New York City Comic Con 2006 Review

[IveyAngelo]

Hey all,

This topic is for those crazy people that make it to New York for the comic Con, which is really something to mark in history.   Though they're not sitting together this is the first time Eastman and Laird are at the same convention since 1992.  We also got another surprise as Chris Allen also appeared as one of the guest at the Mirage Booth.  

Today was a short day at the convention, they let us in 10 minutes early, and right away I found the Mirage crew at the back of the convention and said Hello, after saying hi to them they told me where to find Kevin so I went and searched him down.  Kevin was keeping very busy, it was great seeing all the people getting TMNT autographs.  Watched him even do a Casey Jones for someone.  Kevin was happy to see me, and we talked a bit.  I even stepped outside with him on his cig break.  I told him about how things have been going lately, though also some of my future plans.  It was a good talk, I always enjoy talking with him.  

After that we stepped back in, he signed a few things for me than I headed towards the Mirage Crew, while going there I found the "Kappa Mikey" booth.  I got to meet the creator of Kappa Mikey and saw a few more clips.  They gave me buttons and a card, I got the creator to signed the card for me.  I told them how I can't wait for the show and what I like so far about it.  I'll be joining their mailing list when I get home.

Than I went back to Mirage, while there I found out Chris Allen was there.  I went over and introduced myself to him and told him how much I LOVE his work!  Than I asked for a Ninjara sketch from him.  He did a wonderful job on it, I'll have to scan and put it up when I get home.  I talked to him for a bit, and will send him an invite here.  

After the drawing I went to video tape the booth than noticed Blue there!  And Kaz too!  I said hi to them and let them know that Kevin was there, after Kaz got her autograph from Peter.  I lead them over and introduced them to Kevin.  While they got Kevin's autograph I headed back to Mirage booth and talked more with the Mirage guys getting some more autographs.   Kaz and Blue came back while I was getting Peter's autograph.

The Con was closing so than Kaz, Blue and I went out for dinner.  Than I came back here.

I may fill in more details later.  Now bed time.

[Aignatius]

Kevin and Peter at the same convention. What a treat!

[Brinatello]

I'm glad you got to see Kevin, Ivey.  I know you've been wanting to for many years.  And now, Kaz and Blue got to meet him, too!  That's really awesome.  He is definitely someone worth meeting.  You're scoring big, Ivey, meeting Chris (I want to sooo badly!) and the creator of Kappa Mikey!  And then scoring on some goodies, wow!  Enjoy the rest of the con and keep the reviews coming.

[Leonardo]

It does sound like a great time!
But I still say, box those guys up and ship them out west!! The last time I saw Peter was 1993.
We promise to treat them nicely and then send them back. heheheh

Make sure you get some pictures of these guys to show us!

[moronqueen]

But I still say, box those guys up and ship them out west!! The last time I saw Peter was 1993.
We promise to treat them nicely and then send them back. heheheh

Dude...do you really think they'd survive the US Postal service??? Or UPS or FedEx for that matter??? You're just cruel Leo...cruelcruelcruel.

[Shredder]

Day 2...



Didn't make day one.... But here's my story for Day 2..

Got there around 11:59. Traffic into the city was rather light. walked across the road to the Javvits Center, and first thing I encountered was a line. Of about 150 or so people. Most of us where told to head in this direction if we had pre registration tickets, but one guy there said that he had his done in another area and was just waiting for a friend.

So, out we go down a flight of steps, pass the Jeapordy bus(what was that for?), and into another set of doors. After over hearing a Javits Employee saying that this was the worse run con he's seen, and that they over booked out the wazoo, we found out that we where to go near the yellow signs to the left of the entrance.

We talked to a nice lady in front of another line, gave her the pre registration s heets, got our wristband, and headed on in.

Now, I've only been to the San D Comic Con once in 1998, but if you've been to that, you'll know what the NY comic Con is like. I thought it might be done by the same people since the lettering of the logo is similair, but it's not. I was meeting some internet friends there, so I already knew right where to go, towards the back by the Mirage booth. After navigating the crowd, I finally managed to find them....

