[NeoDragonKnight]

Hey guys, following what I did last year Im going to do a small web forum diary post of my experiences and give some people and idea of what going to the con is kind of like. Please read through last years thread I did and see how my experience differs year to year.
http://www.hisstank.com/forum/g-i-jo...pic-heavy.html

Note, I will put pics of the different booths and stuff in my photobucket albums for you to browse. Ill put links to them as I sort through them in the next week or so here.
Sideshow (both years in a row is the best booth):
http://s139.photobucket.com/albums/q...SDCC/Sideshow/
Square Enix (sorry I only took pics of videogame stuff mainly here):
http://s139.photobucket.com/albums/q...Square%20Enix/


July 11, 2012:
Preview Night and badge pickup.
My friends and I walked to the convention from our hotel, about a 25 min walk. We stopped by a mall and had lunch first, called the Panada Inn, they serve fake western chinese food (Im chinese), so like the sweet and sour and fried type food.



After lunch we arrived at the convention center at around 2pm to get our badge with preview night, something I didnt have last year.



If you recall from my last years log, not having preview night means you have to goto another building via shuttle far from the convention with the hideous lines.
Last years:

This year there for preview night you sign up at the sails pavilion and there was absolutely no line getting the badge here, there were so many attendants that were open. So got our badges very fast and got our lanyards and bags (I got big bang theory).



We saw a line forming to get into the con (which opens at 6), and we decided to chance it and line up in hopes in getting in to the con fast, but the line was formed in a weird way so it wasnt to be, so we had a 4 hour wait, and like my friend here just laid down and chilled for hours. You can see where I was laying down, I brought a$$ cushions this year b/c of the hard floors while waiting.




They started to let people in and it took forever to get to us, so we got in late...what a waste of waiting. Checked out the hasbro booth (no tickets are available for preview night) and it was chaos. Line was packed and lots of people hovering and "organizers" yelling at people to keep moving past.


I managed to take pictures of some of the booths and I went to artists alley to get some prints and books. I got a cool one of baroness by Art Adams.


I spent about an hour or so lining up for J Scott Campbell, bought 3 of his books, his sketch book and a Black Cat print, and met him briefly as he signed my loot. Nice guy, talked about his Danger Girl GI Joe cover which the original art was onsale behind him. He was by far the most popular artist in artist alley.

By the time I finished with that line, it was about 9pm, so time to go home. Had some tacos at a place near our hotel and I went straight to bed b/c I knew I had to wake up early to line up for hasbro tickets...

[NeoDragonKnight]

July 12, 2012 Opening day:

Woke up at 6 AM, my buddies didnt want to wake up so I went alone, got ready and headed to the bus stop at around 6:20ish, bus didnt come till 6:45, and didnt arrive to the con till 7ish. Last year I got there around the same time, and was pretty close to the front of the line and got the 10am ticket. This year though...
Super long line by the time I got there, line went outside, down a set of stairs around a corner.
Front view of where I was (cant see the line inside the pavillion or outside, this is just off from the stairs)

Behind:

The line kept going after, and went as far as the eye could see, by 9:00. I though the place where I was was bad, but I was probably in the first 1/4th or 1/3rd of the line. When I got my ticket, it was for 2pm.
here is a pic of the inside section line where we get the tickets


I was freaked out because last year with my 10am ticket I still had to line up 3 hours at the actual booth (they lined us up against a wall last year).
Anyways, after getting my ticket I was sleepy so took a quick walk on some of the convention rows, picked up a few freebies then headed back to the hotel via shuttle to rest, washroom and eat. The shuttle is pretty fast, got back in 20 min. Picked up a taco to eat.
I headed back around 1ish and walked the floor taking pictures and seeing the sights then headed to the Hasbro booth at 2. I was surprised, I lined up right at the booth (no huge 3-5 hour line against the back wall of the center) and got through it in about an hour!

I chatted with the 2 guys infront of me, and got an extra red jinx off one, and another HISS and Variant Jinx, gave them each a little tip for helping me out. Worked out great as I wanted 2 Hiss, one to open and one MIB, Ditto for Jinx(please dont contact me about any of these, they are spoken for and I didnt get any extras to let go). It was a big bag of stuff and I didnt want to lug it around so back I went to the hotel again and dropped it off and headed back yet again. For food, had an energy bar.

