It's always a little sad when I have to write this post because it means that NYCC is in the rear view... it's such a huge explosion of an event, we run at super high energy, get very little sleep, get frazzled and fried and hurt and sick... coming down afterwards is always an exercise in perspective and big-picture thought.
NYCC 2016 absolutely rocked for us in so many ways. As you can see above, the show starts early. Way early for us. By the time you buy your tickets, we've already set most of our exclusives in place with artists and are working with them and our staff to plan everything out. In fact, I am planning NYCC 2017 right now. I already know a couple artists I'll be working with. Above is my first run to the Javits in the van. I tend to bring in the Tenacious goods as well as the furniture and also some of the goods being sold by our Collective members.
After that hectic day, we start setting up. This show we had fancy ass lighting by High End Systems, care of
Scott Kinnebrew. Also pictured is
Brian Ahlbeck who was essential staff for not only us but other booths as well. Brian (
Dead Hand Toys) helped me build the Resin Is King Series 3 boxes and was also on hand during setup.
Jess Smiley was also on hand to help us set up and run the booth.
It's a big booth, and although smaller than last year, there seemed to be an equally large amount of setup. This year our booth included our own (
Tenacious Toys) corner, plus a corner for
Bigshot Toyworks and
Klim Kozinevich, a corner for
Jon Schnepp and
Holly Payne (
Schneppzone) and a corner for
Nugglife and
Ian Ziobrowski. Bigshot debuted a number of sweet new collectibles like the Freeny Anatomy Metal Gnome statue, the Southern Friend Gentleman statue, and the Mother Earth art object by AngryBlue. Bigshot also showcased a wide array of past projects, from art toys to 1:6-scale figures to home goods to corporate mascots and much more. Jon Schnepp was selling his The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened? DVDs, plus posters, puzzles, prints and we snuck in a few signed Space Ghost POPs into his mix. Nugglife debuted their new streetwear line, including shorts, caps, sweatshirts and more, plus Ian's fantastic custom toys and collectibles.
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| Klim and the larger Bigshot display case with all past projects in it |
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| Jon Schnepp and the Schneppzone |
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| Nugglife |
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| Klim talking to Norm from Tested.com |
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| Bigshot Toyworks smaller display |
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| Schnepp is always game for a photo op |
Once the show got going, we relied heavily on a number of staff to help us run the booth. In no particular order, here are the people that made our show happen for Tenacious Toys:
Jackie as always had the booth locked down and took care of me so that I could stay functioning and without her, we'd all crumble and die.
Felix aka
Cat Atomic and his girlfriend both helped a ton straight through from beginning to end;
Cash Cannon helped a ton;
Alex Rivera helped run the both and signed for us;
UNCLE Studio manned the booth most of the show and kept us all laughing;
Scott Kinnebrew helped set up and run the booth, lights, signed, and also helped tear down;
Jason Chalker helped run the booth and signed for us;
Jon Malmstedt flew in from Japan to be on hand for a Rampage Toys signing;
Jacob JAMS signed and pops
Matt took photos;
Kym and
Beatrice both made the leap from customers to staff, jumping into to help run the booth and staying on hand for days even though they didn't have to.
Rufus came in to sign in our booth alongside the elusive
Renone, who is not pictured below. Renone also brought his wife and son along for the ride, and I made a real attempt to get him on stage at the DTAs but as it turns out, I didn't get to present that category.
Jason Freeny and
Kendra came in for a signing and the release of the Brick Babies (proud papa);
Steven Cartoccio and his girlfriend were on hand the whole show to help show off and talk about his Frankpool piece and also helped work the booth;
We got to see
Gary Rozanski, KaNO, Frank Kozik, a few friends from
Marvel, met contacts from
Smooth-On,
Juan Muniz, Miss Zukie, Jason Sutton, Anthony Respect, Shane from Art Whino, Lev from Toy Tokyo, Dov from DKE, Tom from Sidekick Labs, Norm from Tested.com, Rachelle from Forbes.com, Itay from Israel, and a whole slew of customers new and old who came by, said hello, bought stuff and in general made it a complete whirlwind of awesome.
Below I'll place all the rest of our pics in no particular order. Our booth style is what I like to refer to as "clusterfuck" so yes, it's messy, busy and looks disorganized, but I assure you, it's all planned out down to the number of products present in the booth on any given day.
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| Respect to Martian Toys for supporting the scene... they even helped bring our stuff to the van after the show ended |
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| It's says "cake" so relax |
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| Our friend Cash Cannon |
Special shout out to my gorgeous wife who, thankfully, was on hand this year to help run the booth. I couldn't have done it without her, she keeps everything in line, including me. She created a fancy book that allowed us to show off and keep inventory on all of our exclusives, kept me smiling when I got tired, and made sure I was well fed and rested.
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| Gorgeous wife w awesome NEMO dig figure from RIKS3 |
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| Happy customer got the Rich Page RIKS3 figure |
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| Smooth-On bought some Resin Is King figures! |
Basically, it was wild, fun show. The booth was full of friends, associates and good times. We all did really well and we are currently paying out artists which is part of why I didn't write more in this post - I gotta get back to that important task.
All remaining
NYCC exclusives will go up for sale
on our NYCC 2016 page here. Some of them are already available!
Go check now! More will go up for sale by end of day Friday.
Huge huge thank you to all staff, customers, ReedPOP, the Javits Center and everyone who made this show special. Big shout to Clutter for another wonderful Designer Toy Awards show. See y'all at DCon in November at the Bigshot booth, Five Points in NYC in the spring, and back here at NYCC next October!
