On Sunday of WonderCon, Violet and I got a late start, but Sunday was going to be a pretty relaxed day after having spent all day Saturday in the Arena. We arrived at the Anaheim Convention Center a little after 11am, which was already swarming with fellow attendees, and a lot of cosplayers. We headed onto the Exhibit Hall to walk the show floor, as it was floor day for us. We began the couple mile long trek up and down the aisles seeing the various art, statues, and wares people had on display. Violet even picked up some earrings she found at a booth. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of the booth, but they had a wide range of Marvel, Star Wars and other nerdy jewelry.
The Exploding Kittens booth was back this year, which Violet was excited about. It worked pretty much the same as last year’s booth, but it had a different look to it this year — it was furry! Once again, the most popular item was the $1 Random Item, and we watched as various different items were given out, such as a mop, a plunger, a banana, and a beach ball. There always seemed to be a significant line for the booth, as well as a small crowd of people watching the humorous interactions.
We came across our friend Tony Kim at Hero Within, who sells clothing that has a subtle superhero theme to it. For example, they have button-down shirts that have little Batman logos on it. Or a black and gray dress that has the silhouette of a Bat on the front. To the casual observer, it wouldn’t be noticeable, but it is something that you can tell is from a comic book. Right now, Tony is working with DC, but he is now working with Marvel and should have some stuff coming soon in terms of concepts! I personally own all of the button-down shirts, and the Flash hoodie, and Violet has the Wonder Woman and Batman dresses, and we love wearing them. (Note: this is not a paid promotion or anything, I just really like the clothing, and it has been something I had hoped to find for a long time until Hero Within came along!) You can click here to check out their website if you’re curious.
We couldn’t quite finish the floor before the one and only panel we went to on Sunday. The panel we went to was a Back to the Future panel which hoped to answer some plot holes in the film that people didn’t really think about.
Back to Back to the Future: The Unanswered Questions
On the panel was Jeff Tucker as the moderator, plus the five panelists Chris Gore, Justin Scarred, Joe Walser, Michael Klastorin, and Steve Concotelli. All of them are self-proclaimed Back to the Future lovers. Joe Walser even owns the original Delorean from the movies, and had to refurbish it to original condition. Apparently, Universal had the car sitting in its lot for several years, and even left the keys in the ignition when it wasn’t being used. Joe even told a story of his friend giving him a call while sitting in the Delorean on the Universal backlot, saying that he could make it to the gate in 1 minute if he wanted to. Joe told him to “get out of the car” though, so there was no grand theft auto of the Delorean.
Joe Walser talked about restoring the car quite a bit, and explained he even had to figure out which one was the “A” car, which meant the primary one used for the movie. Apparently Universal did not have specific information as to which one was which, but Joe was able to figure out. He also informed us that the condition of the car was not good. He described how he had to remove the steel panels of the door, and found messes behind every one, including many rats nests that had to be cleaned out.
As for some of the questions answered on the panel, one discussed how Marty’s father in the 1950s seemed to have a plan to “peep” on his would-be wife in the mornings, on Saturday. It does seem odd that he seemed to have a schedule to do this so early in the AM. The panelists joked because in the film Lorainne’s father has a quote to the effect of, “it’s another one of those kids again!”, meaning it is not the first kid in that tree. So they joked that there must be a line of kids off screen trying to get in that tree.
Another question that came up is how Doc Brown knew Jennifer, but the panel answered that Doc Brown must have had an interaction with her “off-screen.” I thought about this though, and at one point in the film, I feel like Doc Brown asks if Marty’s girlfriend is pretty—which means that he probably hasn’t met her yet. But I will have to re-watch the film to see about that.
Another question that came up about inconsistency was regarding Doc Brown’s introduction of the Delorean to Marty. He sees the Doc pull the Delorean out of a truck, but the panelists were curious if it was possible for Doc Brown to get into the Delorean while it is in the back of a truck. Joe apparently knew the clearance of the doors as 11 inches to open, so he concluded that it would be possible, but really inconvenient.
An interesting fact I learned about Back to the Future was that the original plan for the time machine was a refrigerator. Apparently this was changed when Zemeckis and the writers decided that the time machine needed to be more mobile. Thus the Delorean was chosen. Definitely much better than a refrigerator.
The panelists took some questions as well. One question was why Doc Brown came back to visit Marty after swearing off the time machine as a bad invention, but the panelists concluded that he must have changed his mind at some point, so he made that train to travel through time.
Also, an interesting thought came up regarding Biff, when he steals the time machine. Since the time machine was not super easy to figure out, and didn’t come with a manual when Biff stole it, Jeff Tucker presumed that Biff must have stolen it for a few years when he was figuring out how to use it, which is why Old-Biff seems to die when he gives the Sports Almanac to his younger self.
Probably the best question asked of the panel was asking why when Marty leaves the timeline he is in the car gets really hot, and when he arrives to a new time the car gets cold. The panelists really did not have an answer for this other than “that is the way Zemeckis wanted it!”
Overall, the panel was pretty interesting. A few questions made me think about Back to the Future differently. Some of it ruined the illusion of the movie some, but as the panelists seemed to agree, it is a movie that requires some suspension of disbelief, as it is a good movie despite the obvious logistical flaws it has.
After the panel, we decided to check out the Future Tech Pavilion, since we were in the North building where it was located. The Future Tech Pavilion contained VR experiences and a 360 dome.
Then we went back to the main Exhibit Hall and finished off the last bit of the floor. As we left the convention center, there was still a lot of partying going on outside, with plenty of cosplay and attendees hanging about. There was a Wookie on stilts as well as a Megazord. I thought the cosplay pretty intense for WonderCon.
But after a fun three days, Violet and I called it quits. We grabbed some dinner at Dickey’s, a barbecue restaurant, and headed home to relax.
You can view more of our WonderCon 2018 photos below!
