Five Points Fest

There was an indoor space but it was poorly utilized. The ground floor had like, 3 vendors, and the top floor was used for several tattoo artists. It didn't particularly add up since the building looked a lot bigger from the outside... but maybe I missed something. It was so muggy in there I was getting claustrophobic.

 

I didn't even realize there was a second floor but I wouldn't have gone up there. (Maybe if we were getting matching KFC tattoos...)

I also forgot to mention that the Toy Pizza vendors were in a separate small building before you entered the Five Points area, and it was completely free to get in there.

 

I also would be curious to see the turnout and interest if MVH wasn't there. Did not go on Sunday (which arguably had nicer weather), but unsure if the rest of the vendors and artists would be able to be a big enough draw for non-locals to attend. Without MVH, I highly doubt anyone from the west coast would fly out for FPF as an attendee.

 

The building is mainly used for storage. I guess The Yard is a production company mainly. I was also surprised. Basically none of the space is used for public.

I was supposed to be in the ground floor as one of the three vendors. But when I arrived I told Josh there was no possible way that makes sense to do.

So that’s why they moved me to the tent. Ron English’s crew thought I was a little start up, so that’s probably why they were taken aback by the crowd. His crew kept coming over in total confusion of what was going on.

 

Also I’ve been toying with the idea to do my own pop up event, but back in Brooklyn, as a one day only show with say 5-10 other vendors.

I have to say, it gets tiring of being told each year I’m a problem because I bring to many people and drown out the vendors I’m next to. Each and every single year I beg for my own space away from people and it never happens. It’s 100% not my choice. I can’t say I’ll do this event again.

 

As someone who is even only a casual collector of yours, this makes way more sense and I doubt any of your diehards would disagree.

Also, one day shows are where it's at. Why stretch things out unnecessarily?

 

I honestly don’t know why it’s more than one day here. Japan does one day events all the time. I would just assume for places in the usa at a certain size requires a multi day contact.

Me being small I could probably just rent a pop up location for the day. Honestly zero changes or prettying up the place. Just a hole in the wall with a table and goods. Absolutely no one cares about anything more than hanging with their friends and buy the goods they traveled for.

Well… a roof and air conditioning … that would be a requirement. I’ve lived on the east coast my entire life and this is hands down the most unpredictable time of the year.

We were under the tent and when the monsoon came even we flooded behind the table. We had to immediately elevate the boxes because it was a mess.

I feel terrible for the people who had single tents. It was almost impossible for people to walk around and see your space.

Also, attendance, I’ve been to all but one FPF. There is zero way this set records. It was busy yes, but record setting idk.

Either way, I think I’m at the point where I no longer want to be a problem to any other vendors. It’s definitely not fair to them. I also don’t want to keep doing events that are so across the board on what’s being sold. Maybe one large event a year, but then super focused shows. I also think I had enough or trying to do an event where there are bands or DJs playing. It’s already chaos, I don’t need a live sound track to accompany it lol.

 

I get that they're trying to create an event that checks all the boxes, and not make it just about exclusives... But that's not how people view conventions / shows. People are there to shop. I feel that was always the draw for Five Points, your favorite artists under the same roof. They're not there to get tattoos, listen to live music and watch art battles, although that might be nice as a separate thing, separate gig.
I'd argue that all of those extra things, they gets sidelined if you're going to miss lining up for your favorite toy, no? Would you commit to a tattoo in the middle of a lottery drawing?

On the flipside, imagine if say your favorite music festival, Coachella, Bonaroo, Electric Zoo, Warped Tour, was now flying out your favorite artists as vendors to sell exclusive toys.
I mean, sure that would be cool, but it's not going to be interesting to the public at large. Different perspective, would you sacrifice missing your favorite artist performing to go buy toys? I think they have to decide if they want to be a Festival or a Convention.

To recap my previous feelings, whether it's Five Points or not, there is now a demand for an East Coast show that potentially:
- is a one day show
- is a more intimate roster of vendors
- is indoors / a cooler time of year if outside
- preferably in the NYC / BK / Queens area of NY

Simple is always better. The layout / venue at The Yard, generally is not simple.

