Things I Bought At MegaCon: Day 2

Continuing on the track of posting about shit I bought at this year’s MegaCon, here’s my day 2 purchases. Like I said before, I’m really going to spend all my money on Sunday, so I spent a lot of time today going around the artist alley and seeing what I could find. Didn’t spend as much yesterday, but I am happy with the buys.

First row, left photo: Issac from Dead Space commission photo watercolor: My girlfriend’s been on a huge Dead Space kick for the last two months and while we decided to go up and down the huge artist alley,  she thought it’d be a great idea to find someone to illustrate something for her. She got this awesome Issac Clarke watercolor done by artist Ashley Lanni for a mere $30. Bargain, really, considering most artists in the alley do work for $50+ and have limitations of what to draw. Lanni did a great job drawing Issac after Googling him and working on the picture in under two hours.

First row, right photo: Brad Goodman Simpsons Figure: I went to the convention with Simpsons merch specifically on my buying list and this was really all I could find action figure wise. Picked it up for $5, which I thought was a huge steal. Figure goes for $3.99 on Amazon, so thankfully I didn’t get ripped off and technically could’ve paid less money on the figure, but it would’ve been more for shipping.

Second row, Adventure Time #4 variant: I thought about how hard it is to come across some of the variants after picking up issue #1 of the series yesterday at Boom’s booth for $10, so I returned and picked this cover up. Scott C. drew it. Also bought this issue for $10. It’s running for about $16 on Amazon.

Third row, RAK Graphics trading cards: This guy had a neat booth of his own work to sell off in a damn cool way. The booth was for RAK Graphics and the seller sold trading cards of whatever character he had drawn up in his own style for a buck each. I spent $1 for each of these character cards, so in total I spent $8.

Forth/Fifth rows, original art prints from artist Peter Nguyen: These prints were from an artist in the Artist Alley named Peter Nguyen. I’m fucking impressed. My dollars were spent wisely here — I got these three original prints for $25. He also signed all three of them. I’m framing them this week.

Today is the final day of attending the convention. I’ll be buying a lot of comics (I hope!) and picking up a commission piece I asked for yesterday. It’s a surprise. I’ll reveal it tonight…

Anyway, total I spent today: roughly $78. Total so far: $154.

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Things I Bought At MegaCon: Day 1

MegaCon 2013 kicked off today in Orlando and I’m definitely feeling it in my pockets. Thing is, with most conventions I have a huge problem tallying and keeping track of the cash I spend, especially now with most booths offering payments from credit/debit cards via the Square app. I’ve decided to post my spendings for each day of this weekend’s convention to help keep track of my bad spending habits and link comparative prices to Amazon to see if I really saved or not. Also, I really just wanted to post and brag about all the cool shit I bought today.

Best tip I can offer to convention-goers regarding money spending situations: visit your bank’s ATM before heading to a convention. I didn’t follow that rule before heading to the con today and I’m surely feeling that worrying feeling regarding my checking account. You can avoid simple ATM fees, credit/debit card taxes/processing fees, and you can easily haggle prices with most booths with physical cash.

Anyway, if this lot of bullshit I bought doesn’t look like much today, check out for this Sunday’s upcoming post. Should definitely be the day I spend the least amount of cash for an abundance of cheap comic books during the last hour on the final day.

Top photo, Young Avengers #1/Adventure Time #1: 
You guys may be thinking, “Why the Hell would Kevin (you don’t know my name, now you do) spend money on those two comics when he can buy them at any comic book store?” Well, yes, I might be able to if I looked hard enough, but I really can’t beat the prices I bought them for. Both of these titles are relatively new, with Young Avengers being out since January and Adventure Time out since early last year, yet both of these variant covers are hard to find.

The Young Avengers cover was done by Scott Pilgrim author, Bryan Lee O’Malley. In order for my local comic shop to get a shipment of the variants in, they had to order a certain high amount of issues. Thing is, what the Hell is my local comic shop going to do with 200+ copies of the same comic book variant? Hence why I can’t find it in my city. I got the issue for $6. It’s retailing new on Amazon for $7.50 + shipping.

Now the issue of Adventure Time #1 I picked up has a variant cover drawn by my favorite comic book writer/illustrator, Jeffrey Brown. Boom Studios decided that for their first issue of the Adventure Time comic, they’d released a slew of variant covers to make the launch extra special and cool. Of course, Adventure Time is super fucking popular, so those five different variant covers of the first issue sold out pretty fast. Right now, the first issue printing on Amazon is retailing, at cheapest, for $11.98 + $3.99 shipping. But that’s not the variant cover I got. The cover I got apparently is much harder to find and Amazon doesn’t link it. The comic book site I frequently order from, Mile High Comics, has the issue listed at $128 in near mint condition. I’m assuming I have a mint condition in my possession that I need to immediately read and seal up. I got it for $10 today from Boom’s official booth!

Second row, Minecraft and Wonder Woman decals, various patches: There’s a much cooler feeling looking at patches and decal stickers on a giant wall in person, rather than being on the Internet and browsing Etsy for an hour straight to find what you want. There were several booths that sold various decals and patches. I grabbed the Minecraft and Wonder Woman decals for my girlfriend and I at $5. Etsy lists most decals of that size between $2-$5.

I mean, I guess I didn’t have to buy it in person and I could’ve save a buck or two, seeing on how Etsy folk wouldn’t have charged me shipping to send paper anyway, but…whatever, it’s done with and I’m not going to already say I have my first buyer’s regret. It’s just $5 (right? right?!!?). No big loss here.

