Thursday July 23, 2009. The day I have been waiting and saving my money for was finally here. Pushead & Mike Sutfin signing at the Toy Tokyo booth. I was definitely excited the moment I woke up that day.
We got to the Con at about 7:30 am. We knew from last year that we had to get to the parking garages early or else we would have to walk quite a distance to get to the convention center. As soon as we got in, we decided to just sit it out and not even bother lining up. Waiting till the exhibit hall doors opened, Maddie and I were just discussing the events of preview night and what to expect at the Pushead event.
About an hour later, I get a text from Heng (baronacasino) asking if we were already inside. Maddie likes to tease me about my friendship with Heng calling it a "bromance". lol Heng and I pretty much talk to each other on AIM a lot, about nothing but toys, both Western and Japanese. If there's anyone to blame for my transition to J-vinyl, it would be Heng. I have to thank him though, because if he didn't open my eyes to J-vinyl, I would still be collecting what I now consider to be mediocre toys.
After meeting up with Heng, we pretty much hung out the rest of the day until the time of the Pushead event. As we walked around, everybody we knew was looking forward to the signing as well. Most of them knew Heng already, so thats how I pretty much met a bunch of other Skull Brainers who were waiting just like us. I got to meet rhinomilk and I believe Arin C. from the boards. We got together and pretty much hung around the Toy Tokyo booth just waiting in anticipation.
We all headed over to the Onell Design booth, because Paul Kaiju let us know about a toy release that him, L'amour Supreme and Dead Presidents all collaborated on. When we got there it was already set out on the table. Our buddy Connell picked up a set and took some great pics.
The Millenal Masters Dia Kaiju Card Monsters Set. I took some pics but they came out blurry. Connell's pics on his FLICKR page are a lot better and you can also see each individual figure that the artists painted. I believe each set was different from the rest, so no two sets were alike. I considered picking these up, but you know I had to save my money for what was coming up in a few hours. Heng and I ended up going back to wait near Toy Tokyo while everyone went on to do their own thing.
When we got there, we could already see Pushead & Mike chatting and hanging out with people. Me and Heng had a little "conversation" with Pushead. (More like me and Heng were ear hustling while Pushead was talking to Chris Trevino. LMAO). Heng and I were seriously geeking out after hearing what Pushead said. We went to sit down with Maddie and just wait it out. At that time we met up with BobDuher and Henry (not Jordan23) and just hung out, while watching the crew bring in boxes which we knew had nothing but goodies. Around the 2:30 pm the madness had begun.
A group of us went over to start picking our numbers for our place in line. If you weren't part of this group, or had no idea what was going on, you really had no business being there until 4:00 pm. We all lined up to take our turns picking numbers. When I got up to the front, I reached in and pulled my number, 36. At the time I was pulling my number, Jon was talking to Lorne, so he didn't see what number I had. Jokingly, Ryan (melek_taus) told me to "Put it back, he's not looking...". XD
Being the person I am, I couldn't do that so I just waited till Jon was done talking with Lorne and showed him the number I pulled. Afterwards, he gave me the Crowsnest Copa FHP 4 Captain I pre-ordered and the special bandana for us. If this was just the exclusive for the signing, I could only imagine what the hand paints looked like once they were revealed.
After the group pretty much picked out their numbers, we all got together showing what numbers we picked to one another. I knew my number was pretty far back in the line, but I was hoping to be one of the lucky ones who wins the raffle and moves up in the line. I got to met Stealthtank for the first time as he came over to say what's up to Heng and I. We ended up talking about the recent EVO championships that happened the weekend before SDCC. We also congratulated him on planning to open up a brick and mortar store in Florida. At that time he also let us know that the Florida store that Super 7 was opening up was his. After chatting a bit more, all of us caught a glimpse of the crew getting ready to unveil the case of goodies. We could already see some cool production figures at the bottom.
Oh man was I excited. Before the unveiling, the raffle began. The winners were given a small booty sack which I believe had the GID Skull Captain with hook arm. My number wasn't picked for the first three spots, so I was hoping to be the wild card. Pushead brought out an envelope and told us being this is the 40th Anniversary, the number 40 was significant, so whoever that was ended up being the first in line. Congrats to PusAddict, as I know he was stoked to find out to be the first in line. Pus handed him a bigger booty sack, and Kirkland said as tradition, he was to open it in front of everyone. As soon as he opened, my eyes jumped out of my head. He had gotten not only a GID Hook Captain, but also a GID Bird Catcher and unpainted Journey Pirate. NICE!!!!
As soon as they unveiled the case, all you heard from the crowd was "OHHHHHH!!!!". Everybody began looking inside to see all the hand paints. My jaw literally dropped as I saw the Cococroc, and Stipple Captains and Pirates. The top shelf had some HSP-X Pirates and other production figures, such as the silver KvP Companion, and Circus Punk. (As much as I love Pus' artwork, I still fuckin' hate the Circus Punk platform, bleh).
