Fan Expo 2010 Report Day 2
Posted by Rodneyon 29. 08. 2010in News Chat
For the love of Zod today was long and tiring. I got to meet a LOT of new people that I welcome to the site, and lots of current readers that I finally get a chance to put a face to a screen name.
The Fan Expo this year had record attendance even to the point that they had to lock out many patrons to avoid the wrath of the fire marshal. The event floor was packed and it was difficult to move up any of the aisles.
We were going to leave the building for lunch (the food vendors were raping you so we refused to eat in the Convention Center) but we were told by security that getting back in would be difficult because the people being held outside would not likely let us by.
This was when I looked at the bank of glass doors and saw the mobs outside. I am told at one point nerdrage met a peak as some patrons stood on garbage cans and started rants asking to be let in, and screaming that the organizers refund their tickets. Ironically if they had been let in, they would not be able to move anyways.
The angry mob of anxious patrons pressed against the glass looked like the beginning of a zombie apocalypse. It was quite unnerving.
The Expo did not oversell the tickets, there just happened to be a point in the early afternoon that many of them showed up at the same time. To make up for it, the Expo stayed open an hour later to accommodate those late to the game.
Crazy day.
Anyways, here are some of the sights at this year’s Fan Expo:
Stan “The Man” Lee - diety of modern comics and really cool guy. He wasn’t even charging for autographs. Real class act!
The Batmobile. Not a replica. This was THE Batmobile. Burt Ward, Adam West and Julie Newmar had a reunion with the car, and are doing a photo op Sunday.
A cool Superman
The car from Supernatural
A hanging 5ft diameter Millenium Falcon
Hasbro had a pile of these dioramas made with the action figures.
And a neat photo op where you could make yourself look like an action figure in a blister pack.
Michael Dorn comes face to face with an action figure brought for him to sign.
Ernest Borgnine (McHale’s Navy and upcoming RED)
Peter Mayhew - Chewbacca. I could tell you just how tall this guy is, but experiencing seeing him in person is uncanny. He is just shy of 7’2″
and yes, he walks with a cane that looks like a lightsaber!
James Marsters was as charming as ever. Very nice guy.
And of course the very infectious and beautiful Felicia Day with her Guild co-star Amy Okuda
We are back at the booth for one more day then packing up and headed home.
There will be more to report later!
You are wrong about the Batmobile, that in fact is a replica and not original. I spoke to the creator (some what larger guy) who hails from the GTA and the first question was “is this the real batmobile from the show” he responded with “no it is my creation, that I even drive around”.
So you might want to alter your description or at the very least confirm this yourself with the gentleman selling photo ops of his car towards the back of thoe batmobile.
The batmobile is not the actual car from the TV show, this was confirmed by the owner who is selling photo ops at the Fan Expo, you can ask him for yourself…as I did….
You are right about the food. $8.25 for a hot dog and a bottle of water..the bun was dried out way too much and I ended up tossing it.
“The Expo did not oversell the tickets, there just happened to be a point in the early afternoon that many of them showed up at the same time. To make up for it, the Expo stayed open an hour later to accommodate those late to the game.”
They didn’t oversell? I arrived at 11am when it was still somewhat walkable. Went outside to grab food at 1pm and the line for reentry was stopped…people with deluxe & VIP had been waiting to get back in for 2, 3 hours. None of the staff said anything about it as people were leaving. Meanwhile, they were still selling day tickets and letting people in that way. Why did I bother to buy an all days pass in advance if they werent going to regulate traffic fairly? Don’t tell me it wasn’t oversold.
That they were not honoring existing entrants re-entry had nothing to do with how many tickets they sold. And people buying one day passes at 1pm were not granted immediate entry either. They sold just as many advance tickets as last year and had record on site sales.
They did a number of things poorly but selling tickets wasn’t one of them
Ernest Borgnine is still around?!
I agree with Carel.
It was oversold.
If it gets to the point where the fire marshal is there, and theres almost a 45 minute wait within a mob just to get up the escalator…I’m pretty sure its oversold. I thought I was going to faint in that mob. It was nothing short of a sweaty, geeky hell.
There “just happened to be a point in the early afternoon that many of them showed up at the same time.”
Thats a weak cop out. Its a three day Convention and they completely expect Saturday to be busy, they up the price by 10 bucks for gods sakes.
They’re should have been a point where they stopped selling day passes instead of locking people out who’ve already paid a pretty penny to get in.
That was ridiculous, and I will not be returning. Not if its run like that and especially if its in that kind of venue.