Phoenix Comic Con/My Yays and Nays

I like to write up my likes and dislikes about conventions in a separate post, just because it can otherwise make things lengthy, and who wants to look at walls and walls of text? So here are my yays and nays for Phoenix Comic Con (spoiler, they're pretty much all yays):

Yays: 

*Their air conditioning was fantastic. I can't tell you how many conventions I've been to where it gets nasty hot for seemingly no reason other than they don't run the A/C enough. Lots of people equals lots of heat, which is no good. This place was rocking that A/C, and it was nice. The convention center wasn't cold, but it wasn't hot either. I guess with record setting highs outside, they understood that people didn't want to be roasting inside too. Thank you.

*They gave away prizes. I have never been to a convention where the convention itself hands out prizes for asking questions in panels. We got all of our prizes because our kids were well behaved (seriously) or because they had some extra prize cards and needed to dump them. Once you got a card, you took it to this table and you had a choice of some comic books, Walking Dead Lego-type sets or tee shirts of conventions past. We ended up with three Walking Dead sets and three shirts. I think that's really cool of the convention to do that. It encourages audience participation during panels, and it helps them unload unsold merch- so nothing goes to waste. 

*They appreciate their 18+ fans. This actually ended up being pretty limiting for my husband and I since we brought our children, but there were quite a few panels and events that were labeled 18+. I thought that was cool though, it gives older con goers a place to hang out without having to censor themselves. And I also thought it was really cool that they advertised so many outside events in their program guide. At larger cons, you hear about these great parties, but if you don't know the right people, you can't go. Well, at PHXCC, they were printed in the guide, so everyone had a chance. 

Mehs:

*Panelists. If you're not hosting an 18+ panel, please don't tell people that you can't say what you want to say because there are children in the room. It makes people think they're missing out on really great stuff because of the children, and it makes them very disgruntled towards the people who brought said children. People with children like to attend conventions and panels too.

*No bags, lanyards or programs given with badges. Mentioned this in my Friday coverage, but not having those things right away was a huge pain. And the freebies weren't flowing like they do at larger conventions, so it took a minute to find some on the floor (which the staff said "would be like, so easy to do").

Nays:

*The cosplayers. So I'm probably going to get some crap for this, but it has to be said. I think I saw some of the rudest cosplayers at this convention, and that's why I don't have any pictures of them anywhere in my coverage. Don't get me wrong, there were some amazing cosplays there, and I'm sure that there were also some very nice cosplayers too. But after hearing one girl tell her friend how much she hated everyone that asked her for a photo, then turn around and act all sweet with some guy, only to call him a name when he left- I was less than impressed. And you might be thinking, well that's just one girl. No, there was a lot of that, and its for that reason that people hate asking cosplayers to take their photos. It was just really sad to see people behave that way. 

Overall, I had a really fun time. My husband and I want to go back next year (sans children) and experience all the other events that are offered. 

This was at the convention center. When we were driving into Phoenix, there 

was this radio ad about having scorpions removed from your home. Um, no thanks!

Check out Friday and Saturday's coverage, and let me know, are you interested in going to Phoenix Comic Con next year? Maybe I'll see you there!

Phoenix Comic Con/Saturday

Saturday was pretty much a panel day since we'd walked the floor on Friday. Our first panel started not too long after the convention opened, at it was Zombies, Government and You. And it was about how to survive in a zombie apocalypse (or any disaster really) without any help from the government. The guys that did the panel were pretty interesting, but I found that their panel got away from them. There were a lot of what-ifers in the crowd, or people that were there solely to argue, and it detracted a lot from what you could tell they were trying to talk about. Also, there was this one guy in the audience that was like, trying to sell everyone survivalist bunkers at one hundred thousand dollars a piece, and that got to be really annoying. The panelists do have podcasts though, one being the name of the panel (Zombies, Government and You) and others a nineties nostalgia one called 2 Legit with Drew and Nick. The panel was fun and it made me want to listen to their podcasts, even though I left really irritated at some fellow audience members.

The panel title is in the background.

 After that one, we moved on to a mashup panel about Goosebumps. It was more for the kids because we were trying to make sure they didn't get bored during all the panels (six and ten is rough for a full day of panels!), and they had a lot of fun in this one. There were members of the National Comedy Theatre (Derrick Tesson, Frenchie Lynn Augustin, Jacob Talbert, Jesus "Chuy" Huerta, and Mike Mayfield) who were ad libing the entire two episodes of Camp Nightmare. Do you guys remember the short lived Goosebumps teevee show from the 90's? It was so campy and fun, but these guys did it one better by removing all the sound and basically making up their own show. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of this panel because it was like, bam, darkness and right into the episodes, but they all did a wonderful job.

We saw some of the previous panelists again right after in our next panel, Whoa! Battle of the Keanus! Its based on a podcast that they are currently doing, and the panelists (Alice Baker, Andrea Coffman, Anthony Thornton, Jacob Talbert, Krissy Lenz, and Nathan Blackwell) showed different Keanu Reeves characters, and had them "battle" it out, with audience participation. It was very much like the Rotten Tomatoes panel at WonderCon, but instead of clapping or whatever, you were supposed to say whoa. It was a very lively, interactive panel, and our final battle was between John Wick and Ted Theodore Logan....and I'm sure you can guess who won! I think its a really great idea for a panel, I just don't see how they did a whole podcast series around it. But they have, so go check that out if you're interested.

