Join CollectionDX's own Joshua Bernard and other panelists for a lively talk on Korean toys and their fascinating origins in the interplay between Korean, Japanese and American pop cultures. Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 6:30 PM at the The Korea Society, NYC

Cross-Cultural Traffic: Toying with Brands, Borders and Bootlegs

Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 6:30 PM
The Korea Society
950 Third Avenue @ 57th Street, Eighth Floor

http://www.koreasociety.org/arts/gallery/cross-cultural_traffic_toying_with_brands_borders_and_bootlegs.html

Please join us for a lively talk on Korean toys and their fascinating origins in the interplay between Korean, Japanese and American pop cultures. This panel is presented in conjunction with our current traveling exhibition, Toy Stories: Souvenirs from Korean Childhood.

Panelists:

• Joshua Bernard, editor, CollectionDX.com
• Eric Nakamura, publisher, Giant Robot Magazine
• Joanne Rudis, design director, Fisher Price/Mattel
• Seho Kim, creative director, The Korea Society

$10 (members) and $15 (non-members)
RSVP to (212)759-7525, ext. 355 or heewon.ny@koreasociety.org or
register online at www.koreasociety.org.

The 2007 summit has come and gone, and now it is time for reflection....

The 2007 summit has come and gone, and now it is time for reflection....

The 2007 East Coast summit went on as planned on June 30th, 2007. Participants arrived from all over the East Coast to eat food, trade toys, and engage in general mayhem.

First on the agenda was Botcon! We had a good time there, but we left early because we knew all the great times were waiting back at Sanjeev's house.

We started off the day with the raffle. CollectionDX sponsors had chipped in and donated prizes to raffle off to attendees. The response was so great that we had enough items so that everyone who attended won something! Special thanks to all the sponsors who donated items for the raffle and gift bags:

• 
  Max Toy Company
• 
  UniToyZone
• 
  Atamaii.com
• Rinkya.com
• Super7
• HobbyLink Japan
• 
  Freebento
• 
  GoHero
• Beantown Toys
• LEGO

From there we gave out a ton of shirts as well as the goodie bags. Inside the bags were LEGO Bionicle toys, copies of the latest Super7 Magazine, trading figures and a full set of Series 2 Beantown Beans, as well as posters, stickers and other goodies.

We had two unexpected guests at the summit this year. First off was 9-time Hugo Award winning artist Bob Eggleton! Bob brought a bunch of cool prints to offer (which Sanjeev and others greedily snapped up).

Next, Jason brought his special guest - his 6 foot Gundam! No summit is complete without him!

Mason brought his special gourmet burgers, Roger brought Sabrett's hot dogs, and Doc brought his marinaded wings. Grilling commenced, and things were good.

We decided to dump all of our toys out on the lawn and begin wheeling and dealing. Everyone made out like a bandit, with lots of goods exchanging hands.

Dave brought out his Ring Toss Mazinger and we all played a few games, with Carnival Machinders as prizes!

As the evening went on, we moved inside for the requisite viewing of the stupid videos. From there, we brought out the bag of mystery porn, and Roger's eyes lit up. Keith then broke out one last DX Clover Irongear from his personal stash and raffled it off. Hey, everybody's a winner!

I'd like to thank Sanjeev for hosting this year's summit, Mason, Roger, and Doc for the food, Jason for the drinks, and everyone else for attending and having a great time. Thanks to Matt and Jesse of Onell Design for the great TEH JERK shirts! Thanks to all the sponsors who participated, and thanks to mother nature for the great weather.

See you next year!

This year, to coincide with the release of the new Transformers Movie, Botcon was held near Hasbro headquarters in Providence, Rhode Island. CollectionDX was there... kind of... Read on for full coverage (including video)

Botcon was held at the Providence Convention Center in Providence Rhode Island, on from June 28 to July 1 2007. Since Botcon was only 45 minutes away from the summit, it seemed logical to make a trip down from the summit.

This was my first Botcon, and I didn't really know what to expect. I have been to all kinds of comic and sci-fi conventions before, but never one so tightly focused on to one specific subject. Botcon is a Transformers convention, and the hard-core come out in droves.

The day started with me losing a button on my shorts in the parking garage. I tried holding them together with a safety pin but ended up just pulling them up every few seconds. If I seemed to be more interested in holding up my pants than shooting photos, please forgive me.

The convention hall was surprisingly decked out with all sorts of signage and banners promoting the con. I half expected Botcon to be about the size of a holiday in convention room, not to fill up a whole convention center.

