Sunday 2am: I've loved staying up late on Saturday nights since I was young, but I usually don't have a 6:45am flight to catch. Still, I've gotten by on little sleep plenty of times...

Sunday 4:30am: As the alarm jerks me awake, it slowly dawns on me that I'm way too old to be doing this kind of thing. I seriously, SERIOUSLY, consider forgetting the whole thing and just going right back to bed.

Sunday 5:00am: After beating the living hell out of the snooze button for a half-hour, I finally drag my sorry ass out of bed. I'm sure that I'll be glad once I get rolling. I get showered and dressed, and out the door in record time.

Sunday 5:30am: One good thing about going to the airport at this God-awful time of the morning - there's nobody on the road. I figure that the airport will be just as quiet. This is my second incorrect prediction and I haven't been away for an hour.

Sunday 6:44am: After fighting my way through the Cedar Point-style line to get through security and watching nuns remove their shoes, I get on the plane and it makes it off the ground right on schedule. A tip for travelers - wear sneakers. Any other kind of shoes have to be removed, and you wouldn't want your toes sticking out of for all to see. Avoid wearing big belt buckles, particularly if you're saggin'. They'll make you remove your belt, and you just can't be cool - or quick - hanging on to your pants. Besides, the less I have to see of your nasty-ass boxer shorts, the better. We're off!

Sunday 8:10am: I’m on the ground and into a cab heading for the Javitz Center to pick up my badge. Toy Fair is predominately located between two locations - the Javitz Convention Center and the “Toy Building;” actually, two buildings that take up an expensive corner of NYC real estate. They have a shuttle that runs between, although I soon find that riding a crippled snail would be only slightly slower.

Sunday 9:00am: There's nothing quite like a cab ride through New York. Calling it Mr. Toad's Wild Ride de-emphasizes the sheer exhilaration when your cabbie decides that he doesn't want to see another red light, and begins driving at speeds normally reserved for NASCAR just to “catch up.” I get to Javitz thankful to be alive. But here I am - at Toy Fair! Now, I've been here on several occasions, both as press and as industry. But it's still a special thrill to find myself amongst those people that just don't consider toys cool but actually important. I pick up my badge in the press room without so much as a single person in front of me, and the floor is strangely empty. It appears to be a pretty quiet Toy Fair this year, at least for the first day that the Javitz area is open.

Sunday 10:00am: With some companies, you just walk up and start chatting. Others require appointments. I hit my first appointment of the day with Sideshow Toys. Sideshow continues to produce some exceptionally cool lines this year, including the new Fairy line based on the works of Wendy and Brian Froud, the designers that created much of the look of the DARK CRYSTAL. They have plenty of new figures in their current 12" lines, like Doc Holliday, General Lee and Grant, James Bond, and even the new license LIFE OF BRIAN, following in the footsteps of MONTY PYTHON'S HOLY GRAIL.

There's the new SIMPSONS mini-busts, and more Muppets busts...STAR TREK mini-busts that cover both the original show and THE NEXT GENERATION...and then I come across the first real jaw dropper of the show - Modern Horror Monsters. They are producing Freddy, Jason and TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE figures in sixth scale, and they look fantastic. The detailed head sculpts and excellent fitting outfits, along with great accessories, mark these as perhaps the BEST versions of these characters. Perhaps it's because I hadn't expected much from these - let's face it, they've already been done to death - but the Sideshow scale and style really works.

I wander around the show a bit, checking out some of the smaller companies, but I don't have much time before I have to zip off to the Toy Building to see...

Sunday 11:00am: ...Playmates Toys. Since I'm a huge fan of the World of Springfield line, this is always a great stop. TMNT? Yes, those are nice. NASCAR? With backgrounds that show the cars, and some fantastic detailing, these look great. But let's get to the real deal - finally we turn a corner and there's that beautiful wall of yellow! The next few lines look extremely strong, with some great sculpts of eye catching characters like Mrs. Botz, Mr. Largo and Mr. Plow Homer. They were showing off their new ideas, like the statues of Homer and Bart that talk back to you when you ask them questions, or the re-released two packs of early, crucial figures like Apu or Krusty with interconnecting bases and backgrounds. One of the sleeper figures will be the excellent version of Stephen Hawking. While it's true that Playmates has been shying away from most celebrity figures, ESPECIALLY any figure of the celebrities themselves, this one is an exception. Playmates received a personal request from both Matt Groening and Stephen Hawking to produce it, and they certainly weren't going to pass up the opportunity. But perhaps the biggest thrill was seeing the new concept sketches for their upcoming exclusives.