Claps for Keanu!

Have you ever wanted to hear Ed Sheeran talk about zombies and how they've evolved? You should've gone to the Evolution of a Zombie panel at PHXCC then! No, it wasn't actually Ed Sheeran that did it, it was Craig W. Chenery, but he looks darn close to him and they both have that fantastic accent. This panel was also very interesting, he was a one man panel with a great Power Point presentation. He has researched the zombie genre going back all the way to the 20's or 30's, it was pretty cool. I had no idea that zombie movies were really a Caribbean thing, but that's how they started. He really knows his zombie stuff, and is currently writing a couple fo different books, one of them being a zombie movie encyclopedia of sorts. Hes watched like over a thousand zombie movies, or something like that, it was nuts. And sadly, I don't have a picture of him either. Just picture Ed Sheeran.

Our last panel of the day was the only panel that disappointed me out of the whole convention. It was supposed to be about post-apocalyptic obsession, but instead it basically turned into this cosplay group's hangout and all they did was talk about this piece of land that they own that they're trying to fix up to look wrecked based on some place here in CA (and their apparent love for bourbon). To be fair, the program description said that the group would talk about themselves to an extent, but they weren't supposed to be the topic of conversation for the whole panel. So that was lame, but some of them did have cool costumes. No pictures of them either, because the room was so crowded there really wasn't the space to.

After that, we left the convention center. We ate at Whataburger again (its all my kids wanted the whole trip- its that good!) and then saw X-Men Apocalypse.

The best thing EVER.

Don't forget to read Friday's coverage, and look for the final wrap up tomorrow!

Phoenix Comic Con/Friday

I got to attend Phoenix Comic Con this year and it was so much fun. While it was a four day convention, I was only able to attend Friday and Saturday. The drive there was long (almost eight hours....), but it was worth it. I really like Phoenix, it reminds me a lot of where I am here in California, but also has that cool kid vibe that you find in L.A.

My husband and I loaded our kids into the car about 1:30 in the morning and started off to Phoenix, and made in there around 8:30am. We managed to park in our lot (which was cheap and super close to the convention center, so there was minimal walking) and make it into the convention center before the convention was even open for registration, so we got in line and waited. The line looked huge, but once it got moving, we got in to where we needed to be in no time- they were beyond efficient, and I really appreciated that. They had everything clearly labeled, so you knew where you needed to be (prepaid, press, buy on site, etc). One of the things that was weird to me was that they didn't hand out lanyards, bags or programs. Its probably because I'm spoiled, but I do expect those things from conventions that have been around a while. Especially since, once we were on the hunt for a program, we found out that there were none. Apparently they had run out during Thursday, and at 10am Friday, they had yet to restock. So they had a lot of angry con goers, and some already moody convention workers trying to deal with that problem. While I did think that was poor planning on the convention's part, eventually we did get our programs and convention life went on :)

My super cute pass and Her Universe pants.

We hit the convention floor first, since there wasn't a lot of people there and it had prime walk-ability. There were pretty much the standard con booths, minus a lot of the big comic names and clothing companies (but We Love Fine was there, and I love their clothes!). I was excited to see Filthy Casual there, I have been wanting to buy some of their gear for a long time and have never seen them at a convention. But their customer service was lame, the people at their booth were so rude. I did buy a shirt, but I really regretted it. I probably won't buy anything else from them either, that's how bad it was.

They had cutouts of the Geico camel, pig and gecko on display.

In the afternoon we decided to attend a panel, it was about re-dos in comics, and if they're killing superheroes. It was really interesting- most of the panelists seemed to think that re-tellings aren't horrible, but they all have comics as a profession in one way or another, so to say that rebirths are killing the industry wouldn't really be beneficial to them. Sadly, their names weren't listed in the program, the panelists are just "Phoenix Comicon Staff", so I'm guessing they just pulled these people last minute. They also didn't have nameplates, which I didn't like either. I usually just take a picture to remember who I saw, that didn't help this time.

The panelists.

After the panel we just walked the floor a little more, then decided to leave. We ate at Whataburger (love that place! I wish we had them in Cali) and went back to our hotel.

Watch for Saturday's post tomorrow! And if you attended, what did you like best about it? Let me know in the comments below.

WonderCon/Friday

This year WonderCon was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. I was only able to attend Friday, so it was a short day and I was a little disappointed, but grateful at the same time. Since it was the opening day, it wasn't super crowded (I heard it got ridiculously cray over the weekend- sold out both Saturday and Sunday!), so it was easier to move around the floor and to get into some panels.

