The life-blood of a convention is its Dealers Room. That is how you draw in people. There's nothing quite like the basic urge to shop to get people to plop down $65-75 for an entrance fee. Typically Otakon has the best dealer room for all the cons that I attend. It's been like that for the last three Otakons that I've been to. Unfortunately, this year breaks that streak and decends into mediocrity. Follow me after the jump to find out why and to see some (shakey) video from the con.

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While Otakon does not have all the awesome toy news that we saw at SDCC, it is filled with some pretty fun events and of course exciting adventures. So we decided to give those of you who could not attend a little taste of the con with play-by-play daily journals! So hit the jump and see what Stephen and I got up to the first day of the convention!

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So it's odd, I've been told by multiple people today who saw screenings of Scott Pilgrim that I'm totally Wallace Wells. If it's being the stylish gay guy who everyone goes to for advice I think I at least partially agree with that. I'm still confused by this madness. I thought it was odd after one person said it but after 5? Someone must see something.

Anyway, on a serious note, with everyone at Otakon I guess we got another Tomocast going on from all the people who wish they were there that are on the staff. Have fun recording that guys.

ok, now on with the linkage.

Active Contests:

• Monthly Megapixel: July Edition
• Tomopop x Hobby Link Japan 2010 Gunpla Competition
• Contest: Win VN02 Mix Miku courtesy of Tomopop and HLJ!

Features:

• Show and Tell: Mattel's Monster High: Frankie Stein
• Tomocast episode 12 records tonight!?

Japanese Figures:

• One Piece's Nami adds swimsuit modeling in her growing pirate resume
• Are you ready to learn the bugle with So Ra No Wo To's Sorami Kanata?
• Movic teases new Hakuouki figures and I drool with excitement
• Tamashii Nation punches you in the teeth with its new exclusives

Western Figures:

• Gaming Heads unleashes Left 4 Dead 2's Tank
• New photos of Masterpiece Rodimus Prime show that age is not nice

Custom Vinyl and Art Toys:

• Preview shots from Rohby, Phu's "Chapter One: The Confrontation"

Miscellaneous Stories:

• Become your own Dopant dealer with the DX Gaia Memory Complete Selection set

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Ah, I remember the innocent days when the One Piece first started. Nami was a lovely lady with a unique yet somewhat normal figure. And the series continued and the anime debuted. That was when Nami started to change. Was it her self consciousness now that she was a star? Were her talent agents pressuring her? All I know is Nami was... different.

And that difference is hard to not notice in this exclusive 1/8 scale figure from MegaHouse for the Toei Animation and Mekke! online stores. I laugh at how Nami's bust size increased in One Piece but the Portrait of Pirates Limited Edition Nami figure just brings it to ridiculous levels. This is just as much of a joke as her most recent rendition from MegaHosue. Decked out in a swimsuit, Nami poses in a seductive manner that just has me saying "no thank you, ma'am." It appears they neglected to put any focus on her face as that just looks awful.

Shame on you MegaHouse and your blatant pandering. Nami fans I'm sure will be pleased with either a blue version or red version to add to their collection. If you are interested in this exclusive piece, hit up Tokyo Hunter where he is currently taking orders on it until September 3, 2010. I use to like Nami in the early days of One Piece but I think the stardom has really gone to her head.  

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I've never seen myself as a doll person. I never enjoyed playing with them as a kid, and the closest thing to a doll I owned recently were Hot Toys figures. That's all changed with Mattel's Monster High, and I am now all about them! It all started when my friend Psycho Soldier showed me the Frankie Stein doll she picked up, and I immediately fell in love.

Mattel's Monster High series has some of the most awesome characters I've seen in an original toy line, and most of the students are the children of famous monsters. Frankie happens to be the daughter of Frankenstein and his bride, and things only get more hilarious from there!

I've never been so excited about an original series like this, especially not with dolls. Hit the jump to learn more about my friend Frankie, as well as her fantastically ghoulish friends, with this totally creeptacular Show and Tell!

