Indie Toys at SDCC 2015

Welcome to our main report for SDCC 2015 - a look at the indie toys at the show. Retailers and designers continue to set up shop at SDCC, though the numbers are not as strong as in years past. Talking to a number of folks, I got a mixed bag of impressions. Some thought things were going fine, while others talked about fanbases (and retail activity) moving online or to other shows.

A couple of notable absences were Gargamel and Bwana Spoons - two mainstays at past shows. But Kidrobot and Super7 were back, and a few designers held the line with their own tables. We also saw a number of new and upcoming figures.

Booths are arranged alphabetically. Enjoy!

3D Retro

New figure. This thing is massive!

 More after the jump:

Bait

These figures are several FEET tall.

Astro Boy

 Cardboard Spaceship

These minis are really nice - very well designed and good production quality. CS's offerings reminded me of the boom days of designer vinyl in the mid 2000s, when companies like Flying Cat and Strangeco put out cool toys. Glad to see CS keeping the torch alive!

DKE

Exclusives from Star Case. All in all, there was a small selection of sofubi toys at this year's show.

Gary Ham, Scott Tolleson, & Julie West

These guys are solid designer toy holdouts as well, selling a mix of toys, prints, and other things.

Kidrobot

Kidrobot brought the giant chalk Dunny back for people to draw on.

Munky King

Luke Chueh signing

Glad to see Joe Ledbetter still designing big toys like this. His figures like Fire Cat and Mr Bunny were top shelf releases back in the day. I imagine a big collection of his figures side by side must look fantastic. Same goes for Nathan Jurevicius - another fantastic designer.

Don't see too much from Doktor A at the shows these days, but still some here and there. On a general note, the Steampunk scene has nearly dropped off the map at SDCC, with a few notable holdouts and booths. This while the scene is taking off in Japan.

October Toys

October Toys always has a solid presence at the show.

Super cool display. OMFG is one of their lines of minis.

These are licensed figures from the 90s cartoon Skeleton Warriors. I got an earful about the show from George (OT's owner), who schooled me on the cartoon.

Rotofugi

So this was an interesting display, but no details about how they'll be released except that Medicom is involved somehow.

Max Toy customs

Skelanimals

Super7

Super7 had a well stocked booth, with a mix of toys and shirts. Check out my interview with Brian Flynn, who goes into detail about many of the releases.

The Super7 x Mattel Masters of the Universe releases were a highlight. They were sold at the pop up shop set up at the Super7 San Diego shop.

This is Wing Kong, a new vinyl toy based on a design from a 1950s firecracker wrapper.

New line of Super7 soakie toys. Gotta tip yer hat to S7 for their continued stream of new releases combining older characters, toy types, and properties with new releases and fresh takes on the lines.

Tokidoki

Tokidoki is another stalwart brand keeping the flame alive while maintaining a strong fan base.

Simone signing, This sort of face to face interaction with fans is so important in the designer toy scene. Simone flies around the world to take part in events..

And that's a wrap. I have a few more posts planned highlighting other booths from the show. Thanks for reading!