Badge getting was quite the experience. We parked in the parking garage right under the convention center (yay for minimal walking!), and there were like no signs telling you where to pick up your badges. So we find our way inside the convention center, and even up to where the badge pick up is supposed to be, only to be told that we need to find the end of the line. The end of the line that was all the way outside and not too far away from the Staples Center. So it was quite the walk to get to the end of the line, only to walk right back to where we just were. And then, once we were inside the badge area, they did the whole, break the lines into cattle herds type of thing. The whole get up close and personal with your neighbor thing doesn't sit well with me, so I was less than impressed. And they had three of these line blobs set up. It looked like they were letting each line flow into the badge pickup area for about ten minutes at a time, then letting another line blob do it, etc. Well, the line next to us was getting crazy when it was our turn. First they tried the whole "think of the children!!" routine, and when that didn't work. they went straight hood. Mob mentality is stupid, and it particularly doesn't have a place at a comic book convention. And because they started cussing and screaming and causing such a fuss, after my line's ten minutes were up, instead of going to the next line like they should have, they went back to the first line that was screaming and let them go through. That should not have happened. They should have made those fools wait like everyone else. But whatever, that's just me. Once we got to the badge pickup though, everything went quickly. And I was surprised to see that WonderCon has also gone the RFID route, except they still have badges, not tiny bracelets. If you didn't tap in and out though, your badge went defunct and they had to reset it for you, so that was a hassle (didn't happen to me, thank goodness, but I understood why the guards were yelling at people). Tapping in and out also went a lot smoother compared to SVCC because the area in which you were tapping was larger.

The first panel we went to was for Tee Fury (I love their shirts!). They gave out little pins and had some of their artists talk about how they design shirts for the company. It was pretty interesting to hear what inspires them to create the mashups that they do.

Right after that was the Her Universe Fashion Show update panel. I had no idea that was the next panel, but once I found out, I stayed in. I love Her Universe and I'm always so bummed that I can never make it to the fashion show at SDCC. They talked a lot about what they're looking for this year. They're going to have three winners this time- the Judge's Pick, Audience's Pick and Audience at Home's Pick. And if you're wondering how people at home are going to pick, its because they've partnered with ComiConHQ to film the entire process! Its going to be really cool and a chance to really get to know the designers. Plus, there's going to be an open casting call on April 23rd at Hollywood and Highland to show off your skills!! Applying online is still very much encouraged (required?). They also showed a very tiny sneak peak of the Star Wars The Force Awakens collection for Hot Topic collection that last year's winners designed, and that will be coming out just in time for you to celebrate May the Fourth be With You in style!! They also touched on the Marvel active wear line that Her Universe is selling at Kohls right now and it is all so great! I can't wait to wear some to the gym!

After this panel, we hit the convention floor, and I was so relieved to see my favorites lol. All the big name comic companies were there, all my favorite geeky apparel places....its what a convention floor is supposed to be. Didn't really do much spending though. I was on the hunt for a few She Hulk comics that I'm missing and I could not find them anywhere! My husband got an autograph of one of the Aquabats for his friend's son, and that was about it. We did stop by the Geek and Sundry booth, and we both rolled this big foam dice thing and won awesome The Guild prizes though- so that was pretty awesome.

Since roaming the floor wasn't too fruitful, we decided to hit up some more panels. We did a spotlight on Jim Lee, who is my husband's favorite comic artist. He was very funny and drew some pictures that he gave away. We didn't get one of those, which was a bummer, but my husband did get to take a picture with him after the panel, which he was really excited about. 

We scooted over a room to the Rotten Tomatoes panel, which was actually our way of room camping for the Preacher panel that was after that. But the Rotten Tomatoes panel was actually really funny. People get to state why they love or hate a movie, and then the panelists will basically argue with you. Some people had clearly done it before, one dude even came with notes that he handed the panelists. It was a high energy panel and the hour went by really quickly.

The end of our WonderCon day was with a screening of the pilot episode (the whole thing! not just clips *cough*SVCC*cough*) of AMC's new show Preacher. Its based on a comic I've never read, but the show was so amazing. We weren't allowed to record or photograph anything that was on the screen while the show was playing, but it was very good. Its kinda Walking Dead-esque, as far as graphic-ness and language is concerned, so for the comic fans out there, I don't think you'll be disappointed. And boy, does AMC love them some UK actors lol. After the screening, there was a brief panel with two of the show's stars and the show runner or some dude that's important. The guys seemed really eager to be there, the girl did not. She looked incredibly bored and was playing with something (her bracelet? her phone?), when people were talking, so that was a little off putting. And the WonderCon employees that were yelling at people....so uncalled for. It was the last panel of the day in there, but they were yelling at people to keep their questions short, and after it was over, people were trying to take pictures with the cast and they were doing it, and the WonderCon people were yelling at them to stop and to leave. 

WonderCon was a lot of fun, and I wish we'd been able to attend more than one day. There was a lot of space in the LA Convention Center, but at times it almost seemed like too much (although, it wouldn't be too much if they were looking for a place to move a larger convention like say....SDCC...). The walk between the exhibit area and the panels area was long, but it was a lot cooler inside the LA Convention Center than its ever been in the Anaheim Convention Center, and I appreciate that. It seemed like there was a lot more food choices in LA too, but maybe its just because of all the food trucks. Next year WonderCon is scheduled to be back in Anaheim, March 31st-April 2nd, 2017, so any complaints or loves about this venue will basically be invalid (again, unless they're looking to hold a larger convention there some time in the near future). 

Did you attend WonderCon this year? Did you love it in LA or are you ready to have it back in Anaheim? Let me know!

Silicon Valley Comic Con/My Yays and Nays

Here is my final post about Silicon Valley Comic Con 2016. Like with any convention, there were things I liked about it and things I didn't. Let's break it down, shall we?

