Friday, October 31, 2014

New York Comic Con 2014 Panels



In all the hoopla going on the best audio we managed to capture was while covering some of the panels at New York Comic Con.

We proudly attended what was promoted as the last NYCC Legend of Korra panel and as the video will highlight the awesome vibe that was emanating from the crowd for one of the best animated shows on TV cough cough excuse me I mean the Internet.



We also were at the Batman stamp event. With all the hubabalooh behind it, you'd expect something spectacular but as you stand there watching the event your easily reminded it's stamps.

The Green/White/Red Ranger Jason David Frank had some cool stuff to to say at his panel and managed his fans with a jokester attitude that keeps the long winded ones inline but still has enough respect and love to let them get their point out.  At some points it was hard to figure who was the bigger fan of Jason David Frank, the people at the panel or Jason David Frank.

yeah, this sums him up
The Star Trek Equinox panel was perfect for the hardcore Star Trek fan.  I am a huge Star Trek fan and was totally lost about what they were talking about.  I felt like I walked in halfway on an epic tale that was close to being completed and no one in the room wanted to fill me in on what I had missed.

What is this about???

Then we met Kevin Smith and found out that he's totally bald.  He was actually super nice to all his fans and ignored the people rushing him away and took the time to pose for pictures and really talk with everyone there.  That doesn't mean that we at "I Like To Play With Toys" Productions® suddenly like him or anything we're just saying he was nice to HIS FANS.

Sexy, not. (As lame as any Kevin Smith joke).

We discovered that Robert Kirkman, the creator of The Walking Dead is a masochist and likes it.  I suppose that wasn't really a shock.

Kirkman pictured with Rock and Darryl. 


Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®

Friday, October 24, 2014

2014 NYCC Vendors




New York Comic Con ran from October 9th – 12th 2014 and “I Like To Play With Toys” Productions® was there to tape this momentous pop culture event.  Sadly, due to technical issues our audio did not modulate properly and our fun video falls a little flat.  But do not stress because this article will summarize all the crazy video fun we had.

Our first stop was with the people of Medieval Times.  The interview was over-the-top awesome.  They stayed in character during the entire conversation.  When I asked them who their favorite knight was they proceeded to diplomatically pick each knight as their favorite.  I then asked when they would start using utensils at the Medieval Times and they kicked me out of their booth.  I didn’t even get the chance to barter for the purchase of the princess as my bride but I am guessing it would have cost a whole mess of land I did not own.  You can get tickets to all the awesome tournament action at medievaltimes.com.

It's an awesome place, the only downside is that it's located in New Jersey. 

We then spoke with the makers of Enormous, an apparently very popular comic book.  The booth was crowded and selling copies as if people did not know how to illegally download comics on the internet.  The Facebook page describes Enormous as “In the midst of a planetary battle for food and fuel, a vast ecological cataclysm spawns 'the enormous', massive beasts unlike anything ever witnessed. Humankind struggles to stave off extinction.”  That sounds like it would make a great movie.   Be sure to get all your Enormous information at www.theenormouscomic.com.

A snapshot from the upcoming Enormous movie.

A comic con would not be complete without speaking with the people behind Loaded Barrel Studios.  Usually we speak with either Jordan or Jared Barel but this year we got the to speak with Jordan and Jared Barel.  We learned that their name isn’t pronounced Barel, it’s actually pronounced Barel.  They also talked about their classic Brielle the Horror and the ongoing success with their crowd funding campaigns.  Definitely show your support to www.loadedbarrelstudios.com

Aren't the Barel brothers so dreamy? 

What can you follow a Barel brothers interview with? Ally, from All Bobble Heads.  She was funny and cute and was selling bobble heads.  Not just any bobble heads, personalized bobble heads.  We weren’t really interested in the bobble heads because Ally is a bit too awesome for the product.  I tried to get her phone number in the hopes of buying her dinner but she just referred me to the website www.allbobbleheads.com. 

Those 4 bridesmaids do not equal 1 Ally.

