Cryptic Collectibles
Cryptic Collectibles: Monstrous Memorabilia at Toronto Comic Con!
The Direct Energy Centre was host this past weekend to the Wizard World Toronto Comic Con and I dropped by the event to see what kind of terrifying toys and monstrous movie memorabilia was available for purchase.
Various terrifying toys: BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA 2-figure set, NECA Freddy Krueger snow globes, THE THING playsets, Clive Barker Tortured Souls and TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 12" figures.
THE THING playset (with McCready and "assimilated" dog figures), SOTA Toys.
Being the impatient person I am, I headed over to the con on Friday afternoon, shortly after the event opened. As expected, the crowds were fairly light for that first evening – which makes for a pretty relaxed experience when browsing around the dealers’ booths and various set-ups. Of course, Saturday is always the busiest day for events such as these and the number of convention-goers picked up considerably from the night before.
Among the horror and monster-themed items for sale were various action figures, model kits, plush dolls, t-shirts and these great handmade masks of such horror heavyweights as Jason, Freddy and Michael Myers.
Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, Jason and more: A collection of handmade masks from the terrifyingly talented folks at THE DEVILS LATEX!
Though I didn’t find any of the new Bif Bang Pow! Twilight Zone Mego-styled action figures I was looking for, I did manage to unearth a lot of great vintage horror and monster-themed comic books and magazines. Just look at the spectacularly beautiful artwork on these!
Vintage Gold Key BORIS KARLOFF and DARK SHADOWS Comic Books. Such amazing cover artwork!
After some more searching, I came away with a few other creeptastic comics, including these:
THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU comic book, MARVEL, 1977 and DARK SHADOWS comic book, Gold Key, 1974.
and this:
BERNI (sic) WRIGHTSON: MASTER OF THE MACABRE comic book, Pacific Comics, 1984. Note the incorrect spelling of Wrightson's first name, Bernie.
Several celebrity guests were on hand, including Star Wars actors Peter (Chewbacca) Mayhew and Jeremy (Boba Fett) Bulloch, Nicholas Brendon from Buffy, Scott Thompson from TV’s Kids in the Hall and wrestlers Ted “The Million Dollar Man” DiBiase and Virgil.
Of particular interest to Rue Morgue readers is the lovely and talented Danielle Harris (Halloween 4, Hatchet 2, Stake Land) with whom I was able to have a bit of a chat with.
Horror starlet Danielle Harris is all smiles at the con.
With this show come and gone, Toronto fans can now set their sights on this summer’s Fan Expo and Festival of Fear! See you there!
Convention-goers at the Toronto Comic Con.
Although I’m not young, I want all of that macabre stuff.
Hey Mike,
I’m not young either; in fact, I can say quite assuredly that I’m waaay too goddamned old to be interested in this stuff! But that doesn’t prevent me from wanting it, or collecting it, for that matter