Finally the time came for what we had been waiting for all year: San Diego Comic-Con! The annual event put on by Comic-Con International kicked off with Preview Night on Wednesday, July 18, followed by 4 full days of programming Thursday, July 19 through Sunday, July 22, 2018.
Preview Night
I usually get off work at 5pm, but I worked 6am-3pm so that we could get an early start down to San Diego for Preview Night, which started at 6pm. Josh picked me up from work around 3:30pm, and we headed down, fighting against rush hour traffic. It was about 5:45pm by the time we arrived at our hotel, the Marriott Marquis. This year was our first time staying at that hotel, which is conveniently located right next to the San Diego Convention Center.
Check-in went pretty quickly, and we went up to drop our stuff up in our room, which was on the 14th floor and had a balcony with a nice view of the city. Our hotel was also host to a number of con-related events, such as the Nintendo Lounge and the Dragonball activation, as well as several panels.
Then we headed right on over to the convention center! New this year was that only badge holders were allowed on the sidewalk in front of the convention center during certain hours. Additionally, Harbor Drive was blocked off in front of the convention center, except for shuttle buses.
Our first stop was the Sails Pavilion to pick up our books, bags, and lanyards. There were staff members directing us to where to go to do so. Some people needed to pick up their badge, but we already had our badges, so there was a separate line that we went to just to pick up the books, bags, and lanyards. We were able to walk right in and get our stuff. I ended up with a Teen Titans Go to the Movies bag, while Josh got the Legends of Tomorrow bag with Beebo on it. We both got Wonder Woman as our pin (each bag comes with a pin). A woman approached us asking what pins we had gotten. She had gotten The Flash, and we decided to trade one of our Wonder Woman pins for her Flash pin. It was a much quicker and smoother process picking up our stuff than it had been last year when we picked it up on Thursday — it was super crowded and mass chaos.
Then it was time to head to the Exhibit Hall floor! The first thing that greeted us upon entering was Bumblebee. As always, there were so many cool things to see. We made sure to go up to the Mezzanine and take a look from above of the Exhibit Hall floor down below, since we finally figured out where this spot was last year!
We spotted Robert Kirkman doing a signing at the Image Comics booth.
I really liked these Con Rangers merit badges. You could buy badges for Comic-Con related activities like Got Into Hall H, Met a Celebrity in an Elevator, and Covered Every Aisle in the Exhibit Hall!
One of my favorite booths was Deadpool’s Super Duper Dance Party, which featured an animatronic Deadpool and Chuck E. Cheese band dancing to Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5! Hilarious!
The DC booth had some costumes on display from their upcoming movies Aquaman and Shazam!
The LEGO booth had some pretty awesome life-size creations on display, including Thanos, Aquaman, and Unikitty.
The BBC America booth also had a life-sized LEGO version of the 13th Doctor on display at their booth. Another new aspect to the con this year was that vendors were now able to scan your badge to get your contact information. At the BBC America booth, you could walk up and have them scan your badge, and they would give you a Doctor Who button in return.
We tried going over to the WB booth because they usually give away swag, but there weren’t any giveaways going on by the time we made it over there. We did end up getting some free posters from the Marvel booth — Iron Fist and Cloak & Dagger. We also picked up some free posters from the Fox booth — Legion, Mayans, and Family Guy. These will most likely make an appearance in an upcoming giveaway.
We finished making our general rounds on the Exhibit Hall floor a little after 8pm, but we had somehow missed the Her Universe booth. We were both hungry and wanted to go get some food, but I wanted to make a stop at the Her Universe booth because I had heard they were selling the costume pieces for the 13th Doctor and I wanted to take a look. We made our way over there, and yes, they had the pants, shirt, and jacket. You could buy each piece separately, but the total price for all 3 came out to around $150. Josh encouraged me to go ahead and buy them, saying I should cosplay as the 13th Doctor for the Doctor Who panel the next day, and that we could even go buy a wig. So yes, I made a very last minute decision to do so.
There was a small crowd at the booth, but when my turn came, they informed me that their machine was down, and that it would be cash only. I didn’t have that much cash, as I hadn’t been planning on spending that much money. Also, we were planning on stopping by a Chase ATM on our way to the Game of Bloggers party that night, since Josh hadn’t had a chance to go during his lunch like he had planned. So I went out to the lobby and used their ATM. Luckily, there was no line, and the fee was only $3.50. Not horrible. I went back in to buy the outfit. But I didn’t know what size pants to buy, since I had lost a lot of weight recently. Thankfully, they had a dressing room, but there was a short line. Finally, I figured out what size to buy, and made my purchase. Then we made our way over to the wig booth we had spotted earlier. While I was making my purchase there, there were announcements over the loudspeaker that the Exhibit Hall would be closing in 15 minutes! So I bought my wig and completed my 13th Doctor cosplay purchases with just a couple minutes to spare. Whew!
Here are some more photos of the Exhibit Hall:
We then went back to our room to drop off our swag and my new cosplay items. Then we went down to the Exchange Pantry sandwich shop in the Marriott to get some food. We thought it would be quick, since there was almost no line. But then after placing our order we waited over half an hour just to get a hot sandwich and some tater tots! We had no idea it would take that long, and would have gone somewhere else if we had known that.
Game of Bloggers
Finally we headed out to House of Blues for the annual Game of Bloggers party that Tony Kim of Crazy4ComicCon and Hero Within puts on. It was supposed to be a Marvel vs. DC theme, so I had worn my Hero Within Wonder Woman dress. We chatted with quite a few of our Twitterverse friends there, including Jason Koh (aka @CorgiKohmander) and his wife and cousins, Sully from Nerd Fu/Funko and his wife, Cameron from Funko, and of course, Tony Kim himself. I finally got to meet Stephanie (aka Angel) of The Geekiary in person! We had each been given a raffle ticket upon entering, but I guess we caught the tail end of the raffle, because we heard them call one number and didn’t hear anything after that.
We were pretty tired, so we left around 11pm. We decided to swing by the convention center on the way back to see what the Hall H wristband situation was like. They were still handing out wristbands over by the Hall H tents, and there was no line, so we were able to just walk right up and get one! They were on C wristbands at this point. New this year, not only were you given a wristband, but they scanned your badge to indicate that you were a valid wristband holder. We also noticed that there was a holographic sticker on the wristband. After the counterfeit wristband fiasco last year, Comic-Con International was apparently taking all the steps they could to ensure that wristbands couldn’t be duplicated this year.
We returned to our hotel room to get some much needed sleep before having to return to the Hall H line by 7:30am the next morning. And I would have to get up even earlier so that I could properly get ready for my 13th Doctor cosplay. Click here to see the result of that, and for our recap and photos of The Predator and Doctor Who panels!