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Tomorrow night marks the opening of Phu! and Rohby's "Chapter One: The Confrontation" show at myplasticheart in New York City, and we've been sent along a few preview shots of what to expect. Needless to say, it's everything I expected, and that's fantastic, because I was expecting mind-blowing custom vinyl robots from both artists.

The show opens at 6 p.m. Saturday at myplasticheart (210 Forsyth St., New York City). As I've said before, if you can go and check it out, do so! I mean, it's Phu! and Rohby's robots! Fighting! HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE THIS?!?!

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Fictional post-war time and military bugler anime So Ra No Wo To has been very quiet on the figure scene. That void is now being filled by Kotobukiya who announced a 1/6 scale figure of the series heroine, Sorami Kanata, at Wonder Festival last weekend. As like many other figures that were announced, Kanata is now available for preorder.

One thing that may have points against Kanata and the series as a whole is the art style that follows in the steps of K-On! and the "moe blob" format. On this figure, it's not so bad. She's squishy and has a cute hair style. The sense of happiness that emits from her makes for a nice feeling. Overall though, it's just a bit too generic in design but it's a uniform so it's not like there was much to work with. I seriously hope that seam on her shorts doesn't mean you can cast them off. Yet... I wouldn't really be surprised.

Fans of the series and fans of the cute can preorder her at Hobby Search and AmiAmi. She's retailing for 6,800 yen and is set for late November release.

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Wait. Another one already!? This is something most unprecedented in the history of Tomocast! But it certainly is happening folks. First we get left behind for San Diego Comic-Con and now we're left behind once again for Otakon. Why do the other staff members keep leaving us?

That's fine! We had fun last week with recording Personacast that we're going to do it again! Again Jason Millward takes the reigns as our host along with myself, the cute and lovely ladies Rio McCarthy and Stella Wong, myself and Pedro Cortes. ... Huh? Pedro went to Otakon? TRAITOR! Fine! We'll have Jason's good friend, the charismatic and funny Teddy join us (Jason's words, not mine)!

We assure you that this week we really are sad about being left behind. Really. We are. We'll cry into our beer tonight as we talk about Saturday morning cartoons, the toys, the marketing, our rituals, and more. We will also discuss the oodles and oodles of figures shown off at Wonder Festival.

Hit the comments with any questions you might have about the glorious days of Saturday mornings. And if you have any clue why we were left behind again or why Pedro turned traitor, we'd appreciate your input.

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Yesterday we had our first look at the upcoming Masterpiece Rodimus Prime that debuted at the Transformers convention Cybertron Con. We only were able to see the prototype of the figure in vehicle form through some rough photos. iGear Toys, maker of custom Transformers accessories, was at the convention and posted clearer photos of Rodimus Prime in his robot and vehicle form.

Now that I have seen him in robot form, I have mixed feelings. I know Rodimus Prime is a matured version of Hot Rod but that head mold is looking a tad too old and long. I'm not enjoying the exposed arm joints and how they looked like they were squeezed in to fit the mold for transforming. I'm also not liking, as the kids would say, "kibble" in the back. If he seriously needs a stand to hold him up because of that back part, that's going to be a turn off in owning this figure.

My desire to own this figure is sinking. Maybe once he gets a paint job my opinion will change. What do you think? If you say yes, don't forget you can preorder him at Big Bad Toy Store. Exact pricing details are still unknown as well as a release date.

[via Seibertron.com] 

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It took me a while to get into Kamen Rider W, but I'm fully engulfed into how good the series has gotten. Bandai has definitely been milking the series, with numerous releases of the popular Gaia Memories for the different forms of the titular rider. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said of the enemies, with only one toy released. That changes today with the announcement of the DX Sound Capsule Gaia Memory Complete Selection.

The set features 31 of the Gaia Memories from Kamen Rider W, the 5 Sonozaki family plus each of the remaining 26 Dopants. None of the Rider's memories are included, so this is just for the fan of the bad guy. 31 Gaia Memories won't come cheap though, as the set will sell for 13,000 yen. This is a Bandai Premium item, which means it is going to be exclusive. I can understand this being exclusive as I can't imagine many stores that would stock this.

Thankfully, Tokyo Hunter will be taking preorders for this item, which start on August 1st. The set itself though will not be released until December.

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