Aside from all of that, any SB'ers here who flew in, I'm genuinely curious about your commute.
I'm lucky enough to live a decent distance away, but it was all highway miles with zero traffic, so I didn't mind the drive.

 

im also curious to read vendors' experiences if anyone from here was one.

 

it was a 90 minute drive for me, one way.

 

It sounds like you’re volunteering

 

It sounds like you’re hosting

 

I'm also volunteering.

Volunteering Nicholas, that is. ;p

 

How do people feel about Jersey City?

 

I for one do not want to do Jersey at any cost.

 

I second everything you said here.

Its gotta to far to me. To many ideas. Yes its always sort of been like that, but its that now I’ve grown out of it.

 

What if we make you an offer you can't refuse? We invented those.

 

Unless that offer is a space outside of Jersey, forget about ittttttt.

 

I travelled 3,000 miles to be here.

Lined up around 9am or so. All VIP, nearly all MVH die hards. The idea someone would complain about this is incredulous.

1st off, on the website it clearly stated the show began at 10am for VIPS and 11am for everyone else. They literally pretended this wasn't the case. So VIPS got in around 11:15am and about 30 mins later non-VIPS were entering...so we stood in the rain with no cover. Luckily???? Ron English had umbrellas for sale so we all bought $20 Ron English Umbrellas...

To me, the VIPS tickets were a bargain. You got an MVH Chibi plus some other toy that was pretty good too. Pretty awesome.

I'm going to be completely honest here: Outside of MVH, the rest of the show - in terms of toy collecting - was pretty garbage. The weather stunk but are these folks even trying to sell their stuff? Sucklord was there and hocking keychains and trading cards for a couple bucks because "people won't spend money at these events." Pathetic...

I purchased other items from Rampage, BogxSquad and Klav..

The rain stinks and spending all the indoor space for tattoos or whatever was going on in there was a ridiculous idea.

MVH brought folks in who collect, who bring real money to buy but the fact is, there just wasn't much here...Not sure what Ron English could possible be complaining about??? Putside of having umbrellas, he had a bunch of old stuff that didn't sell and nothing new. He could have been selling drawings/paintings etc. Lazy as hell.

Honest talk re MVH: Rich is always a great guy, he brought a ton of toys and everybody who attended definitely got a few toys. Excellent toys too. So, if other vendors are complaining, they have truly lost the plot. These folks buying 3-4 toys in the range of $150-$600 have money to spend on REAL awesome collectible toys. HOWEVER, they are picky and won't spend on junk. If there was good stuff, the spillover was inevitable.

I actually have a lot of nits to pick re the mvh portion but I'm just not going to do it bc honestly, it was the only good portion of the show. This is a toy show. Who here was selling good collectible toys? outside of those I mentioned, NOBODY. People came her for MVH, and they bought food and beers etc, but the xpericence was actually fairly awful outside of seeing folks.

This is a quick write up so I likely missed stuff but I'll say this: I listened to the podcast a couple pages back. NONE of these people did anything as far as I can see on Daturday to make this event rock. Where was Jesse? Sitting in a side building that nobody knew about? Clutter crew? Occasionally sited walking with photographers or making videos.

IF THIS WAS A TOY SHOW, IT WAS MERELY AN MVH SHOW. PEOPLE FROM ALL OVER CAME TO SEE IT AND PAID BIG BUCKS TO GET THERE, BUY WHAT THEY COULD. IF OTHERS COULDN'T CAPITALIZE ON TEH SPILLOVER ITS BC THEY ARENT OFFERING ANYTHING.

 

I thought I was loosing it over the entry time, because when I was told the entry time on the day it made no sense. I knew I was right on the opening time. 12 as a general entry was extremely late.

I believe I know why though. Basically no one set up Friday night like they were supposed to. Because it was ultra windy and rain was expected overnight. As well, there was one security guard on duty to watch all the merch left outside all night long. So it makes sense why people showed up and said no way. So all these people had to arrive early Saturday and step up. It opened to vendors around 9. So if they kept the hours that would have given everyone an hour to set up which is impossible. It’s not the vendors faults at all.

