ToyLanta 2023: A Con Review!

Well, it's March again, and with that warmer temperature easing in, we also have another delight that comes in this time of the year, the "Greatest Toy Show in the World," or ToyLanta! Even with the new JoeLanta in the Fall, I still wanted to participate in this show, because of how much of I love buying toys and congregating with the elite group of humans that still play with toys in adulthood!

Enjoy the toy bonanza below!

ToyLanta 2023 was held at the Hilton Atlanta Northeast in Peachtree Corners, GA from March 24-26! The toy madness spread through the main convention center and many other available rooms on the ground floor.

One of the main attractions to this year's show was the official table of the professional 1/12 toy makers/sculptors, Four Horsemen Studios! They brought warehouse finds and talked about the figures they designed throughout the years!

Besides their highly sought after Mythic Legions line, the Four Horsemen is also releasing  a Cosmic Legions line. They are cool, but this figure commitment would put a major strain on my action figure budget!

Corn Boy and Jim are the two Horsemen that made it out to Atlanta. I spoke with Corn Boy, and he told me they designed my Toybiz Marvel Legends BAF Apocalypse and the majority of my DC Universe Classics figures!

Here are G.I. Joe Bulletmen from 3 different countries: Mexico, United Kingdom, and United States. Hasbro created Bulletman as a superhero for the G.I. Joe Adventure Team in the 1970's. These figures unfortunately fell apart after a few years from poor manufacturing, so a lot of them were deemed worthless or tossed. The ones above were restrung and fetch big money!

My favorite dealer, EJ White, the "Soul Santa" of ToyLanta made it to ToyLanta. EJ has been giving deals to action figure collectors for years at this show. It is always a nice treat to see EJ!

This is a "Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse" Barbie MIB. This line of dolls included very striking/stylized versions of the Barbie characters made throughout the decades. Mattel even made a TV series for it. I find many of these Barbies used in thrift store runs. Most of these MIB fetch for about what Barbie costs in the picture.

Action figure customizer Brett Barton is showing off some of his work! Brett told me how dubious the action figure business can be when it comes to artists and companies using their creations.

Dad told me how rare some of the aliens from the 1970's Mego Star Trek line were, so I took a moment to look at these. Above are the Talos, Neptunion, and Cheron. These would be worth more if actually sealed in original packaging, but even loose they are still pretty costly. I believe dad said he saw them at Toys R Us when he was kid, but they were not distributed as well as the other Star Trek Mego figures.

1/6 figure customizer Matt Bill posing with professional artist Randall Wall! I talk with Matt all the time about action figuring, and this the first time I met Randall. Randall handed me a sheet with a high grade paper cut-out of a 1/6 suitcase. I found out that he is the guy making all of the ArtLab playsets I see throughout the action figure community!

MK Ultra customs had a table of Mythic Legion compatible custom stuff. They look really nice, but I would be afraid to handle them too much!

Don made this striking G.I. Joe spacesuit out of this really nice shiny red fabric. I asked him how long it takes for him to whip one of those up, and he said about half an hour. I bought one for $30!

Every once in a while, I run into the rare G.I. Joe exclusives from the club annual conventions. Some of these were decently priced, but others were very high. I did snag one club exclusive from this dealer for a great price!

Alan Dawson came across the pond from the UK and brought his exclusive line of 1/6 British military uniforms, Tommy Atkins! He informed me that "Tommy Atkins" is the British name equivalent given to their soldiers, just as we call our soldiers "G.I. Joes" or "Joes."

Mer-Man and Teela made an appearance late in the convention! I thought that these were better costumes than those in the 1987 film!

This year, the Maker's Space was a table out in the hall that we took shifts in. Above is Shane Morton demonstrating the art of airbrushing! Shane is also horror host Professor Morte!

I have to brag on myself some and show that I was on the ToyLanta website as a featured Maker Space artist!

Here was my table for rooting Barbie hair! I had many passerby's asking about the art!

This year's show did not have a mega diorama like in previous years, but they had many more smaller diorama's both for fun and competition! Above was a 1/6 Vietnam scene!

This was a 1/12 diorama of a cemetery!

Here was a 1/12 helicopter made for Mezco's Doc Nocturnal!

With White Elephant Toyz's reintroduction of the 8.5 inch Super Joe, someone assembled this Super Joe Action Tower!

Fellow customizer Jack Hall brought this small setting of a trapper's lodge!

Outside the lodge was another trapper and mule!

Here was a 1/18 Star Wars diorama of the Invasion of Naboo!

For those who do not know, Naboo is the home planet of the Gungans, or the Jar Jar Binks people!

Fernando Cota created the diorama! Fernando does a Star Wars diorama each year! I showed some of his work back in 2021!

I saw stronger effort this year in the custom figure contest. ToyLanta was hit hard from the pandemic, and I guess hobbyists are slowly bringing their work back out of the house. Above is Jack Hall's Bulleteer!

Here was a cool postman! Not super exciting, but simple and effective!

This was a 1/12 custom; I am not sure what exactly he was supposed to be, but he was kind of cool looking!

Somebody entered a 1/6  Louco Por Bonecos Eagle Eye Intruder with light saber chopstick accessory!

3-D printing guru Sean Huxter entered a silver screen Joe with a custom printed heli-jet pack! It was nice to finally meet Sean in person, because I had some of his 3D-printed Joe stuff already.

This cool 1/6 samurai was not in the contest. Apparently, the maker of this figure passed, so they displayed this in his honor.

This was my entry for the contest. I made a FrankenJoe and Mad Scientist! More on these here!

My greatest prize from the show was the Comrade of Russia for $80! I was looking for him for years, but I did not want to spend $300 for a single figure! I also got two handmade Arab figures from my friend Matt Bill for $60 each! They will go great fighting my Legionnaires!

ToyLanta 2023 was definitely a time to remember! If you are ever thinking about going, stop thinking and just go! Good toys, good prices, and good people!

-Chuck