NYCC 2025 Review: Meet Mr. Pumpkin and Experience Topps Mint Disney Insanity

I’ve been going to Cons for many years — and I am certain of one thing as I wrap up NYCC 2025: Mr. Pumpkin, by a woman who goes by the name of “Miss Chibi Artist,” has the potential to be huge. 

You know when you’ve kind of seen it all, and then something catches your eye as you walk by that just has “it”? Look at this “Ramen” piece and tell me you won’t pay $15 for it to hang on your wall somewhere:

Maybe it was the cool air outside, maybe it’s just a Halloween thing, maybe it’s the cute little ghosts. I don’t know. But I have a hunch that we’re at the start of something with tremendous upside. And hey, not to pat myself on the back, but we were here for you in the very early days of Sophie Cunningham. I now own a KPop Demon Hunters rookie magazine. We told you about Cam Schlittler before he even had a card. I bought several packs of Topps Godzilla NFTs. Mr. Pumpkin is something to get in on early. This will be a comic book or graphic novel. And then it will be a Netflix/Apple show or movie. Get some prints now, get them signed, figure out a way to invest. 

Or just, you know… grab a poster, hang it up, and enjoy it. 

My second-favorite thing at NYCC were these Adam Bomb/Blasted Billy sneakers made by Bull Airs. 

Their whole booth was pretty awesome but just slightly missed my tastes. The sneakers were right up my alley but I’m not a sneaker guy. And then their Madballs homages were a brilliant idea but they didn’t quite hit my pop culture tastes.

But the more I look at the Marty McFly-as-Darth Vader one… maybe I just needed to breathe it all in a little more. Regret! That’s what the “R” in JR Fickle stands for!

There was a MASSIVE line for Topps Mint Disney boxes that were selling for $150…and were being immediately flipped on eBay for $1,300 (though they’ve since settled to about $650-700) (Buy on eBay). There is a lot of Disney stuff out there right now but let your old pal J.R. Fickle tell you something: Mint Disney is one of the best-looking sets of cards I’ve seen. Cards, period, not just Disney cards. They’re so cool, in fact, I ran through the “experience” line to get a free pin. I ended up with Winnie the Pooh (meh), which is no “Winnie the Pooper”… but what is, really?

One trend I noticed? There were a LOT of cards. Invincible (the show) had cards, some authors and artists had cards. I’m not talking booths of vendors, but people and places basically making their own and getting in on the cards game. 

Some other quick hits:

• I got a Vee Friends sticker pack. They were just handing them out as you walked by their giant, colorful booth. This will probably stay in my backpack until the next time I use it, when I accidentally crush it with my laptop.

  • What do me and Gary Vee have in common? Neither of us were asked to be judges in The Hobby Awards. (Editor’s note: Gary Vaynerchuk is most definitely a judge in The Hobby Awards, and he’s actually mentioned in that article J.R. linked to. . . And he wonders why he wasn’t asked to be involved, SMH).

• I had intended to buy a good amount of KPop Demon Hunters merch but there wasn’t a lot of it and the stuff I saw felt kind of rushed and imperfect. Like the faces weren’t quite right, little things were off. Maybe next year!

• My buddy Big Clerc tipped me off to Labubus. But same thing — not a ton of cool stuff, although the most unique was the Lego version at the giant Lego Person booth. 

• I met a very nice group of people at the NYC Department of Education booth who told me that the city of New York is basically a top 5 comics publisher in the country now because of a giant series of comic books they put out — from a bio of Jackie Robinson to “How to be an action activist.” 

• I got DC legend Joe Stanton to sign a copy of his Jack Kirby issue. And they handed me a pile more, which all are legit comics with nice art in them. I don’t know if I’ll read them, but I was pretty impressed at the effort in getting the comics right.

• You know what I have zero data on but I’m pretty sure I’m right about? Not as many scantily-clad women as years past. And I knew that because you didn’t have to suddenly stop in the aisles every 10 feet for a creeper to ask if he could take a picture of a woman in a jumpsuit. So that was nice. 

Two non-NYCC notes: 

• I got my hands on two Halloween Trader Joe’s mini totes. They now reside with the four Easter mini-totes in a cupboard in my basement. I’ll throw them away in 2037 or something. Maybe. 

• Dunkin’ Donuts has Halloween-themed blind boxes called Boo Boxes. They will sell out! Mark my words! They just haven’t hit tiktok with a vengeance…yet. What’s inside is kind of meh — a coin purse, some buttons, whatever. But the chase!! That’s what we’re here for!

Have a great week everyone! May all your Boo Boxes hold coin purses inside!