I chatted with Peter Laird for a while( first time I've met him), and met Dan Burger(sp?) who runs the official Ninja Turtles website for the first time as well. All the artists there where really great guys and fun to chat with.

After waiting about a 1.5 hours, and not finding my net friends, I decided to go search for Kevin Eastman who managed to make the con afterall. After about 30 minutes of searching, a few helpfull fellow attendees pointed me in the direction of the heavy metal booth.

After about another 30 minutes waiting in line to see Kevin, I re-introduced myself and surprsingly he remembered me from almost ten years ago at San D when we took him out to dinner... So, I got him to sign my sheet, showed him a 1 minute bit of 3D turtle animation I did on my portable DVD player, and went b ack to the Mirage booth.

By that time, my friends had finally arrived. Seems they where waiting in line for an hour to get in even though they had been in yesterday. Chatted a bit more with the Mirage crew. Asked Petere about script submissal for the new show, and he says he dosn't have any final say on wich scripts get chosen...

Oh, I also chatted with the Funimation Reps. VEry nice people at the booth and knowledgable about their stuff. I asked when they where planning to go HDDVD/Blue Ray, and they said probably very soon. But it would most likley be blue ray(don't quote me on that, it hasn't been officially decided). I asked if there was any chance of an Akira Toriyama interview for the DBZ DVD's and he says not likley since he's mostly retired now... The TMNT DVD's are selling well, but they are not in charge of weather or not season sets are made, they only distribute them...

That's it f or today.. I'll post pictures tommorow, or later whenever I get around to it..

http://www.twelveoclock.net/junk/TMNTSig.jpg is the 8X10 glossy I made and got signed..

[CriticalCrittles]

WOW NYC Comic Con sounds like a blast!! I'm jealous! If I can afford it, I just might go next year, it sounds awesome! Ivey you better have snagged a Kappa Mikey pin for me lol, and if you saw Mike or see him again after reading this be sure to tell him I thought Kappa Mikey was a BLAST! And about that commercial I saw that said Venture season 2 starts June 25th, the day after my birthday, and the DVDs come out May 30th!

I'm so mean, asking you to be my messenger ;-; If you forget I don't care, and forgive me for being annoying, it's just that I won't see him again until Anime Next heh.    Sorry I didn't call you, by the time I remembered it was late and I didn't wanna risk calling you and waking you up again heh.

Glad you all are having fun! Can't wait to hear more! Love yas!

~Crittle~

[IveyAngelo]

Man Saturday... oy....

I didn't get there at opening as I would of liked too.   But I wanted to travel with Pichu, though once we did get there her boyfriend and her were told it was sold out and they couldn't get in.  They even told me, who had a convention badge that I wouldn't be able to get in for the day.  I walked over and looked down toward the crowd below hearing other pre paid people complaining how the Fire Marshalls came in and chased people out and now it's hell trying to even think of getting in.  They had yellow tape blocking the steps so you couldn't even try to go down stairs to get into the convention.  I looked around and noticed the people coming in from outside on the lower level and decided to try sneaking in that way.  It worked.

I got lead to the line which reached all the way to the food court down on the lower floor (the convention was down on that floor).   So I got into line and chatted with a few people around me, but I didn't talk to long I just really wanted into the convention.  While standing there I heard someone say "Someone's a TMNT fan" I turned around and it was Raka so we talked a little.  But while talking to him I noticed Denny walking through the Food Court, and yelled for him to come over.   Denny is the back ground artist for 4Kids TMNT I met at Big Apple Con, I said hi to him for a second but he had to leave soon.  By time he was gone so was Raka.

Blue called me and told me they just stepped out to go to the food court.  I told her when they were done they could join me in line, since I got no one with me.  It was nice having them join me in line, we got to talk about the net, TMNT, and how this convention is ran.  I know it was their first year so I understand totally that they were not ready, but you would think they would be a little more ready than they were for a crowd.   They had one room out of a huge convention center set up as the dealer/publisher/artist alley room.   I was in that line for two hours and twenty minutes just to get inside.

