Captain Cosmos Collectibles has been in the business of selling toys, collectibles and other pop culture memorabilia since 1991. Over the years it has existed in many incarnations. At the moment you can find Captain Cosmos inside of Atomic Age Artifacts: Antique & Collectible Mall located in Central Florida. I also set up at numerous toy shows throughout the year.

This blog covers a wide umbrella subjects generally related to the world of selling toys; from comics, movies, and science fiction, to art, a bit of politics, and my own meandering opinions.

I own both Captain Cosmos Collectible, and Atomic Age Artifacts. Atomic Age is a brick and mortar Antique & Collectible Mall located at 104 E. Wonders St. Wildwood, Florida. For an antique mall, it's on the small end of the spectrum, with only enough space currently for about 20 vendors. Though there are very few limitations for the individual vendors, the overall focus of the store is Mid Century and Pop Culture.

Captain Cosmos is a booth within Atomic Age, and focuses almost exclusively on toys.

As for myself, beyond all of that, I am an artist. I have a BFA in art, and have worked in the medical prosthetics industry. When I have time for my own art it is generally very sci-fi in nature. I have, on occasion, been published. Look hard enough and you might find a short story, and several collectible articles with my name on them. I've also been interviewed for several newspaper articles over the years, most of which have focused on some aspect of pop culture. I have been a toy collector since 1982, and a collectibles dealer since 1991. I have attended dozens (possibly 100's by now) of pop culture conventions, and visited 100's of comic shops across the country. In short, I speak geek.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

JoeCon . . . IT's PEOPLE!!!!

I admit it, I've kind of dropped the ball on the blog. Moving, and a very full schedule will do that. It's not dead though, it's just not truly started yet. Since I last posted, I've moved to Florida, gone to the G.I. Joe Convention in New Orleans, and I'm now spending time with family. After that, more travel is planned for a while.


In the mean time I've also relocated Captain Cosmos Collectibles. You can now shop with me in Ocala, Florida, at the newly opened Wildwood Antique Mall. Just to clarify, it's NOT the Antique Mall in Wildwood. It's the same company, but they have opened a new location in Ocala. The new mall is located at the shopping center at State Road 200, and 27th street, very easy to find if your in Ocala.


Of course I have to talk about the G.I. Joe Convention. To swipe Dickens, it was the best of con's it was the worst of con's. If you have followed the plight of Master Collector at all this year, you know the company has had a rough time of it: credit card security issues, product delays, a rescheduled convention to coincide with the G.I. Joe movie, then the devastating blow of the movie being pushed back 9 months for 3D conversion. I'm sure I'll talk about that in another blog at some point. But for now we can concentrate on the results of all that: NO money for advertising. In terms of attendance, and dealers, 2012 was on of the smallest International G.I. Joe Conventions in more than a decade. That was fantastic for those did show up, but not so good for the dealers. On the upside, the people that were there tended to be the high rollers, so the dealers were not hurt as bad as they could have been. Sure it would have been nice to supplement those big sales with a lot of little sales, but at least they had the big sales.


The best part of the show was that the lack of walk in traffic really allowed the regulars to mingle. Old friends talked for hours, new friends met, Hasbro had plenty of time to interact with fans. The overall atmosphere was much more laid back and relaxed than the usual hustle and bustle of Joe Con. If there was any doubt before, this show more than any previous one, really nailed down the true reason for a convention . . . People. Sure the toys are nice, the exclusives are great, but it's the people that truly make a convention something special.
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