Cobra Collectibles will be hopping at Halloween

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This article was published 15/10/2021 (602 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There are going to be more people walking around in costume than usual this Halloween as the inaugural Winnipeg Comic Con will be held at RBC Convention Centre from Oct. 29 to 31. It will be the first comic convention held here since 2019 and many attendees have missed dressing up as their favourite anime characters and superheroes.

Cosplay is a popular activity and performance art in which participants not only dress like their favourite characters from anime, video games, TV or film but sometimes adopt their mannerisms too.

Anime characters are among the most popular as Japanese-style manga and anime comics have very well drawn out and detailed characters. Fans are known to research their chosen characters thoroughly before spending time and money to get the costume sand looks just right, often with the help of wigs or makeup.    

Cobra Collectibles at 555 Sargent Ave. is the place to find manga and anime comics and everything else comic-related. It is chock-a-block with vintage collectible figurines and memorabilia from the ’70s and later. Star Wars, Star Trek, Pokemon, Ninja Turtles, The Walking Dead, Harry Potter, He Man, She-Ra and many more figurines are all there – shelf after shelf of them.

It is fun to walk around the store and discover toys and comic book figurines from your childhood. I didn’t see the the James Bond car I got for Christmas many years ago but loved the four-foot tall, resin-cast R2D2 standing by the front counter.   

A huge foam model of Slimer from Ghostbusters hangs above the extensive collection of wrestling figurines, championship belts and autographed merchandise in the new wrestling section. Next to that is the retro candy section where Pop Rocks, U.S. chocolate bars and Cookie Dough Bites are customer favourites. I prefer British chocolate myself, and you can find a small selection of imported Cadbury and Fry’s chocolate bars.  

There is an awful lot to take in at the store. It has the largest collection of GI Joe collectible figurines and accessories in Canada, for one thing, and everywhere you look there is more comic culture memorabilia.

It will be fun visiting it on Halloween weekend, as the shop will be fully decorated, horror movies will be playing on the TVs and the staff will all be in costume. On Halloween day itself they will also be giving out candy to trick or treaters.

Anne Hawe is a community correspondent for the West End. She can be reached at annie_hawe@hotmail.com