I’ll start off by saying that I’m glad I was able to make it this year, that’s largely in part to my wife letting me spend our tax rebate check on the airfare to get out there. I knew there was a reason I married her.
I’ll skip all the other small talk and get to my experience at the con itself. Upon arriving at the convention center on Wednesday afternoon to pick up my four day pass, I was amazed at the sheer size of the building outside. I’d seen the pictures from past years of course, but seeing it in person was breathtaking. My friends and I made our way down to the line to get into the building, and then did our best cattle impressions following the roped lines to get our badges and free swag for the day.
Once I officially had my badge for the event, we made our way across the upper level of the center to get in line for the doors to open two hours from that point. I regret not having some sort of hand held game system to keep me occupied while I sat against a wall, but my trusty IPod did help pass the time. Once we were finally allowed to enter the hall, it was like watching a scene from any number of zombie movies with people rushing to get ahead of everyone else.
My first impression upon entering the hall on preview night was one of awe. I knew it was big from looking at the hall layouts on the con website, but seeing it from the floor was breathtaking for a newbie to cons of this size like me. I have been to the Baltimore Comic Con before, but it pales in comparison to SDCC. I headed straight for the NECA booth so I could get my Mousers first, and found there was already a line. Not the first time I would experience this at the con either. I left the booth a few minutes later with my 2 Mouser sets in hand and proceeded to wander around the floor for a bit before I headed to the Mattel booth try my hand at scoring Lobo and King Greyskull. After wasting half an hour in line only to find out they wouldn’t be for sale until Thursday morning, I decided to head over to the AFX booth and check on the 4 Horsemen’s Gothtropolis Time Keeper figures. I got to talk to one of the guys for a few minutes, and I got some pictures of their amazing 2 Ups of the next Fan Ex figure with variants, and the next 7th Kingdom Queen figure and her amazing variants. These guys are truly fans of action figures, and truly do their best to please their fans with everything they do.
Thursday morning brought the chance to get my Mattel exclusives, but by the time I got to the booth, a little after the doors opened, the line had been closed already. I was told to come back in about 45 minutes when the line would be open again, which ended up being closed by the time I got back there again. I made one last attempt to catch the line while I wandered around the floor close by, but when I missed it that time, I just hung around the booth until they opened the next time. I spent from about two and a half hours in that line, only to find out that they had sold out of the Greyskull stock they had on hand, and were waiting on more to arrive. That led to those of us who wanted anything other than Greyskull to get shifted to another line. At that point I had resigned myself to not getting both of the Mattel figures I wanted, but I did manage to get my Lobo and another for a friend. One of the plusses of waiting in that line was meeting the fiancé of another board member of the Fwoosh, aceofknaves, whom I enjoyed talking toys with while we killed time waiting on Mattel to get their act together.
The rest of the con is pretty much a blur. I managed to attend some panels I wanted to, including the Marvel Toys/Toybiz panel where Jesse Falcon got to shed some light on the behind the scenes workings of one of the best toy companies in recent memory. I got to talk with Todd Nauck, artist of Wildguard and Spiderman among others, as he did a sketch for me and another fan. I got to say hello to Steve Niles in person as I passed him the Image comics booth, after being a member of his message board for so many years. I chatted with the folks from Rooster Teeth productions (Red vs. Blue fame). I also met SDcomics, and the talented customizer carl, of Fwoosh fame, on Sunday afternoon, and got to talk to him for a little while at the SOTA booth. Talking to someone of his caliber about customs was helpful beyond belief for me, and I hope he enjoys the customs I will eventually post that he so graciously let me tell him about..
Overall, I’m thrilled I decided to make the trek from the East Coast of New York, to the sunny West Coast of San Diego for an experience I will not soon forget. I got to see plenty of eye candy women in various stages of undress, and some men who should have definitely put a few more pieces of clothing on. It was a pop culture/comic/movie event for sure, but I enjoyed all the personal interaction I had with friends I met for the first time, Fwoosh members I happened to bump into, and the celebrities I got the chance to chat with even more.