I walked the floor again taking more pics and getting more freebies and such. Towards 5pm I went to the neighboring hotel to pick up my Matel preorders, got a Death statue for my brother, and tiny titans and dc poly pockets for my neice and nephew. Took about 1/2-45 min to get my stuff. Then again it was back on the shuttle for a 3rd time. I was pretty tired after that. Rested at the hotel for a while and met up with my friends for dinner at a place called Filippis Pizza, had Ravioli and meatballs and Sausage. I was pretty famished by then and cleared my plate, and it was huge. I have pictures of this place but cant get them off my phone :( I didnt have my normal camera. This place is kind of interesting, has olive oil bottles hanging from the ceiling and the restaurant is kind of hidden behind a deli which you have to walk through.

here is my haul for today. Spent some time trying to stuff it in my suitcases as many of the boxes are huge, I opened up a few of my new toys which I didnt care for being MIB. After last years cluster f$ck with shipping last year(over 300 dollars all said and done, never ship international with fedex EVE, brokerage fees ontop of the already overpriced shipping fees is brutal) I decided to do the suitcase inside a suitcase thing and pay the $35 for the extra checkin.


Small bonus cosplay stuff, just a few pics, didnt get many since I was in lines most of the day

[NeoDragonKnight]

July 13th, 2012, Friday the 13th.

Woke up early to check twitter on the line status to Hall H panels today, they said theres no way youll get in so I went back to sleep...Supposedly theres 2 lines, one for Ballroom 20 which had a Firefly panel, that line was bigger alone than the Hall H which has Big Bang Theory, walking dead and Game of thrones. If you didnt line up by last night you wont get in, people that lined up even at 5am wont get in. Dang I wanted to see the Game of Thrones panel...oh well, at least the convention floor might be less crowded.
here are some pics from later in the day of "part" of the line:




I headed into the con with my friends to some of the designer vinyl booths. They were packed, DKE, Kid Robot and Funko. My friends missed out on some exclusives, and I wanted to get the Funko exclusive Plants Vs Zombies Disco zombie, but the line was capped :(.


So we then ended up heading to the lego booth to enter a raffle for exclusive free lego super hero figs. They just have to scan your badge and you can go back after 4pm to check to see if you won.

I then walked the floor a bunch of times and ended up hovering around Hasbro a while, they were giving out a lot of different things one after the other. I got a couple of transformers, all bumble bee, I gave a few away to random kids walking by, and also traded a few for different characters. I was surprised lots of ppl wanted bumble bee, he was packed in the handouts almost half the case, and I had no problem trading him away. It goes to prove why hasbro ends up always packing the core characters, kids love them and want them! I also got Kreo battleship and starwars pods from them. They will be gifts to my neice and nephew and to my office. I also got posters and pins from other booths. The showcase booth was always slammed, lots of give aways and lots of star signings which made that section grind to a halt, every time I passed by I wished I had a tazer to make a path :P .

It came around noon time and I headed outside across the street of the con, there was a lot of set ups and events that any one could see, even non con goers.


Heres a pic of the 3 stooges.



Small story, as I was walking this area a guy infront of me dropped his credit card, a grey chase card or something I dont know if its a credit card, I picked it up and pushed my way quickly to them to return it, they were so relieved and some ppl who saw me did it told me I was a good guy, made me feel good My good deed for the year!

I then headed to an x-com demo presentation at the Hardrock hotel, it was awesome, they had a table with free food and drinks, the presentation area was comfy chairs. They also gave out t-shirts at the end. I was excited for this game, I loved the original 2 x-coms.




I then headed back to the con and saw that the funko line was way shorter, still had a bit of a wait but I was able to get my 3 PvZ Disco zombies, 2 for gifts, 1 for me. I was surprised they didnt sell out of those. I was so happy I got them, only 1 thing left I wanted to get at the con was left and i was done purchasing wise.

And that last thing I got at 2:30 at Amanda Conners signing, which was a small window of 1 hour. I was 3rd in line so I made it. I got 2 signed Power Girl Prints, I was stoked, got everything I wanted. Amanda was super nice, took the time to talk to her fans.

I had just enough time to head to the hotel next to the con for the Robot Chicken Panel and it was awesome! My first panel in the 2 years. Seth Green and Co. were super funny. They showed trailers for the next season and then another trailer for a DC SPECIAL! It looked sooo funny. BTW there will be more GI Joe skits next season as well as other toys from our childhood.






After the panel I was tired, and famished, it was about 4:30 so I headed back to the hotel, I was done for the day. On the shuttle back I realized I forgot to check the raffle, I texted my buddy to check to see if I got anything. I got some Jack in the Box and headed to the hotel, then got texted back saying I won a Phoenix lego, so I had to go back to the con, I wolfed down my burger and fries and went right back to the shuttle. Got in the con and got my figure. I was very happy. I walked the floor with my friends a bit again my friend got an exclusive Batman rooted hair doll from Jun. My legs were giving out so home we went. It was about 6:30.


