Robot Claw – Page 11 – “Life In The So-Called Space Age”

It’s Dangerous To Go Alone

August 22, 2025

Today I went to AnimeNYC, a large anime convention held in the city. Apparently they’re expecting over 100,000 attendees this year, about 40,000 people a day for the three (full) day event.

It was held at the Javits Center, which I hadn’t been to since New York Comic Con back in 2015! I bought a one-day ticket for the con at the last minute, since I wanted to do something fun to end my summer break. I didn’t know what to expect since I’d never actually attended an anime-specific convention.

In short: it was amazing. I was immediately surprised by the size, the density and variety of exhibitors and artists, and the range of things being shown or sold. My original plan was to go to the two principle panels today (the new Panty & Stocking and Star Wars Visions III) and also visit every booth but I quickly realized that wasn’t going to be possible and in fact got so engrossed by seeing all the booths I forgot about the panels.

Most of the exhibitors were stores, and there were hundreds of them. The most common type was figure shops, and most of these specialized in prize figures at very reasonable prices.

These were very popular, and I’d suspect a large percentage of the attendees left with a figure or two (me included). Some of the stores also sold scale figures, including some very expensive ones (>$500). Shops selling model kits were common as well, although they tended to be extremely Gundam-focused.

Manga was common, in both publisher booths and bookstore booths. Amusingly – considering this is an anime convention – there was very little actual physical anime for sale, probably because most watchers stream it these days.

I was surprised by the cosplay weapon stores. Several companies were present, and you could buy an amazing variety of guns and swords and magic staves and other items to help with your cosplay. How many of the above guns do you recognize? I chuckled when I saw one of the shops was sold out of Frieren’s staff, since Frieren was one of the more popular cosplays I saw today:

There were many other shop types such as soundtracks (including vinyl), T-shirts and other clothes, dice, keyboards, plushies, pins, jewelery and even whatever this is:

Of course it wasn’t all shops. As soon as you entered the venue a massive Hololive ‘stage’ towered over the crowd, and it seemed for the entire convention the girls (and guys) of Hololive entertained and interacted with a large and boisterous crowd. I knew Hololive was popular, but this opened my eyes as to exactly how much. It was also interesting that this seemed to be the Japanese Hololive girls, at least every time I walked past.

Several anime companies and mobile games had big booths as well, and the most popular was for a new game called Brown Dust II, which drew a big crowd taking photos of their professional cosplayers:

There were several Japan travel booths – one of which I got a few tips from – but perhaps the most unexpected interaction I had today was when a guy from Heritage Auctions urged me to contact him with details about our anime cel collection since he may be interested in selling it on consignment!

And then there was artists alley, which is hundreds of small tables featuring amateurs selling their own art. This for me was the highlight of the show, since I was blown away by the talent. Almost all of them sell posters, but postcards, mini prints, acrylics, charms and all manner of other items were common as well.

Back in our NYCC days artists alley were tables with laser printed A4 posters, but now these ‘amateurs’ even sell woven blankets, acrylic stands and even resin statues! And the posters themselves now include effects like texturing and all sorts of foil effects! Such as on this gold foil embossed postcard I bought from one artist:

I bought more postcards than anything else – maybe 20 in total. I would have liked a poster or two, but I had no poster tube and the choice was so big and quality so high I would have had difficulty choosing.

It was very busy. Crowds were dense and the going was at times slow, made slower by the need to always keep an eye out for a cosplay weapon almost (accidentally) hitting you as the wonder walked by! Some booths were very popular and had lengthy lines, and in a couple of cases (Good Smile, Nikke) this prevented me from getting a good look. After about three hours I was tired and overburdened – I’d made the fools error of buying heavy books early – and found a quiet corner to eat my $29 lunch. It was better than I expected, and I enjoyed it while the girl in Miku cosplay sitting next to me detached her pigtails to brush the frizz out of them.

After lunch I made a brief trip to my hotel to empty my bags before immediately returning to the con. It was just after 1 pm by now, and the crowds had multiplied. But I was motivated and soldiered on, and around 4 pm – six hours after the door had opened – I had visited every booth.

And then I discovered the lower level!

I’d walked past these escalators many times, but I didn’t know there was a ‘gaming and community hall’ on the lower level. I went down for a look and quickly decided to pretend I’d never seen it and returned to the main hall. I think the gaming and community hall was mostly dedicated to fan booths related to video/computer/TRPG games as well as various anime or gaming clubs, but it was also quite large and I saw a few professional-looking booths so maybe there was something worth seeing? I’ll never know 🙂

I’ll also add I all but completely ignored the large autograph section, most of whom were either US voice actors or Japanese creators that required a lottery-won ticket to get an autograph from! I wandered close enough to read one price list, which was $70 for a simple autograph from a voice actress I’d never heard of before.