While Ally was all dreamy, Lindsey Ann was all business.  Her website sums up her talent much better they I ever will.
“Lindsey Ann studied the craft of Special Effects Make-up at “Make-up Designer” in New York City. With a passion for music and her strong skills as a make-up artist, “Symphony Blush” was born. She has brought her signature talents to all forms of media including Photo Shoots, Films, and Local Events.
Lindsey’s arsenal of unique skills include manipulating foam latex, silicone, gelatin, and prosaide transfer prosthetics, to go beyond basic make-up application and creating realistic masks and other visual effects that can bring the ideas from the written page to life. If you can imagine it, Lindsey can create it.”
You can access her talents at www.symphonyblush.com.

Not as sweet as Lindsey Ann but the only picture we could find.

While on the high of our makeup interview we figured we should keep the makeup theme going.  We came across future meteorologist Leena from Painted Pinups.  It was a calendar of girls painted as if they were dressed as cosplayers.  It’s a fairly simple concept but I made certain to talk to Leena as long as possible.  She was really really interesting to talk to.  The most interesting person I have ever spoken to.  I could have talked about any topic she wanted for as long as she wanted to discuss it.  I just had to consciously remind myself to retain eye contact during the entire conversation.  If you’re a bit lost as to why just go to paintedpinups.com. 

A super typhoon developed into a powerful post-tropical cyclone with impacts in parts of New York Comic Con.

Our last conversation was with one of the members of Lips Squared.  She made a point to pronounce it leapsquahrd.  She talked about her girl power song, “”I Got The Pussy Cat I Got The Power.” To me it seemed to be shameless filth, unlike the class act that is Painted Pinups, but who am I to judge?  She sang a bit of her song and it sounded lovely but there were no plans for a tour.  Perhaps some information will be posted on their website lipssquared.com.

Apparently the girls were trying to call someone a loser but didn't know what an L looked like. 


New York Comic Con has hundreds of awesome and lame vendors.  The vendors are more than willing to chat with you about their products in the hopes that you will purchase their items.   The next convention you attend be certain to chat these people up, you may make a new friend or get something for free. Most likely you’ll get conned out of some hard earned cash.  Either way it all goes to a good cause, the American economy. 



Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®

Friday, October 17, 2014

2014 NYCC Cosplayer


From October 9th – 12th 2014 New York City got invaded by nerds and I was there to capture all the wacky fun antics associated with New York Comic Con.  Unfortunately due to unforeseen technical issues the audio for our event got obliterated.  But do not stress because this article will sum up all the crazy conversation fun that was had while we explored the Jacob Javits Convention Center.

We opened with Wonder Woman because she laughed the most at my lame jokes
Our first interview involved a lovely conversation with Wonder Woman.  Our talk dwelled on the evolution of her costume and that she lost track of the time and expense placed on the task of creating it.  She stated that the costume pieces are recycled, mixed, and matched for her cosplay needs.  The dedication involved is hours of time and billions of dollars.  She was very sweet and laughed at all my lame jokes. 


Who doesn't love a cute bunny ribbit ribbit. 
I next spoke with Adriane who was a bunny rabbit of some sort.  She dressed in this clever get up to promote her booth, which was nowhere near where we were talking.  They sold basically all the stuff she was wearing.  It was determined the reason for the booth was so she could write her sexy costume off as a business expense.  A noble way to afford the expensive world of cosplay.


This is the fight that broke out during the interview

I then met Katie who was dressed as Black Canary and proceeded to talk about how she stole all of her costumed gear from friends and family.  Her costume cost her $5, it is the cheapest and most authentic costume for $5 to ever grace the NYCC stage.


She's tall and kind of looks like that dude Gabe from The Office.  That's not an insult to her, that dude is rather girly looking. 
See huh see!!!
Then we met Molly who was Ruby the rocket launcher baseball player.  She admitted to spending $120 for her lovely costume and made the trip from East Hampton to show it off for all of nerdom to admire. 


Raven had a really awesome cloak on or maybe it was a table cloth...
Admiration came very strongly toward Raven who refused to release her real name because she insisted on staying in character.  If she was a dude it be scary but since she was really cute I didn’t mind.  I then asked her some simple comic questions like “who are the Teen Titans?”  She seemed a bit baffled by the question like she'd never read the comic or seen the cartoon so I went to the simple questions of how much she spent to make herself into Raven.  It turned out she spent a lot of money. 


