LOS ANGELES — Football fans have the Super Bowl. Soccer enthusiasts have the World Cup. Cinephiles have the Academy Awards.
For pop-culture lovers, 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 unique freebies 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 Blair Butler, host of G4’s “Attack of the Show.” “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 4-foot-long replica of the flying superhero headquarters from the “Avengers” movie, and Mattel’s quirky Dana as Zuul “Ghostbusters” figurine.
“There’s a whole group of people who actually make a business out of this: Going down and buying collectibles at San Diego Comic-Con and then selling them in their stores or on eBay,” said Hugo Stevenson, president of Huckleberry Toys, which is offering zombies and other figurines based on the upcoming film “ParaNorman.”
For most collectors, though, adding exclusive items to a collection is priceless.
“No collector is going to sell their collection,” said Scott Neitlich, a marketing manager at Mattel. “It’s not just about the physical price of the product, but the emotional connection each collector has about what figures they’ve decided to include.”
