Contributed by collector and Overstreet Advisor Art Cloos
Photos by Alice Cloos

With summer over and fall underway, Joe Veteri kept the 2019 fall convention season going with the latest edition of his now long running ToyCon NJ show. It was held the weekend of November 9-10, 2019, at the P.A.L. Building in Parsippany, NJ.

A member of the 501st Legion, the volunteer organization that brings costume enthusiasts together under a collective identity, was guarding the show entrance. As we entered the show, we saw other 501st Legion members were walking the aisles and posing for photos with people.

There’s a lot to do at this show beyond the shopping options. For starters, once again the official face painter of the show, Creative Faces by V, was set up for her eighth ToyCon NJ. Attendees were able to choose one free face paint or a custom festival glitter V, a published artist, children’s book author, and certified makeup artist. Also, everyone who was painted by V received a 10% off coupon good towards a booking for a future party, event, pregnancy belly painting, and so much more. Allie and our young guest Dayana took advantage of V’s talents as did a lot of kids, and adults too, who were walking around the show with their faces painted.

Besides Creative Faces, there were lots of other freebies. NJ Gamer Con hosted several tournaments during the two days of the show including Rocket League, Smash Bros U, and Mortal Kombat 11, all of which were free to play. Microsoft returned to ToyCon NJ to host multiple tournaments with prizes for the winners. The company also provided Xboxes that were open for free play. Also New Jersey Diecast Collectors Club, which was founded in 1997, was back at ToyCon NJ to sponsor and host diecast racing events throughout the show. One of my favorite events was the Professional BeyBlades League who were back for another show. I learned about these games in June and was happy to see them return. The tournaments were open to all ages and were held all weekend long. BeyBlades were available for those who did not bring their own.

The media guest of honor at the show was John Bianco who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. A writer and director, he is most recognized for his role as Gerry Torciano, the righthand man to Phil Leotardo, on The Sopranos. He is also known for the roles of Jimmy the Bear in Daredevil and Head Demon on Gotham.

Cosplayers are always wanted at ToyCon NJ and they received a special $8 rate for showing up in costume. From the Wonder Woman and Superman husband and wife who come to every local show to Spider-Man and others, there was a good turnout.

Charity is an important feature of most modern toy and comic book conventions and ToyCon NJ continued this by raffling a new custom painted Traxxas Slash. Valued at $500, the tickets were $5 each, with all the proceeds benefiting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The first thing we do at shows is to go through the aisles, looking for things to buy and to get an overview of the con. From early in the day, dealers reported that sales were good. There was a strong mix of both vintage and modern items, and I was surprised at the amount of vintage Batman items on display. I bought a couple of them too. It is worth mentioning that despite this being a toy show, dealers sold comic books too. The point being you really don’t know what you might find at the show, so be prepared.

It took me a long time to do my walk through not only due to its size but because I kept running into people I knew, such as my buddy Jerry and his family. Local dealer and my buddy Mike Borth had his usual multi-table display and he was very happy with his sales. I saw comic and comic art collector Ankur Jetley walking around with a very large tub of toys.

Allie said that she made several new acquaintances who create custom items that she hopes to buy from in the future. She was pleased that there were some seldom seen Wonder Woman items for sale. She also feels ToyCon NJ is one of the most kid friendly of the regional conventions and said it has a hometown feel to it.

One of the most interesting conversations I had at the show was with a Japanese toy dealer named Joshua Fraser who was set up at ToyCon NJ for the first time. He told me that, “Japanese vintage toys from Tokusatsu, manga, and anime have been a fairly popular genre stemming back to the robot collecting boom of the ’80s,” which I did not know. He also said that, “there has been a lot of crossover interest due to the global art toy market that is a result of a love of retro pop culture. What used to be a niche subgroup now permeates social media and many characters like Tetsujin 28 and Tetsuwan Atom are slowly becoming as ubiquitous as Batman or Star Wars. The latter of which even have their own Japanese collecting subgroups.” He also spoke about how the show was a real eye opening experience for him to meet some, “amazing collectors, hear stories, and see photos of epic collections.” He noted that even though we all focus on different things, collectors of all varieties can speak the same universal language, which he finds strangely comforting.

Regular admission was $15 a day with special rates for early admission and certain others, and children 10 and under get in for free. ToyCon NJ gives veterans a special $8 admission rate, which is not something that a lot of other shows do. Parking filled up fast, as it always does, but the website offers parking options, including photos.

There are several ways to commute to the event. Attendees from New York could take a bus from midtown Manhattan and the show is just ten minutes off of Route 80 for those who took the highway. In addition, ToyCon NJ offered a special show rate for “Take Me There,” a transportation service which was the official ride for the show. There are three local hotels in Parsippany all of which offered special show rates for people who stayed over for the show.

A nice little feature of the show was having an ATM at the event since there are no banks within walking distance.

There are many restaurants in the area, but those who didn’t want to lose their parking spot at the convention could eat at the onsite food trucks. New York Pizza and The Empanada Truck were set up near the P.A.L. entrance. At the end of the day we headed out to a nice Italian restaurant a very short drive away on Rt. 46. We both agreed over dinner that we will be back for the spring edition of the show in 2020.

As of this writing, the dates for ToyCon NJ 2020 have not yet been released. Information on upcoming shows can be found at www.ToyCon NJ.com, their Facebook page, or by calling Joe Veteri at (973) 768-6649.