Designer Con

Review in #Haiku:
Tons of dope artists
Gather to peddle their work
And a few hacks too =)

Comi Con, Adult Con, Hemp Con, etc. There are conventions for every little hobby and niche out there; which is great!
While looking for new art pieces I came across Leanna Lin’s Wonderland, which lead me to Supah Cute, which lead me here to Designer Con. When I bought the tickets online on Friday, in my head with the thought this is going to be small and quaint. That thought completely vanished from my head as we walked up to the Pasadena Convention Center and saw the Back to the Future DeLorean with hella people crowding around it. Turns out, Designer Con has gained a pretty good following over the last couple of years. It also just so happens that before it was called Designer Con, it was the Vinyl Toy Network. Although it was an appropriate name with all the different kinds of toys by very talented people, Designer Con just rolls off the tongue much better, haha.
| T I C K E T S |
Online price tickets were $ 5 and at the door $ 7. Damn great way to spend $ 5-​$ 7 if you were looking for something fun to do for the day.
| L O C A T I O N & P A R K I N G |
I’m not sure if they use the same venue every year but this year it’s at the Pasadena Convention Center across the Paseo Colorado. There were a lot of signs for event parking ($ 9) around but since my gym is in the Paseo Colorado plaza, I just parked in the structure and got validation.
| C O N C E S S I O N S |
The reason I only gave 4 stars is because of the severe lack of concessions here. There was only one open in the main hall and like most conventions, the prices were high and the food was not yummy. But when you’re excited to see your favorite artists, you don’t mind skimping out on some things. There’s an attached Starbucks but with all the other people looking to get a pick me up for the hours they plan to walk around the convention center, it’s packed. Across the street are a few places to get coffee and food so my advice: eat before you come here!
I can’t wait till next year’s Designer Con! :) Just please get a good coffee sponsor or something please!!!

Woke up Saturday morning with no definite plans in mind other than going to eat somewhere, and doing some lovely chores and errands. Ah what a weekend to be free! I had absolutely no plans to come to Designer Con at all but I’m so glad I did.
Points to the hubs for finding out about Designer Con in the first place. Since it was only $ 5 entrance fee per person, and we had nothing planned, we decided to go for it. We had no idea how big Designer Con would be and figured that it was worth a try. Plus we could hang out around Old Town Pasadena afterwards.
We were pretty surprised to roll up to the convention center and find tons of people heading to or away from Designer Con! It was packed, our footsteps were shortened to shuffles, and we had to wait in a few lines but it was a great experience.
The amount of talent packed under one roof was pretty mind boggling. All sorts of art for every taste and cute stuff everywhere! There were cute plushes, tons of printed artwork up for grabs, artist signings, tons of figurines, and one not so great looking concession stand.
I enjoyed checking out all the different booths here and spent several hours with my eyes wide open shuffling through the crowd. $ 5 well spent indeed!

DCON, Designer Con is a great convention. I remember it’s early days when it was a 1 day show and very small, yet a solid assortment of attending vendors exhibiting. Flash forward the past few years and it’s developed into a great show continually improving and expanding. It’s now a two day event.
It’s a show for fans of Vinyl Art Toys, similar to the merchandise you’d see if you go to San Diego Comic Con near the Artist’s Alley area clustered together, but here there’s way more elbow room, it costs $ 5 admission (if you buy it online in advance or $ 7 at the door) per day.
This year, 2015, the highlight was seeing Luke Cheuh, and he released a variation of his «Boba» (Boba Fett drinking Bubble Tea) that debuted at the show, releasing a limited edition of only 40 individually numbered pieces.
Parking is not difficult and the venue is nice.

This is for DCON 2014.
I went for a day and found some cool stuff. Since I had been going to conventions non-​stop lately, I really had to figure out what collectibles I wanted and to not get sidetracked by impulse buys (ok, at least I’m trying to minimize impulse buys).
The experience I had was entirely positive. The convention was smaller than I thought that it would be, but for a $ 7 entrance fee, I have no complaints.
I love collectibles, and the designer collectible scene is pretty cool. I ended up getting two Schrodinger’s Cats. One which is currently both alive and dead (in it’s sealed box), and the other one was hand sculpted into a kitty Capt. Jack Sparrow holding a kitty litter tray with an «X» marking the spot. LOL
This was a great time for a lazy weekend.

If you like toys/​art/​collectibles (especially vinyl), designer con is definitely worth a visit! Buy tickets online to save a bit of money. So many things to look at… admittedly, it’s a little bit of a sensory overload.
Favorite discovery of 2014? — Citizen Brick’s Dragon Fighter Force (aka Game of Thrones Custom Legos)