This is the dude that interrupted the interview and than ran away I hope he got his picture at some point. 
Lady Deathpool was truly the most interesting girl we spoke with.  She stated she’d never been interviewed before but was very personable.  What was particularly fun about her was that she was so popular, a random NYCC attendee interrupted the interview in hopes of snagging a picture with her.  When I pointed out that she was in the process of getting interviewed he embarrassingly walked away, I tried to get him to stay and hang out but he would have no part of it.   Lady Deathpool had some really awesome insight into why she choose that character and the time and effort it took to create it.  She spent several months and about $1000 to create this cosplayer persona.  She even let us into her family life and showed us how her family thought it was a bit weird that she'd dress up like a comic character and tour conventions for attention but eventually the family warmed up to the hobby.  I suppose anything that keeps your kid out of the methadone clinic is a good thing. 


Their aren't too many Star Trek hotties but they do exist....
We followed Lady Deathpool up with some Star Trek cosplayers.  They were cute and it was nice talking to them but there isn’t much to say about these pretty girls in this article.


This is Will's everyday wear.  Eventually, I saw Scott without his mask and let's be thankful he wears one. 
Then I spoke with Will and Scott who were dressed as The Joker and Scarecrow from the Arkham Asylum video game version of the characters.  They spent a few months making their costume and the makeup process the day of was rather intense.  It took several hours to apply and sounded like it would be super painful to remove if done the wrong way.  I then made fun of them for a few minutes and implied they could never get a date.  It’s a good thing I know Will from outside NYCC because I was making some brutal jokes that our crappy audio missed. 


Sometimes in life you have to remind yourself to make eye contact.  It's important to do that.
Immediately after making jokes at my friend Will’s expense I spoke with a Harley Quinn, Cat Woman, and Poison Ivy.  They really liked my beard and if I wasn’t married I think I had a shot with them.  When I got home that night I made certain to show my wife the video.  Despite my pleading she refused to grant me the hall pass but did like their costumes. 


I don't want anybody else...
We then saw a fembot from Austin Powers.  I sang that Divinyls song to her and flicked her gun barrel with my finger.  When she didn’t report me for sexual harassment, I considered it a successful interview and moved on.  The next day I saw her dressed as Spider-Woman.  I made certain to get a picture with her. 

 I was shocked how quickly she dyed her hair after our interview. 

I ended my day interviewing model Shelly Scarlett.  Before the interview began she accused me of stalking her.  I wanted to explain that I’m too lazy to do that but since I comment on all her facebook posts I really had no defense.  She then showed me her very expensive and tight fitting costume and followed it up with pointing out her boyfriend.  “Calm down Shelly, I’m married.”  He’s a good looking dude but didn’t say much.  I suppose that’s the secret to getting a hot chick be good looking and shut the fuck up.  Then again I have a hot wife and can’t keep my mouth shut…So I guess if you’re average looking talk and if your good looking shut-up and if your ugly buy a mask and try to meet pretty girls in costume and NYCC. 


She seemed to be having breathing problems because the outfit was so tight I took her breath away. 
So to round this all out, the cosplay world that has formed from NYCC and conventions across the country is tremendous.  We didn’t even skim the surface of all the costumed folk that attended NYCC.  Of the 160,000 people who attended the show a colorfully funny, polite, vibrant few took the opportunity to highlight their personality, their unique inner beauty, and they did so by dressing up as someone else. 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®

Monday, October 6, 2014

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Dave Dises Iron Man

Dave gets uppity with an Iron Man cosplayed, demanding he make a flying costume.

Saturday, October 4, 2014

BE PART OF THE DUMPED SOUNDTRACK

"I Like To Play With Toys" Productions® is looking for 2 additional songs to help complete our post production efforts for our feature film Dumped.  We need a pop/rock song and a love song.  It has to be from an unsigned band who's already recorded the music track.  If anyone is interested or knows anyone who's interested please contact us at iliketoplaywithtoysproductions@yahoo.com.

1980s Cartoons Unite

Dave chatting it up with some 80s awesomeness

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Jem and Dave the Misfit

Jem is her name but Dave is a Misfit with bitter songs that are gonna get her.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Dave Talks to a Psychic

If she could really read his mind she'd know he's only after one thing.  A free palm reading.