From: wang@ocf.berkeley.edu (Albert Sze-Wei Wang)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.anime
Subject: San Diego ComicCon
Date: 18 Aug 1992 00:30:54 GMT
Organization: U. C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
NNTP-Posting-Host: bigbang.berkeley.edu
Summary: Models and the San Diego ComicCon

In article <1992Aug17.081024.7299@cs.uow.edu.au> u8902989@cs.uow.edu.au
(Chung Ming Liu) writes:


>Also release of AGX-04 GERBERA-TETRA  (Is it a G-Kit or Model kit ?)
>                MS-14F GELGOOG-Marine ( "        "              "  )
>		RX-78 GP03 DENDROBIUM (Is it an offical product? How much ?)


The AGX-04 Gerbera Tetra is a model kit.  When I was down in San Diego at the
ComicCon I picked it up with the RX-78 GP03S "Stamen."  Pony Toys was selling
all their 1/144 models from Bandai (with exception of the larger models of
course :) ) for $12.  Both models are really REALLY nice and they keep
getting better and better.  One of my friends who built the RX-78 GP03S has
stated that that model was the best one he's built.  He also bought a AGX-04
Gerbera Tetra at the con.  I'll find out how he compares it to the RX-78
GP03S.  As for me, I've got some building to do after I recover from what
appears to be the flu which I believe I caught when a group of us went down
to Tijuana.  There are deals to be made in Tijuana from many of the street 
venders.  Of interest were marble chess sets and marble carvings of animals.

Things I saw at the convention included tons of comic shops, a couple of
places selling cels, one run by a group of guys ripping people left and
right.  Mikado was there, Laser Perceptions was there, Streamline, CPM,
Books Nippon, LA Hero, and A-girl were all there.  At the CPM table, Neil
was gracious enough to show us their dubbed Dominion and I can say with
satisfaction that it was pretty damn good.  The only voice I had a little 
problem with was Leona's, but all in all after getting used to it it was
surprisingly not that bad.  I found myself laughing at the jokes in the film
and not at the dubbing job.  These Europeans aren't half bad.  Yay for England!

	Finds at the convention included Vance Hu's rendition of Amuro's Nu
Gundam and Char's Sazabi in the classic confrontation pose.  Poster prints
of Vance's cel work were made into limited edition posters and on sale at
the convention for $15.  The poster is larger than normal posters and was 
printed on really REALLY thick poster board-paper.  The art was pretty 
impressive and the colors really rich.  Eldon at Laser Perceptions was
selling them and moving them for $20 a piece!  Two other dealers were
carrying them including a professional studio that does professional art work
for movie companies in promotional and production work.  Their work was
impressive and they were also selling anime cels at FAIR prices on the side.
I picked up a Bubble Gum Crisis 2 cel of Irene and a Bubble Gum Crisis 4
cel of Priss on the Highway Star.  They had cels from Gundam 0080, Gundam
0083, Z Gundam, Bubble Gum Crisis 1-4, Megazone 23, Iczer One, Kiki, City
Hunter, and a few others I can't remember off hand. Prices ranged from $10
to $150 for the Miyazaki cels to up to $350 for matted oversized cels used
in pans from Gundam 0083.  Their selection was much less than the other
vender in the dealer room selling their cels from between $60 and $500 and
most of them were mediocre at best.  Some people could stomach buying OK
Madoka cels for $120 but I most certainly couldn't.

I found San Diego an extremely organized convention, the people were polite
and if I dare say probably the most organized convention I have ever seen.
If it wasn't for the warm and humid weather, I would have to say that San
Diego was a fairly enjoyable experience, getting to meet John Davenport and
Lee Oath again.

In summary I found the San Diego ComicCon a dealer's dream land and with 
such competition deals were to be found.  I had a wonderful time meeting
people, including parties at the Last Resort with the Animag-ers (of which
I am one), representatives from Sunrise, John O'Donnell from CPM, Robert 
Napton from Books Nippon, and Ken and his folks from LA Hero.  We were all
excited to see friends again and had a blast of a time.  

I had an opportunity to meet William Chow and his friends from Vancouver and
thank him for his hospitality.  We were all playing the Ranma Game and Street
Fighter II all night Wednesday!  My apologies for not being able to bug you 
guys more, but other parties the subsequent nights had unfortunately pulled 
me away.  :) 

My special thanks go to Buichi Terasawa and Junco Ito and it was great seeing
them both again and being able to talk to them again.


Albert

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