LOS ANGELES — Football fans have the Super Bowl. Soccer enthusiasts have the World Cup. Cinephiles have the Academy Awards. For pop-culture lovers — the self-professed geeks and nerds who delight in fantasy-inspired fun from anime to zombies — there is Comic-Con, the Olympic-sized celebration of movies, TV, video games, costumes and pop art that began as a humble comic-book convention 43 years ago and is now an annual marketing extravaganza.
From Thursday to Sunday, more than 100,000 pop-culture aficionados will flood the San Diego Convention Center, showing off their Storm Trooper suits, playing yet-to-be-released video games and attending panels featuring A-list filmmakers like Peter Jackson and such hot TV shows as “Game of Thrones.”
But first comes Wednesday’s “preview night.” Available only to those who bought four-day passes to the sold-out convention, the showing is decidedly low tech, yet high end: it’s all about collectible toys.
On display will be special-issue, limited-edition playthings and books made just for the pop-culture fest. These include not only the unique freebies that various booths are giving away, but also coveted collectibles that could fetch hundreds of dollars at Comic-Con and hundreds more in after-market sales.
“There are people who buy tickets for every day of the show so that on Wednesday night they can be the first in line for these exclusive collectibles. That’s their reward for going to a destination like Comic-Con,” said pop-culture expert and host of G4’s “Attack of the Show” Blair Butler. “There are also people who flip that stuff on eBay for hundreds of dollars. They buy two: One to keep and one to sell on eBay.”
Collectors will literally run across the massive convention center floor when the doors open Wednesday evening to cue up for products like Hasbro’s S.H.I.E.L.D. Super Helicarrier, a four-foot-long replica of the flying superhero headquarters from the “Avengers” movie and Mattel’s quirky Dana as Zuul “Ghostbusters” figurine. Others seek out small-run exclusives such as the golden Domo bobble-head doll (only 1,000 made) and Image Comics’ special hardcover comics collection “The Walking Dead: Compendium One” (only 900 available).