As someone who focuses much of his convention attendance on where I can cover the most news, it’s not often that I attend a Con just for the sake of going.  When my buddies at Boss Fight Studio mentioned they were heading down to New Jersey this past weekend and wondered if I wanted to join them, I decided to leave my official “news coverage” hat at home and just go for the heck of it.

Of course, Boss Fight would go on to make some big announcements during the Sunday show, but I was happy to just hang around and have fun.  And as someone who tends to be pretty selective about what shows I go to, I’m happy to say NJCC was absolutely worth the trip.  Read below for the full run down.

First, as I already mentioned, Boss Fight Studio was in attendance with many of their original head sculpts from recent GIJCC figures as well as the upcoming 2014 G.I. Joe Convention set.  Along with that, they also revealed the control art for their Wave 1 Spartan, and even had their first test shot of the base male figure in attendance!  I have to say it’s pretty incredible seeing this thing in person.  Along with these items, sculpting wizards Dave Proctor and Fred Aczon were there as well, running a real time 3D digital sculpting demo throughout nearly the entire show.  As you watched, you could see them build a head in their computer software, and that was an amazing experience.

Erik and Catrina Arana were there as well, doing sketches and happily engaging in all of the fans and kids who walked past their table.  It was a busy scene and made for some great memories.

Right next to Boss Fight Studio was Kevin Watts, the man responsible for previous NJCC exclusive figures, not to mention the fantastic CanvHISS Project.  CanvHISS was in full effect this year, showing off a ton of great artistic offerings, and revealing a brand new piece, looking uncomfortably like a dissected frog.  Kevin also displayed many of his spectacular customs, which is always a treat to see.

John from Toyfiniti was also there with a really nice display of Mordles, Robo Force, and several other great toylines that he has been famously raising from the dead.  A wide assortment of really fun looking product captured the eyes of many a passer by, and it was awesome just to get some toy manufacturing insight from someone who took his hobby and made it a full time profession.

Next to Toyfiniti was The Finest, a terrific G.I. Joe costuming site, who was there raising money for Wounded Warrior via their “Girls of the Finest” calendar project.  Many hard core Joe fans in costume mingled throughout the show, getting pictures taken and generally having a great time.

As for the show itself, I was pretty amazed.  There were a ton of dealers with some fantastic vintage G.I. Joe, Transformers, and He-Man offerings, not to mention Power Rangers, TMNT, Thundercats, and almost any other toy line you can think of.  Third party Transformers were prevalent as well, and it would have been easy to drop a lot of cash in one short weekend.

I already mentioned that I don’t go to very many conventions, but I am thrilled that I made an exception this past weekend for the New Jersey Collectors Convention.  Some great product to buy, fantastic door prizes, face-to-face interaction with industry professionals (I didn’t even mention terrific Transformers artists Dan Khanna and Andrew Griffith) and a terrific “down to Earth” convention atmosphere made this one of the most fun shows I’ve attended in recent memory.

If you’re in the New Jersey or Philly area, I would absolutely put this show on your “must visit” list, and even if you’re a bit further away, I think it would be worth the trip.  Heck, my drive was over six hours each way, and the experience was more than worth it.

Keep watching NJCC.com and NJCC on Facebook to see when the next show will be announced, and think about making some plans!

As you can see above, I threw some quick smartphone photos up in the article, but if you want to see some great images of the Boss Fight booth, check out HISSTank.com!