With the slogan “Keeping Your Childhood Rad,” Yestercon the Sequel was back for a second time on Sunday, July 31, in Carson, California. The Carson Civic Center served as the locale for the one-day annual event which included exhibitors, creators, media guests, as well as a handful of video game arcades.
At the edge of the center’s central open-air plaza, attendees checked in and received a free goodie bag of pins and postcards. The square-shaped common area had several round tables set up with paper, crayons, and a variety of items to entertain younger children, or where attendees could take a break to relax. There was a food station selling snacks and soda while another station was set up with fun games of chance and skill.
Upon entering the main hallway, fans could purchase pins, toys, t-shirts, stickers, or the Yestercon 2016 exclusive print created by JD Correa and colors by Tobias Gebhardt. Correa incorporated the “I’m Just a Bill” characters from a late ’70s Schoolhouse Rock segment, and it was an adorable throwback collectible. Both Correa and Gebhardt had booths at the event and often attend other SoCal cons throughout the year.
Also set up in the hallway were a handful of photo-op backdrops that included a Mario Brothers video game background, a superhero packaging, as well as a few others. With a table of fun props, fans could showcase their geekiness for posterity as friends and family snapped pictures of them. A surprise guest was also ready and waiting to share space in the photo-op Stick Stickly, host of Nick in the Afternoon.
For a smaller con, there were several media guests to reminiscence with: Dante Basco (Hook; Avatar, The Last Airbender), Bradley Pierce (Jumanji; voice of Tails in Sonic the Hedgehog), Katie Leigh (My Little Pony; Muppet Babies), Jason Ybarra (Power Rangers), Chance Raspberry (The Simpsons; Little Billy), wrestlers Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazaria, and Alyson Kiperman (Yellow), Jack Guzman (Black), and Phillp Jeanmarie (Blue) represented a portion of the Power Rangers Wild Force. Walking the aisles were the famous Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (No surprise, since their van was parked out front of the venue.) and SoCal cosplayer Loki Hates You, who hosted Yestercon’s cosplay contest.
Panels are a staple of the con experience, and Yestercon had a handful scheduled. The first up was a special treat: hosts Kirk Fogg (Legends of the Hidden Temple) and Phil Moore (Nick Arcade) chatted to a packed room their memories about their respective kids game shows that originally aired back in the 1990s. Both discussed each show’s legacy. Fogg mentioned that he will be in the filmic version of his show coming out this autumn, while Moore is going to be crowdfunding VG [Video Game] Rumble, as well as co-hosting an on-the-road live version of Let’s Make a Deal. Fogg and Moore agreed that the time was right that kids’ game shows made a comeback.
By mid afternoon, about twenty fans with steady hands and nerves of steel tested their gaming skill in a video game competition. Fans less brave, or perhaps not feeling the need to prove their mettle, milled the aisles of collectibles as they relived their childhoods with their own children. May it be rad, indeed!
Photos from this event can be found at Fanbase Press’ Facebook gallery, Yestercon 2016.