First, there's the B-Sharps play set. Based on the brief scene where they are at the top of their career, and perform on the bridge of the aircraft carrier, the set includes a Chief Wiggum in the disguise he used to attempt to get back into the group. This one is going to be a Toys R Us exclusive.

Next up was the Ullman-style set. They aren't calling it that - they have some other name to avoid issues with the TRACEY ULLMAN SHOW. But that's what it is, with a living room design based on the early shorts, and the characters sculpted as they looked at the very beginning. This one is another TRU exclusive.

Of course, next year TRU will have another Treehouse of Horror exclusive, and this time it's based on the Comic Book guy as the Collector. The set is his lair, two-storied, with a Xena figure, along with a Clobber Girl and Stretch Dude. The best part of Bart's superhero persona - they are going to attempt to make the arms stretchy! This is a set that will fly off the sleeves.

Finally, there's a possible EB/Diamond exclusive that includes Future (robot) Burns, Future (robot) Smithers, and Smithers dressed as Bobo. This set is the smaller size (all the other exclusives are based on full sized sets) and includes a great backdrop with the "Homers" pulling a cart with one of the Ape soldiers. They are still in early talks on this set, so nothing is set in stone, but the concept sketch looked great.

I visited with them for awhile with my cohorts from the Simpsons Collector Sector, and then it was off to catch the shuttle back to Javitz for lunch.

Sunday 2:00pm: Sure, it's time to eat lunch, but you don't want to waste a minute, so I have lunch with Chris Lauria. Who's that? Glad you asked! He's the man that does all the concept art for the Simpsons playsets. We chat for awhile about various ideas and possibilities, and get into a deep discussion about the good old days of toys like Marx, Gabriel, Mego and Big Jim. I saw some of his great work, and hopefully Simpsons Collector Sector will be able to share some of the artwork in the near future. He's damned talented, and a big reason the sets are as nice as they are.

There's no rest for the wicked though, or the toy geek, so it's off to the next appointment, AGAIN over at the Toy Building. I'm getting to know the shuttle bus driver by first name.

Sunday 3:00pm: I'm supposed to be at Toycom. I'm still waiting on the shuttle bus.

Sunday 3:15pm: I'm still waiting on the shuttle bus. I suspect that will be true more than not over the next couple days. Finally, a prediction that turns out true.

Sunday 3:30pm: I finally make it over to Toycom, but since I'm so late I offer to come back tomorrow. We reschedule, and I head up for my next appointment with Art Asylum. I hate looking foolish, but you'd think I'd be accustomed by now.

Sunday 4:00pm: I take the AA tour, and drool over the amazing sculpting. Now, lots of folks will be talking about the new small scale LORD OF THE RINGS figures and play sets that they are doing. I'll admit they are cool, and it is a great scale (think miniature) for producing some amazing dioramas. But that's not what I'm here to see.

There is only one TREK. Sure, that NEXT GENERATION show wasn't bad, and then there were those other wannabees. But the Original Series is da bomb, baby. And now Art Asylum is turning their exceptional sculpting talents away from Enterprise (at least momentarily) and toward TOS. With a great line-up including Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Scotty, Khan, and even “Mirror Mirror” Kirk and Spock, this looks like the first real possibility to revive the STAR TREK collecting experience. Who knows - do a few exceptional TOS figures, and few exceptional TNG figures, and maybe by then Enterprise might have enough of a following to sell a few figures.

Art Asylum is also doing a terrific line of their Minimates for the Marvel line. These are actual “micro” Minimates, smaller than the usual. These are about half the size of the regular Minimates, and look terrific. Word is they went with the smaller size because of licensing issues with another licensor - Lego perhaps? They are also continuing the STAR TREK Minimates into next year, with a second wave of TOS. Good news for us TOS fans!

Art Asylum and Play Along have hooked up, and their showroom had one particularly interesting line - Dr. Seuss. They'll be doing figures along with the release of the film, although the majority of the figures are based on the book style and design. There will be a Mike Meyers version as well, but they are keeping the look of the figure under wraps for now.

Sunday 4:30pm: I'm supposed to be at Mezco, but I'm worn out. I'm definitely too old to try going all day on two hours sleep. When the hell did this happen? Maybe Mez, the president and founder of Mezco, is so busy that he won't notice my absence.