Up on the third floor, the line began. The doors had not opened up yet, and the line stretched along the wall and down a hall. We thought it ended there, but boy were we wrong. the line went down the wall, down a hall, looped around, and back into the main room. From where we were in line, it took around 45 minutes from when the doors opened until we were let in.

The main hold up was that they were having door prize raffles, and they were having people fill out the forms before entering, thus clogging up the line! They were also giving out promotional packets with flyers from Target as well as a Target Giftcard. The giftcard had anywhere between $5 and $500 on it, which you could reveal on-line or in the store (I only got $5).

It was in this line that our group got filmed for either TV or a documentary. The people filming wanted us to act "really excited", which was met with a lukewarm response. Most of us shrugged, but a lot of people got into it. There were notices all around the hall that they would be filming for something, so maybe Botcon will appear on the DVD release of Transformers.

Also in this line, I met a CollectionDX member who was helping to hand out the Target freebies. I forgot your name - but it was nice meeting you! It was my first CDX recognition of the day. It always blows my mind when people tell me they actually read the site.

Once in, my senses were overloaded with Transformers. The hall was huge and each booth was filled with the toys. Over 200 dealers attended, including such big names as Big Bad Toystore.com.

Hasbro had a booth presence there, as well as Activision and IDW, publisher of the Transformers comics. It was at IDW that I finally had the chance to meet Robby Musso in person. For those of you who don't know, Robby does all the robot illustrations for our banner. Robbie was a really great guy and I wish I had more time to talk to him, but he was obligated to do sketches at the booth.

Amidst the geekery and unwashed masses, there were a cool things that Botcon did to make it more accessible to the general public. One was the low admission cost - only $10 per person. When you factor in the Target gift card, that knocks it down to at least $5. There also was a whole area with transformers in it for kids to go in and play with. They were just out on tables, with a few staff members on hand to assist them. I was really surprised at the number of kids and women in attendance. In a fandom that has traditionally been boys and adult men, this was a welcome sight. Maybe we are not as creepy as we seem?

It didn't take me too long to walk around the whole dealers room - most booths had exactly the same stuff. Very few booths had any vintage transformers, and even fewer had any other Japanese toys. I expected this to be mostly transformers, but I thought there would be SOME crossover. I almost came out of the convention empty handed, but I snagged a Brave Avenger toy by Takara on the way out for short cash.

Most of us did not want to stay long, as we knew the real cool toys were awaiting us back at the summit. On the way out we got a chance to check out the actual truck used in the movie as Optimus Prime. It was shiny, and we all took turns taking pictures.

If you are a die hard transformers fan, Botcon is a must-see. Transformers were everywhere. In addition to the dealers room, they had various panels, talks and discussions, but we weren't really interested in those. We had a cookout to go to....

Collection DX was invited by Activision to preview the new Transformers: The Game. They gave me some hands on time with all the different versions for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP and both versions of the Nintendo DS. How was it? Do these movie based games buck the trend of mediocre movie games or will Transformer fans get the game they have always wanted? Read on to find out.

Activision was nice enough to fly me out to Santa Monica to meet with the Developers and get some hands on time with Transformers: The Game for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP and both versions of the Nintendo DS.

It was a day long event that started with Breakfast with folks from Step 3 and Activision as well as writers from several of the Transformers fan sites.

The Presentation

At noon the writers meet up and we are brought to the presentation room. It turns out that only fan sites where invited and we where the very first press ever to see the game. The Developers wanted to thank the fan sites and fans for all their support and they thought this was the best way.

First Dan Saurez showed us the opening of the game and it truly left me stunned. The cut scenes are done by the same folks that did the cut scenes for Marvel’s Deadly Alliance

Then the development team demonstrated some game play aspects and showed off some of the cooler features and inside jokes hidden in the game. I must say there was definitely a LOT of passion from the different team for the Transformers and it showed during the presentation. But would it translate to a good game?

After that they broke us up into groups and gave us 20 minutes on each platform to play our hearts out. Now though I consider myself a fairly decent story teller, I will not burden you with a full blow by blow review of the games. I am not a video game reviewer so instead I will just hit the main points for you.

The Consoles

Each of the console versions was basically the same, just tweaked to support those systems features. Of the three I thought the Xbox 360 had the best graphics and the tightest game play but keep in mind I have not had any previous experience with either a PS3 or a Nintendo Wii controller so my opinion of those controls may not be very valid.