Once we got in we went and visited one of the 4Kids Artist, he does the covers for the TMNT 4Kids DVDs.  After saying hi to him, and asking for a sketch I went over to the Mirage Booth.  They were of course a great group to see again.  While there I saw Raka again and Shredder showed up, of course the Mirage crew told me Shredder was here earlier looking for me as well.  I talked with them for a little bit and had a few of them sign my autograph shirt than headed over to see Kevin.  I had him sign my autograph shirt as well.

While standing at Heavy Metal booth I saw a guy I haven't seen since one of the many parties at the Words and Pictures Museum, I think it was 1998.  His name is John and he's designed stuff for different companies like he put Spiderman on underwear back in the day and he also was the designer for the TMNT Cookie Jars.   I remember when I first met him I had no clue who he was and he picked on me for that.  So I was a bit surprised to see him there.   Though it was cool that he remembered me.   After saying hi to Kevin and him for a moment and getting my stuff signed I headed back to Mirage and bought a few original art work pieces.  One from Steve L. and the other from Jim.   I talked a little bit with them before going to sit down with Kaz and Blue for a little bit out of all of the excitement.

We sat down not too far from Mirage, not close enough to be in the way but enough so we can see what was going on over there.  It was really cool seeing so many people going to that booth.  All of the Mirage guys were doing great, and seem to be keeping busy the full time.  Blue, Kaz and I talked more Turtles and went over my autograph book that I brought with me.  We also decided to go to Ray's Pizza (hehe I like it there )  after the convention was done.   I noticed the Mirage guys start to pack up so I went up and said good bye to them, told them I'll see them on Sunday.

I went and said good bye to the people at the Kappa Mikey panel and found out that Sean will be at the panel as well for Sunday Morning.  So I can't wait to see him too.  Than I headed towards the Heavy Metal booth to say good bye to Kevin.  Though on the way I saw Greg Aryes (if you don't know who he is, read some of the Anime con reviews, he's a VA from a lot of animes I like and a great guy all together!).  I grabbed out my gun that I got from Anime Vegas and had him sign it, he got excited asking if it was really one of the guys from AV.   He than told us how much he hates this conventions.

He's a DJ and does so for a lot of the cons I go to lately.  Well he's being a DJ for this one as well, you'd think they'd provide him with transport for all of his stuff and him to get to where the dance was that night.  Though they didn't.  They didn't even stop and offer him food or any breaks.  He said it was really bad, once you get in there you have to fend for yourself.  He mentioned how even Kevin Smith was having a TON of problems with convention.  When the Fire Marshalls were causing all of those problems earlier they wouldn't even let the guest in.  Greg had a hard time getting in, even showing he's a Guest on his badge.  Kevin Smith wasn't able to get in at all, they end up setting his autograph table up else where instead and moving the people who came for the autographs over there.  As soon as Kevin was done he left.

Greg told us how he never wanted to leave a convention as much as he wanted to leave this one.  And because of this, he doesn't think he'll ever do a comic book convention again.  It's not for him.   Though he still loves anime conventions and can't wait for the one he's doing next weekend.  We talked with him for a little bit more, about everything going on, and I got a picture with him since he's got a new hair style again!  (his hair rocks!).   Than headed and said bye to Kevin.

On our way heading out I noticed someone dressed up as Ed from FMA (I saw her at Katsucon as well, she was standing not far behind me in line for autographs there).  So I said hi to her, found out she's a TMNT fan and was even an intern at 4Kids for a little bit and got to work on TMNT.  She gave me her contact information, so I'll be contacting her once I get home.  Always great to make new friends.  I had her sign my shirt as well, as we talked a little bit.  She'll be at Anime Next so maybe I'll get more of a chance to talk to her there.   Once we were ready to leave the convention center, Brinatello called so we said hi to her for a bit.   I let Raka talk to her, too.  Than we headed out.  

The cold air didn't seem as bad as it was Friday night, so we got to the train station ok.  We split ways with Raka once we hit Penn Station.  I took Blue and Kaz to Ray's, we took pictures outside the place.  People realized that we knew it was Roy's and I couldn't believe how many people started to talk Turtles with us as soon as we got in the door.  Two of the guys working there where there when they filmed the movie, but wasn't in the movie.  We were able to get a table and sit down to eat.  While sitting there we talked more, and they made phone calls telling people where they were.  Than we heaeded out, I got a pizza box from there.  