I manage to hook up with a couple friends and have a quick dinner, before heading to my hotel for the first time today, just in time to watch the SIMPSONS’ 300th episode, edit a couple hundred pictures for this site, my site and SCS, and drop off to sleep.

Oh, and it's started snowing. Seriously. The worst snow storm in seven years. I have a bad feeling about this.

Monday 8:30am: After a relaxing night's sleep, I slowly drag myself out of bed, and onto the mean streets of New York. Except there's no one there. Really. Monday morning and there's zero traffic. I'm not sure, but it might be the ?*&^%&^@ 24 inches of snow on the ground that has caused the city to look like a ghost town. No tumble weeds, but plenty of snow drifts. I plunge ahead, walking the nine blocks down to the Toy Building to hit the Palisades booth, passing shopkeepers and city workers trying desperately to clear off the snow. They're fighting a good fight, but essentially a losing one, at least for the next few hours, as the snow just keeps falling.

When planning this trip, I did have my worried about terrorists - I forgot about God. He and I have a standing agreement - I don't bother him, he doesn't bother me. It appears as though he's in violation of that agreement. But even the worst snow storm in seven years on the East coast isn't going to stop me from seeing the Muppets.

Monday 9:30am: Today has only two major appointments, with lots of wandering around planned for in-between. The first is with Palisades, one of my favorite companies producing today. Mike Horn, Ken Lilly, Travis Allen and the rest of the folks at Palisades are some of the most dedicated in the business, and it shows in every line they do.

The number one line I was here to see is the Muppets. I've been a big proponent of the line from day 1, and the 2003 line up looks to continue the tradition of great sculpting, excellent paint ops, tons of articulation, and fantastic accessories. Some of the highlights included Pepe, Statler and Waldorf (including the excellent vaudeville outfit exclusives for Wizard World Chicago), Rizzo, and the Pigs in Space play set. The entire lineup looks extremely strong, and I think that this year will be the big break out year for this series. The comparison to the Simpsons line was unfair with the first couple waves, simply because even the Simpsons line didn't take off until wave 3 or 4. It takes time for people to realize these lines are out there, and often they want to see how committed a company is to a series before they jump in. With such a solid wave 3 and 4 coming up, it's time for the Muppets to turn that corner.

That's not all Palisades has up their sleeve. There's more of the Alien and Predator busts of course, and the new animated Witchblade figures. But the ones that I found most exciting were the Urbanimals - a quirky mix of hip hop, urban vinyl, action figure, and wild kingdom. With characters like a rhino, cat, elephant, ape, pig, alligator and more, all dressed in the latest fly gear, it looks to be a hit with both old and young collectors. Don't pay too much attention to the colors in the photos though, as these were put together very quickly for Toy Fair. It's guaranteed these will change soon, and become much brighter and varied.

Monday 10:30am: Back to Javitz, back on the shuttle...and I thought the shuttle bus was slow before. Now it's like riding a crippled snail through jello.

Monday 11:00am: Now it's time to simply wander around Javitz for a few hours. This is always quite the experience, as you will see some of the best ideas and worst ideas in a single trip. I always try to focus on the weirdest, since most of my readers don't care about the billion plush or fashion doll booths. And I also tend to avoid the doll aisles - the baby and child dolls are getting so realistic that is creeps me out. If I spend too much time looking at them, I'll never get to sleep later that night.

One of my first finds of the show is the new line of rather unusual figures from Accoutrement, based on historical characters. While most action figures imply characters that actually had some 'action' in life, these are quite the opposite. With figures of Sigmund Freud, Jesus Christ, Moses, and even Rosie the Riveter, this line is aiming for...someone. I wonder what Freud would say about the psyche of someone that had his action figure?

The next surprise came from the Applause plush booth. They'll be doing a line of Simpsons-based plush, and the Homer and Bart are already hitting stores. But I had no idea of the range of characters they planned on covering! Everyone from Comic Book Guy to Chief Wiggum was there, and they are also doing some episode specific characters like Radioactive Man, several Treehouse of Horror- themed characters, and even several other holiday themed characters. It looks like there will be a huge push behind these this year.

I was invited to attend their big party tonight as well, celebrating the SIMPSONS. The party will be at FAO, and should prove to be very interesting!

My feet were getting sore, and my back tired, but I plowed on through the endless displays of wooden toys, bubble blowing machines, fashion dolls, and building blocks. My next bizarre find is from Unique Creations, the company that does the pewter Simpsons stuff. They have a line of resin statues called Turds. Think Mr. Hanky, but they actually look more like shit, quite literaly, than he ever did.