• Open world environment similar to Grand theft Auto with Mission Hubs like Need For Speed.
• Fully destructible environments. It’s actually things like destroying the environment that let you unlock bonus content and side missions
• Play as either an Autobot or Decepticon
• Lots of unlock able content
• 13 Transformers seen in the film, 9 are playable.
• Unlock able G1 skins. The Optimus Prime made everyone squeal with delight.
• Lot’s of inside jokes and nod’s to the original series. For example Hound is not in the film but there is a Hound’s Snack Shack in the game.
• There will be downloadable content for Xbox Live but no specifics where given as to what kind of content would be available.
• Peter Cullen does the voice of Optimus Prime for the game as does the TV shows original Megaton, Frank Welker. Welker is not in the film, that part is voiced by Hugo Weaving but had not been cast yet when the game producers needed to record dialogue for the game.

Xbox 360

Playstation 3

Nintendo Wii

The Handhelds

These definetly took me by surprise. Usually a handheld version of a game is a pretty poor attempt at porting the console version with little thought put into it. This is not the case with the Transformers: The Game.

The PSP version is done by the folks that made the very excellent PSP version of Star Wars Battlefront and they have really outdone themselves. This is a completely different game and not a port of the console version.
• 20 playable characters, the most of any of the platforms.
• Wireless multiplayer games such as capture the flag and deathmatch

The Nintendo DS version really seemed to get everyone excited. It comes in two different versions, Autobots or Decepticon; each focusing on you making a “new” transformer from scratch, picking your different modes and alternate forms as you go.
• Lots of voice dialogue. More recorded for this version that any other version of the game.
• Different endings depending on which side you choose.
• Everyone around me and I felt it was the best looking DS game ever. Very smooth graphics and excellent sound effects.
• Touch screen is used sparingly with just the transformation being controlled by a button on it.

Playstation Portable

Nintendo DS

The Question and Answer Session

Out time with the game came to end and they brought us back into a conference room to be greeted by Optimus Prime himself, Peter Cullen and the Producer of the Film, Tom DeSanto as well as lead developers Dan Suarez, Chacko Sonny and Rob Caminos.
• All of the development teams for the games are filled with die hard Transfomer fans.
• Peter Cullen loves the character of Optimus and is thrilled to be in the film. Before the Q and A ended he asked us to pass long a message to the fans. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the support you have shown.” He said that without the fans he wouldn’t be where he is today and wanted to come down to the event to pass that along to the fans.
• Tom DeSanto says while the film is primarily focused on the guys in the audience that there is something in there for everyone. At which point I mentioned that my girlfriend flipped when she saw the latest trailer and is looking forward to it as much as I am, he replied that I should not delay and marry that girl.
• Michael Bay has something special in mind for the movie DVD. He is a huge fan of DVD’s it seems, but no other details where shared. Tom DeSanto did not want to ruin any surprises.

The Verdict
Please, remember this is a preview not a review nor am I a video game reviewer. I am a mild Transformer fan and a huge giant robot fan. With that said, I do think our readers should definitely give this game a look on whatever platform strikes your fancy, as giant robots fighting in a city is about as good as it gets and all indications are this will be a great movie based game.

I want to thank the folks at Activision and Step 3 for flying me out there and giving me this hands on experience. Meeting Optimus Prime was certainly no small feat either; this picture is definetly going into the scrapbook.

For more details of the game or to play Activison's online game The Battle for the Allspark please head over to Transformers: The Game

The 2007 East Coast Summit has been announced! June 30th 2007 - Braintree MA. This years summit will include a special trip to Botcon!

The 2007 East Coast Summit has been announced!

Saturday June 30th, 2007, Braintree MA.

This year we are doing things a little differently. We will start the day off early with a trip to Botcon in nearby Rhode Island. We plan on ransacking the dealers room for all that it is worth, and then returning to Sanjeev's house in Braintree. From there we will eat, drink, and talk toys. Typically there are screenings of obscure japanese tv shows.

Schedule

• 8-9 am - Meet at Sanjeev's house to arrange transportation.
• 10 am - Arrive at Botcon
• 1 pm - Return to Sanjeev's place to eat, and geek out.

Sponsors

This year we are getting goodies from sponsors to give out and raffle off. If you are interested in sponsoring something for the summit, let us know.

2007 East Coast Summit Sponsors

• 
  Max Toy Company
• 
  UniToyZone
• 
  Atamaii.com
• Rinkya.com
• Super7
• HobbyLink Japan
• Twin Moons Anime
• 
  Freebento
• 
  GoHero
• Beantown Toys
• LEGO

How to attend

You will have to contact Josh or Sanjeev in order to get directions to the Summit. We are not giving out the address to the general public due to capacity issues (and the fact that there are a lot of weirdos out there!)