I’ll skip all the other small talk and get to my experience at the con itself. Upon arriving at the convention center on Wednesday afternoon to pick up my four day pass, I was amazed at the sheer size of the building outside. I’d seen the pictures from past years of course, but seeing it in person was breathtaking. My friends and I made our way down to the line to get into the building, and then did our best cattle impressions following the roped lines to get our badges and free swag for the day.
Once I officially had my badge for the event, we made our way across the upper level of the center to get in line for the doors to open two hours from that point. I regret not having some sort of hand held game system to keep me occupied while I sat against a wall, but my trusty IPod did help pass the time. Once we were finally allowed to enter the hall, it was like watching a scene from any number of zombie movies with people rushing to get ahead of everyone else.
My first impression upon entering the hall on preview night was one of awe. I knew it was big from looking at the hall layouts on the con website, but seeing it from the floor was breathtaking for a newbie to cons of this size like me. I have been to the Baltimore Comic Con before, but it pales in comparison to SDCC. I headed straight for the NECA booth so I could get my Mousers first, and found there was already a line. Not the first time I would experience this at the con either. I left the booth a few minutes later with my 2 Mouser sets in hand and proceeded to wander around the floor for a bit before I headed to the Mattel booth try my hand at scoring Lobo and King Greyskull. After wasting half an hour in line only to find out they wouldn’t be for sale until Thursday morning, I decided to head over to the AFX booth and check on the 4 Horsemen’s Gothtropolis Time Keeper figures. I got to talk to one of the guys for a few minutes, and I got some pictures of their amazing 2 Ups of the next Fan Ex figure with variants, and the next 7th Kingdom Queen figure and her amazing variants. These guys are truly fans of action figures, and truly do their best to please their fans with everything they do.
Thursday morning brought the chance to get my Mattel exclusives, but by the time I got to the booth, a little after the doors opened, the line had been closed already. I was told to come back in about 45 minutes when the line would be open again, which ended up being closed by the time I got back there again. I made one last attempt to catch the line while I wandered around the floor close by, but when I missed it that time, I just hung around the booth until they opened the next time. I spent from about two and a half hours in that line, only to find out that they had sold out of the Greyskull stock they had on hand, and were waiting on more to arrive. That led to those of us who wanted anything other than Greyskull to get shifted to another line. At that point I had resigned myself to not getting both of the Mattel figures I wanted, but I did manage to get my Lobo and another for a friend. One of the plusses of waiting in that line was meeting the fiancé of another board member of the Fwoosh, aceofknaves, whom I enjoyed talking toys with while we killed time waiting on Mattel to get their act together.
The rest of the con is pretty much a blur. I managed to attend some panels I wanted to, including the Marvel Toys/Toybiz panel where Jesse Falcon got to shed some light on the behind the scenes workings of one of the best toy companies in recent memory. I got to talk with Todd Nauck, artist of Wildguard and Spiderman among others, as he did a sketch for me and another fan. I got to say hello to Steve Niles in person as I passed him the Image comics booth, after being a member of his message board for so many years. I chatted with the folks from Rooster Teeth productions (Red vs. Blue fame). I also met SDcomics, and the talented customizer carl, of Fwoosh fame, on Sunday afternoon, and got to talk to him for a little while at the SOTA booth. Talking to someone of his caliber about customs was helpful beyond belief for me, and I hope he enjoys the customs I will eventually post that he so graciously let me tell him about..
Overall, I’m thrilled I decided to make the trek from the East Coast of New York, to the sunny West Coast of San Diego for an experience I will not soon forget. I got to see plenty of eye candy women in various stages of undress, and some men who should have definitely put a few more pieces of clothing on. It was a pop culture/comic/movie event for sure, but I enjoyed all the personal interaction I had with friends I met for the first time, Fwoosh members I happened to bump into, and the celebrities I got the chance to chat with even more.
To see pics of my con experience check out my gallery here.
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