I then spent another couple of hours speedrunning a second pass of all the booths, including a few I’d missed the first time. I bought some more stuff, saw even more impressive cosplay, but eventually was so exhausted it was time to leave. I’d lasted about eight hours since the doors had opened, which I think means I got my moneys worth!

I had a great time – much more than I expected to be honest – and almost wish I could return tomorrow. It was a very full day, and this post only scrapes the surface of what I saw and did. For instance I didn’t mention this:

Or when a vtuber tried to interview me, or when the girl I bought a postcard from couldn’t speak English (she was Korean), or how I used my roguish charm to bag a couple of freebies. Or a dozen other events I’ve forgotten since I’m so tired right now.

I’ll probably follow up in a few days with my haul. I didn’t buy that much, but I think I got a few items you may like to see.

Somehow, I Returned

August 21, 2025

I was in NYC only a few weeks ago and yet here I am again! I caught the train down this morning, and spent the day doing my usual rounds.

I estimate I walked over 90 city blocks today, as I did the return walk between 7th and 46th as well as many cross streets. It was much cooler than the last time I was here, and I even needed a light coat before noon.

I’m in the city for a convention, but even if I didn’t know it was on I would have learned quickly enough since I saw cosplayers everywhere! I had to join a longish line to pick up my convention badge, and I’d bet I was at least twice as old as everyone else in the line 🙂

The city is vibrant as always. It was busy everywhere today (end of summer tourists?), and I eventually learned a good amount of the cosplayers were here for a sold out Disney Descendants concert at Madison Square Garden. The 6 hours between my arrival and hotel check in passed before I knew it.

My hotel is… unusual. The room looked like a cell when I entered: no fridge, desk or even chair! It turns out I had to request it all, and then it was delivered. The room is also very small – almost Japanese hotel size – and yet it’s not exactly cheap. They’re sold out though, and it’s obvious many guests are here for the convention.

Speaking of which, tomorrow I’m going to AnimeNYC. I’ve never been to this – or any – anime convention, and it’s been ten years since my last convention (NYCC 2015). I’m looking forward to seeing what it’s like!

Not-LEGO Apothecary

August 18, 2025

It’s time for another ‘brick toy’ set by a LEGO competitor. This times it’s this ‘Medieval Apothecary’ by a company called FunWhole:

I bought this a few months ago for about $60 on Amazon, although the price seems to have gone up a bit since then. I chose this because the reviews were excellent, it includes lighting, and due to its similarity to the medieval blacksmith set from LEGO.

Opening the box reveals a lengthy full-colour instruction manual, 21 bags of pieces, and a box for the light elements. As with today’s LEGO sets, this one is built in numbered stages so you only open two or three bags at a time.

The large instruction book is very nice. Heavily influenced by LEGO, the illustrations are clear and easy to follow, and include elements like alternate angles to make the fiddly steps of inserting the wires for the lights easier.

The light elements themselves are bricks with built in LED lights connected by very fine wires. The finished model has about ten lights in total, and I was surprised to see it’s a single circuit powered by three AA batteries.

While there are a lot of aftermarket sets to add lights to existing LEGO kits, LEGO themselves rarely includes light bricks. My guess is this is due to difficulty: I suspect younger children would find installing the lights in this set quite challenging.

The above shows how the wires are installed in and around the other pieces, and on the finished kit they are mostly invisible. The set contains male and female bricks with matching +/- terminals so the top floor of the building can be removed with affecting the wiring, which is impressive.

The above photo shows the (unfinished) top floor, and you can see three of the light elements have become candles in the chandelier and a flame for a stove.

Even more than the UFO set I reviewed a month or so ago, the bricks in this set feel exactly like LEGO. They have the same grip and are in most cases identical, although there are a few I’d not seen before including ones designed to allow the tiny wires to run under them.

The set includes a few stickers, and these were much better than LEGO. While LEGO uses simple vinyl stickers, this set had decals that are rubbed on and then almost seem like they have been printed on the piece when the plastic top layer is removed. This is exactly what LEGO needs to switch to!

It’s not all as good (or better): since LEGO still has a trademark on their minifigs, the competitors need to design their own and these guys just look a bit… wrong. I’ve chosen to display the finished building without them 🙂

Here it is displayed in our curio next to the LEGO Medieval Blacksmith, and you can see they are the same scale and match nearly perfectly.

The lighting is truly impressive and although I’ll never really use it as you can see it looks great especially in the dark.

Many of the lights are interior and illuminate the well-detailed rooms of the apothecary. This kit has a lot of play value for kids and I would have loved this when I was young.

This is a phenomenal kit. The instructions showcase other sets made by this company and they have some themes – like ‘steampunk’ and ‘wild west’ – that LEGO has barely touched. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if I buy more from this company.