Comic-Con 2008

Comic-Con International: San Diego "Swag" Report 2008 from Geek Vegas

Comic-Con International in San Diego is the ultimate place to attend and Geek Out! As always I was working, but I did not let it slow me down too much. I saw a few great panels, which I will write about. I picked up as many Promotional items & Premiums as I could without killing myself or being a greedy girl. There is a full listing of items that were available after the report that is so unbelievably long you might think I imagined all the goodies. I did not acquire all these items. I am just reporting their existence. Please feel free to contact me with any questions. The swag is from Anime, Books, Movies & Television. There are Bags, Dog Tags, T-shirts, CDRom's, CCG gaming cards, Magazines, Trading Cards, Key chains, Buttons & Pins etc.

People have asked why it takes a full week to post my Comic-Con recap, so I thought I would start with the answer. CCI ends on Sunday night and most of us attend survival parties. On Monday we pack up and head for home, were we partially unpack and then collapse out of sheer exhaustion. On Tuesday we wake up with great difficulty, due to Con Crud. Comic-Con is so important that no one wants to miss it, even if they are carrying the Plague. They bring the Plague with them & it mixes with other sick peoples to create Con Crud. Pills and Energy drinks can keep you going for a while, but Con Crud will assimilates your body and take over eventually. Despite being sick, many emails pass between friends & Swag Hunters. Wednesday & Thursday are all about Swag sorting. This is mostly all fun because you get to view your purchases and the freebies. Sadly this is also when you realize something is missing from the stash...a lost bag or a stolen item. It does not happen to everyone every time, but it does happen. Friday comes too soon and I take pictures of Swag groupings. I process about 200 pics of Con, Friend, Masquerade & Swag pictures for my website and sort them down to 20 at the most. Saturday I arrange all the text and photos into my first draft and second draft...and third draft. Sunday evening I try to post everything for my friends and the world to see. Ta Da!

Wednesday Preview Night was a madhouse! The new thing was a Fringe panel Wednesday evening to help draw some of the crowd away from the Exhibit hall. Wednesday night proves without a doubt how important the upstairs Programming Panel tracks are during the rest of the week. When there are no panels to distract people they all swarmed the Dealer's Floor in a painful way.
I liked the wider aisle ways this year. I found it easier to walk around, except for Wednesday Preview night. I am not saying it was easy to walk around, just that it was easier than 2007. Comic-Con also provided some useful "Ask Me" people to help with Attendees questions. 98% of all questions can be answered by reading the Events Guide, but it was great to have a person around to ask that last 2%.
Everything did not go right for me this year, but I did not spend 1 second of it playing the blame game. I just went on with my day in some sort of altered fashion. There are too many things to do to worry about the fact that I missed MST3K and Myth Busters. Darn it. I failed again to get all the Eureka, Battlestar Galactica & Stargate items from the SciFi booth. Drat!

The WB booth was once again the bane of my existence. Their #1 problem is that they had no exit strategy. Attendees stormed the booth from all angles, which left no way out. For some reason Warner Bros does not remember to run stanchion lines for the bag giveaways Wednesday night. They have the lines up on Friday, but that first night we all get crushed including the poor employees. Many other booths understood the problem and used stanchions or human line control to get people going in a certain direction. No goodies until you get in line...good boy!

The Star Trek corner was bone crushing! Comic-Con is so hard to get into that I wonder if Exhibitors in odd places applied late? Despite the Black Panther, 30 Days of Night, Twilight & Star Trek corner of death being scary, it all looked great and I went back every day. I hope that any new Exhibitor will give a thought to line control. A small booth does not mean they should resign all responsibility for cattle stampedes.

PANELS I got to see...and loved: Avatar the Last Airbender in 6Quad was jam packed with kids and adults a like. I did not intend to see the panel, but I am glad I did. It was Wonderful. The panelists were lively and they had clips to play. They showed artwork and contest winners to the crowds delight. The toppers were the viewing of the final 2 episodes of the season! Now I Know Why adults and kids watch this show! It was Great!
I always try to see Stargate. The group is always organized because they have done CCI before. They had the TV cast and the Movie cast. Richard Dean Anderson was here this year. He has not appeared on a panel for several years. Rick told some funny and embarrassing stories about being in the Artic filming the Continuum movie. If you do not find this stuff on YouTube just wait until a new DVD comes out I can almost guarantee it will be part of the Special Features. Last years panel was. The MGM people were nice enough to give out T-Shirts and Dog Tags to Stargate Worlds. Stargate Worlds is the new online MMPG. It looks gorgeous and you get to run around as your own character on an SG team. Gleeee!
Fringe made a whole Scavenger Hunt out of their presence at Comic-Con. A promo notepad contained a clue to Gingerale. The Gingerale had a clue printed on the label pointing towards downtown San Diego. There were more clues and real Cows! It was fun. JJ Abrams may have redeemed himself in my eyes (I HATED Cloverfield). I hope he keeps his clever mind stuck to TV and we will remain friends.

