SDCC 2018 - Part 1: Day 1 (Thursday)

It's been a while, but I have recently returned home from attending San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) in San Diego, California. I haven't blogged in a while due to a busy schedule and issues with Photobucket. Photo issues have seemed to be resolved and I am now ready to get back to blogging. I have been contributing to the blog and website as a member of Afronauts, and I also work on the website for the parent company EDFU.

This post will be wordy and will have limited pictures. I will follow up with a haul post and event posts later. With that said, if you don't want to just read about Comic-Con, then skip this post.

I didn't attend Comic-Con last year, because I had an unexpected move and it was just too much all at once. I was actually really sad to have missed it and really looked forward to attending this year to make up for it. Having attended the previous 2 years, I quite enjoyed myself. Unfortunately, my trip this year wasn't near as nice as the previous ones.

I'll start with the fact that my group only had tickets for Thursday and Friday this year. We missed the pre-sale (which is open to those who purchased tickets the previous year) and so we had to wait in the online queue with the general public. By the time one of us was selected, we could only purchase Thursday and we snagged the very last Friday tickets. - In my previous years I had an all weekend pass and so this year it meant I had to be more strategic or I wouldn't be able to buy and attend everything I wanted to. Also, since some of the people in my group had work issues, we only stayed through Friday and left Saturday morning, which definitely meant there was no time for us to do anything after Friday.

I arrived Wednesday evening and (thankfully) already had my badge in tow. It had been mailed to me by Comic-Con. I had strategically planned my Thursday morning, because the thing I wanted most was the Kuchi Kopi from Toddland. I missed the 100 limit pre-order and so that meant I had to try and be one of the first people in the door to get the very limited amount they had per day and I only had 2 days to try and get it.

I didn't cosplay on Thursday. I woke up and dressed just as a fan of Marvel's Loki. I also assumed it would be quite hot outside, which is another reason I didn't want to be in a costume and I was right- it was quite warm that day; I believe it hit 85 degrees.

[Lyft selfie on the way to the con. Loki fan appreciation.]

If you know me then you know I'm not a morning person, but SDCC only comes around once a year! And with only a 2 day pass, I had to make sure I made the most of every day! So, I made sure to wake up at 6am! We were at the con before 8:30am! This was over an hour before the exhibit hall even opened; it started at 9:30am. This is where the shit show began. - Buckle up and get ready to be jerked around on this ride called: SDCC 2018.

Upon arriving, we saw the lines to get into the door. Obviously, they were super long. However, even though we had our badges to get in, we still needed to pick up our lanyards and free bags. We were told no one could go inside, at all. In previous years we had been allowed to go and pick up our badges, lanyards, and guides before the con opened, but it seemed like they were doing things differently this year.

So, we were standing in one of the long lines when we noticed people were being let in farther down the way in the doors marked "H" and "F". So, we decided to walk down there and see if they would let us in to get our lanyards. Well, they let us in, but then they wouldn't let us up the escalators to get over to the part of the convention center with the lanyards. So, we stood by other groups who were waiting just outside the exhibit hall doors. By this time it was 8:30am and we stood there for 30 minutes, when around 9am a woman comes by and starts telling everyone we have to go outside. She proceeded to tell everyone that the lobby "wasn't open" and we all had to wait outside. The woman rounded up a few other employees to push us all out, but we weren't about to go without an explanation. We had to explain several times that all we were trying to do is get our lanyards and we had repeatedly been denied. Not only that, but they wanted us to get back in the long line outside that was now even longer and we had already been in that line! So, finally the woman let us up the escalator to go and get our lanyards. The process of getting the lanyards was fairly easy. The line moved at a decent pace and we got them in under 10 minutes.

Now comes more ridiculousness. So, after getting our badges, the joke was to try and get back downstairs. At this point we had about 20 minutes before the exhibit hall opened. When we walked through to make our way back downstairs, we quickly realized just how unorganized SDCC was this year. - There was a guy ushering everyone to just move in as tightly as possible and to "keep going". So, basically it was just a massive amount of people trying to walk to the same destination with no lines or organization and we were literally being told to just crowd together. Then, randomly, they would just stop everyone and make us wait until (I guess) enough people had cleared the section for the herd to continue moving forward. Our group got separated and some of us were let through to the next section before others. To make a long story short, I was stuck in that mess of a crowd until almost 10am, which is 30 minutes after the exhibit hall opened.

Because I was the last of my group to get into the hall, the other members had already been to Toddland and found out that the Kuchi Kopi was a random drawing and you had to wait in line to see if you would have the chance to draw the right card to be able purchase it. This made me beyond mad, because Toddland never made that announcement. Had I known that I wouldn't have rushed to the con that morning. In the previous years I attended I have pretty much always gotten what I sought to buy and never had to be there when the doors opened to get them, because they were random drawings -that means they won't sell out right away, since the chances of every person pulling a winning card/ticket is low. To make matters worse, the line cap for Toddland was originally very small. They only had to the end of their section of the row and so I couldn't get it. I circled back 2 more times before taking a break to see what else I could get.

