Wondercon - A Pop Culture Celebration

Wondercon 2014: April 18th - 20th

Wondercon is an annual gathering for your popular culture needs! Media, literature, trading cards, education, oddities and tons of cosplay fill the Anaheim Convention Center. Just so you know, Wondercon is officially staying in Anaheim. But it is better this way, if Wondercon went back to San Francisco, we would have to share the space with iWorld. No! Just No! Besides, a trip to Wondercon and then walking up the street to Disneyland is a great deal! 

Originally, I would go to Wondercon to shop and haggle for rare model figures but this time I did a few things differently. I attended panels with directors, authors, writers, actors and illustrators of my favorite television shows and cartoons to add more field notes to this study as well as introduce my friend to her first con. She was shocked when she saw people standing outside the doors on Thursday when we could pick up our tickets. An older woman stopped us and said, "I love everyone's smiles. Even you! Everyone comes out with their bags smiling." I replied,"Its the magic of Wondercon!" A girl in front of us started sobbing when she picked up her bag. I gave her a tissue and she said, "I can't believe it! This is my first time!" Even the Wondercon employees gave her high fives. I told the woman that we did see a few tears. She laughed and said, "Tears for now smiles tomorrow!" Indeed they were =) I saw the girl the next day in costume skipping happily to the showroom. 

My friend had a few revelations and reflections about popular culture in her life and why she felt excluded from popular culture experiences as a child. She concluded that it was cultural and economics related. Some of the problems educator's mentioned in literature I have read and the words of those I have worked with have revolved around a problem of economics.  Many felt popular culture demands consumers spend money to be a part of the culture. It is a misconception that money is needed to participate in popular culture or feel a part of the culture. I explained this to my friend after her conclusion. When our imaginations create worlds and stories are told or written, it becomes popular culture when references of mainstream characters become our own creation. For me, its like legos building heroes. For my friend, instead of feeling regret, she has chosen to start dreaming now. 

An example of this dream, hero, imagination building is with fuse beads in early childhood and elementary schools. While I love doing this project, many of my fellow educators feel it is a one sided project. However, Wondercon revealed many for sale. Many of the school agers I work with create their own icons from Minecraft and other video games. Here are some displayed at Wondercon for sale.  I had to take the picture quickly since there is a sign that say no pictures! Sorry for the blur. Fuse bead art allows children to create their own visions of their favorite characters and games.

Various cartoon characters and superheroes!

Disney and Pokemon are examples of various merchandise available for all economic ranges all over the world. One of the interesting aspects of  Pikachu adventures is when Pikachu is on an adventure with his friends there is a limited amount of  human speech for the majority of the film. Also, children do not need to purchase films to understand Pikachu's language because their friends and classmates can pass on the details of the story while teaching them the meanings of all the Pika-pika-chu-chu's. Popular culture is about the connections we make beyond ourselves to the world outside. The connections we make with other people is how popular culture is transferred verbally, physically, internationally, domestically, virtually and physically. As long as adults and children are still seeing, hearing. speaking and writing to convey the worlds of their imagination, popular culture will continue to grow from our minds and hearts into the pages of books and artwork for all to enjoy! 

Welcome to Skylands!

Thinking about Skylanders has always made me smile. Last Spring, I began my collection after attending the opening day celebration of the Downtown SF's Microsoft Store. Because I had won a $25 gift certificate and they had 20  percent off grand opening promotion, I knew what I wanted! New Xbox 360 games!  I really didn't know which games I wanted exactly. . Something filled with adventure and treasure hunting was a must. The Microsoft Store employees sold me on Skylanders Giants! They played the game themselves so I picked a few characters I thought looked cool plus the game starter pack. It was such a great deal on the set!

Of course to my brother's credit, he told me about the first series,  Spyro's Adventures. 

Spyro is one cool dragon! Since dragons are one of my favorite mystical creatures I was already interested.  Especially when I found out my other favorite mystical creature, unicorns, are also in Skylands! Whirlwind is pretty cool! He even told me about Gamestop employee exclusive figures!! LUCKY! My brother also explained to me how the system worked. There were many characters from various elements needed to unlock doors to treasure.  There were various versions of each character. Legendary Skylanders were rare exclusive ultra powered types. There were also seasonal holiday themed Skylanders that were limited edition specials as well as store exclusives found only at Toys R Us, Walmart, Target and Game Stop.  