Another rather odd line was right around the corner - figures based on your “differently-abled friends.” These include children who are blind (both eyes and just one), in a wheelchair (with basketball), on crutches, etc. I suspect these figures have even fewer action features than the CLERKS figures.

And what a segue that is, as I stopped by the Marz Distribution booth and see the packaged CLERKS figures.

After walking the floor for several hours, it was back on the bus to the Toy Building for the only other 'big' appointment of the day - Toycom (also known as Mirage).

Monday 2:00pm: Toycom was gracious enough to reschedule for me, and I was sure to be right on time today. While they have a number of cool lines coming up, there were three I was focusing on - SOUTH PARK, ALIAS and KING OF THE HILL.

SOUTH PARK is a license that has bounced around like a rubber ball for awhile now. It looks like someone is finally going forward full throttle, and along with the standard Cartman, Kyle, Stan figures, there was also Butters, Tweek, Towlie, and even Timmy. The big surprise here is the scale - I can tell you they are huge, at least twice the size of the PEANUTS figures, but until you see them in person you won't truly appreciate just how massive they are.

Toycom is also doing some great work with the ALIAS license, showing off both 6-7" figures and 12" dolls. The sculpting looked good, with decent articulation and good paint work.

I'm a big fan of the KING OF THE HILL show, and I was looking forward to where the line was heading. They had packaged Series 2 figures, so they (Luanne, Bobby and Boomhaur) should be on shelves any day. Possible future figures included Khan and Hank's dad, Cotton. It looks like we may seem some additional accessories in future assortments past Series 2, which would add quite a bit of value to the line.

Monday 3:00pm: Gee, let's go back to Javitz! I've got a few hours to kill before the Applause Simpson party, and the food courts at Javitz are at least passable.

Monday 3:30pm: It's time to hit NECA, where Randy Falk is manning the booth all buy himself. They poor guy is busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest, but he takes the time to review the new lines. They'll be producing the HELLRAISER figures, and they look terrific, particularly Pinhead. I think this is going to be a great line for them.

Another great line is going to be the GREMLINS. The detail, articulation and scale all look excellent, and these might be the defining line for the license. NECA is working hard to get the coolest accessories included with the figures as well.

NECA also had a surprise license for the show - the film, A CHRISTMAS STORY. Yep, that movie you can't avoid seeing each holiday season is going to get its own set of action figures. I couldn't photograph anything yet, but I can tell you the sculpts looked fantastic.

As I was dragging my tired butt out the door to head to the subway (and FAO), I noticed that Hot Toys had on display a set of sixth-scale hockey players. Turns out they don't have the license yet, and are just trying to gauge interest, but the figures looked fantastic.

Monday 6:00pm: I make it to the FAO store, along with a couple friends from the Simpsons Collector Sector. Applause, Fox and FAO went all out on the party, with wine and beer flowing, along with miniature hamburgers, donuts, beef on a stick, cheese sticks, chicken fingers, and more. The store was decorated with even more Simpsons merchandise than usual, and they had a raffle for a number of great prizes, including a 1500 cel and one of the motion animation pictures. All three of us won something, and I went home with one of the new Simpsons Bart dolls from Applause, along with a bunch of other goodies. We partied with Homer, Marge, Lisa and Bart until 8:30, and then I made my way back to the hotel, exhausted.

Monday 9:30pm: Aaaghh! Tonight was Mezco's party as well! The invite said 8pm to Midnight at a local bar, the Tiki Room, and I figured with a group like Mezco, 10pm would be time for them to be just warming up. Tired? Sure, but not too tired for another party! I head off for a ten block walk to the Tiki Room.

Monday 10:pm: Remember when I hoped Mez didn't notice my absence at my scheduled time? No such luck. First thing out of his mouth - "Where the hell were you?" Ah, well, I apologized profusely, and we set up some time for tomorrow to hook up. The party was great fun for all, and I got the chance to catch up with some of the other website representatives like Julius Marx, Randy and Toygodd from Action Figure Times, and Rob and Bobbi from Raving Toy Maniac. I had planned on spending just an hour or so, but didn't end up leaving til after midnight. Now it's back to the hotel, this time for good.

Tuesday 8:30am: It was a late night, especially since I wanted to get as much done with the photos and writing as possible, even though I wasn't home before 12:30 am. But I bounced out of bed once again, bright eyed and bushy tailed. But I had a bit of a problem.