I dont want to ship my loot back as last year I paid 300 dollars, so I tried to fit everything in my 2 suitcases, I hope I dont get pulled over by customs, I have under 800 in goods but still...

We then went for dinner to the same dirty taco place as last year with great food and then after, here I am typing this out.



My haul


Here are some additional cosplay pics I took today, there were so many cross dressers today...I did not take photos of them...

[NeoDragonKnight]

3 boobs!

[NeoDragonKnight]

July 14th, 2012:

Woke up and was plesantly surprised as walking to the shuttle in the morning that there is a farmers market going on a street down.




I didnt get a chance go explore right away, but would later for lunch, got a meatball "slider".


Im at a point now where I am kind of burned out or all con'd out. I kind of feel Ive seen everything and got everything I want. So all Im really doing now is taking pictures and walking around, mostly around artists alley which seems to be one place where I see something new when I walk by, whether it be someones commission or an artist that I missed. One interesting thing about artist alley that I discussed with one of the artists is that he said is that SDCC has actually wanted to get rid of artists alley, the only reason why its there now is because Deviant Art is sponsoring all the artists there, they are the ones who bought the space and are giving it free to the artists, whether this is true or not I do not know but it was an interesting conversation, as it also ties into the conversation I overheard last year with J Scott Campbell (refer to my last years diary). I hope the artists can get more recognition because Im actually starting to really enjoy this part of the show and expanding into art and prints and sketches, where as before it was all about the toys for me.

I managed to check out a Sketch Presentation with some artist at the DC booth, it was pretty fun to watch his thought process doing it, wish I saw some of the other ones that happened earlier.



I entered the Lego raffle today, it was only 1 winner this time so came out empty handed. They post the full name of the winner on a white board, I bet that guy suddenly got facebooked a tonne after winning as well as con wide cursed for winning lol.

When I passed the Hasbro booth it was empty, and still most of the stoke available, I think hasbro really increased the run numbers this year, hopefully everyone got what they wanted. Though I heard most of the disapointment was actually not getting enough Derpys.


The only other toy related thing was picking up my 3A preorders, so got my TF2 Sandvich (moist and delicious) and Square companion cube.

Here are the cosplay I took, lots of girls today.
First 2 are my favorites, Dark Helmet!

[NeoDragonKnight]

[NeoDragonKnight]

July 15th, 2012, closing day.

Last year Sunday was much slower than this year, this year Sunday was very busy still. Not much to do for me still, I slept in so didn't make the lego raffle, but I did end up participating in putting a tile together for the lego wall, forming pictures.







I was pretty quickly tired of walking around after a week of it, so I went to the 20th Anniversary Image panel, it was pretty good, I loved Image comics growing up but I never knew how it started and the panel enlightened me to how it was started. Basically a group of 6 or 7 of then famous comic artists left their very lucrative jobs doing things like X-Force, Amazing Spiderman, Wolverine, and other top comics to create their own company for more creative freedom. They took less money and started from almost scratch to create Image, and built their own properties from nothing. The company is still strong and treats its people well and gives them creative control over their own creations. Unfortunatly Todd MacFarlene wasnt there to join in.





Oh and the hulk was there, Lou


After the panel I walked around and took some final pictures, it was around 3 (con closes at 5) so I spent the next hour or so with another one of DCs Sketch presentations. It was nice to relax and just watch a creation. In this case it was Sandman in water colors.







After this, I went back to the hotel, my SDCC 2012 has come to an end. I head back to Toronto tomorrow and then back to the boring life of a working stiff :P
I hope you guys enjoyed my diary, and I hope to do another one next year gods willing!
I will update the first post with more links to my photobucket where I am dumping my booth photos, I tried my best to group them, though in the album they might not be sorted the best, sorry about that. As of posting this, square enix and Sideshow are posted, If anything check out the sideshow stuff, they were the best of the show as usual!

Here are some parting cosplay pics. Some of the best for last :P The BAT and Power girl are 2 of my favorites. (edit: Ran into the pic limit so the extra cosplay thats suppose to go here are in the post above)
Im off now... Winter is coming...

[drew2kew]

Thanks....for making me feel like I was there

[thealleyviper]

Thank you for sharing your adventure. I was fortunate enough to go in 2005, so Comic Con is technically off my bucket list. However, I would still love to go as often as I could. Your journal helped me to experience being there again!

[CobraOfficer999]

Looks awesome.