Event: DesignerCon 2010 @ Pasadena Convention Center (Nov 20)

DesignerCon 2010 is scheduled for November 20th this year, starting at 10am thru to 5:30pm @ the Pasadena Convention Center, The Pavilion, as a one-day event. Formerly known as "Vinyl Toy Network", the annual show "has a variety of vendors, artists and manufacturers from the art, urban, fashion, craft and toy world. DCon is an ever growing show that expends as different genres of "design" grow." [via Facebook events].

With this announcement of event date, perhaps tis a opportune time for a little Q&A with folks who were a part of the show in 2009, namely John Stokes (of SpankyStokes.com) and Jonathan Ma (of Kuso Vinyl) who had both helmed their own booths at DCon last year-end. CLICK THRU to find out about their impressions of the event, along with some event-snaps.


TOYSREVIL: How do you think this event is compared to the previous year's VTN? What was the obvious difference (besides the name change). Also, Kuso Vinyl did not have a booth in 2008 but was present, right?

JONATHAN MA: First of all, this year’s event is bigger. The traffic is better. There are more participations as well. Last year, Kuso did not make it on time to do a show with VTN, but we are not missing it this year, and we think it is a success.

JOHN STOKES: It was awesome and much bigger, it seemed like the crowd was more constant, you could tell that it was much more advertised and it seemed like it reached out to a whole new demographic of people who had no idea "we" existed :-)


TOYSREVIL: How do you think the response was for DCon? Was it as expected?

JONATHAN MA: Our main goal is to get the name out there. We are still new to many. We would like to receive orders for manufacturing opportunities. That’s why we brought the manufacturing samples over to show, but not sell. We would like everyone to see that Kuso is capable of manufacturing high-quality vinyl toys.

JOHN STOKES: I think the response was great, like I said before the crowd was constant, and in talking with Ben (3DRetro) George and Ayleen (ToyBreak) they seemed pretty happy with the outcome!

TOYSREVIL: How was the response for KUSO's booth / products?

JONATHAN MA: Great. People are looking forward to see what Kuso has to release in the near future. They were fascinated with the innovative colorways Kuso has to offer, as well as some of the “impossible” coloring process.


[38 x images in slideshow above from KusoVinyl]
TOYSREVIL: What do you think were the best bits of the show?

JOHN STOKES: I really dug the excitement in the air, you could tell that people were having a good time, and for the most part people were sticking around all day long! The Yoka Show was AMAZING to see all those in one place was super! Everyone was in a giving mood as well, even with the tough times and the lack of money people were doing raffles for amazing FREE vinyl and pieces of artwork, really cool.

JONATHAN MA: It has to be meeting with some of the potential artists. A lot of talented artists came up to the booth asking for help on producing their own projects. We love hearing about their crazy ideas, and, of course, getting a peek of their masterpiece.


TOYSREVIL: What were the downers for the event?

JOHN STOKES: The DJ was too loud, and there was no food at the venue, if I were to change a few things I would have maybe a sandwich place on site and turn the music down, it made it tough to do raffles.

JONATHAN MA: I can't think of any, really. It was great. Thanks Ben.


TOYSREVIL: What do you think can be improved for next year's event?

JOHN STOKES: Same as above :-)

JONATHAN MA: More attendants, a lot more traffic please!


[Credit: All event images courtesy of SpankyStokes.com /
FYI: This Q&A was conducted with both gentlemen in end 2009]