Whirlwind: Part Unicorn part Dragon!

  

 

Legendary Trigger Happy  

Springtime Trigger Happy (Swap Force - Seasonal)

I continued to visit the Microsoft Store to buy more Skylanders. Every time employees saw my face they would disapear quickly into the back to bring me a selection not on the shelves. Once I collected all the characters I thought were cool from the Microsoft Store, I told myself, "Ok I'm done! This is how my collection looked last Spring! You will see what it looks like now at the end of this post!

One of my online gamer friends in Norway showed me a picture of his collection on Facebook. He had every single Skylander both normal, rare and legendary types!  I was shocked how much he invested into his collection because there is no Toys R Us  Norway! He relied heavily on inflated eBay prices and high international shipping to obtain his collection. He said his collection was well over 2k U.S. Dollars! YIKES! ! That's dedication!

Ket's 2013 collection

It was not until August 2013 that I met a boy in a new school I worked at with a Skylanders shirt and shoes! I yelled from across the playground, "Look it's Eruptor!! His jaw dropped and he ran over to me. He said "How you know this is?" Once I told him I owned Eruptor he told me each and every new Skylanders he owned! He said his legendary bouncer was his best one. I was really happy with my Tree Rex but he said there was a special one coming soon. When I bought Gnarly Tree Rex I couldn't wait to tell him. He laughed when I was cheering about the other new additions to my collection.  He high fived me for finally finding Ninjini ... well my brother did! She is a ninja/genie with two katanas...we both said, "That's so cool!" He said I should have done the pre order for Scarlett Ninjini because she was "so so so so so strong!"  

During our classroom circles many of the children without Skylanders would ask to see videos of the characters personalities. The cartoons shorts were really funny. When Swap Force was released, I told the boy I wasn't interested. ..but then he told me about how you can swap the parts of the swappable friends making 256 combos!

The boy mentioned to me how he would dress as Spyro for Halloween. Since there were two versions I showed him on my tablet to verify which Spyro he would choose. He choose the outfit that was fully covered so he could Ram Charge.like Spyro. He giggled when he mentioned  how funny the pink on the costume was. He said it wasn't too much but even if Spyro was all pink he would still like it! (While this Spyro appears purple, he said it looked more pink in person!)

During Black Thursday, Skylanders Swap Force was marked down from 75.00 to 35.00, so I finally decided to invest in Skylanders again. I bought the Swap Force starter pack and multiple Skylanders for 40 percent off. Another great deal! This is how my swap force yet looked back in November.

As the boy and I continued to compare our Skylanders each time I arrived at his school, our conversations were so high energy I forgot I was a teacher. Rather than remind the children to rest during nap time, the boy and I told stories of  the Skylands with the star night light nd flashlights on. Some children contributed to our stories with the knowledge they carried of Skylanders.  Others listened intently to find out what happened to Kaos the bad boy. They had trouble deciding if he was a big kid or a little big kid because he was so short, bald and always needed his mom's help to stop the Skylanders!

Kaos and his Mommy

All of January, I was assigned to another school. When I returned in February to my fellow Skylander's school,  I came into the room with my Eruptor plush keychain. The boy stared at it before looking up at me. I patted him on the head and saying, "Hey you Skylander!" He nodded and then poked me hard. He stomped his foot and said, "Hey! Where were you??" I laughed and said the other school down the street! He laughed and asked if any kids were Skylanders fans. I told him a bunch! I asked him if he was still my Skylander friend and he said yes! He took his strategy guide from his cubby and showed me all of his Skylanders. He pointed to two he did not have. Scratch,  Fire Bone Hot Dog  and Stink Bomb. It took me tons of camping Toys R Us, Target and Wal-Mart to find them! The store employees in the video game section would cheer me on and give me search tips for those three if they saw them in other stores around town. I ended up finding Fire Bone Hot Dog and Scratch at Walmart and picked up the last Stink Bomb at Target. He is awesome! A Ninja Skunk!!  What more could one ask for? Stealth and Funk ability. That's awesome!

