This past Saturday, Arizona Toy Con was held at the Glendale Civic Center for a third year. If you haven’t attended the convention before, when it was previously called Arizona iCon, the show features roughly 70 tables of people selling toys from various decades. Among the tables however you’ll find the occasional local artist selling prints, or someone selling handmade goods as well as legitimate businesses that have their own retail location. Tables featured a ton of Funko’s, Marvel and DC action figures, TMNT, Barbie, Star Wars, everything at the top of pop culture was represented. You can find unique stuff such as a table that sold lamps made out of action figures. I walked away empty handed but it wasn’t due to the lack of interesting, trust me, I was having an internal conflict or spending money or saving.
The price of entry is $10 which I don’t have any problem paying for. What bothered me this year is that it all seemed scaled back. Gone are the multiple tables in the lobby from various local cosplay groups, the convention featured no special guests, and didn’t have any panels. Maybe the con thought all of that had zero value added to con but by eliminating those things, it caused a problem. The problem? Nothing for attendees to do besides check out tables. I was ready to leave after an hour and that was after I checked almost every table three times. The $10 price is more than fair but there wasn’t much to keep people engaged and that was a little disappointing.
Would I suggest checking out the show? If you’re into action figures or LEGOs than yes as they make up the majority of the tables. Don’t plan your entire around the show though as you might be done quicker than you might think.
Legion of Sand 