Yays:

Emphasis on Cosplay. Not only were there multiple panels regarding cosplay (nine, that had cosplay related themes), they had a dedicated area just for cosplayers on the convention floor (it was even marked on the map). Cosplay is not consent signs were very present all around the convention, as well as the program and on their website. I don't cosplay, but I find it fascinating and have a deep respect for people that do, so I thought it was great that a convention was so supportive of it. 

Location. Downtown San Jose is beautiful. It looks like its going through some kind of revamp, like most downtowns do (I know my city's downtown has been going through one for years lol), so there was a lot of vacant buildings. But they had the most beautiful murals on their walls, and there were some good restaurants over there.

Its Different....ish. I liked that they tried so hard to incorporate the technological surroundings of Silicon Valley into this convention to make it more than just another comic/pop culture con. There were more technology exhibits there than I've ever seen at another convention, so that was neat. And the panels were very good for this being a first year con.

Nays (and Mehs):

You have to pay for seating and line access.  This is a money grab to me, and I've only been to one other convention like it (Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim). Its not enough that you're paying to get into the convention, but you have to pay for good seating in panels and spots in line for photo ops, not to mention how expensive all the autograph and photo ops were.VIP access was horribly annoying to those that couldn't afford it. What that was, is people could get an upgraded pass for a more expensive price that came with perks like being able to get into panels or photo ops first. The rooms were cleared after every panel so VIP people could have a crack at the best seats for the next panel, so you can't camp out like at WonderCon or SDCC. I was in some lines that held us up almost minutes before the panel started in order to accommodate any last minute VIPers that might want to get into the panel. I also learned from one couple in a panel that they had pooled their money together with their friends so that they could get the VIP passes, then save seats for the friends that had helped them obtain them. They take turn doing this at this type of convention. Seems like cheating to me, but what can you do when people pay for premium access? As press, I could have bypassed some of that, but my husband had a general admission pass, so I chose to stay in line with him. I also found that my press pass was more easily honored at the smaller panels than the larger ones. I'm not sure if this had to do with the equipment I had (or didn't, as the case was) or what, but it was a little weird.

The RFID bracelets. In an effort to set themselves apart from other conventions by being more tech savvy, SVCC had no badges (unless you had a press pass or a VIP badge). Everyone in attendance had an RFID bracelet. They were color coded depending on what you were to the convention or how long your pass was good for. The idea was neat, you were just supposed to tap in and tap out of the main hall. It was frustrating though because the bracelets were small and the area that you were supposed to tap on the pole was also small, so people kept missing it and had to keep hitting their wrists up against the poles and it could really hold things up at heavily trafficked times of day. Plus, the novelty of a badge is fun, and the bracelet took it away. That's just my personal opinion though, maybe if the bracelets were a little bigger, they might have been better. 

The lack of line control. Oh my. The lines for panels were a mess. They just went all over the hallways, and the front of the line would suddenly become the end of it and vice versa. There was a lack of communication between the volunteers and it showed. And they kind of just herded us all together like cattle, there weren't any discernible lines at certain points, which again was frustrating because you could be standing somewhere for 20 minutes, then have someone stroll up 5 minutes till, and get a better spot than you, because the volunteers were concerned about filling the gaps in their lines. More signs and better lines foe next year please. 

Schedule. The online schedule, the app schedule and the program schedule didn't match. At all. And that makes it difficult to plan your day when nothing is giving you the correct information. I hope next year everything can become more streamlined.

=====
Overall:
I think the convention was pretty good for a first time convention. I hated having to clear the room after each panel, because if you wanted a chance at a good seat at the next panel, you had to leave early. So you either missed out on the ending of a panel you wanted to see, or you sacrificed seats to another panel you really wanted to see. (Plus it just looks rude to me to get up and leave in the middle of someone's panel.) The convention was small enough though that I got the opportunity to see some big names that I probably wouldn't get to see at a place like SDCC though, so that was a huge bonus for me. Plus, I really enjoyed being able to attend as press, and I hope that SVCC will have me back next year :)

Would you be interested in attending Silicon Valley Comic Con next year? Let me know below! And you can check out my daily breakdown of SVCC here, here and here.

Silicon Valley Comic Con/Sunday

Sunday was the last day of SVCC, and it was the first day that I was able to hit the floor! I always like to see what's available, but this floor fell a little flat to me. I did find a few artists and things that I loved, so there's no hate there, but something that was a glaring misstep for me was the notable absence of major comic book publishers. Like if you attend WonderCon or SDCC, you see the tables for IDW and Skybound and places like that, and there was none of that at SVCC. And my favorite clothing companies weren't there either (Her Universe and We Love Fine). To me those are all convention staples, and they were sorely missed. 

There were pluses though, like how cosplayers got a dedicated alley of their own (much like artist's alley), it was even marked on the map so you could find them easily. And they had the Stan Lee Museum and the Star Wars Rancho Obi-Wan Museum, so that was fun.

I liked the art at Tinysnails a lot. I wanted to buy everything at her booth! She had so many cute prints.

Steph Lew was another one of my favorite. Her booth was so busy, almost everything was sold old. I did manage to snag a cute Ursula postcard though. 

I also got an adorable R2D2 watercolor by Levi Craig and a super cute R2D2 Jesus candle (I don't know how else to describe it)by JesseJFR.

Oh! And we purchased an ocarina for our son from STL Ocarina. The people at the booth were the nicest! They really explained all the different types of ocarinas that they had, and you could tell that they love the products they sell. 

