San Diego Comic Con 2015

Holy crap, what an adventure.  I think SDCC is like Mecca for geeks.  You need to do it once in your lifetime, when you have the time, strength and finances.  But kudos for the people that do it every year.  Because as awesome as it was, and maybe even as much as I want to, I don't think I could handle doing it years in a row.

(Which ironically, is the best way to do it.  You get in by luck the one year only have a ticket for maybe one day, but then the next year you are bumped into the pre-reg line and have a much better chance for getting tickets for the whole thing next year.  You skip a year and you're back to square one.)

We only had tickets for the first and last days of the convention, so we split things up as best we could.  Thursday had quite a few interesting panels that we wanted to attend, so that's what we did.  We got to the convention early, got our badges, got in line and once we made it into Hall H, we stayed there the entire day.

And oh, the panels we saw!  We didn't get to meet anyone or get autographs or ask questions, but we saw so many celebrities.  We saw Bill Murray, promoting his new movie "Rock the Kasbah".  Bill Murray is a very chillaxed dude.  It was a very neat experience.

Next was Conan O'Brien presenting the Hunger Games.  (And only the Hunger Games.  The Last Witch Hunter was not to be for me at this convention, not matter how many places still talk like there was the 2 panels in one.  Sob.)  We saw Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson and Willow Shields.  Now this one was a big thing.  Very awesome to see all of the stars in person.  Everybody is so nice!

We saw a slew of movie trailers, and then it was on to the Doctor Who panel, where we saw Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Michelle Gomez and Steven Moffat, thus making me the envy of so many people here; that I was able to breathe the same air as Doctor Who.  And while it was super cool to mee the latest Doctor and company, I think at the time I was more impressed to see Steven Moffat, because I am just always so impressed by the TV series he makes.  I just recently got to watch the Jekyll series (hard to get in my area) and I squeed over it like it was a lost episode of Sherlock - where Sherlock met Doctor Who.

We then saw the Con Man panel, which was both amazing and star packed.  Looking forwards to getting to see the show.  And there was a proposal at the end of it!  It was amazing.

We did the tiniest bit of shopping at the end of Thursday, and stalked the Lionsgate booth, hoping to score Last Witch Hunter posters.  (Nope.  Though we did get some nice rub on tattoos of the Axe and Cross Logo, we didn't get any posters.)  Dammit, I don't know when they handed out the posters, but it wasn't either of the days I was able to beg at the booth.

Sunday was the real shopping day.  (And continuing to stalk Lionsgate for posters.)  And man, it is absolutely insane inside the Marketplace during regular hours.  (Thursday we were in it at the end of the day, which really lightened the crush of people.)  There is more to see than you could manage to in a week (and some booths switch it up everyday, fuckers.) but you can barely get close to do/see/touch the majority of it.

They really need to increase their venue size.  Or they have to split stuff up.  (Or both.)  Have separate rooms for the really big hitters (i.e. Star Wars, Marvel) or by categories (comic, movie, cartoon, manga) just something to spread out the people crush.  (I know it would still be stupid crowded.  And that a place to do that probably doesn't exist.)  But they gotta do something.  You could barely move or cross aisles or see anything.  Claustrophobic does not even come remotely close to describing it.

But worth it.  Dear Christ, it was so worth it.  I can understand why people (who can afford it) go every year.  I just don't know that I can.  The trailers we saw, the advertisements, the games - holy hell.  It's like every Christmas of your life rolled into one building.  I was able to try a demo of Lego Dimensions.  (Wonderful.)  Went into the Call of Duty Black Ops Zombie room.  (Cool enough.)  I admired the Assassin's Creed obstacle course from afar. (Lord, wouldn't that have been beyond awesome to do, but I am not in good enough shape anymore.)  I saw the art exhibit about Comic Con at the public library.  (Very neat.)

I also hit one more panel about the group of Mandalorian Mercs (a Star Wars Charity group) and their tips on armour making.  I so want to make my own armour and get a Mando Clan started up here.  It would be so cool.

So San Diego Comic Con.  I highly recommend it if you can.  I just wish we knew ahead of time who was going to be there so if you do have to save up for several years to go (*coughlikemecough*) you can be sure to pick a year when your favouritest person is there.