G.I. Joe Con 2012 New Orleans

[the chosen one]

anyone collecting the original joes?
you know 'mouth of doom' , '8 ropes of danger', 'mummy's tomb' etc etc
he is the guy who pioneered the 1:6 scale thing right?
just wondering...

 

[DPrime]

Looking forward to this! Wondering if Sideshow will have a presence there. Started a question to SSC VIPs asking...

Anyone know if there will be deals on the Sideshow products at JoeCon? I watched a few videos of the sales floor for Orlando 2011 and you could tell there were deals on 3 3/4" figures, but hard to tell with the 12" figures. I know the Con Exclusive stuff costs quite a bit, but no idea if "normal" product will carry a good price or a steep one.

See you all there...

Last one I went to was in '09, and I was surprised Sideshow didn't have, I don't know, SOMETHING there. I haven't heard anything about them coming down.

The sales floor is hit or miss. You would think there'd be a lot of big-ticket items there, MISB, AFA, really rare stuff. But not really. At least, not the two times I went. I guess that would change from year to year, though.

I did see some Sideshow stuff last time I went. I imagine there will be more this year. Who knows, maybe even Sideshow will send a rep...

 

[MrLawless1]

Last one I went to was in '09, and I was surprised Sideshow didn't have, I don't know, SOMETHING there. I haven't heard anything about them coming down.

The sales floor is hit or miss. You would think there'd be a lot of big-ticket items there, MISB, AFA, really rare stuff. But not really. At least, not the two times I went. I guess that would change from year to year, though.

I did see some Sideshow stuff last time I went. I imagine there will be more this year. Who knows, maybe even Sideshow will send a rep...

Thanks DPrime! I appreciate the feedback. More money for booze in the Big Easy then?

Are you going to attend?

Thanks again for the feedback....

 

[DPrime]

anyone collecting the original joes?
you know 'mouth of doom' , '8 ropes of danger', 'mummy's tomb' etc etc
he is the guy who pioneered the 1:6 scale thing right?
just wondering...

Well, this con started as a 1/6th focused thing, iirc. I remember there being quite a lot of 1/6th, though the RAH stuff (and increasingly the 25th style figures) pretty much dominates.

Thanks DPrime! I appreciate the feedback. More money for booze in the Big Easy then?

Are you going to attend?

Thanks again for the feedback....

Probably yes. I won't have a problem getting the time off, as I'll be on parental leave during that time. Myself, the wife, and the little one will probably make one big roadtrip out of the whole thing, which will be loads of fun, but probably not so much booze for me. Oh well...

There always seems to be a good mix of families and single partiers at these things, though.

 

[spazzy]

I am making a big trip out of it, at least 5 days there, probably 1-2 days at the con, going to try different foods, drink alot, and explore the area, might even get a massage!

 

[karamazov80]

This doesn't feel like the kind of thing Sideshow would send its reps to. Would probably be a waste of money, since it is 3 3/4"-centric and those folks who collect them, for the most part, seem to have a limited interest in Sideshow's Joe stuff.

 

[ProgMatinee]

I don't know...IMO that's the whole point in going to these things is to try to outreach to people that aren't already your customers.

Thats why their Disney line is thus far failing to gain traction. They've been aiming at the same collectors who already spend their money on SSC products instead of targeting new ones.

A couple thousand dollar investment for SSC to send a rep or 2 to these things might go a long way in showing the quality of their products to those that are clueless.

 

[thenammagazine]

I don't know...IMO that's the whole point in going to these things is to try to outreach to people that aren't already your customers.

Thats why their Disney line is thus far failing to gain traction. They've been aiming at the same collectors who already spend their money on SSC products instead of targeting new ones.

A couple thousand dollar investment for SSC to send a rep or 2 to these things might go a long way in showing the quality of their products to those that are clueless.

Their main focus is SDCC. They don't even go to Toyfair anymore. I'd guess that the only presence they'll have is if an affiliate is attending and planning on displaying their products. Said affiliate might also be sent gift cards to hand out as we saw at last year's WonderCon (despite the booth attendees claiming they were out of GCs when asked).

 

[karamazov80]

A couple thousand dollar investment for SSC to send a rep or 2 to these things might go a long way in showing the quality of their products to those that are clueless.

That's possible, but I see a parallel in politics. Candidates usually spend their energies targeting their base, and that's historically the best strategy for allocating resources. Again, you could be right, but they probably have $X set aside for marketing, and considering the costs of the flight, the hotel, reserving the space at the con, paying the fee to present and set up at the con, preparing for the con display, paying the salaries and other costs for folks to present info. at the con., paying to ship the stuff to put on display at the con, etc., that cost would probably go way over a couple thousand bucks.

 

[spazzy]

That would be awesome if SS was present! Would love to see statues there too!

 

[DPrime]

This doesn't feel like the kind of thing Sideshow would send its reps to. Would probably be a waste of money, since it is 3 3/4"-centric and those folks who collect them, for the most part, seem to have a limited interest in Sideshow's Joe stuff.

It's not REALLY 3 3/4" centric though. 12" collectors go there too - heck, the Club offers 12" exclusives, after all.

