So the next show I was attending was QuadCon, located over in St. Charles, Missouri.
 |
I placed an order for brand new issues of my comic through Kablam printing, and they came in the same day. I was going to leave for Saint Charles. |
This is a show me and my brother love going to, and the reason we went the very first time was to meet YouTube personality and toy enthusiast, Pixel Dan.
After so many shows, it’s just nice to get out, and just relax, and maybe find some cool things to add to my studio collection.
 |
Saint Charles is out near St. Louis, so from Kansas City it’s about a 3 to 4 Hour drive. Which means an early departure time. |
We pulled in right around 10:30 AM, and cover was five dollars entry, I believe there are other discounts available.
 |
| Lot of families attend this show. |
For those that have not been to QuadCon, it’s a pretty defined toy, Collector event, with some comic book, dealers, and a few local artists selling things.
 |
Always nice to see what sort of transformers and robot sort of items show up. |
If this sort of show is in your wheelhouse, this is thankfully one of the shows that still caters to vintage items pretty religiously.
 |
For the life of me, I don’t know where I’d seen this before, but I know I never owned it. |
There’s kind of a rush doing the shows because the earlier you get there the better the selection. I made my first purchase of the day within the first 15 minutes of walking in the door.
 |
Seeing carded Rock Lords, in person is a rarity indeed. But also seeing carded M.A.S.K. and Dinoriders items really surprised me. |
I never had this Horde Playset as a kid, but seeing one still sealed in the box with a little shelf wear, and encased in acrylic for about $1200 was pretty astounding.
 |
Occasionally, you’ll see something so rare you can’t help but stand and stare at it. |
The cosplayer you see below was hands-down, the best cosplay effort I have seen all year long. It’s a pretty impressive, Batman costume, but my brother and I quickly noticed he was carrying some thing. I couldn’t help it. I laughed out loud because as you can see...
 |
He had applications for a new Robin in hand. Take a good look. THIS is perfection. |
Batman was carrying the skeletal remains of Jason Todd and was holding applications for a new Robin. I’m not much of a DC fan, but I think like anyone who is into comics and pop culture, you can’t help but not know about the series arc, "A death in the family", when Robin dies at the hand of the Joker.
This cosplay idea was so well done on many levels, I sincerely hope he won the cosplay contest. If anyone reading this knows the name of this cosplayer, please let me know so I can add it to this blog update!
 |
| Quite literally a shop that sold fantasy themed items. |
After a few hours there we decided we seen everything we could and had bought the items we really wanted. So we decided to see what else was in the area, and also wanted to scout out a food location. For food we found a Smash Burger’s restaurant. Pretty good food, but little bit pricey.
In the same shopping center was a comics and games store simply named "Fantasy Shop".
It was an impressive store, filled with miniatures, sculpting tools, role-playing items, action figures, graphic novels, and a good handful of people playing war games. They also had some sort of painting competition going on, and we were asked if we’d like to put our vote in for the best painted beholder miniature.
 |
I think my brother picked up a couple of graphic novels, I immediately went over to the miniatures, and found some excellent sculpting tools to purchase. |
After leaving the store, we noticed a nearby half price books, and decided to check it out. I’m a bit of a bibliophile, and I’ve never been to one of these bookstores before.
 |
| Out of my budget items, but still cool to have found these! |
There were a lot of used books, that covered a wide range of subjects, but they also sold DVDs, records, music CDs, a few random video game systems, and some odds and ends in action figures.
For some reason it reminded me of an alternate dimension Hastings.
Show Overview.
QuadCon 2022 was held October 22nd, 2022, from 10am to 4pm.
Location: Olympia Event Center - St. Charles, Missouri
Entry Fee: $5 (free after 2pm)
Is it worth it?
As a vendor? If you’re a toy or collectible vendor, and you’ve got items that are outside of the well-known intellectual properties from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, I have no doubt you’d have a killer show.
