Attended the Boston Comic Con: Life-size Star Wars and Godzilla figures

Over Memorial day weekend, I attended the Boston Comic-con with my high school friend, Dave. Since moving back to New England, this has become an annual tradition over the last 3 years. There were lots of vendors and life-sized models from Star Wars to Godzilla and you'll learn about them in today's blog. 

(Photo: Rob and Dave at WickedCon) 

TAKE THE AMTRAK! - In the first two years of the comic con, I drove from Maine to a subway station north of Boston and paid to park the truck, then took 2 subway lines in. The 2 hour drive each way was always Exhausting, and dealing with traffic was always tough. This year, Tom suggested Itake the Amtrak from nearby Dover, NH, and for $50 round trip, it was fantastic!  I got to read, relax and even nap. Once in Boston, I found a Dunkin for a quick coffee and sandwich and took three subway lines to get to the convention. It's the way to go. 

VERY CROWDED!!  The comic con was very crowded, and sometimes it was hard to maneuver!  At last the rooms were brightly lit, so it made it easier to see what comics you were looking at.

 (Photo: Some attendees of the Wicked Con. Credit: R.G.)

WICKED CON is the name of the Boston Comic book convention, and it's housed in one of the Boston Seaport area hotels. Usually it takes up a couple of rooms and is filled with comic books, artists, toy makers, jewelry makers, authors, and more. Since I still read and collect comics, and have been trying to re-buy a good number of comics from the 70s and 80s that I read when I was a kid/teen (that were sadly all given away to a local comics shop in 1989 when I moved to Maryland).

ROOM FULL OF ROBOTS AND LIFE-SIZED MODELS - One of the rooms contained life-sized toys and models from Star Wars to Anime to Godzilla.

MECHAGODZILLA - Dave and I took our picture in front of this character. It's a robot monster built in Godzilla's image for the sole purpose of destroying him, Mechagodzilla has become one of Godzilla's most popular and recurring foes, like King Kong.

STAR WARS FIGURES! - The first Star Wars figure we saw was an android, or a "Droid." I remembered it from Episode 1 of the Star Wars films, which was "The Phantom Menace." I remember that movie because of the annoying "Jar Jar Binks" character! 

(Right: the B1-series Battle droid movel. Credit: R.G)) 

B1-series battle droids, also referred to as B1 battle droids, standard battle droids, clankers, or tinnies were the predominantly used battle droids manufactured by Baktoid Combat Automata and Baktoid Armor Workshop. Even though they were extensively produced and deployed, the B1-series battle droid was flimsily designed and easy to destroy, and was only truly successful in substantial overwhelming numbers. 

(Left: the IG-88B Star Wars droid. Credit: R.G.)

The Star Wars droid, IG-88B, also commonly known simply as IG-88, pronounced Eyegee-Eightyeight, or as a Phlutdroid, was a rogue, deadly masculine IG-series assassin droid manufactured by Holowan Laboratories who, because of his desire to kill organic beings, worked as a bounty hunter. Following the Battle of Hoth, he and several other bounty hunters were summoned by Darth Vader to the Executor and hired to track down the Millennium Falcon and its Rebel crew. 

VIDEO: These droid transports coming over the green hills in broad daylight was one of the first images we saw back in the exciting days before the prequel trilogy started. The scene kicked off the main trailer, and was unlike anything we had ever seen before in the Star Wars universe. Despite the film's many flaws, this hillside battle stands out as one of the interesting visual ideas, and composer John Williams adds to the threat of the droids with a menacing new march.