NYCC 2015 Wrap Up

photo by Matt Siegelbaum / Strongtreeimages.com

Well, another successful New York Comic Con is in the books!

This was a HUGE show and a huge booth for us and it would not have been possible without all the help we received. There’s no fucking way one person could run a 600-square-foot NYCC booth without a LOOOOOT of help. I have a lot of people to thank:

First off, thank you to our boothmates / collective members for bringing the FIRE and making Booth 208 the most vibrant, varied and unique booth in The Block. We probably have more going on in our booth every year than any other booth in the block, just in terms of volume and variety of unique items, and the number of artists presenting their work. Tenacious Toys alone had about 30 exclusive items. The entire booth together had maybe 100+ exclusives, depending on what you call an exclusive.

Our collective this year included us (Tenacious Toys), Furry Feline Creatives, Hungryghost, Cash/Alex/Arsenal of Artists, ManlyArt was there in spirit but due to a personal situation, he backed out and was replaced by ArqSpin, Ian Ziobrowski (Nugglife), Suburban Vinyl, Bigshot Toyworks and Jon Schnepp/Holly Payne. Original art, custom toys, resin figures, production vinyl toys, prototypes, a couple celebrities and even a custom Tequila show. All in the same booth.

Our AWESOME booth staff included: Jackie Candelier, Michele Kerzner, Joseph Rios, Danny Wilkes and Kris Dulfer all took turns watching over the booth and the register, and Tavvon Reynolds and Joshua (Pickman’s Vinyls) both showed up and sat behind the table for solid hours and/or days without me asking them to, which was incredibly helpful.

Aki Solomos and his brother stayed late after wrapping up the Furry Feline space and helped us pack up and load up, along with Jackie, Joshua, Joseph, Michele and Michele’s BF. I can’t tell you how helpful it is to have a large group of people who actually stick around as late as we need them to on Sunday night. Sunday is a HUGELY stressful day for me - after working an entire day of NYCC, we then pack up the entire booth in a matter of hours. This is a booth we spent 2 full days setting up, so all those hands and all that help is so very important to me. In the past, Kris and I have been FUCKED by people taking off early, and we are stuck unloading by ourselves at 1AM. Actually… in the past NEMO has stayed late to help and also in another year VISEone stayed with me till 1AM. But having 2 people pack an entire booth is not fun. Having 8 people is way better. We finished packing up before 8PM this year. WIN!

I’d like to thank all the artists who created beautiful artwork and custom and resin figures that made the Tenacious Booth shine:
- Abe Lincoln Jr
- Colin “Big C” Hoffman
- ETC Toys
- Forces of Dorkness
- Jacob JAMS
- Jon-Paul Kaiser
- KiD iNK iNDUSTRiES
- Matt Anderson & MaloApril
- Matt “Obscure” Perez
- Mike Die & Melodreama
- Enthusiasta Gallery
- Mr Munk
- Mike “NEMO” Mendez
- Patrick Wong
- RSIN
- Pickman’s Vinyls
- Playful Gorilla
- Rampage Toys & Skullheadbutt
- Renone Labs
- Sekure D
- Sucklord
- Taylored Curiosities
- Tru Slithers
- UME Toys
- Wuz One

I’d also like to thank the following companies for working with us: Carbonation Toys for sending over some Fizz Kids and prints, ArqSpin for lending the ENTIRE booth their turntables for display of toys, which are so tight and awesome that I am going to bring some to DCon with Bigshot, and MightyJaxx for supplying us with Jason Freeny products for our signing.

I want to give a special thank-you to Alex Cohen of ReedPOP who made sure our operation was running smoothly, stopping by several times to chat and see if he could be of assistance.

Shout outs to Pickman’s Vinyls and my neighbor Megan for both bringing me Grande Starbucks with soy and no sugar, as i desperately needed caffeine infusion.

Super thanks again to Jackie who took time off of her REAL FUCKING JOB where she runs shit, to hang out with us freaks and weirdos, watch over our register, help customers, and she even brought me a sammich from Lenny’s every day so I didn’t faint at 12:30pm, which I tend to do if I don’t have a sammich. Honestly Jackie I could not have done it without you, esp with Steph out of town.

More super thanks to Leslie who took care of Tiny the Wonder Pitbull during NYCC so she wouldn’t have to hold her water for 16 hours. Another person without which I could not have actually run the NYCC booth.

Thank you to my childhood friend Emily, the closest thing to a sister that I have, for sending over one of the NY Times reporters to film me talking about cosplay at NYCC and get me up on the New York Times site with “Tenacious Toys” and my name written out on-screen. Also thanks to Sci-Fi Ninja Theater, Cotton Candy Machine, Big Kev's Geek Stuff, and The Ultimate Toy Collector for interviewing me! On that note, big thanks to GO Figure News and the now-award-winning Toy Chronicle for partnering with me on delivering my exclusive content to their readers. Hope we got them a little taste of the NYCC experience.

Congrats to my buddy, booth mate and employer Klim of Bigshot Toyworks for WINNING a DTA award for Best DIY for All City Style! A 10-year overnight success story! And also for helping develop/produce Jermaine Rogers’ Choices, which ALSO won a DTA award.

And on that note, big ups to Miranda, Josh, Nick and all the other people who both ran the huge Clutter booth with, quite frankly, some of the best NYCC exclusives, and THEN went and ran the Designer Toy Awards on Saturday night. Not to mention, putting out the biggest and best issue of Clutter I’ve ever seen, FREE to attendees. Running shit like bosses.

Oh, and huge congrats to Ian Ziobrowski, another booth mate and another DTA award winner. Basically, our booth DESTROYED it at NYCC, and we did it with smiles and only a few near-fistfights!

Finally, the BIGGEST thank you of all: thank you to all of you, for attending NYCC, stopping by the booth, purchasing products, and giving us tons of smiles, high fives and positivity. I am allergic to negativity in this scene, I refuse to deal with it. So thank you for all the positivity, as that is what I am trying to cultivate amongst the East Coast crew that surrounds us.

It was a stellar show. I have yet to take a real break, still doing accounting, sending payments, sending boxes out to various people and companies, and trying to wrap shit up in general. This blog post is part of that wrap-up process.

We have a ONE WEEK ordering window set up for our leftover exclusives and we’ve sold a bunch already so get your orders in this week please.

We will ship next week and then Steph and I are going to DisneyWorld. Literally, we are taking our first vacation in 10 years together to Disney in late October/early Nov so Tenacious Toys will be inactive during that time. Shipping resumes early November and then I am preparing for a big showing at DCon, working in the Bigshot Toyworks booth! Launching something new there so pay attention. Somewhere in that time, also, the Four Horsies of the ‘Pocalypse figures will arrive and I will be shipping those out to backers alongside Kris Dulfer, so the next 8 weeks are highly regimented and planned, with spotty communication.

See you at DCon, or online, or at NYCC next year! I am already planning NYCC 2016 so get ready for another level up between now and then.


Much love from NYC.



- Benny Kline