Monday, March 21, 2011

Edmonton Nerdapalooza

Yesterday was the Edmonton Collectible and Toy Show at the Shaw Conference Centre. It is an annual event where shopkeeps and independent nerds bring their comics, toys and pop culture collectibles to sell and be seen.

These shows are typically a lot of fun. There's all kinds of crazy crap and voyeurs dressed up and showing off. This year I had to attend earlier than I liked, around 10am, as I had a rec-hockey game that afternoon. It's best to go in early to mid afternoon as all the crazies with their cosplay are out rather than first thing in the morning.

The booths and displays were similar to last year and largely not too impressive with the exception of the Akira art and the dude that did velvet portraits of nerd icons. This year the big draw was the celebrity in the house. The one and only Levar Burton (aka - Geordi Laforge, and the host of the Reading Rainbow). Additionally the wrestling twin brothers from different mothers, The Dudley Boys were in the building.

As I have no patience, I never bothered to wait in line for an autograph. Instead I just sidled up as close as possible and snapped a few pics.

There were a few people in costume when I was there, but they weren't too impressive. Not like when I was at Calgary's comic show.  However, I was thankful to see the Star Wars people out in full effect.

I'm thinking having storm troopers guard recycling bins won't help the Shaw eco programs.
R2D2 was pivoting around making sounds and then stopped to pose for me. Such a nice droid.
Some cool designs and models used as props in movies and games displayed at the show.
And of course being that it is a "toy" show there were some pretty cool vendor displays.
Seriously though, who has that many my little pony's?
 I'm currently shopping around for a couple omnibus collections (Ex Machina, Daredevil) and some obscure older titles (xombi) but I couldn't find any deals at the show. Of course I didn't walk away empty handed. I picked up 3 trades and some cool pins that you may see in a future post.
That Jonah Hex book (The Six Gun War) is seriously bad ass.

Overall, it was a good time. If anything, it actually just got me even more excited to go back to Calgary this year. For those looking to go from Edmonton check out my favorite local comic book shop, the Happy Harbour, and get on the cruiser.

1 comment:

S said...

Wayyy late to the party on this one, but how'd the Legion treat ya?