Like every other company in a position to license out some character, show or concept, Nick had a booth at the 2005 Licensing Show, so our entire group was granted access. I trekked on down during the afternoon hours, and the event is best described as a cross between the annual Toy Fair and E3 conventions -- Toy Fair because it's mostly to do with toys, E3 because the companies really amp up the theatrics. "Booths" is a very loose term, as the Javits Center was crammed with everything from a house-sized Pikachu balloon to Rowdy Roddy Piper. I mostly went on the promise of getting much swag from the various exhibitors -- a big giant lie. There was NO swag, unless you count branded paper bags and branded paper folders as such. There were, however, many costumed characters, a lot of great sights, and generally enough reasons for me to assume nobody at the office would notice if I stayed there for an hour or two longer than I was supposed to....
(click any pic to enlarge it, yuckface)
It's hard to explain the scope of the show, but basically you've got all of these companies pushing their "properties" for potential merchandising. Unlike Toy Fair, the emphasis isn't so much on the specific products, but rather the brands themselves. So, we're not going to find out which Ninja Turtles toys are the coolest, only that Ninja Turtles are cool, if that makes sense. But with due love to my employing company, the best booth by far belonged to New Line Cinema. They've got their mitts on the licenses for Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street and other classic horror franchises, and...well, this is how they presented it:
The House of Horror! Fuck yeah. This towering cardboard inferno had a "tunnel" filled with various bits of horror merchandise in glass cases, but the ambiance was friggin' killer -- dimly lit and smoky, those who entered were treated to the instrumental tracks from the early F13 movies -- the parts where Jason's on the prowl through the woods. There wasn't that much to see in there, but I could've spent hours in the thing. The merchandise ranged from the familiar to the criminally awesome, and just when I was ready to give up and award New Line my crudely made blue ribbon booth award, out he came...
Jason Voorhees himself! Well, not really, but it's a screen-worn costume -- except for the mask. The guy in the costume was suitably huge, totally in character, totally waving a machete and totally willing to take as many pictures as I demanded. I love Jason. I later spotted my hero at Snapple's booth, bargaining for a free sample of their new brand of ice pops. Really.
Posted by Matt on 06/21/2005. E-mail me!
Chestnuts roasted by 
) an entire line-up of soccer (excuse me, "football") playing smurf figurines and, for myself, a pink and red devil smurf. You can even buy their little mushroom houses and cars.
Heh, Jason drinks Snapple.