Fire Bone Hot Dog

Scratch

Stink Bomb

While the boy was amazed I found Scratch, . .yes that was the last one in stock also! He asked me if he could use my phone to call his parents so they could put it in his Easter basket. Scratch really is the ultimate cat warrior griffin. Seriously, this game has the characters with the coolest personalities! Here are some items I found at Target and Toys R Us showing how children could have a very Skylander/Pop Culture filled Easter!

An update to traditional Easter Baskets

For those of you who are wondering why I did not include Disney Infinity - it was released after the clear success of Skylanders Giants launched. The only reason I would buy a figure is if the planned Captain EO figure is actually released.  I don't want the game only the Captain EO figure! I have noticed that children who do not have Skylanders have Disney Infinity because their parents play/love Disney and even a few have both. My Pre K Skylander friend's father figured out I was the teacher his son always talked to about Skylanders. His father was upset because he had spent so much money on his son's collection. I did ask him to work on building and creating new stories with the characters. That did very well because now his Skylanders have a new life and purpose outside of game play. Video games create a space for children to build stories from their own experiences with the journeys they experience through game character's lives. Whether the experience is comical or tragic, children are learning what it means to live with choices they make, whether good or bad and draw strength and courage to make the right decision that places them one step closer to who they want to become. 

MJ x Hakuna Matata x Let it Go!

Michael Jackson as Captain EO

Disneyland's Tomorrowland is the first spot my brother and I run to inside the park. Its the home of Space Mountain and Captain EO! Some of the children I work with told me they checked out Captain EO with their parents. Many of their parents, also Michael Jackson fans, said they were glad their child got to see "Beat it Michael." 

When I look through multiple music videos and interviews from actors and music artists, I see and hear influences MJ has left on the lives of us all - whether music video, blogging and even online reviews of music and games can be traced to what MJ brought to artistic visual - creative expression through music.

There is also a change going on with Disney music in animated films. More children are singing along to their favorite songs at school. Home culture is appearing in the classroom through their favorite cartoons, movies and musical artists. When I was a child, Hakuna Matata, Under the Sea and A World New World were the melodies my classmates and I hummed in my classroom. I do not recall teachers or children singing or humming Disney songs quietly to themselves or with us. But teachers always sang Michael Jackson, Aerosmith, Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Prince and Queen songs in the classroom. Notice the rock and soul trend the teachers were interested in back then?

  

In today's classroom, some of the children sing their version of songs they hear on their parents' radio in the car, Pandora and iheartRadio apps from Imagine Dragons,  Katy Perry,  Adele, Beyonce and Rihanna. One boy in one of my Pre - K classes, wants to become a singer. He always says Adele is his idol and can sing all of her songs verbatim. He prefers to use the classroom CD or iPod for melody but will sing "Rolling in the Deep" in acapella if you make a respect during outside time. He prefers a large audience of teachers and children watching rather than singing for only one person.

Since January, this boy has recently gotten into singing Frozen's Let it Go and Do you wanna build a Snowman? He and his classmates sing the song together repeatedly throughout the day. One change I have noticed over the past two months are children adding in Elsa's exact movements to Let it Go - They ask me to tie their jackets or sweaters around their body like a shawl and they rip it off and smile while singing the line, "Let the storm rage on, the cold never bothered me anyway." 

While singing Anna's, Do you wanna to build a snowman? The children jump around the room and then lay on the floor watching the clock like Anna, while singing, "I think some company is overdue I've started talking to the pictures on the walls- (Hang in there, Joan!) It gets a little lonely All these empty rooms, Just watching the hours tick by- (Tic-Tock, Tic-Tock, Tic-Tock, Tic-Tock, Tic-Tock)"

Sometimes the children leading the songs will stop the children and make them start from the beginning if the song is inaudible or the words are out of order. Even if the child mixes up or omits lyrics, the children stay in sync with the rhythm of the characters voices and their verbal and non verbal language throughout the song.