This is when real problems started for me, on the way to 11th and Bleeker the cold air picked up.  It was hard to walk let alone stand in.  There was some gust of wind that felt like it was going to send me down to my knees.   It hurt REALLY bad.  I don't want pain to stop me, so even with these problems I kept pushing forward to do what needed to be done.  Stopping would only give the cold more time to get through my coats.    We got to 11th and Bleeker they took some pictures, I looked and saw the Ultrom that was once on the sign is now painted over.   Than we went into the book store at the coner.  Though the building looks like the right building that store is WAY too small to even think of the Second Time Around Shop fitting in there.   It's a SMALL store.

After that we headed back out into the cold this time it was getting worse.  I remember at least going to my knees once, maybe twice from the cold.   I know I'm still hurting and it's another day right now.  I was so happy when we got into the subway area.  We tried to go to KB, but by time we got there they were closed for the night.   This was at the subway station where I had to split ways any how.  So we said good night for the night and went our own ways.  

Once I did get back here it didn't take me long at all to get to sleep.   My body was just drained and now that I'm awake I feel pain rushing all through me.  I can't wait to get home, soak in a hot bath and take a morphine pill just to let all of this pain release it's grip from me for at least two days.

Once again I'll post pictures once I get home.  One more day of the convention to go!   See you all when I return!!!

[Brinatello]

Good review, Ivey!  I tried to reply last night to Shred's post, but I've got severe Spyware attacking my computer.  Whenever I click a link, it'll often redirect me to a sponsor page called affiliatetarget or whatever.  And then when I try to hit the Back button, the page bounces, preventing me from going back to what I was doing!  I lost my whole post to poor Shred!  I wanted to say that was a great picture with Peter and I was very glad he got to meet him.  It was also nice talking to you on the phone, Ivey (and Raka!) and hearing about your time spent on Saturday.  I said on the phone with it so busy, I was reminded of the San Diego Con!  I hope today is better for you, and I hope this post works!  I'm tired of this Spyware popping up!  Anyway, have (more) fun!  

[CriticalCrittles]

I'm so0o0o0o sorry and totally really bummed I missed when you called me today. I was at work and when you called I saw it was you calling me but I was helping a customer and I woulda gotten in so much trouble if I took the call.

After I called you back and heard that I woulda gotten the chance to talk to Mike if I woulda answered or called you right back....when I hung up I was totally bummed the rest fo the day (and still am kinda). I'm so sorry.

I'm also sorry that the con was so bad Saturday and that the cold really got to you at the end of the day. My friend who tried to go also told me that it was horrible and he couldn't get in either, even though he really wanted to meet Mike (he's a Venture Bros and TMNT fan too)...he said they weren't even letting people with pre reg badges in! That's horrible! That and the fact that Greg said it was horrible makes me think I'm gonna change my mind about saying I might wanna go to this con next year heh.

Well, can't wait to talk to you when you get home, after you've of course rested up and feel better.

~Luf, Crittle~

[IveyAngelo]

Hey everyone, last day of the con report....

This day started for at me at 6am, as I wanted to get to the convention very early for the 10am Kappa Mikey panel.   I got to where I park my car at 8am, so I was making good time, so I thought.   I sat there, waiting and waiting... no one came to open the little news stand to pay for parking!   I couldn't believe it, as 8:30 rolled around, 9am came just as fast.  I checked the news stand and there's no hours posted on it.   At 9:30 I could wait no longer, I hide money in an envolpe with my lincese plate number and car make on it, than put a note in the windsheild saying I did that.  

Than I raced onto the train, but even leaving at that time I got into NYC after 10am.   Just as I got there Blue called to see if everything was ok, I told her I'm going as fast as I can.  I jumped into a cab (first time I used one on this trip) and had them take me to the convention center.   I ran in and had to find the panel room, once I found it they were showing a "Kappa Mikey" episoide.   I sat behind Blue and Kaz, though when the real panel started I moved to the front roll.