The Croc and Stipples were on the second shelf. Below them were a bunch of hand painted Captains. Below those were the Bop Dragon/ Mini Damnedron sets Mike painted, which were followed by the Entity 13's he painted on the lower shelf. And on the last shelf, we had more Pushead production pieces. I tried my best to take pics, but it was difficult to get any decent angles because I was behind a table preventing people cutting in line. I only managed to get a decent pic of the hand paint Captains, but the angle sucks.
Even though the angle sucks, it did pretty much capture the best part of the HP Captains which is their backs. Alright, now that I've seen the goods, two things went through my mind:
1. HOLY SHIT!! These customs are fucking sick!!!
2. Fuck....I don't think any hand paints will be left once I get up there. =P
Well, I won't know till I get up there, so I stayed in line to see what happens. Stealthtank tried to cheer me up telling me that he was actually number 40-something two years back, and was still able to pick up a hand paint, so he said there still might be hope. That's all I needed to feel good about my chances.
As the line went one by one, the people already done choosing what they wanted came over to the rest of the people in line to show what they picked up. Kngwiz was kind enough to come over to us poor saps in the back of the line to show what he picked up. I remember him showing us his Bop/Damn set, which IMO was the best one there, and also the HSP-X Pirate he picked up as well. I couldn't help myself anymore, and was just dying to see what I could possibly pick up. Once I got in front of the case, pretty much all the HP's were almost gone except for the ones Mike did. I was happy to hear that there were some HP's that were not showcased, and if purchased they will be shipped to you. Awesome, I might have chance. Unfortunately, the guy in front of me bought the last one. NOOOOOOOO!!!!
Oh well, its all good. You win some, you lose some. I still had a chance to pick up some of the HP's Mike did. After getting a good look at them, I really did like the Bop Dragons, but not so much the mini dams. I didn't want to spend all my money on something that I wasn't going to be completely happy with. Next, I took a look at the Entity 13's. These weren't too bad, I really had my eyes on the one that had crows on it. It also had a anime-ish girl painted on the front, so that also caught my eye as I'm a big anime fan. The only thing that held me back was the Entity 13 itself. Not a big fan of the sculpt, and to be honest, if anything I want a Sutfin HP Bop more than anything. Instead, I came away with these.
The two FHP's I've been hunting for the longest time! Definitely stoked on these, as they both came with their bandanas, signed tags, pins and stickers. On top of that, I also got them for retail. They're no HPs, but I'm still happy with what I came away with. Definite score for me!!
After completing my purchases, I went back to Maddie and Heng to show 'em what I got. Maddie felt bad that I didn't get a HP, but I told her it was alright. There's always a next time, and hopefully then I'll be able to score one that I'll really like.
Well, like I said on preview night, I needed a backup plan if I didn't score a HP. With that said, I had to have this. Seriously, I was tired of passing on it every time I saw it.
This Kaizer Head has got to be the best to date IMO. The metallic red on this bad boy is amazing. It's so bright and vibrant. Mori-san was there when I picked it up, and he recognized both me and Madeline from the preview night dinner. He shook both of our hands and said thank you. I gave him a thumbs up on his new Mutant Zone Series 3 figures, and told him I couldn't wait to see more. I could have bought more, but I was planning once again to hold out for another signing on Friday. Either I would be able to pick up a custom from Itokin Park's signing or L'amour Supreme's signing.
Pretty much called it a day for toy purchases.
We headed back over to the Toy Tokyo booth to wait for Mike Sutfin's mini session. Here we thought it was just going to be a signing and I figured Mike would also have maybe a special something for purchase. As the time came, he began to pull out some HP Pharoahs Babys. These were pretty neat, as he did an awesome job painting them. Like I said earlier though. I only want and HP Bop. Mike still has some of these available on his website. What I didn't expect, was this awesome prototype.
Mad Battle Man by Mike Sutfin. GAWD DAMN it's huge!!! I know it's just a proto, so its made big to account for shrinkage. We were told though, that it will still be about 9.5 inches tall. Awesome. Cannot wait to see the finished product, especially when it gets all painted up. And you know we'll obviously see some HPs in the future as well.
By this time, Maddie and I were starving. I only had an apple the whole day. I guess my energy for the day came from my anxiety, but as soon as the event was over, I was getting incredibly hungry. We called it a day, said peace to everyone we met and told them we'll see them tomorrow. We were seriously hungry, and the only place we knew where we could get a good amount of food for both of us was one place, Hooters. XD Maddie and I love chicken wings and we gotta say, Hooters has some pretty good ones. After eating, we headed to the hotel, and pretty much like the last night, looked over our haul and talked about the day at the con. Watched a bit of television and got a good night sleep for our last day at the con.