If you happen to be one of the visual artists set up at the show, I imagine unless your work specifically caters to toy, or pop culture in general with a retro aesthetic, you might not be as successful. I haven’t done the show myself, so I’m only speaking to what I’ve witnessed as far as interactions at the show.
As an attendee? Yes absolutely. This is now my fourth or fifth time attending the show, and I plan on coming back next year.
Again, as you can see from the photos above, and the videos on my TikTok account, this show is very much a toy collectors event, and there is a wide range of prices on everything.
There is a cosplay contest, and I believe some sort of gaming contest/competition held as well. But this is primarily a shopping event. It’s extremely family friendly, and thankfully, because the price points range from dollar items to upwards of thousand dollar items, there is literally anything for any family member to possibly find. I would recommend getting there early, as each time we’ve done the show I’ve managed to find items that I feel would’ve sold fairly quickly.
- Show Entry Fee: $5.00 (Free after 2pm)
- Fuel/food: $60.00
- Purchases from vendors and other artists: $70.00
- Parking: Free
Total Expenses: $135.00
- Just attended the show
Total Earnings: $0.00
Pros
- There's a lot to see and do for attendees.
- Show floor layout was large and spread out.
- Attendance is good.
- The vendors so far have had a wide range of items.
Cons
- Nothing comes to mind.
The Final Evaluation
I’m going to approach this as an attendee/collector. QuadCon is not a large show, but it is a good show.
I’ve never been disappointed with the quality of the vendors that show up, and I have my favorites that I consistently look to buy things from. You will find vendors who understand the vintage aspect of what they are selling, and may genuinely understand the history, scarcity, and modern state of an item. There aren’t too many shows that you’ll find that.
This is one show that happens twice a year in this location. QuadCon holds a multitude of other shows, that I imagine fall within the same sort of show organization and feel as these, at least according to what I’ve seen posted online.
I’ve managed to find finishing pieces for my collections, and I sincerely have been collecting since I was 15 years old so I have a lot of lines to complete. I would recommend a budget of no less than $50, and if you can help it shoot for around $250.
I can speak first hand to the fact that there were items I saw the first couple of shows that had I had an extra hundred dollars, I’d be in possession of some really unique and hard to find items. I’m not saying having a lot of money is necessary to attend the show. I am saying that you never know what you’ll find, and that’s an exciting prospect for any pop-culture or toy collector, especially in a day and age of a lot of shows having the same old run-of-the-mill items consistently showing up for sale.
QuadCon 2022 Show Haul
This was probably the lightest grouping of items I picked up at quad con. Not because there weren’t other items, but my budget was still reeling from all the other shows I’ve done. So I gave myself a spending budget of no more than $150, to cover purchases, food, and fuel to get up there.
 |
I picked up a vintage 1982 Hercules Remco figure, a GoBots "Crasher" figure, and a cobra Hiss III tank. |
The drive back home was nice and pretty relaxing. It helped take a bit of the edge off of how shows have been for me. I’m glad the Kansas City Japan festival turned out as well as it did, but to attend a show just for the hell of it, was cool.
I have two weeks until I have to be in Wichita for my next convention Air Capital Con. Gotta get to bagging the new Ardor comics that came in, and check to see what new art reproductions I need to make as well.
There’s two more events coming up this weekend that I will review.
They aren’t normal shows, but they are artistic style events, of them are late night light events, one held at the Kansas City zoo, and the other one at Powell Gardens.
Looking forward to both of those, hopefully they'll be cool!
Thank you so much for reading, I am Mario, the Artisan Rogue, and until next time, remember to support artists and local businesses. And if you liked what you've read, and want to support the blog, there's a donation button just below.
Be kind to your fellow beings and always take the path less traveled. We all may live in times uncertain, but kindness, understanding, and believing in the good that is in most each and every one of us is what can bring about better days!
Illustrator, Voice Actor, Writer, Animal Rights Activist
No comments:
Post a Comment