A lot of the artist, writers, and VAs were there for this panel. Including Mike S. and Sean.  So I was very very happy to be there.   I taped the panel, though it was the shortest panel I've ever seen.  After the panel we walked with Mike S. as they got some food.   I thought Blue and Kaz was getting some food so I ordered something for myself, surprised to see Kaz and Blue didn't get any food afterwards.  I sat at a table not too far from Mike, but had my back to that group since I knew we weren't a part of the Kappa Mikey group I was ok with that.

Kaz went and got some fries and we sat there eatting and talking.  After talking for a bit, and Mike said bye he was heading into the convention.   We finally got up and went in ourselfs.   We checked in with Khary Randolph, who is one of the artist who has worked on every cover of the TMNT DVDs.  Randy was doing sketches for us, though he wasn't done with ours yet.  After that we went to the Mirage group and I started talking with them, durning this time I lost Kaz and Blue for a bit.  Though I bought an original art work page from Jim.  

I ended up getting my stuff signed while there that time.   When I turned to finally leave, I bumped into Mike S.  He hasn't seen Kevin yet.  I told him I'll lead him there when he's ready to see Kevin, but he was going to see the Mirage Crew first.  So he went over and said hi to Peter.  I got a picture of them together.  Going to email that to Mike.  Durning that time Kaz, Shredder, and Blue found us.  So we walked around the convention a bit, another VA was walking with us who's working on shows like Naurto.   I told her how I perfer the Dubs, and feel Dub VAs don't enough credit/respect for all the great work they do.   I also of course told her about my arm, since I was really dragging all day long.

We brought Mike over to Khary booth so he could talk/meet him.   Than we walked around, once we finally got to the Heavy Metal booth Kevin was out on a sig break.  I split up from Mike and the others at this time and went to the Kappa Mikey booth in hopes of seeing Sean, but he left.   Though I did talk with some of the guys there, on my way back to Kevin's booth I bumped back into Mike and started talking to him.  We headed back to the Kappa Mikey booth together and I had him sign only 3 things this time.    I took a few pictures of him at the booth, than went back to Mirage.  Down there I hung out with the guys a little bit longer till I heard they were leaving soon.  

They were nice enough to sign and give me all of their name signs that were sitting on the table.  I said good bye to all of them, we headed over to the Heavy Metal booth to say good bye to Kevin and have him sign a few things.  I took a picture with him, and said my good byes there.   Than we headed over to Khary to see what's going on, by this time Kaz has her Don sketch and Blue got her Leo sketch so I was the last one.  He didn't even start on it yet, I told him we were planning to leave soon so he started to work on it.   I flipped through his sketch book and talked with him a bit this time, even showed him a picture of my room.

He was a TMNT fan since he was a kid so he really enjoys working on the series.  He's got some art on all of the covers out there, at first there was only two artist for the covers though now there is Three.  So he's been doing the covers since they started making them.  I also learned he did some work for the "Teen Titan" comic books, which I thought was pretty cool.  He let me sit down at the booth since I was really dragging at the time.  While sitting there, someone else pointed me out from VH1 Totally Obessed.  

Khary felt bad because he rushed the picture for me, but I really think it looks good.  I'll scan it once I get home.  I thanked him for everything and paid for my picture.  Than we headed out.  Pichu another one of her friends picked Blue, Kaz and I up from the convention center and drove us to Planet Hollywood.  Though Pichu and her friend had stuff to do, so they couldn't stay with us for dinner.

We went in and got seated, after getting our table and placing the order (I got a BQ Bacon Cheeseburger), I went around and saw the Michaelangelo costume they had hanging up there.  I took video and pictures.  I'm sad to say how depressed that Mikey looks.   The way they have him posed isn't the best, and his left foot is about to fall off, I swear someday while someone is sitting there eatting their food, they might find a foot falling into it.  The way they got him strapped onto the wall hurts to see, cause you see it just pinching the foam letax.  And man, his arm looks like it's dried totally up cracking all over... infact the right arm isn't even connected at the elbow anymore.  It also looks as if they never even dust him.   So really, I feel very sorry for this Michaelangelo costume.  You'd think being right there in time Square the city the Turtles are from... that he'd be better taken care of and displayed a lot better.  It's a sad sight for anyone who cares for those costumes.