This is just another reason why an outside event is a terrible idea for this time of year to me.

Even I who did arrived Friday and set up because I was inside a building had to change everything.

Like I mentioned and those who were there saw the inside lower level and it was very small. I set up but immediately knew this was a huge issue. All night it was on my mind. I messaged Josh and he said he would move me. So even I who set up had to reset up Saturday morning when I arrived. It was only when I arrived on Saturday morning that I learned where I was going. I only had boxes so it wasn’t that bad but still took time. Those that have banners and all the both items would need that time.

This is just more proof to me that this set up won’t work. Because this was almost the worst case scenario and it came to be.

People then had to wait now in the rain for hours. Even with an umbrella you were screwed because of the wind. It was a mess.

All day it was heavy rain with even heavier rain at times.

 

Yeah? Well, you know, that's just like uh, your opinion, man. (Why is it so smokey in here, and why does it smell like ass?).

This was my haul, which is pretty indicative of why I was there:


I was there to meet people, reconnect with some. I talked to Sunguts, who was selling LICENSED Toho and Tsubaraya figures in the U.S. for 30-40 bucks a pop (!!!), I made some trades. In one booth, I found a vintage Popy Icarus that I'd been looking for (did you know people still collect vintage?). Got a beer. Met a cool ceramist making Yokai. Picked up a stuffy for my daughter from Usagiduck. Got a rare CKA zine from Rampage's rummage sale. Nekosatsu had an awesome offering of affordable little guys, including the amazing collaboration with @Roger.

And shoutout to @evom and @JoeMan who also had some choice selects.

There were 1,000 problems with the way the event was organized. But there are ways to make the best of it.

Also, @Rich Jersey hate is lazy!!!

 

I’m old school east coast, Jersey hate is in my dna lol. The arm pit of the tri state. Sorry lol.

 

X2 on Sunguts. He’s super nice and anyone on the board probably didn’t commute as far as he did. Made sure I grabbed a Godzilla myself and told him how I appreciated him for coming this far.

 

I'm still on cloud nine from finishing The Cadaver. I wasn't going to go, but Rich invited me to set up at his booth so I got a handful ready and set off. I was late and didn't get there until almost 1 so I missed all the drama with entry. I had fun, sold my figures and got out of Rich's way, made the rounds had a few beers.

I'm starting a new NYC gallery event, and it will hopefully become an annual or bi-annual thing. The first one will be in a gallery on the west side of Manhattan Oct 25th. I'll have a handful of your favorite western artists involved, and a half dozen Asian artists, I think most of them have not exhibited in the US. And there are a few Japanese artists with huge huge followings in Japan and very little western exposure. One might even come visit and attend the show in person, which would be a huge honor. I haven't began to promote the show, but I'm giving people a heads up here, because if you travel for shows, this is one worth traveling for. The body of work will be amazing, I just hope I can run it smoothly.

If Rich ever wanted to start a NYC 1-day con I'd volunteer for that. I think when it comes to sofubi it's best ran by people in the trenches who fuly understand the scene and have the artist connections to create good curated groups.

 

I (and my brother) fled Jersey at 18 and hardly ever visit my family. It blows. Strip mall hell, and farmland turned sub-developments, and a bunch of people driving to the shitty (oops… city… ) every day to scrape together an existence in their shabby McMansion culdesacs, covered with pesticide for the kids to roll in.

What’s to like?

Anyway, 5 points was strange, wet, loud and basically a total shit show in innumerable ways - but I still sold more than I have at a US show since covid put the kabosh on international attendance (admittedly my main audience). I credit the minimal number of sofubi makers with the sales result. People only have so much money, especially after dropping a stack of it on some blank dollies.

Sunday was much nicer all around. My Sufes style mixed-bag Sunday Booth was fun for many people, but only possible because of my short commute (living basically locally, I could justify hauling in tubs of stuff)).

Do it again? I dunno. Will there be a country to do it in a year from now? I’ll hopefully be in the Mediterranean eating gelato instead.