Five Points Festival Photos

As mentioned in the last post, I went to the Five Points Festival in Brooklyn yesterday, which is an event based around indy toys and art. I always wanted to go to just look at stuff and maybe pony up for a toy or two) and the tipping point to go was to meet up with Sam Heimer from H&H Toys (we've never met before) and with Roger H. who was working the Marusan table and who I haven't seen pre-pandemic). It was fun, there wasn't a ton of new or obscure stuff I was knocked out by but I could have easily dropped a thousand bucks if it was mine to drop. 

I did buy two things for myself even though I promised myself I wouldn't spend anything after I got a ticket for my car's lapsed registration last week (and bought the Taschen History oif EC book that was on sale but was still expensive). But I succumbed. seeing some things in person and being able to avoid shipping charges and just wanting something cute to add to the escapism collection. I got two figures I've always liked seeing on Instagram, a Morris ("The Cat With Antlers") figure by Kaori Hinata (I bought it from My Plastic heart, I don't know if they make them or just sell them --?) and a Mashu (the Onesie Cat) by Asaku Kubo, made by Marusan. And I picked up a few Tokidoki blind boxes for Sarah (and got effing doubles on the two sitting Unicornos I picked up, guh!) , 

I didn't take many photos, most of them are included in this post. Tara McPherson's booth was the centerpiece and biggest display of the show, I haven't been aware of how huge her brand and line is now. Multiple figures, scores of prints, postcard sets, books, etc. Impressive as hell. I was tempted to buy a few things from the Super 7 booth, I didn't realize they had a full Toho line that just dropped, they were down to Rodan and one Mecha-Godzilla by Sunday, but they sold before I got back around. Which was good for me, I guess. And I forgot I wanted to buy the little Creature From the Black lagoon figure based on the old Azrak Hamway toy. I had that toy as a kid and it was one of my absolute favorite things. The original figures are way beyond my reach, price-wise, so this would be a nice replacement. Only I forgot to buy one. Also probably for the best, for the time being, at least. I did come home with a batch of H&H Mythos figures I didn't have, and Roger H. gave me an old Kitaro figure of a kappa that looks like it has a Banpresto sticker on the card. I love anything Kitaro so that was super cool of him. I owe Roger an Ultraman kaiju commission (Miclas/Micuras) after I finish up the old list. I will post that when it's done for any Ultra-7 fans on the Patreon (besides us). 

Sunday was definitely the day to go if you weren't trying to snag anything in particular, the venue was lousy and had no air conditioning, Saturday was apparently crowded and very hot and kind of miserable. Sunday was slow, like most Sunday events, which was a bummer for vendors but good for someone like me who was there to hang out and look at stuff. It was a large space with high ceilings and ventilation form the open delivery docks, so I wasn't super worried about Covid (I wore my mask most of the time, anyway). Not much happened to mention, people were nice and i tend to not engage with people behind the table because I feel weird if I'm not buying anything, I tend to walk past tables at events slowly with my head on the stuff. I avoided the live painting stuff, there was a live band that was perfectly awful so perfectly awful live music is still alive and well, the DJ'd music wasn't up my alley and too loud. I didn't check out the food trucks but the venue had overpriced hipster food and what looked like the weakest overpriced beer outside a Triple-A baseball stadium. I ate when I got home, I spent too much already for the day. 

If you look at the photos you will see Roger H. proposing to the one-eyed lady from the Sunguts table. That mask freaked me out, I think she wore it most of the time, too. 

I had a good time, though. It was nice to get out of the house (for the second time in three days/second time to a public event since the pandemic hit). I've been pretty depressed lately and I needed time away from the studio and the house. I'm increasingly aware of how stressed I get traveling to unfamiliar places and meeting people I don't know, so I'm glad I made the choice to go out on Friday and Sunday. It was good talking to folks and just seeing things, just walking around Brooklyn (I got lost twice, even using a map on the phone, I always get lost) and being on the ferry was nice (can't get lost, for one thing).  I might be seeing two old friends on Thursday in Manhattan. I might just collapse from all this activity.