I went back and ate with Kaz and Blue, we sat there for hours just talking.  Kaz got up and requested the video "Kung Fu Fighting" to play on the screen, which was awesome because it had the TMNT in it.  I video taped it while it was playing.  There was a lot of other videos playing while there, though most of the time I was more into relaxing and talking.  I enjoyed not having to get up and run around with how much pain I was in.  After we finally decided to leave we went to Toys R Us.  I thought I'd get out without buying anything, but I found the OS Volume 3 DVD and I didn't have that yet.   So I bought it.  Kaz and Blue both got NYC stuff for their family.   After we paid for our stuff, we heard the speaker telling us that they were now close... so we were there at closing time.   Once we got outside we found a subway area and went in.  We had to go different ways now, so it was time for our good byes.

I took the train back to NJ, and did get one scare when I looked outside of the train as we were pulling up at the station I could see my car.  There was a white paper on the window.   "OH NO did I get a ticket?!"  I thought as we pulled up.  I raced out of the train and ran down to my car, thankfully it was a note on the window saying they found the money and thanking me for paying.   So all was good.  I met up with Pichu and got back to the house and went to sleep.

For this convention I'll like to send a few Thanks out to people.

Shredder:  THANKS SO MUCH!   You didn't have to do what you did for me with this convention, though I want you to know that I respect it and am very Thankful!   I had a lot of fun, to bad you couldn't hang out with us more outside of the convention as well.

Blue:  THANKS, you were very kind in helping me with my bag that day, and I truely enjoyed hanging out and talking with you all weekend long.  I hope you have a safe and fun trip back.  

Kaz:  THANKS!  You were a lot of help as well with the bag but I really want to THANK you for the surprise on that last day.     That was very kind of you and really did surprise me!!   Thanks so much!!!!!  I also want to Thank you for introducing us to Khary, he's a great guy!!!

Even if I was in a lot of pain, I want everyone to know I had a TON of fun at this convention and will remember it for a long time.   I think I may come back next year as well.  Hopefully they'll learn to get a bigger space and order it better

I'll post pictures when I get home.

[Kazari]

I am back from New York!! OMG!! IT WAS SOO AMAZING!!!! I didn't want to leave!! Unfortunately I am still stuck here with Lea for another day *makes playful face* Here are some tidbits of the day then I'll go over highlights with some pictures!

Wednesday: Lea got here around 6:30pm. I took her to the bank and to Target. She made me buy the TMNT action pack that comes with a huge poseable figurine of Donatello with the TMNT 3rd movie. I wasn't going to buy it, but since she was with me in person, she demanded that I had to get it. Her reason: Because it was very flexible *laughs* Heard a weird bumping in my tire so when I got home, I told my dad. I found out there was a screw in the tire, so my dad had to take it on Thursday morning before we left to make sure it was okay.  We ended up watching TMNT 2 BEHIND THE SCENES, which was funny because Leo talks so ghettoish! We watched Outbreak and she loved the episode.

On Friday we got to the convention around 4:30pm. We stood in line over a hour! It was insane! But it was soo worth it, after seeing what havoc there was on Saturday. Friday we made our way down to talk to the Mirage guys. THEY WERE AWESOME!! I SO WENT BROKE!! OMG! TON OF DON GOODNESS! I'll show sketches later because I am a slacker right now. They did some requests for me too. I had Dan Berger sketch me a request of Don. The picture he did is now my desktop for work because it so fits it and when I scan it, you will see why I say it is for work. It's kind of funny because it is like from one of the 4 kids small clips.  I also bought a picture from Michael Dooney. I also bought some pictures from Steve Lavigne. He did the sketches for the TMNT coloring book, the 2 pics from him were from Fallen Angel: Because Kazzy LOVES thug Don, and Darkness on Edge of Town sketch when Don's all wet *sweatdrop* I also bought a bloody pic of Don from Eric Tailbot. I also got a head sketch of Don from Peter Laird. We also met up with Ivey. She took us to see Kevin Eastman. He was pretty awesome! I also ran into Kharupt! He told us he was booked with requests that day, but to come back early Saturday morning. (YEAH RIGHT). It was very cold on Friday and I felt so bad for Ivey because of the cold weather. It was hurting her arm.