The patches are an entirely different story. Most conventions have a booth or three with patches being a big portion of sales. I’m pretty sure they’re all the same people with the same company, but that may just be a huge assumption I’m making based off of the sole fact that they all had some really shitty quality patches of the same thing. Cheap patches of anything you want could be found on Etsy for $7 or less. Good quality patches are usually sold at $7 or more. The booth I grabbed these patches with had a mixture of both good and bad, all with the same price. The deal was: $8 for one patch, two for $15, three for $20, and 10 for $60. My buddy grabbed five Star Trek patches, I grabbed that Bart patch, and my girlfriend got the other Harry Potter, Dead Space, and Wonder Woman patches shown. I think the savings here were a no brainer.

Third row, Itchy and Scratchy Funko plush toys: These were an awesome find since I haven’t been able to find them at any store in the city. My girl got these for me at $10 each, so $20 was spent on the two. Really happy to get me hands on them. Amazon has them for cheaper though, with Itchy going for $6.50 and Scratchy for $7.41.

Forth row, Psycho and Mr. Sparkles t-shirts: So this was about the time where I was really feeling the hurt on my wallet. A t-shirt booth with loads of shit you can’t find at your local Hot Topic. I kind of have beef with a majority of the items this booth sold. Prices were $22 a shirt, but $40 for two. As you can see, I purchased two shirts which ultimately saved me only around $2 since they charged my ass for using a debit card. Amazon’s got around the same prices, with the Mr. Sparkles shirt going for $20 and Hitchock’s Psycho shirt being sold about the same.

Big thing to watch out for in t-shirt booths is to not get ripped off. Around 40% of the shirts I found around this particular booth could be found at Walmart, Target, or Hot Topic at significantly cheaper prices. I don’t think anyone can justify buying a Gumby shirt at $22 a pop when Walmart sells those bitches for $6.50. Granted, the 60% of clothing offered is stuff that’s difficult to find offline, so I do think those hefty tags are worth it.

All of Friday’s purchases are listed up top, clocking me around a very roughly added $76 spent. I’m making another list of food expenses to add to this list at the end of the weekend. We’ll see if I come up short on rent this month or not.

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Spoke Art Does It Again: Tim Doyle Solo Show

For those who don’t know, Spoke Art is a fantastic art space dedicated to contemporary pop culture art pieces. The previously did stunning shows dedicated to Wes Anderson and Tarantino vs the Coen Brothers.

On February 7th to the 23rd, the Spoke Art space in San Francisco is featuring a Tim Doyle solo exhibit entitled “UnReal Estate II” and features reinterpretations of popular TV locations. The first 100 people get a special “By The Power” print.

Can’t make it to the event? The glorious thing about Spoke Art is that they often sell fine prints and even original pieces on their online store.

In terms of contemporary art, Spoke Art is my go-to place. They feature tons of fantastic artists with a wide array of styles.

Follow Spoke Art on Twitter.

Check It: More Art on Albotas
Buy It: The Simpsons Season 8

¡Ay Caramba! Screen-used Simpsons Cels @ Entertainment Earth

One thing I’ve always wanted but have never actually bought is a screen-used animation cel from Evangelion. If you’re as obsessed with The Simpsons as I am with Eva, check out the new batch of cels being sold by Entertainment Earth. They’re going for $500-ish, give or take.

A Little Bit on the Kwik-E Side: First The Simpsons have Banksy create an opener, now they’ve got an episode featuring Shepard Fairey, Ron English, Kenny Scharf, and Robbie Conal. The artists recorder their own voiceovers for their parts. The episode, Exit Through the Kwik-E Mart aires on Sunday, March 4.

A Little Bit On The Simpsons Side: Simpson’s creator Matt Groening is getting immortalized in the form a 6-inch vinyl figure from Kidrobot which drops February 9th for $50. This is all to celebrate the 500th episode of The Simpsons which airs during the same month.

Daily Graffiti: Marge Simpson is a dirty, dirty girl. Spotted by brigraff.

Check out the DAILY GRAFFITI ARCHIVES for more geektastic street art!

Daily Geekstomization: The Itchy and Scratchy Shooooooow!

MeSmithy sent us this pic of her Itchy & Scratchy custom Quee figures for TOY2R’s booth at NYCC’s Cultyard. If you’re hitting up NYCC this yea, swing on by booth #876 to check these little dudes out in person.

Check out the Daily Geekstomization Archives for more geeky custom toys!

The Simpsons Will Probably Be Dead Tomorrow

According to various sources, the cast of The Simpsons would have to take a 25% to 30% pay cut for the series to be signed on for more seasons. If they do not sign this deal by tomorrow, the show will be all over as of the last episode of the current season.

The cast make about a quarter of a million dollars per episode, so on one hand, that pay cut isn’t so bad. On the other hand, Fox probably still nets a profit from each episode, not to mention all the merchandise. *Looks down at Homer boxers* Yeah that’s right. I write Albotas posts in my underwear.

“Awww, ain’t that cute? Makes Little Debbie look like a pile of puke!”

There have certainly been a ton of Simpsons merchandise throughout the franchise’s more than 20 years of history. But few have been as adorable as the plushie and vinyl designs by Funko. You can pre-order Homer, Marge, Bart, Krusty, Itchy, or Scratchy HERE.

[Via Tomopop]

The Simpsons’ Home: For Realz

I’ve heard of some pretty die-hard Simpsons fans, but whoever built this house (or paid for it) really takes the cake donut. Hit the source link for interior photos.

Kidrobot just unveiled their lineup of new hotness for early September. Frank Kozik’s 24” Mustache Labbit Plush (with plushie butthole finger action) drops September 2nd for $150, a 6” vinyl version of the Lard Lad mascot from The Simpsons drops September 2nd for $39.95, and a 3” Dunny version of DJ Lance Rock! from Yo Gabba Gabba! drops September 2nd for $9.95.