What to bring

Bring your toys to sell and trade. Bring your obscure Japanese videos. Bring your stuff you just want to show off! Bring your camera!

Our very own EVA_Unit_4A is having his Super Sentai collection displayed at Kicks-Hobby Japan in Seattle, Washington for the month of May 2007!

Our very own EVA_Unit_4A is having his Super Sentai collection displayed at Kicks-Hobby Japan in Seattle, Washington. Each month, Kicks invites their customers to display their toy collection in the store. Previous collections can be found here

Here are additional shots of the store itself, along with more images of the display.

Visit Kicks Hobby Japan at:

543L N.E. Northgate Way
 Seattle WA USA 98125

http://www.kicks-hobby.com/

Come Join Super7 as we celebrate our Anniversary! Three years as a store and six years as a magazine means a night of food, drinks, geeks, and toys! Be sure to arrive early to get in on the Super7 Lucky Bags, fully of special mystery toys, two brand new Devilock x Super7 Tee Shirts, and of course, cake!

Come Join Super7 as we celebrate our Anniversary! Three years as a store and six years as a magazine means a night of food, drinks, geeks, and toys! Be sure to arrive early to get in on the Super7 Lucky Bags, fully of special mystery toys, two brand new Devilock x Super7 Tee Shirts, and of course, cake!

7-10 PM / Super7 Store

While no official date and time have been set, please chime in on when and where we hold the summit this year. What is the summit? Read on....

Each year, toy nerds from all along the east coast congregate in the Northeast USA for the East Coast Summit.

The Summit is a gathering of nerds. We cook on the grill. We watch obscure Japanese shows. We bring toys to Sell or Trade, or even just to show off.

The summit is a thing of legend.

It is normally a small gathering, but there are no limits as to who can attend. There is no cost to attend, but we ask that you show up with toys. We also ask that you signup so we can get a head count.

You can read about previous summits here.

The location and date of this year’s summit is still undecided. I have no problem hosting it at CollectionDX HQ, but I have hosted it a few times in the past so maybe we want to have it someplace new?

In terms of timing, I am suggesting Saturday, June 30 2007. I chose this date because Botcon is in nearby Providence Rhode Island that weekend, and maybe people would want to hit both the summit and Botcon. My house is about 1.5 hours from Botcon.

So, what say you? Do you want to come to the summit? Do you have any input or ideas about the place or date? Any ideas for events? Please leave a comment below with your thoughts. I hope to have a firm date and location in place by mid-June.

I got to see a live Kaiju Big Battel this past Friday and wow was it fun! Not just any Kaiju battle mind you but Shpadoinkel Mania XVIII. I’ll tell you right up front I loved it and you must do yourself a favor and go check it out. Read on to find out all the details with video footage.

I had seen interviews and footage of Kaiju Big Battel in passing on G4 and on the web over the past few years but had only given it a passing glance. The word went around CollectionDX that we had a chance to go cover a live event and could someone go? Chance would have it those already initiated in the way of the Kaiju had previous commitments so I said yes I would go check it out.

For those that do not know what a Kaiju Big Battel here is the definition from the official Kaiju website.

"Kaiju Big Battel is a live event series that revolves around tournament-style performances, which are a tongue-in-cheek hybrid of American pro-wrestling, Japanese-monster-movie mayhem, and lowbrow pop-culture."

The folks responsible for the fun and antics are called Studio Kaiju, again taken from the official Kaiju website:

"Studio Kaiju, an independent Boston-based performance and media group, is the driving force behind the live-event series known as Kaiju Big Battel. Organizer of sold-out events, Studio Kaiju is best known for its live tournament-style performances, which are a humorous mix of music, video, and performance art."

So after agreeing to cover the event I watched there first DVD release, Terebi Sento, and felt confident I knew what I was in for. It looked like lot of fun and a good time was to be had at a live event. I was now officially looking forward to going.

Doors opened at 6:00 pm Friday night at Avalon on Lansdowne Street in Boston, Ma. The ring is in the middle of what is normally a dance floor; arena style so everyone in the house gets a good view of the action. Members of Doctor Cube’s posse (the evil genius/bad guy of Kaiju Big Battel) wander around the crowd handing out event programs and Doctor Cube propaganda as people come in.

What strikes me most before the event is just how excited the crowd is. Young and old alike have come to watch giant monsters battle it out for supremacy and for most it seems like it was not their first time and are anxious for the event to begin.