Each year I get blown away by the massiveness of everything. I love Comic-Con and any nostalgic looks back will not include small basements and run down hotels. I like the here and now, even though it is crowded. My concern is about the general public. The Newbies & the Mundanes. SciFi and Comic Book Fandom is a small world. Most of us know or know of each other. We can pull a 7 Degrees of Kevin Bacon act with no problem. We meet our online friends for the first time in 11 months. The fact that 140,000 people descend on San Diego does not change the feelings of the core fans. I would say 1/4 of all the people at Comic-Con should have been somewhere else. Being a Newbies & a Mundane is not horrible, but I am sorry to say they do not know how to act in public. They are only used to attending music concerts so they get confused at CCI. They whine and moan a lot. They do not want to stand in line. When they do stand in line it is 10 minutes before the Panel is about to begin...and they do not get in...and they whine some more. The Newbies & the Mundanes are Very Rude. Comic-Con is not a right it is a PRIVILEDGE! There is no guarantee anyone will get on Space Mountain when they go to Disneyland. There is no guarantee the hot new movie won't be sold out on Friday night. What makes them think the Panel they came to see won't be full? Why is it so hard to grasp reality? SciFi and Comic Book Fans who often live in a fantasy world understand, why can't Newbies & Mundanes?

Thank You Exhibitors:
A few years ago I was after a She-Ra figure. The line was always long and full of Men. I do not want to sound petty, but why were all those men buying piles of She-Ra figures? They looked like they had never even accidentally glanced at the TV Show when their sister had it on. I am a collector and an eBayer, but often do not buy multiple items for resale because I do not see the point. By all means get one or two, but do not dry up the well. Which brings me to 2008. Many, but not all, retailers have learned to limit their sales to a single person per day. Not everyone can get to Comic-Con on Thursday so it is wonderful to note that an Attendee has a chance of purchasing his or her coveted item on Saturday.
Some people complain about the Exhibitors ticketed giveaways for their Premiums. I fully admit it makes it hard for me to get to a specific booth at a specific time, but the worse alternative would be for ONE Exhibitor to buy all 40 of the special items at 9:01a.m. because he was able to get in the line before an average Attendee. I love eBay and the secondary market, but I would like to have a chance at an item. One or two per person tickets are the only way to go.
Calling all Exhibitors to get a NFS sign. I do enjoy seeing what is going to be available in the coming year for toys and such. What I hate is trying to buy an item that is not for sale. A simple NFS or Display Only sign would make me much happier. It should also save the Vendors the time and trouble of constantly telling people an item is not available. This seems simple, but often it is not done. Thank you Exhibitors.

My Best & Favorites:

PICTURES
(photos removed after 6 months)

Costumes: Here are only a few of the many
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2008 Swag Picture Groups:
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COMIC-CON EXCLUSIVES 2008:
Battlestar Galactica Action figures: Helo & Sam Anders $10 each Dr Who Time Crash Twin Pack: 5th & 10th Doctor BBC figures Dexter Bobblehead, Bifbangpow Disney Pixar Lightning Storm McQueen Figure in case Funkeys USB Dot Ladybug $10 Funko Spider Man Bobblehead Giganta Figure Justice League - Exclusive $20 Halo Master Chief Bobble Head - Exclusive ($20?) Harry Potter Half Blood Prince Preview Boxed Card Set of 9 $15 (1 of 1000) Artbox Harry Potter 4-Costume Card Set #? He-Man, King Grayskull Figure MOTU Masters of the Universe, Mattel Skeletor keychain w/ DVD purchase. MOTU Masters of the Universe Hellboy Figures (2?) Heroes Glow In Dark Watch, NBC Hotwheels Set of 3 Batgirl Cycle, Batmobile & Batcycle $30 Indiana Jones 200 piece LEGO set - Exclusive Lego Batman Joker Figure Set w/Flyer Lego Indiana Jones 200 pieces - Exclusive Lobo with Dawg Figure - Exclusive Marvel Legends Fin Fang Foom Set of 8 $130 Minimates - Iron man, Marvel MLP My Little Pony, black & hot pink, Hasbro $11 Neca: Various Exclusive Figures: TMNT & Predator Half Stealth etc. Obama & McCain Figures $20 each Savage Land set of 3 Figures, Mattel Scavenger Figures $15 Simpsons Qee 3 pack Star Wars Aayla Secura, Sideshow Collectible Star Wars Clone Trooper, Hasbro Transformers, Nemesis Prime Figure Vampire Toast, Mr Toast $10
COMIC-CON PANEL EXCLUSIVES 2008:
Avatar the Last Airbender t-shirt, dark grey & red Dr Who Series 3 Cast Postcard (also given away later at BBCA Booth) Geek Roundtable.com Button & black T-shirt Mega Terra Khan gaming Figure (play the game & win the figure) Mythbusters Button, Lenticular Card on a Lanyard, Poster & black T-Shirt Red Sonja T-Shirt Black & Red shirt (At Robert Rodriguez & Rose McGowan panel) Spaced: Cast Postcard (Given away later at BBCA Booth) Stargate Worlds: Dogtag/Metal Chain & T-shirt, black Terminator Salvation: T-Shirt, black WB booth Torchwood: Cast Postcard (Given away later at BBCA Booth) TV Guide: Light Up Ring, Phaeton Canvas Grocery Bag & Hat (Ask a Question) World of Warcraft: Comic, Postcard & Poster World of Warcraft: Mini Figure exclusive to random & limited number of people at the panel X-Files I Believe: Card, Poster & Mini Poster. X-Men poster from Marvel


COMIC-CON FREEBIE SWAG