in suits and other grumpy/pushy people.

if you're not in "the industry" and can't get in, don't worry, you aren't missing much. the interweb and G4 have great coverage. you always see more that way anyway.

SQUID KIDS INK on TOY BREAK 170.. WOOHOO!!

so it finally happened. we first met George and Ayleen way back in 2009 at Anime Expo. it was our very first time having a booth at a large convention and they happened to swing by our booth. we've since seen them at several cons, become regulars at D-con every November, and we meet up for dinner every once in a while.

they invited us on the show way back when, but scheduling conflicts and the fear of soul stealing cameras delayed our appearance.

sooooo, we finally made the time to be on the show. i mustered up enough courage to get in front of a video camera for more than 10 secs and we finally got to enjoy some Blind Box Time.

check out episode 170 to see a sneak peek at what we'll have at booth 5137 at SDCC 2011.
http://www.toybreak.com/episodes/170/index.php

i stole the photo from their facebook page and i don't think the link here will work. i'm not too interweb savvy.

SQUIBS INVADE BOT CON 2011.....barely

Bot Con was at the Pasadena Convention Center this year. the entrance was pretty lack luster, but they did have the giant Optimus Prime inside. so, if you didn't see it at SDCC 2010 last year you had a second chance at Bot Con 2011.

apparently KRE-O (Lego Transformers) is on sale now. i really just want the mini figures. luckily they were give out free Optimus Prime figures. best part of the Con for me.

some pretty cool Bot costumes, Starscream was over the top, but not necessarily in a good way.

i've never wanted a mini van until now.

why is that chef so happy? cuz Chito and him are now really good friends.

Squibs don't grow on trees, especially after Chito has been in the area.

we swung by Rocket Fizz as well. it's a giant candy store with tons of soda varieties. healthy?.... no. but who cares, you don't have eat and drink it all at once.

so, that was our Bot Con 2011 experience. it was a small show with really expensive exclusives, minimal variety, and a $20 entrance fee per day. i may love transformers, but i probably won't go back every year. i do love the snacks in Pasadena though.

SQUIBS WELCOME KAEDIN!!!!

Kaedin Nathaniel Mitchell was born at 4:13 am on 4-8-2011. we took a quick trip out to Colorado to visit my first nephew in early May.

these little buddies couldn't resist this new little buddy.

here's the happy dad (my brother). of course everyone took turns holdin Kaedin. even Gramps (my dad) showed up. sorry, no photos of mom on my Iphone.

he's definitely our youngest fan.

COMIC CON 2011 UPDATE

so, there was a mix up with our Comic Con booth for this year. we were supposed to have a corner booth in the Toy Growers Courtyard, but unfortunately that won't be happening. we'll be close to that area, but not quite in that area. we could have had a standard booth in there, but we felt we really needed a corner booth.

our new booth number is 5137. it's close to Artist's Alley and close to the dreaded Tshirt Tower of Terror that dwarfs everything that falls within its shadow. we shouldn't be too hard to find, so please stop by and see us.

10-Doh! CALL FOR ARTISTS "RESULTS"

the deadline came and went and here are the results. the artists only had 1 month to turn in their artwork, so i'm very happy with the turnout. we 17 entries and only 1 winner. even some artists from around the world took the time to participate. so, here are the entries in no particular order, except the last one.

Allison Revilla

Ashley Hay

Luis Alonso Arias Escobar

Bryan Bramley "Shez"

Bryan Bramley "Shez"

Bryan Bramley "Shez"

Bryan Bramley "Shez"

Aug

Abell Octovan

Dennis Coyle III

Chris Dobson [alto]

Chris Dobson [alto]

Chris Dobson [alto]

Catarina Carvalho

Alaina

Alaina






and the winner is......









Tom Katari Design & Illustration

and there you have it. Super Gaffiti Kid will be turned into a really real 10-Doh! figure later this year. i wanted thank all of the artists that took the time to participate in our little contest. hopefully, we'll be making plenty more 10-Doh! figures for many years, so i'd like to do another contest down the road. we should have some figures for sale at SDCC this year, so keep checking back for more updates.

WONDERCON 2011

it was our second year exhibiting at Wonder Con and setup took us a while. we arrived at 1 and move in went smoothly. but, we didn't get out of there until 7. i think we were just tired and we were movin really slow.

tons of people showed up all 3 days. friday was the slowest day, saturday was crazy busy, and sunday was short but steady.

we had our standard booth again, and had our new So Analog resin figures for sale. we also brought some of the customs from our Dcon custom show.


i love me some Captain America, i sure hope the movie is good. i tried the new game and it seemed decent. the other image of the Tshirt tower of terror. our booth was suck behind this monster. it made the show feel claustrophobic for us. we still got plenty of traffic, but that doesn't mean i didn't want to burn that ugly mess down.

we didn't get to see all of the costumes out there. they always get stuck up front taking photos for hours. these were some of my favorites. you gotta love Ax Cop, Adventure Time, and Bat Wolfman was pretty funny.

this M.O.D.O.K. was awesome. Galactus was pretty good too.

we always eat good up in SF. our friend Daisy made us fancy individual bread puddings with fakin bacon. we actually had ice cream for dinner one night. then we always end our trip with breakfast at the Millbrae Pancake house before we head home.

no convention blog update would be complete without some sleepy time photos. it's hard to see Jerome cuz of the glare, but he was snoozin away in there.

overall, Wonder Con was a great show. sales weren't quite as good as last year, but still ok. we had lots of repeat buyers which was encouraging, and hopefully we made some new fans. we plan on being back next year and hopefully in a better location away from the Tshirt tower.