I headed over to Toynk booth's, where it was also shortly capped and made no sense. Clearly, there was room for people to stand before the cut off, but the line moderator was being a jerk. So, we basically just jumped in line and he couldn't say anything, because we weren't obstructing traffic. The line moved fairly quickly though, but people in line were being difficult. The workers at the booth constantly had to repeat they were open and for the next person to come down before anyone would move. Even the person in front of us only moved when we threatened to cut in front, because they wouldn't go! I was able to get my friends their Bob Ross pins though.

After that I headed back to Toddland to try and get in the line and they wouldn't let us. We were at a loss of words as to how we would ever get in the line and not just to get the Kuchi Kopi, but also pick up the pre-ordered purchase that was already paid for and it was only one line for everything at the booth. But then the con all of a sudden decided to move the line much further down and all of a sudden all these people were in line and we still couldn't get it! It took us fighting to finally get in line and we stood there for about an hour. Both us and the couple in front of us could not believe how the people were taking so long once they walked up to the front of the booth. Several "menus" or information about exactly what was available was handed down the line multiple times while we were standing and waiting.

Toddland itself was pretty unorganized. Once we got up there it took the employee quite a bit of time just to find all of the stuff we pre-ordered and two of the things had me in panic-mode, because at first he couldn't find them. I was able to get the Kuchi Kopi pin that was originally at WonderCon this year (since I didn't attend WonderCon) and the coveted "Hall H" pin from them. No luck on the Kuchi Kopi though, which was pretty disappointing.

To top it off, in the middle of us waiting for Toddland, they decided to create a line right next to ours for the FOX booth giveaways and that only made confusion and chaos. People trying to get in the FOX line kept asking us if we were in line for it. [Heavy eye rolls at SDCC.] And when we exited Toddland we got pushed into the FOX line by a crowd of people moving through. I can't complain though, since we did get free Bob's Burgers Fanny Packs.

After that mess, we did our best to make our way around the convention. We needed to get away from the huge crowds in the center booths, which is where the majority of selling-only vendors were. So, we walked down to the comic book companies, because after all, that's why we have SDCC in the first place!

[Meeting Camilla D'errico at the Dark Horse booth.]

We went to the Dark Horse comics booth to pick up the exclusive cover of the first issue of "American Gods" and we went at the time they just happened to be having a free poster giveaway and signing with artist Camilla D'errico! I had no idea she was going to be there! I discovered her after becoming active in the snail mail community. She is huge to people in that community and the planner community! She was so nice and kind! She even invited me to her booth personally to talk more, later on!

By then we needed a break from the massive crowd inside of the convention center. We walked out to PetCo to find the Hello Kitty Cafe food truck! Unfortunately, when we got there I discovered that the adorable bow mug I wanted was sold out, so I had to settle for the regular one. PetCo was actually a highlight for me this year. I loved all the food trucks and activities there. I was really sad in 2016 when they turned it into nothing but obstacle courses and previews that generated all-day-long lines. It's nice to be able to walk in it again and experience a variety of things!

We ate lunch after the food truck and the streets and restaurants were very crowded! It took us a long time to find a place where we could sit down and eat! -This is a big point of SDCC. It's just getting too big. I know it's always been a massive event and it's always been a lot of people, but it's to the point where it doesn't even seem like the organization can fully keep control. The overall convention wasn't that fun. It was worse than going to Disney World. Too many people and not enough staff or quantity of anything to suffice the number of attendees.

[In line for the Laika Live exhibit.]

After lunch, we stood 2 hours to see the Laika Live exhibit by Laika Studios. That was well worth the wait! The company was great to the fans! We received a ton of great stuff! Shirts, hats, posters, beach balls, and a really nice shopping bag to put it in! We started with trivia and then went on a tour to see how the characters are created and how the animation is made. It was really neat to get to talk to people who actually worked on the films! We also saw life sized Coraline furniture and art from their not yet released film, "Missing Link". Everyone at the exhibit, from the people at the pop-up shop, to the guides, to the line moderators were great!

Next it was time to go get in line for the Brooklyn 99 panel. I was so excited to see this panel! I absolutely love the show and Stephanie Beatriz! SDCC really messed up. The previous panel was cancelled. So, all the people waiting to see that panel were allowed to stay in the room and given passes, so that they could come and go from the room and have a reserved spot. However, no one in the line waiting outside knew that. It really wasn't fair to all of us waiting in line and for people who were there longer than myself to try and get a spot in the panel. A lot of people outside weren't going to get in when the room held more than 2200 people, since most of the seats were already full. Yet another way that SDCC really messed up this year.

We finished the night walking the exhibit hall in artist alley. It was really crowded, even after the announcement that the hall was closed. For the first SDCC ever, I didn't buy anything in the Artist Alley.

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