During our booth hopping adventures, we got our picture taken with Peter Mayhew. That was pretty cool! He has wild hair, just like Chewbacca lol. 

After hitting up the booths, we went down the cosplayer alley. I only took pictures of a few of the girls that were there, but would end up seeing all of them later at a panel. 

Miss Kit Quinn

Alexandria the Red

Jacqueline Goehner

Two out of the three girls I got to meet and take pictures of were very sweet, although I have to say that Alexandria was by far the nicest! My husband was my mouthpiece throughout the weekend, and he basically fronted me out and said that I was shy about talking to people, and she was really kind and understanding about the whole thing. And let me just say, the creep factor was high around Jacqueline. The guys were trying really hard to touch her and to get her to come out from behind the table, and it was just wrong on so many levels. 

After the floor, we went to some panels. Since it was the last day, things wrapped up early, which I appreciated since I wasn't feeling so great. The first panel we went to was with Studio C and Jon Heder. Studio C calls themselves the clean Saturday Night Live, and its something you can get behind. They're all very funny, and actually employed by BYU to create these videos. Jon Heder was great as a moderator, still very funny and a touch Napoleon Dynamite-esque. And if you're thinking you've never heard of Studio C, if you've seen the Scott Sterling soccer video on You Tube, then you've heard of Studio C! That's their video, and its the one that made them famous.

Some of the Studio C players with Jon Heder.

Being an angel.

We rushed over to the stars of cosplay- the ladies panel right after, and it was a packed house. The day before was the panel where they'd focused on the men of cosplay, and I was sorry I missed it. I would've loved to have heard how they answered some of the questions that the ladies got. But the panel was very interesting, and basically all the girls said that you should just cosplay for yourself, and not listen to the haters, Body positivity was another big theme that they all pushed, so it was really disheartening to me when they opened it up to audience questions and the first one they got was from a women who basically said that, they need to tone down the sexiness for the little girls that look up to them. I have issues with that because they questioner put a parenting spin on it, like as a parent how do you explain it to your child. And the girls were like, we cover as much as a bikini at the beach does, so whats the problem?  And the questioner got really indigent. To me, as a parent, I say this- you don't let your little girl wear what the women wear, you tailor it to your child's age. Like I take my children to conventions sometimes. My daughter is six and my son is ten. If my daughter is interested in a girl's costume, I would help her find one that's appropriate for her age, and if my son is interested in what's being displayed by that costume, well, its time to have that talk lol. But my point is, to me that questioner asked that question to start a fight, like she didn't listen to anything that had been said during the whole panel, and that sucked. 

The final panel of the day (and weekend) was the closing address with Steve Wozniack and Stan Lee. Stan Lee is hilarious, but he didn't stay on stage too long, so they had Jon Heder come and be his "Stan"in. They opened up to audience questions and you could tell that most people had questions for Stan Lee, but they tried to ask them anyway, and Jon answered them as best he could as Stan. 

After that, we hit up Pizza My Heart one more time, then started our four hour drive home. It was then, first in the car (and in my purse- destroyed everything), then on the side of the highway, that I truly learned my stomach flu status. So not fun. Super sorry to anyone that might have seen that Exorcist act on Sunday night. 

Make sure to read Friday and Saturday's coverage, and I'll have one more post up soon talking about a few of the things I liked and didn't overall about the convention. Thanks for reading!

Silicon Valley Comic Con/Saturday

Saturday was the first full day of the convention and I woke up feeling like death. I largely blamed it on the crappy food from the night before, but as the weekend progressed, it looked more like the stomach flu. Sorry to anyone I came in contact with, I honestly just thought it was a mild case of food poisoning!

Anyway, my husband and I started our day at Psycho Donuts, which was super close to our hotel. It was delicious! It had all the fancy donuts you only see on Instagram in there, and I was excited. I got the Cereal Killer, while my husband got the Headhunter and a Sticky Monkey (for later).

Convention-wise, we started our day with a panel by Loot Crate and QMX. They went into detail about how they make the figures that go into Loot Crates, paying special attention to that Deadpool figure that was in February's Crate because.....they gave everyone that attended the panel one! I was pretty excited, because that figure is so cute. But it was very interesting to hear the process of making the figures, and just making Loot Crates in general. It was there that they also announced Loot Crate DX, a higher priced box offering more high end or more detailed items. They refused to give a price point at the panel, but its since been revealed that they will be $50 (monthly plan), with small price breaks for those who purchase a multi-month subscription. 

The Loot Crate panelists.

After that, we went upstairs to the main hall and caught the opening speech by Steve Wozniack and his business partner Paul White. It was very good, and they announced that there will be a sister convention in Tokyo, they even brought in a Japanese senator to help make the announcement. Now I would love to attend that one! I mean, I think any comic convention in Japan would be great, but pop culture and technology there?! Japan houses some of the biggest entertainment brands in the world, plus all the anime and fashion. Madame Tussaud's also unveiled their wax figure of Steve Wozniack during this time. It looked so real!! Its going to be housed in their San Francisco museum, and they had it on the convention floor all weekend for people to take pictures with. (All my pictures from the opening address have a weird white light, so no pictures of that- bummer).

