#SDCC2014 Recap!

Why hello there geek warriors! What have you all been up to?! I’ve been pretty lazy- you know, a family reunion immediately followed by a wedding, which was immediately followed by a honeymoon that included the biggest comic convention of the year. No big right? Actually, I love it. Never a dull moment!

So last week was #SDCC2014. Every pop culture fan’s mecca. The costumes! The stars! The exclusives! Was it worth it, you ask?

In my opinion, definitely.

Lets start at the beginning: Preview Night. After grabbing our badges, we decided to hang around until the vendor hall opened as our hotel wasn’t super close. After a few hours of “wait outside”, “wait inside”, the usual “volunteers and convention workers have no idea what they’re doing” bs, we made it in the doors and were ready for the con to commence! While Preview Night initially felt a little crowded for  something that’s supposed to be a “preview”, this is definitely the time to scoop up any exclusives and make your other purchases. We managed to grab everything we absolutely wanted, and checked out a few of the booths of our favourite TV shows while the crowds were at their lightest. It was a generally good night, other than the attitudes of the convention staff and security. I understand wrangling people is hard. I also understand that the Fire Marshall was cracking down and the rules were enforced heavier than the past years. But check your attitudes and be polite. You could have a way worse job, and ain’t no one got time for your sass. A little niceness goes a long way toward efficient crowd control.

On day two, we checked out the Assassin’s Creed obstacle course (The first of many things I did for a free t-shirt). In all honesty, it was a pretty easy course, but after waiting 2 hours in line with no food vendors coming by, I put on a pretty sad performance. But damn it was fun! And I got a photo-op with #MightyKacy, the first woman to conquer American Ninja Warrior! As the Geekling is obsessed with her, I won the best mom award for that one. We also checked out Petco Park, including the life-size Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pizza thrower, the Sin City booth, the Adult Swim Funhouse, and the Sleepy Hollow Covered Bridge experience. Side note: The was a sad covered bridge. I’m from Indiana- even our Conner Prairie Museum has a better covered bridge lol. SyFy turned a Gaslamp District restaurant in to the Ascension Cafe as a promo for their new fall series Ascension, which was pretty fun to check out.

Friday = Panel Day! If you were following my Twitter @purelyclaire (and why wouldn’t you be, we promoted the hell out of it!), I started my day with the Big Bang Theory writer’s panel! After opening with a bunch of the bets moments from the last 7 (7, right?) years, the writers and moderator Craig Ferguson (His presence was almost the highlight of the panel) led an hour of hilarious insights in to my favourite current sitcom. Eric Kaplan is totally the real life Sheldon, and we got a peek at the trailer for Penny’s breakout role Serial Apeist 2, complete with an appearance of Wil Wheaton who joined the panel after appearing in a monkey mask. The writers revealed the inspiration behind some of our favourite moments, including the alternative Sheldon/Amy kiss scene. (Apparently they also filmed a more tender version, where Sheldon kisses her because he’s having such a good time. Awww!) All in all, it was a fantastic start to the day. The day also included my most anticipated panel (because i refused to spend my honeymoon in the Hall H line): Arrow! The cast is fantastic and you can really see why the show works; with chemistry like that, how could it now be?! If only DC could replicate that awesome cast chemistry for their movies. here’s hoping this is the beginning of a beautiful cinematic future for my favourite comic company.

Saturday was an interesting one. Since we chose not to try for Hall H, we picked up a few things at the vendor hall and headed over to the Hunger Games/Samsung Galaxy experience. We got a great place in line, where we could see the TV casts and stars arriving for their panels. The Husband got a fantastic picture of Elle Fanning who was by far the nicest of everyone who came by, taking time to pose with fans and signing autographs. After spending 2 hours at nearly the front of the line, we finally got in! Note for the future: always be suspicious when someone feeds you as soon as you enter an “experience”. Three hours later, we were finally done. Ridiculous lines, and organization that was obviously unprepared for the crowds caused long lines inside and lots of frustration. We didn’t have anywhere else to be, and, unlike the main convention center, the employees were fairly cheerful so we stuck it out. It ended up being a good time, minus the lines. And I got to see the Flash (aka Grant Gustin) while waiting in line for the trailer!

Overall ,it was a pretty awesome trip. Costume-wise I wasn’t blown away, besides a few good ones on Saturday. The vendor selection was amazing and the TV and movie preview material made the trip worth it for a couple of people who really love pop culture :). If you ever have a chance to scratch #SDCC off your bucket list, go for it. You won’t regret it. (Unless you hate big crowds. Then run far far away.)