At 7:00 pm a band named Gelatine took the main stage and played for a half hour with a mix of heavy metal and Japanese TV show theme songs to get the crowd pumped up. As the band got off stage, beach balls made their way from the ring into the crowd, adding to the party-like atmosphere.

The event starts and is hosted by Louden Noxious as he provides ringside announcements and play by play commentary of the fights. Louden is great as a host, providing a witty, dry, sardonic commentary with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Despite his name he is instantly likeable and the cheers from the crowd prove that.

Then the referee Jingi hits the ring and the crowd goes nuts. Jingi is definately well loved by the crowd and is as much a part of the show as the monsters fighting in the ring.

The ring for the matches is decorated with little buildings to simulate giant monsters battling in the city. Getting ringside is a guaranteed way to get hit with the “rubble” and seems to be a high point for many in the crowd. Be warned many fights have monster fluids flying as well as building rubble and you will get hit if you are in the proverbial “danger zone”. As a matter of fact, within three minutes of the first fight my better half Jen caught an entire building.

The fights are intermingled with an ongoing story so if you follow their website and go to live events there is a story to follow. However it is such universal, campy, fun you can follow along just fine without a previous knowledge of Kaiju drama.

The wrestling is fantastic and at many times rivals anything you would see in “pro-wrestling” considering the fact that these guys and gals are doing it in elaborate monster costumes that I am positive must be difficult to see in.

Match 1. Giii VS Tad Bradley Hawaiian Paddler

Giii hit the stage and immediately destroys some of the buildings scattered about the ring sending copious amounts of Kaiju rubble into the crowd. A new fighter Tad Bradley Hawaiian Paddler is introduced to the crowd for the first time and proceeds to win the match ending his previously undefeated opponent with a beautiful leap from the top ring on his surfboard.

Match 2. Apes of Wraths VS Sea Amigos

This is an all new championship title up for grabs called Double Danger Tandem Championship. The first fighters to capture the belts from the top of the poles in the corners of the ring will be declared the new champions. In a twist of events the Apes of Wrath’s Hell Monkey and the Sea Amigo’s D.W. Cycloptopuss III both get the belts at the same time forcing Jingi to declare a new tag team partnership "The One Eyed Monsters".

In-between the second and third match the infamous and evil Dr. Cube hits the stage to boast about his newest scheme to dominate Kaiju Big Battel, hatching a new baby Sky Deviler in the process. Click the video below for a sample of the drama.

Match 3. Pedro Plantain VS the evil Silver Potato

Declared an Amazon street fight it’s an anything goes battle between Pedro and evil Silver Potato. During the match Dr. Cube brings out the reanimated corpse of Pedro’s brother Pablo to add to the chaos. Powa Ranjuru jumps into the ring to lend a hand and immobilizes the corpse of Pablo with fairy dust while helping Pedro to pin evil Silver Potato and wining the match. Pedro couldn’t bring himself to dismember the reanimated corpse of his brother.

Match 4. Dusto Bunny VS Super Wrong

Super Wrong recently left the Hero ranks to form his own fight team the "Yokusuka Jump Squadron" problem is no one will join his group. Dusto Bunny is nominated to bring Super Wrong back into the Hero fold. If Dusto Bunny wins the match Super Wrong goes back to the Heroes. If Super Wrong wins the match Dusto Bunny must join his new team.

Super Wrong brought a stuffed pink teddy bear as a tag team partner and Dusto Bunny agreed to the match. Midway thru the match Super Wrong tags his “partner” and throws the pink teddy bear into the ring which Dusto Bunny immediately pins. Midway thru the count an announcement is made that the driver of a Volkswagen Rabbit has left there lights on. Dusto Bunny realizes it’s his and leaves the ring to turn them off in the middle of the count.

Super Wrong puts on a pair of rabbit ears and a rabbit fur vest and impersonated Dusto Bunny pinning himself with the pink teddy bear. Just as Jingi is declaring pink teddy bear and Super Wrong the winner Dusto Bunny returns realizing he has lost the match. Despite being duped he freely dons Super Wrongs feather boas and dances out of the ring with him. No one knew Dusto Bunny could get down and dance.

Match 5. Kung-Fu Chicken Noodle Soup VS Opponent of his Choice

Kung-Fu Chicken Noodle Soup picks banned fighter Uchu Chu as his opponent. Uchu Chu brought all of Team Space Bug and a legion of The Swarm. The fight was intense but Kung-Fu Chicken Noodle Soup overcame seemingly impossible odds to defeat Uchu Chu and remain Kaiju Champion.