The panel with Jeremy Renner was next. It was in the same hall as Steve Wozniack, so we just moved up in seats and were going to wait for it to start (like you do at SDCC). But they cleared the room, so only VIPs could sit first and everyone else had to get in this huge line. I will talk about VIPs and the lines in general in my wrap up- but it was a pain. Back to the panel though: It was a spotlight panel, much like William Shatner's, so he was up on stage alone taking questions from the audience. He got started right away, no opening monologue or story. Some of the questions he got were just.....wow. I get that people are excited to talk to their idols, but you expect those feelings, and prepare for them. Also, and this is just good for panels in general, have a backup question prepared in case someone in front of you asks your question. That way you're not stuck asking a "what's your favorite?" or "who would you rather be?" questions that everyone groans at and the celebrity has probably heard a million times. Overall, he was very gracious and funny, but at times it did seem like he was uncomfortable answering the questions. Some people read it as arrogance, but I think it was just because people have an overly high expectation of what celebrities are supposed to provide them. The best question came from a young boy though, who asked that in the first Avengers movie, Hawkeye was in love with Black Widow, but in Age of Ultron he had a wife a kids. He said that it was confusing for young viewers and asked why they did that lol. Jeremy Renner was just like, "its confusing to me too."

Jeremy Renner

After Jeremy Renner was done, we stood in line to get right back into the very room we'd just exited to see Nathan Fillion. Nathan Fillion never disappoints- hes so funny and he to get everyone going he opened with a little story. He got just as equally bizarre questions as Jeremy Renner did (he even got a marriage propsal!), which is funny because when you look at them celebrity wise, people might classify Renner as the bigger star, even though Nathan has been doing it much longer. 

Nathan Fillion

After Nathan Fillion, we took a short lunch break and ate some over priced convention food, then came back in to check out the Founder Fireside with Steve Wozniack and Palmer Luckey (the found of Oculus). It was interesting, but a little over my head, so I was very ready to skip out early on that and head downstairs to Tim and Blur's Tips on Winning the Deadpool panel instead. This was the first panel that my press pass was acknowledged at and actively used in, and I am grateful because I probably wouldn't have gotten a seat in it otherwise. They talked about what it was like making the movie, and pretty much how they got to do everything they wanted with it. They wouldn't say who is playing Cable (my husband asked lol), but Tim Miller said that everyone he wants casted gets cast, so hopefully he has someone really awesome chosen for Cable (oh yeah, that's a spoiler for anyone that hasn't seen Deadpool yet, sorry!!). 

Tim Miller and Friends.

Our last panel of Saturday was a little disappointing. We went to the I am Not a Serial Killer panel and screening. When I think of a screening, I think of seeing the whole movie or a whole teevee show episode. But in this panel, they only showed a few clips from the movie, so to me it wasn't much of screening. Also, Christopher Lloyd was supposed to be one of the panelists, since hes in the movie, but he showed up during the last ten minutes, spoke for about five, then just took off. Now, there were a lot of Back to the Future things going on that weekend, so maybe he was just too booked up, but to me, it looked rude to just step in and out like that. The author of the book on which the movie is based and the director of the movie were the other two panelists, and they were nice guys.

Our night ended with pizza at Pizza My Heart, which was delicious. I wish we would have eaten there the first night we got into town. Or at least somewhere in that area, there were so many food choices! 

Stay tuned for Sunday, and don't forget to check out Friday's coverage if you haven't already!

Silicon Valley Comic Con/Friday

This past weekend (March 18-20, 2016) was the first ever Silicon Valley Comic Con in San Jose, California, put together by Steve Wozniack (The Woz) and friends.

The idea was an intriguing one: its a comic con, but infused with today's top technological and scientific minds. It sounded amazing, and I was so excited to attend this convention as press (my first one!!). I'll be writing about the convention in three parts, since there was a lot to digest. This is part one, Friday, the first day of the event.

Due to traffic and some other things (San Jose is about four hours from my hometown), my husband and I missed the ribbon cutting ceremony and the opening address. The con was only open for a few hours that day as it was supposed to be a preview night of sorts. We made it just in time to catch An Evening with William Shatner, the big billed panel for the day. It was interesting, and William Shatner likes to ramble on about whatever, and not really answer fan questions when asked. 

After leaving the main hall, we went downstairs to the little panel rooms and caught Trailer Park 2.0 with Harkonnen Knife Fight where they basically played trailers of movies coming out and then talked about them. I wanted to like the panel, but just couldn't, because the presenters (for the most part), were so dry. Supposedly they were a last minute fill in for whoever was slated to do it, so they were unprepared, but you don't really have to prepare to talk about your feelings towards movie trailers. And this is going to sound sexist (I apologize), but the males on the panel were much more entertaining than the females. The girls didn't seem to have opinions about anything except they "can't even" or its "not their" fill-in-character-name-here. The panel really left me wondering if all the other panels were going to  be like that, it didn't set a good tone for me. 

That was the last thing we did at the convention for Friday, after that we ate at this place called M Asian Fusion Restaurant because we hadn't acquainted ourselves with downtown San Jose and couldn't find anything else that was open (we totally should have gone a few blocks in the other direction, there was tons of stuff on the other side). I wouldn't recommend this place at all. The service was super slow (it wasn't that busy) and the food wasn't very good. In fact, I felt very sick after eating there and it kinda ruined my weekend.