Saturday: Watched Turtles. I was so moody. First it was kind of funny because before our trip, Lea kept talking about how it was going to be a Donatello episode only and then it turned out to be. I just didn't like it..it made me kind of moody. I really won't get into why. It kind of put me into a huge funk all day and evening so I felt like a total bore to Lea that entire day. I got better some during the day at the con, but at night it got worse again. We got to the convention around 12:30pm that day and it was PACKED! I could hardly move through the crowds. We left to get some food in the building..BAD MISTAKE. Luckily Ivey was in line for the room we just exited so we got back into line with her after eating. They expected a con for 5,000 instead they got over 50,000. The Fire Marshalls were outside the building forbidding anyone from entering the building onsite registered or preregistered. It didn't matter. It pizza'ed off a lot of people so there was no way we were going to leave the building. I walked around with Lea and bought MORE pictures of Donatello from the Mirage guys! It's insane how much money I spent. You don't want to know.

That evening we went out with Ivey on a turtles tour. We went by 11th and Bleeker and also Ray's Pizza. We took pictures as well. I really didn't feel good either so that was bad.

Sunday: Got up and got to the convention really early to get in. There was a huge line outside for people to get in but since we had our badges we could get in. We basically carried around Don and Leo plushies all day with our badges on them. I don't know how many times people stopped us to ask us where we got them at. Hung around with the Mirage guys till about 3pm. Got my picture from Kharupt. We also went to a Kappa Mikey panel that morning at 10am. We hung around Mike. He gave Lea and I us a hug. We were also very fortunate to see Sean Schmell there. I got Sean's autograph for my bro's friend alex and also on my TMNT print. He signed it as Nobody LOL. After the con, we went to Planet Hollywood for dinner. They have a Michelangelo costume there, but it was in BAD shape! OMG! Poor Ivey was upset and I could see why. We also was hoping they would play Ninja Rap, but they didn't have it. I then remembered 6 years ago when I went into NYC, they showed a music video with clips from different movies. I remembered it had TMNT movie in it. I asked the guy if they still had it, and they DID!! So they played it!! Ivey really enjoyed it. I LOVE it because it has the part at the end of the movie to where Donatello fights the shredder so of course I was happy! I bought Lea and Ivey's dinner both that night.

When I got back I just wanted to read my comics that I bought from the convention and look at all my pictures. I went to sleep pretty late but we weren't in that big of a hurry on coming back home, at leats I wasn't. I LOVE NEW YORK! It was so like coming back home..my REAL home. I felt so right, like the rest of my life that always seemed to bog me down seemed to wither away. I felt so free.

Here are some highlight pictures of my trip.





Peter Laird



Convention Center



The guys' new lair in Central Park!! Belvedere Castle in Central Park







Now I am off to watch Nobody's Fool! I FINALLY GOT THE DVD!!

[Kazari]

I got more pics to post!



Jim Lawson



Steve!



More stuff from the castle



I sooo spotted this! I showed Lea!! Look familiar? This is the new walking stick that Leonardo gave his Master in the Prodigal son episode.



Cute little turtle inside!

[Brinatello]

Great review, Ivey!  I'm soooo glad you didn't get a ticket on your car!  That would have been awful.  Despite the craziness of the crowds, it sounds like everyone still had fun and scored big on goodies and seeing many guests.  Kaz, I love your photos!  The guy on the far right with Peter Laird looks like Michael Dooney.  Was he there, too?  He was at the 2003 San Diego Comic Con.  Very quiet, but very nice!  I also love the photos of Belvedere Castle.  I really want to visit Central Park and hope if I go to AnimeNext this year, I'll have time to go there!  Thanks so much for sharing those!

[Kazari]

No problem, Brina. Yah it was pretty cool. Hopefully if I go to AN this year I can definitely go there again when it is warm!