From The Little Mermaid, I do hear children singing Ariel's "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh" to give their voice to Ursula or the child who deems herself as a powerful witch.

When the children in my Pre K class are happy they sing:
Hatuna Makata - What a wonderful day!!

They are quickly corrected by the Adele singing child," No no start again that's wrong!"

The children giggle and sing even louder

It means no worries for rest of your daaaaays its our problem beees papeepeee!

He interjects, "NOOOOO nonono! Like this!" He puts his hands up to conduct and sings:

Hakuna Matata, what a wonderful phrase, Hakuna Matata Aint no passing craze, It means no worries for the rest of your daaaaays. Its our problem free philosophy Hakuna Matata! He leads the other children and prances around the room just as Timon, Pumbaa and Simba do in the sequence when Simba is growing up. 

While many teachers whose classrooms I work in tell me, "We have too much Disney in our lives so no more singing!" As I reflect on all the Disney moments mentioned in this post that children have chosen to emulate and experience sorrow, joy, pain and growing up. These Disney songs provided children with opportunities to role play and embody the qualities of their beloved characters they admire. It is more than a child just having too much Disney or too much of anything they love, it is about children understanding how their lives intersect with what they are interested in and knowledge they need to learn as they grow older. Through media, their popular culture artifacts and their imagination, children can extend the adventures of their favorite characters and create new adventures for themselves continuing the journey with that character. 

Gender Benders, Bronies and Heroines

The first Saturday of every May is Free Comic Day - Were you able to head to your favorite comic book store and support such a wonderful event?  Many happy faces were leaving the stores once they could get inside! But the long lines are worth it for the experience =)!

I hope everyone had an awesome Star Wars Day! May the Fourth be with you and also the Fifth! I supported the day by wearing my Yoda shirt. A few children I saw around the city had Princess Leia hairstyles, Star Wars character shirts or lightsabers. The Disney Store had an event at noon with a giveaways and fun for all ages. Yay!

George Lucas and Disney Characters in their Star Wars roles.

One topic that appeared Fall and Spring semester in my field notes was the children looking at characters and not knowing really knowing their gender. Children could tell with ease the gender of characters from stories like Star Wars. They told me it was based on their clothing. Yet, My Little Pony (MLP) brought up major debates in the classroom. Is Rainbow Dash a boy or girl?? Most of the ponies have a clearly masculine or feminine look. Yet, Rainbow Dash's look is gender neutral. Her body color is blue, her hair type is multi-colored with a messy style compared to the other female MLPs with neatly combed hair. A few of the three year olds, both boys and girls, believed Rainbow Dash was a boy because, "He do what he wants!" and "He is wild!" When I asked what does being wild mean to them, most of the three year olds paused and could not respond. Another three year old tried to explain it to me with many "Um.. Um.. Um.. Um...well...I don't know! He ....just is!" I was really curious about this answer. When watching MLP, I can see why a child would interpret Rainbow Dash's actions as wild or as some of the three year old girls say to other girls when playing boys or daddys, "You have to act like a boy!" Rainbow Dash is not as feminine as the other female ponies. She is very adventurous and very impulsive, traits children typically associate with boys in the classroom. When I told the Pre -K boys and girls about what the three year olds felt, they thought it was silly they mistook her for a boy. But, they did agree that Rainbow Dash was wild! One boy described jumped up with both hands up describing Rainbow Dash as free! He liked her because he wanted to be like her and make his own rules. He always mentions hating nap time because he never wants to sleep. Girls that participated in the conversation felt that Rainbow Dash was "really cool" and "funny silly" because she got into trouble but was still a good friend.

           

Dr Whooves  

Rainbow Dash

Rainbow Dash

Rainbow Dash is the pony pulling the others to safety.

The boys and girls mentioned Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash as their top favorite ponies. You can check out their personalities in the clips below.