Inside the restaurant:

I thought this statue looked spermy. 

So that's Friday in a nutshell. Stay tuned for Saturday! And did any of you attend SVCC? I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

BlizzCon 2015 Cosplay Panel

Here is my recap of the cosplay panel from BlizzCon with a few relevant YouTube videos thrown in. I needed a break from all the Legion talk, so this was the only time my husband and I split up for panels. I thought the panel was pretty cool, although I was disappointed at how the main objective seemed to be to promote the Blizzard Cosplay Reference Kits (three of the five panelists were Blizzard employees). I don't cosplay (but have a definite interest in doing so), but I thought these were good tips for beginning cosplayers. More experienced cosplayers, is this true?

Sneaky Zebra- BlizzCon Cosplay Video

The Panel:

*Keikei Day- Moderator (Blizzard employee)

*Rachel Day (Blizzard employee)

*Lorraine Torres (Blizzard employee)

*Allison Trinh

*Jordan Duncan

Rachel showed us pictures of cosplays from past BlizzCons. She talked about how the cosplays have progressed over the years. Blizzard employees have their own cosplay group.

Lorraine - Cosplay Basics

Where to start?

-Pick your project

-Do your research (She really pitched the Blizzard Cosplay Kits here)

What to Use:

-Safety equipment while crafting

-Your time wisely- manage that shit!

-Google!- techniques, pattern making, etc

-Use everything to create costumes (craft supplies, thrift store buys, etc)

-Premades/commissions (commission pieces if short on time/skill)

Jordan- Prop Building

Design, Plan, Build

-think about LEDs, wiring, batteries

-plan your molding/casting process with those listed above in mind

-use Adobe Illustrator for patterns (ability to make patterns in layers for adjustments, etc)

Assembly

-shaping and scultping of pieces

-filler, primer and sanding

   -then molding:

•      prep the mold
•      make a mother mold
•      cast the mold (hollow cast for weight)
•      clean the prop
•      paint!

Allison- Large Cosplays (she was Winston in the BlizzCon Cosplay contest on Friday night)

Pre-planning

-shipping/trasnportation of cosplay

-personal safety in costume (fans, water, handler)

-fitting into a larger costume/form (braces/pads)

Hoop Based Costumes

-easily scaled/add or remove hoops as needed

-lightweight and collapsible

-hollow for air circulation

Heads

-plastic canvas (lightweight and not durable)

-balaclava (tight fitting and easy articulation)

-resin/fiberglass (heavy and durable)

Jessica Nigri- Deathwing Costume Creation

BlizzCon 2015 Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm Panels

Here are my recaps of the Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm panels I went to during BlizzCon. BlizzCon was like information overload, so I know that I'm forgetting a lot of stuff!! I bought a notebook on Friday night so I could start writing down what I'd heard that day, and so I could take it to panels with me on Saturday lol. The smart blogger would've come with a notebook though...oh well, maybe next year (if I get so lucky!).

Hearthstone Panel

-the new adventure is The League of Explorers (Egyptian type feel)
-discussed all forty-five (!) new cards
-will earn all four new heroes at the completion of each wing/the adventure
-Reno Jackson, Brann Bronzebeard, Elise Starseeker, and Sir Finley Mrrgleton are the new heroes
-Discover! (class specific or neutral depending on your deck. its on a lot of the new cards)
-first wing of the adventure opens on Thursday, November 12th, 2015

Heroes of the Storm Panel

Character Development
-Eighteen weeks to test a character.
-Two hundred Blizzard characters on a list of potential HotS heroes.
-Things considered while choosing a character to add: how many of that type currently exist in the game and the character's silhouette.

New Characters
*Cho'gall

• Two players controlling one hero. Cho is melee, Gall is ranged. Each part has his own talents, but they have attacks that work together. 
• Cho'gall can't be purchased. He will be given to every BlizzCon attendee and virtual ticket holder. Those players can then pair up with other players and so some battles together as part of a quest for the player to get Cho'gall. The original Cho'gall holder can earn gold once they give four people Cho'gall.

*Greymane

• Shapeshifter since he's a Worgen.
• Fight from afar and finish up close.

*Lunara

• Permanent speed increase.
• She doesn't walk, she prances.

Other News
-Gul'dan is coming.
-Pre-order Overwatch Origins and get Tracer as a Hero.


Are you guys excited for any of the new changes to Hearthstone or Heroes of the Storm?

SDCC 2015- Friday

Another year, another SDCC in the bag. As usual, my husband and I only had badges for Saturday and Sunday, but went down to San Diego on Friday to see what we could do outside of the convention. Every year we always debate going down on Thursday, or getting a badge for one more day, but I think that this year really solidified our decision to go down on Thursday next year, if not with an extra day's badge, then to at least check out more of the outside of con events (like some of the Nerdy Girlie's parties!). Even with the day of badge freeness to explore, we still missed so much of the off site stuff that we wanted to do. It gets bigger and bigger every year folks, seriously.

Once we made it to our parking at the Ace MTS lot, we headed to the Conival, which was occupying the space in Petco Park that has housed NerdHQ in previous years. Conival was a joint effort by Nerdist, Geek and Sundry, and Amy Poehler's Smart Girls (and of course, Legendary Pictures....)

