NY Comic Con Special Edition

Mantel was live on the floor of the New York Comic Con and – get excited – this is going to require more than one newsletter. Today we’re going to throw a bunch of cool stuff we saw at you; tomorrow we’ll have a deeper piece on three trends from NYCC that can help fill your shelves with upside. That’s right — today we have A Very Special Episode of Mail Day. 

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Last year, we noticed a bubbling up of One Piece; there was a lot of merch at the stands on the main floor. We did not, naturally, act upon any of it and were left in the dust (although later in the year we did re-sell a St. John’s ticket on a giveaway night for 3x what we paid!).

This year, the closest character we could find was Dr. Doom – a bunch of costumes, giant displays, and lots of merchandise. There was data to back it up, too – when we toured the Funko booth, which had a very cool blacklight-bathed “backyard of a haunted house” vibe, they told us the first NYCC exclusive to sell out was the Dr. Doom version with green magic(?) coming out of his hands. This one:

The Dr. Doom behind him and to the right also sold out. I’m happy to report that Funko is still making bangers and is hugely popular based on what we saw:

The very limited Lanterns weren’t sold out yet because there was a certain set of qualifications to even be able to get one — but the limited versions are selling for about $250-$500 on eBay at the moment. 

And – hey look! Eric Stonestreet!!

One final note from Funko — the “Over the Garden Wall” Pottsfield Pumpkin was (I believe) the second figure to sell out. This is an animated series from 12 years ago that has eight total episodes. But maybe it’s having a moment. 

Moving along!

I don’t claim to know everything in pop culture, so I’m still not sure what the people wearing traffic cones are from. But this was a very cool visual from the WebToon booth on the floor. Or above it, I guess!

One of my favorite stores two years running is Bull Airs. This year they had two spots – a larger footprint close to the front showing off their new Labyrinth and Fraggle Rock releases:

…as well as a couple Emmet Otter replicas:

More toward the back of the con, there was a stand selling straight merch, including this Mutant League Football re-issue:

…which I now, of course, own. 

And I am not a sneakers guy, but the Short Circuit 40th anniversary shoes had me thinking – should I find someone else who isn’t into sneakers and maybe split a pair and we each take a foot just for our shelves? Does that business exist?:

We’re going to have more on a book imprint called  Insight Editions in the “trends” newsletter – because we were introduced to a new genre of picture book that we never knew existed (shoutout to Sammie at the booth for patiently fielding all our questions about it — and we had a lot) and it’s fascinating – but they had a couple other cool things in that caught our attention. First, this Labyrinth book that looks like a VHS tape:

“I should’ve bought a copy,” I thought to myself as I walked out of the Javits Center. “No problem. I’ll order one when I get home!”

Of course, being the tastemaker that I am, I should’ve known something like this would be… sold out. Bah. NEVER LEAVE NYCC WITH CASH IN YOUR WALLET! Go back and buy the cool stuff. 

The booth also had – for those readers with toddlers to buy for – these neat Disney-licensed “Bookcessories,” which are tiny, 192-page books that fit into the accompanying rubber character holders that you can then clip onto your bags:

I clicked around on the site and it looks like only Winnie the Pooh is sold out. For now. 

Side note: The NYCC exclusive Grogu glows in the dark!

Another side note (unrelated): streamers are all over the place here with big presences. Whatnot had a giant space in the front, eBay Live had a setup. Walmart Live and TikTok Live had people in small windowed boxes, with Walmart’s being a little reminiscent of the “People Are Alike All Over” episode of The Twilight Zone. Still… the future is here, I guess!

This wasn’t for sale, but it was on display at the CCG/CSG/PMG booth – Disney money!! Maybe that’s due for a wild swing upward soon:

I discovered a really neat company called Chill Caterpillar, who make lo-fi versions of Sci-Fi movie themes, Christmas songs, and more:

I did not realize this at the time but “Sci-Fi Lofi” isn’t even released yet. They put it out early as an NYCC exclusive: 

I know the wheel says pin but we actually won stickers:

If I can do a quick aside: you meet some people at comic con booths and you walk away thinking “I really hope they do well, they’re cool and here for all the right reasons.” Chill Caterpillar was one of them. And so was DJ Ben Ha Meen, author of “Purple Haze,” which is a Jimi Hendrix “space opera” graphic novel where he wages a space battle and fights aliens:

A cool twist here is the book has the full blessing of the Hendrix estate:

The pictures may have made this edition long, so I will leave you with this. Marvel’s giant prize wheel. Because who doesn’t love giant prize wheels? 

See you tomorrow for more reporting! Including a Chinese card company and figurine company both on the verge of breaking out.