Fall semester, one Pre K class was so involved in MLP, their large class of 26 had daily Bronies and Princess Pony sessions. While I tried to capture all of the dialogue by hand, it became nearly impossible when six groups of Dr. Hooves, Princess Celestia and Rainbow Dashes were stampeding through the room! These teachers were aware of their classroom's  popular culture power play and let the play continue as long as they galloped and without running. The girls often fought over who would be Princess Celestia but there were two girls who were always Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle because those ponies were "bffs" on the show and the girls grew up together after meeting at school when they were in the Toddler room. The most interesting dialogue between the boys and girls was exchanged when they assumed their pony personalities. The girls and boys playing Fluttershy and was really accurate. So much so, their teachers mistakenly thought the children were scared by sudden lights, darkness and voices/sounds in the room. It was also quite the event when the children continued their pony personas during snack. Rainbow Dash was scolded by Princess Celestia for having her hooves on the table as well as eating her yogurt and graham crackers too quickly. Twilight Sparkle was told to be a better princess by sitting up straight.  Dr. Hooves said he would help anyone who had a tummy ache from too much yogurt at his doctor's office and send them to the store for free medicine.

The drawing below is of  a "Princess Pony." When I asked her which pony she drew, she asked me to guess. Of course, it is Princess Celestia! When I showed this child's picture to the Pre K children at the school who called Rainbow Dash free and wild, the three year olds could also tell it was Princess Celestia. After examining the photo closer, the majority of the class decided  it was not really Princess Celestia and just a Princess Pony because her "cutie mark" was wrong. Some girls protested that it could only be Princess Celestia if the cutie mark was a sun like the Real Princess Celestia. Some of boys and girls felt that it could be whatever she wanted it to be. Through MLP, children

Princess Pony - Princess Celestia

Princess Celestia

Many of the children in my classrooms become aware of gender through their choice of clothing, hairstyle and the personas of their favorite characters. When we sing songs from Disney's Frozen, children from all of my classrooms ask me what the other children are doing. I noticed that many questions are emphasizing gender, "Do the boys sing Frozen too like me?" "Are the boys  Elsa or Anna?" "Do the girls play Hans and Kristoff? 'Cuz no one likes Hans. I can be Kristoff and you be Anna!" While there are many boys and girls in my classrooms who love MLP,only the girls wear MLP clothing: hoodies and shirts. One boy did like one of the girl's new MLP sweatshirt. When she entered, I said, "Good Morning Pinkie Pie!" She giggled and pointed to the other two ponies. I continued, "Wow! Its Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle!" One of the boys ran up and hugged her and said, "Now all the best friends are here!" He is huge Rainbow Dash fan! His parents mentioned to me before that they would prefer he plays with MLP's of other children at school rather than buy him MLP toys and he feel embarrassed later. It reminded me of a recent MLP incident at an East Coast elementary school...

The incident caused quite a bit of sadness in my school age classroom when I informed them about a boy who was bullied in his school for being a liking MLP. He was picked on for bringing his MLP lunch box to school. Since the school administrator deemed the lunch box the cause of the bullying rather than discipline the bullies, many of the Pre K and school age children were shocked. They felt very sad for the boy for not being able to bring what he loved with him to school. It alludes to the connections children build with each object from popular culture they accumulate. Each popular culture artifact was chosen by the child because they identify with qualities of the character and place meaningful memories and feelings representing the experience they had when the artifact was bought/given to them. 

But I feared there were more incidents than just this one. I googled boys bullied for liking MLP and came across the story of an eleven year old who attempted to commit suicide for being a brony.

RuPaul!



I assumed with the highly successful and popularity of RuPaul's Drag Race franchise and movies with superheroes of both genders found in Avengers and X-Men that children were growing up with images of gender flexibility promoting gender freedom. There are so many toys marketed for boys and girls to create play free of gender it seems one boundary that not all children or adults will choose to break. It is a step forward that there are so many types of toys, cartoons and pop culture items children can choose to represent themselves just the way they want. It is just such a shame children are suffering to stay brave and show who they are. Individuals who are not accepting of another child's bravery to be themselves and do things differently than other children of the same gender shows there is much to be said for children and their identity building as well as adults' acceptance of children working through multiple traits and qualities children want to incorporate into their identity. 

 X-Men Heroines (Bottom left: Psylocke, Center: Storm, Bottom right: Rogue,
Bottom far right: Rachel Grey
Upper left: Jubilee, Upper Right: Kitty Pryde,