Conival was probably one of my favorite things about SDCC this year. There was so much to do and I didn't feel overwhelmed by crowds. Of course, I was only in it for Friday, so maybe it got crowded over the weekend. There were tons of photo booths everywhere, a free Slurpee spot, laser tag, and there were free mini panels running all weekend long. And they weren't just YouTubers like some of NerdHQ's free panels were last year. These were legit panels, like Felicia Day, the cast of Orphan Black...those were the ones I saw while I was there (clicky here for Nerdist's full lineup). I actually wandered over to Felicia's panel by accident. I had no sense of time at that point and thought I'd missed her panel, so when I saw on a screen that she was going to be doing a book signing, I went hunting for information. Sadly, I didn't get into the signing, but I did get to see most of her panel, and I got to meet her brother Ryon, who was so nice! He put up with me trying to get into her signing, and when other fans came up to him, he was totally cool. He told one guy to send him an email about a business idea after the guy talked his ear off forever, and this other girl had asked him to be in a little YouTube film she was making, and he agreed and shot it right there! Not too many people would do that, so big high five to him.

Felicia Day at Conival

After spending a good amount of time at Conival, we went over to NerdHQ. NerdHQ was at the New Children's Museum and I have to say, I didn't dig it. The building is pretty much a big concrete slab, so throw in hundreds of electrical devices, hundreds more people, and have minimal air circulating in there- its a recipe for disaster. I'm honestly really surprised that their computers and gaming systems didn't crash from overheating. There was like, no air conditioning in that place at all. We went to NerdHQ on Friday because we made reservations to play Star Wars Battlefront and Project Morpheus for the PS4. The reservations for Battlefront weren't necessary- downstairs there were consoles to play on with minimal waiting. I tried to play it and I sucked. I am not a console gamer by any means, PC gaming is much more my speed. So to say that my PS4 Battlefront experience was humiliating would be an understatement, and I'm pretty sure I proved the stupid boys behind me right that "girls shouldn't play games." Yeah, it was that bad. After that, we made a few passes through the Loot Crate line to try and win stuff, but with no luck. Dani from Fangasm was working the booth, so that was cool (I really liked the show lol). She also proved to be the most levelheaded booth attendant, treating everyone according to the rules that Loot Crate had set (you had to have a bulls-eye to win a good prize, not just one of the bracelets). On Saturday, Dani wasn't working, it was just dudes, and that rule would not be followed if you were a pretty girl. Anyway, after our sad attempts at Nerfing for loot, we went upstairs for our Project Morpheus reservations. Those were actually kept, and I ended up giving mine to a little boy in the standby line who let everyone know he'd been waiting for an hour and he really, really wanted to play! He reminded me of my son, and fresh off my horrific fail at console Battlefront, I wasn't in the mood to play another game. I guess I missed out though, my husband said it was awesome. Virtual reality is the new movement in console gaming, so get ready :) The booth guys all gave different answers on when it would be available though. One said November, one said March and the third one said at the start of the next quarter. So some time soon your Playstation will have virtual reality capability- if you can afford it. I did suck up my humiliation to try Battlefront for the PC though. The wait for that was super long, and since all the computers were upstairs, it was also a very hot wait. The game play was fun, similar to WoW in most of its commands, so I figured out how to at least move lol. At the end of the game I wasn't completely at the bottom of the battleground, but I was pretty close. And I did manage to kill some people, which is more than I can say for the console version. The console version was like a first person shooter though, similar to Call of Duty or other games where you can co-op and work towards objectives, but its not in a battleground setting. The console game was a PVP setup, so if you've ever played any game where there's a battleground with rankings, that's exactly what PC Battlefront played like. 

After trying all that out, my husband and I went back downstairs and were looking around, and we saw that they were shutting down the NerdHQ photo booth. We asked an attendant why and he said that Stephen Amell (you know, the guy that plays Arrow) was getting ready to finish a panel and they were going to do a Smiles for Smiles with him. We asked where the line was and jumped on in! We had to get super up close and personal with the other people in line though, and I hate lines like that. One of the volunteers mentioned that the fire alarm had been pulled on Thursday night (resulting in a super heavy fine), so we had to be ultra close together and close to the building so the fire marshal wouldn't get angry. That was the first rumbling of trouble I heard while I was there, and certainly not the last. While the volunteers were very good in some areas, they lacked in others. But I also heard from another volunteer that it was because they lacked in leadership (meaning Zachary Levi), so I don't know.....

While we were waiting, an ice cream cart wheeled by, and I got a Ninja Turtle ice cream. I was super excited because I hadn't had one since I was a kid and I was super hungry. Pro tip- don't eat green ice cream before meeting a celebrity. 

There was a lot of debate among the volunteers on if we were going to even get to take pictures with him because they gave priority to his panel, and he was pressed for time. But they really stepped up, and were super efficient with the line, so we all managed to get in. And I would also like to point out that Stephen Amell is really nice and totally didn't mention my green smile. 

To round out our day, we ate at Bootlegger. If you've been reading KMT for a while, you know that we ate there last year on our anniversary/last day of SDCC. We pretty much had the same things to eat too! We started with the Crispy Deviled Eggs, then he did the BYOBurger, but I had the Chicken and Biscuits instead of the Chicken and Waffles. I can be picky about my gravy and biscuits, but these were very good.