Saturday:
I had left work early to get some sleep for the show and man and I'm glad I did! It's Sunday morning at 4:45am as I'm just now waking from a sleep coma to finally talk about the great time I had at Rangerstop. We headed out around 11am and with a quick stop at Racetrak for gas and after a breakfast of gas station pizza and Java Monster I was ready for the day! The con was only 30 minutes away, so we got there in no time.
The ticket booth was a bit of a bottle neck as the metal detector was right in front of registration. Next year I'm definitely buying ahead of time as it took a little longer to pay at the booth as opposed to the ones who had pre-paid. Though simple enough as the nice con employee rang up my card and gave us our passes (more on him later). After bag check we entered the show.
There were a few panels going on, but the ones I wanted weren't until 2pm, so we had some time to kill. There wasn't as many toy dealers as I expected, maybe just a handful as there was more artists and various neat stuff for sale. I wasn't bothered though and honestly found that pretty pleasant. One guy did have a decent assortment of older toys of Power Rangers and other tokusatsu toys whose booth I enjoyed. He had some great boxed Ultraman stuff from the 60's that I took some time marveling at.
He also had a bunch of the action figure style, non-transforming Megazords that I've taken a shine to in more recent weeks. I was tempted on a few, but ultimately decided to pass as they're usually available much cheaper at Toylanta (got one for $7 this year). I did get some great bootleg robot minifigures from him that were too good to pass up. A original Megazord in red with gold paint, a Live Robo that I thought was Leopardon at first, and a red guy whom I'm currently blanking on. He did have a great Red Baron sofubi in a glittery translucent red in it's original baggie that was awesome, but I ultimately passed on as Red Baron is just something I like too casually to spend more than a few dollars on.
There were a lot of Funko Pops at the show, which I don't mind as I like them a lot already. Looking at the wall of Pops one dealer had while the wife went through the tons of Disney pins at the booth (one of her hobbies) was a good time. There's a great Altered Beast Pop I have to get that one day. I got a great poster of the Toei Spider-Man from an artist I had a small conversation with. Cool guy, he also had some good Amazon Riders prints available.
A dealer I had been looking forward to since seeing him on Instagram had really cool Ranger clothing. Hats, shirts, patches based on the costumes and such that looked really sharp. Of course being a sasquatch, I'm hesitant on buying clothes somewhere I can't return them or try on first, so I passed on shirts but did get a great Dino Charge drawstring backpack. I've been wanting one for my random errands and such, and this one was perfect!
The hotel had a lunch service available booth available by the DJ . We got some chicken tenders and ate them in line for the first Ranger panel of the day. We stayed parked in that room for the next two hours as the JDF panel followed immediately. The panel was full of Ranger actors doing a mix of q&a and a silly game based on the dating game where they'd pick another panelist based on a question. Who screwed up a scene the most or who was more likely to be late type of thing. It was fun, though just a touch hard to hear. The panel was outright upstaged by an Alpha 5 cosplayer who ran around for a minute before leaving.
The JDF panel was lively, with him starting off telling about his various projects before opening for Q&A. A guy with questionable mental stability abruptly sat next to us wearing an ill fitted red ranger Halloween costume. Poor guy was absolutely soaked with sweat and having some sort of conversation with himself that turned into an argument after awhile. When JDF entered the room, he was holding up a picture he had taken with JDF's daughter on his phone. He then got in line to show him. His gloves were pink from the red bleeding while sweating. That guy man...
During the first panel, Karan Ashley and Nakia Burrise (the 2nd and 3rd yellow Rangers) whom were among the convention organizers took donations for a con staff member who needed medical treatment. He turned out to be the guy I talked about earlier that sold us our tickets. We gladly donated some cash, that guy was super nice. They were keeping it quiet as they wanted to surprise him with the money at one of the parties later in the night. We didn't stay long past 5, so I'm sure he got a nice amount to help out with his medical costs. There was something to be said for having someone you've watched on TV say 'God bless you' as you put cash into a Ranger helmet. One of those experiences you only get at a con.
Speaking of those experiences, Catherine Sutherland (2nd pink Ranger) accidentally almost barged into my wife in the bathroom. My wife found her apology very cute. These things happen and when it's a Power Ranger... well that's funny. We walked around the dealers room a little more before calling it a day and leaving around 5:30. The con ran all weekend, but I could only to do a day pass and will likely go again next year. We then stopped at at Target and Five Below before going home and getting some much needed rest... meaning I passed out around 11pm.
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