Even so, 3 3/4" collectors are RAH fans at heart. These are RAH characters - many would make the leap, no doubt about it. I did.

If some of these guys were actually able to see these figures and maybe even play around a bit with them, they'd bite. Very few collectors see these displayed in stores - the only stores I've seen them displayed were in Manhattan and London, England. Most GI Joe collectors never get the opportunity to see these in person.

Their main focus is SDCC. They don't even go to Toyfair anymore. I'd guess that the only presence they'll have is if an affiliate is attending and planning on displaying their products. Said affiliate might also be sent gift cards to hand out as we saw at last year's WonderCon (despite the booth attendees claiming they were out of GCs when asked).

They should at LEAST do that. Just book a table and set up some products, hang around and have fun!

 

[thenammagazine]

That's possible, but I see a parallel in politics. Candidates usually spend their energies targeting their base, and that's historically the best strategy for allocating resources. Again, you could be right, but they probably have $X set aside for marketing, and considering the costs of the flight, the hotel, reserving the space at the con, paying the fee to present and set up at the con, preparing for the con display, paying the salaries and other costs for folks to present info. at the con., paying to ship the stuff to put on display at the con, etc., that cost would probably go way over a couple thousand bucks.

It does cost more than a couple thousand dollars. You need people there. They need to drive and fly (you can't pack more than 2 people into a rental truck). There's gas to consider. Hotel, food, etc. We spent over $5k getting 4 guys down to SoCal for Weekend of Heroes. If you don't garner $5k in return as a result, while it's always cool meeting your fan base, it's just not realistically cost effective. The sad truth is, that's money wiser spent on web presence and media advertising. You'd go a hell of a lot farther dropping that $5k on a celebrity endorsement.

 

[thenammagazine]

They should at LEAST do that. Just book a table and set up some products, hang around and have fun!

Then they'd have to do that at Celebration, and BlizzCon, and E3 and Weekend of Horrors, etc. See where this is going?

 

[DPrime]

Then they'd have to do that at Celebration, and BlizzCon, and E3 and Weekend of Horrors, etc. See where this is going?

lol, yeah yeah.

They don't go to Celebration, either, eh?

I don't know, still seems weird to me.

 

[thenammagazine]

lol, yeah yeah.

They don't go to Celebration, either, eh?

I don't know, still seems weird to me.

Their excuse at the time was cutting back to save overhead. With the way prices are increasing, I'd hate to see what they would've cost had SSC still been attending all the shows.

 

[Kozin]

There wasn't much as far as Sideshow product goes. Cotswold Collectibles had a few, and another vendor, who specialized in large display cases had some as well. I bought a Cobra Throne from him and Red Ninja from Cots.

The Disney Joe Con was a great time. Yes, it's becoming more 3 & 3/4" driven, but there was a decent number of 12" vendors.

I'm on the fence about going. I went to the Con when it was in NOLA after Katrina. My apologies to the folks here that live there, but I was pretty disappointed in visiting. There was a lot of price gouging, 95% of the residents were abusive to tourists, it was dirty, 75% of things were closed and I was just not happy with it. I get it was after a life changing event, but you would think that business owners would welcome a tourist's dollars.

John

 

[DPrime]

I'm on the fence about going. I went to the Con when it was in NOLA after Katrina. My apologies to the folks here that live there, but I was pretty disappointed in visiting. There was a lot of price gouging, 95% of the residents were abusive to tourists, it was dirty, 75% of things were closed and I was just not happy with it. I get it was after a life changing event, but you would think that business owners would welcome a tourist's dollars.

Yeah, but that was almost right after Katrina. I've heard bad things about that particular con too, but all things considered...

Things can only have changed for the better since then.

 

[spazzy]

I am still going to try and go for a day or 2, but my plan to go 5-6 days is not going to happen for my 10 year anniversary, I am not a guy that is constantly worried or weak looking I am 6'3" 280, and have the military stare locked down, but after viewing crime mapping.com the crime rate is too high for me to be comfortable walking around at all hrs of the day, and I don't want to be looking over my shoulder every 10 seconds or be restricted to certain areas, to me it is not worth the extended stay. (17 homicides in the past few months)

So I am changing my vacation to Vegas, been there before but really comfortable there and lots of entertainment, I was thinking of disneyworld/Universal or even Atlantis Bahamas but 4-5 days in a decent hotel would pay for flight and 7 days in a deluxe room at a 5 star hotel, plus some extra. To me a no brainer, I am bummed if I miss Joecon, but worse case scenario I just pay the over inflated price of a carded exclusive I did for Dial Tone, I just won't wait as long this time.

 

[Chainsaw]

So any speculation/news on what the exclusives will be this year? Dial tone was the coolest and I was lucky enough to grab one off of the bay after Joecon. I hope that they have another figure with the 25th card for my collection.

 

[spazzy]

I know they are putting the Joe membership Footloose on a 25th card, not sure if it will be for Joe con though, I wish I bought Dial Tone at $150 but thought that was really expensive, then it started to get really high luckily I found that and Mickey Mouse Cobra Commander for $250 shipped, now Dial tone is going for over $400, which is really crazy, glad I got mine secured.