The convention weekend in question occurs in November and at the LAX Marriott hotel in Los Angeles every year. As I said, the Joss Whedon salute was new this year, and I think with that addition the convention was really made to be much more successful than usual. There were a lot more guests and vendors this year that were previously uninterested in such a niche con with only Farscape and later Stargate SG-1.

When I first went into the dealer's room, I was expecting a few tables with comics and prints or photographs, a lot of random buttons, shot glasses, mugs and other items, and TONS of t-shirts. Instead, I was met with a few independent artists' tables selling artwork (including one of the guests, Virgnia Hey, who was selling her meditation CDs, soy candles and jewelry), a nerd t-shirt distributor, several comic and print shops, a Star Wars shop and a couple of (surprise!) toy vendors. 

When I walked past Quantum Mechanix, my eyes were immediately drawn to this amazing resin prototype of J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot mascot. Quantum Mechanix is a manufacturer with license to Doctor Who, Star Trek, BSG, Firefly/Serenity, Dr. Horrible, Stargate and Warehouse 13 (and probably more) sci-fi toys! 

Be sure to check out my gallery for all the pictures of toys I saw while in the dealer's room, by the way. I'll highlight a few here, but all of the figures really are a treat. Quantum Mechanix makes all their figures out of resin and were cool enough to give me a few details on some of their upcoming releases. 

In case you're wondering about Bad Robot, there is no release information at this time; but I was told it will be a limited run. Another prototype I saw is Daniel of Stargate, which has no price or date of release but is comparable to Teal'C (pictured below) if you were to look up similar objects. Daniel comes with two arms (for his two different guns) and I must say, the prototype looks really great so I can't wait to see the real thing! 

I've added other photos of your favorite current-show sci-fi characters, including those from a set of maquettes called Little Damn Heroes. There are two older ones, recently joined by Wash and River of Firefly (pre-orders start November 15th). These two maquettes will actually be cheaper than the original two, even though the quality is higher then the previous figures! Wash was added by consumer request, and speaking of River, you'll find a picture of one more lovely statue of her in the gallery. 

After I'd gotten my fill of sci-fi resin, I took a stroll down the hall and found none other than a wall of GIANTmicrobes. My fascination for those was however short lived, as my attention was forced onto the wall of Tribbles right next to it! Now, these aren't new toys as far as our market goes, but to me they were quite new; and I'm not that big of a Trekkie either, but I thought these were so clever.

The Tribbles were introduced in the late 60's episode of Star Trek called "Trouble with Tribbles", and later returned with a new creature, the Glommer in the episode "More Tribbles, More Troubles." These inspired what is now a huge wall of fluff that is the selection of Tribbles that I saw at the tri-show! They are motion and sound activated, and it takes very little to set them off bouncing and shaking, making those little furry animal chirpy trills. They are simply irresistible, and you're probably crazy if you don't find the charm in at least filling your arms up in these things like I did.

As far as toy news goes, these were the Tomo-relevant highlights of the Sci-Fi Tri-Show! Now if what you really want to know is about the guests and events, who I met and other things I saw, I could write up a c-blog on it if enough people are curious. As a final note, I had the pleasure of meeting Doug Jones (Pan's Labyrinth, Buffy) posing with some toys of characters he has embodied. He's one of the coolest dudes around! Most if not all of the toys he is posing with are Mezco toys limited run from a Comic Con in the past few years, autographed by him.

Enjoy the gallery and be sure to visit these manufacturers and show them some Tomo love!