Not really a problem per se. You see, I pack light. For a trip like this, one carry on bag is fine, with just enough clothes to avoid getting that look that says "What is that smell?". But that means I have very little space to haul any goodies back, especially any large ones. So I made a quick trip to the post office this morning on the way to the Toy Building to mail myself a package. They don't like you mailing boxes with the same return address as the mailing address, so I had to prove it was really me. Once we got it all straightened out, it was out into the great white tundra again.

Tuesday 9:30am: My only official meeting today is with e-Bay. Yep, that's right – e-Bay. The manager of the toy category at e-Bay wanted to meet and talk about some new ideas they have for toy sites. Things like giving the site an easy way to access and display specific auctions, obtaining trend information, and other things that can help sites give more value to their readers. It was very interesting, and I'll be looking into some of it further.

Then it was time to wander around a bit, and catch some folks I'd missed earlier. I stopped by a couple of the sixth scale sites, including bbi and Dragon. The reps for these companies are getting more and more paranoid - I think that they'll be asking for DNA samples soon before releasing any info. In their market, where there is no license, it gets very easy for one company to steal from another, and it's pretty clear they are being very careful.

But there were a few things they'd let me shoot, including the very sharp Shi 12" figure, and a couple of the male Cy-girls, who they prefer to call Cy-com. It looks like the military line will continue to raise the bar, with every company trying to out perform the other. In The Past Toys also had a great little display, and showed some very detailed and intricate costumes and figures.

Next up was a trip back over to Broadway to visit with Mezco. Well known for their innovative internal concepts, this year they have at least three extremely cool lines coming out. First there's the Gangsters INC., a line based on the style of the Prohibition era mobster. There are three figures in the first set, all highly detailed and all come with cool accessories like 'fire insurance', and cement to make cement boots. This is one of the best concepts I saw at the show, and I was very impressed by the look and design.

Next up is the Dark Carnival, or at least I believe that was the name. The press paperwork didn't have it listed, but the figures stood out as both gruesome and unique. Characters like Stitches the Clown will take the concept of circus clowns and freaks to a new level.

The third license that looked very impressive was Underworld, a new licensed property based on a film coming out in 2003. The film's theme is the long battle between vampires (played by sleek Goth types) and werewolves (played by buff boys and girls), and a sudden eruption in this battle that brings the war to a head. They could only show off part of the line, since several of the figures would give away major plot points.

Of course, they are also continuing with the Living Dead Dolls with lots of new concepts, and continuing the Mez-itz line with Dick Tracy, Predator and Alien, and a set of in-house developed monsters.

Tuesday 10:30am: The last true “action figure” stop on the trip is Diamond Select. While most of their lines are already pretty well documented, I was particularly surprised by the announcement that they'll be doing a 7" line based on MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL. The figures will include sound chips to play various lines from the film. Obviously the success of Sideshow's 12" line has inspired them to take the concept and run with it.

Another line that has tremendous potential is the Kingdom Come set of action figures. Based on the fantastic graphic novels of the same name, these figures are a huge favorite of DC collectors. While the first series with Hawkman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Superman looked great, the new unveiling of the second series really grabbed my attention with Batman and Shazam anchoring the series.

The JLA maquettes were such a big hit for Diamond, that they are now releasing mini-maquettes based on the show. These smaller maquettes with new bases will retail at a smaller price as well, closer to $30 each.

Tuesday 1:00pm: Time to check out of my hotel room and start the trek to the airport. While my flight wasn't until 6:00 pm, and while Northwest claimed all was well and on schedule, I knew better than to trust them. Besides, if I could get to the airport early, I could always spend the extra time on photos and writing. It was fortunate I started out early - the shuttle bus was a hour late, and the ride out of the city, which took only 30 minutes on the way in, took 90 minutes on the way out. But I still made it to the airport with plenty of time, got some work done, and caught my flight only a half hour late.

Tuesday 11:00pm: Here I am, working on the photos and the text for the article, knowing I won't be going to bed any time soon tonight. Before I wrap this up, I wanted to thank my wife for putting up with all this. She lets me go goofing around the country, spend hours on photos and writing, all over the subject of toys. I don't know what I did to deserve her, but I sure am glad I did it!

I have included photos here of the most interesting lines. I'll be doing another article on the show at Michael's Review of the Week, covering the top ten lines for 2003 based on my observations from the show. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me, and if you're looking for more in depth coverage of a particularly company or line, check out one of the following sites:

Action-Figure.com

Raving Toy Maniac

Figures.com

and for Simpsons-specific info - Simpsons Collector Sector