If your are in "another group" you already saw this. For the rest of you, here you go...

Well another Comic Con has come and gone. We learned an important lesson - one day is not enough. We knew that, but it was confirmed last Friday.
We left the house around 5:45 AM just in case there was traffic. On the way down, my cousin sent me a text to see if we were going. She was going that day to do some portfolio reviews. She is working at Cartoon Network with Peter Chung (Aeon Flux) on one of his new projects. We made it down there around 7:30 - great timing. We got a parking spot in a new parking garage across the street from the convention center - only 10 bucks. That's pretty good for downtown San Diego if you have ever tried parking there. Of course the line we needed for the on-site ticket pick up was way down at the other end. We walked by the 4-day pass holders that were well into the 100's by now. Form what I recalled, they said they get in at 9:00 and Friday pass holders would be let in at 9:30. We got to the other end of the convention center and they were letting people in to get their passes. Now I figured they would have us wait in the Sails Pavilion until the 4-dayers in line were let in first. We picked up our passes and to our amazement, we went right into the staging line, inside the convention center - maybe a couple hundred people in front of us - nice. There were still 4-Dayers outside waiting to "stage", but we got in line before they did. So far so good...

Brandy and I sat down, she took out her brain puzzle book, and I gandered at the program and schedule. It was about 8:30, so we had an hour to kill. That hour was trying due to a group of 4 youngsters in front of us. One girl opened her lap top and proceeded to play "music" that made us old folks. "What the hell kind of electronic crap is that?", I asked the wife. I like a lot of music but this stuff was crap-o-rama. Then to top it off, one of the other girls had one of the most annoying laughs we have ever heard. Apparently, anything her friends said was the funniest thing she ever heard. Trust me, it was not stimulating conversation, nor humorous. She felt that she had to pollute our brain with that laugh.

Now it's 9:00. I make the plan with Brandy. I had 2 vendors in mind to hit first thing. Hallmark for the Clone Trooper exclusive ornament set, then Hasbro for, well the Hasbro goodies. Since the troopers were limited to 700 pieces, I decided that would be my priority line to get into first. Hasbro's deal is you have to get a ticket from the area we started the day (the Sails Pavilion). That's what they did last year, and I was pretty sure they would do it again this year. As long as I got a ticket to purchase that day, I would be happy. I had to get Psycho and Melinda the smiling Luke figs, plus I had some "wants" of my own. So the plan was to get to Hallmark, then to Hasbro for ticket details.

9:15 everyone stands up, compresses, and gets ready for the mad dash. Plan is secured, backpack is on, and we're good to go. We knew where we had to go, so all they had to do was open the doors.

9:25- the crowd heads to the escalators. We head down, enter the con, and it was on. Of course you can not run, but we can walk pretty damn fast. We get to Hallmark which already had a line of 11 - we made it 12 and 13. So happy right now! Guaranteed Troopers! Then we found out that they were not selling anything until 10:00. Cool, a half an hour wait is easy for pros like us. I leave Brandy to hold the spot in line as I went over to Hasbro to find out about the tickets. Turns out they started handing tickets out at 9:00. Now I'm a little scared because Hasbro is huge, popular, and can get rid of those tickets pretty fast. I head back to Hallmark and tell brandy that I am heading up to the Pavilion to get the tickets. Time is 9:31 and ticking fast. I hoof it to the Sails Pav, find the line, and get in it. There were people getting tickets, and then the staff guy says, "Line's closed". It was temporary, but that did not help me. It was about this time I realized I did not give Brandy any money, I had her cell phone, and it was now 9:34. Tick tock.... 9:38 Hasbro officials say, "Don't worry we have plenty of tickets everyone!". Cool, just let the line move again. By the time I really started freaking out, they let people move again. We moved through the human maze, the stopped again. I took a picture of the cutest Obi-Girl in Clone Trooper gear with a serious fighting face. Then got into a conversation with some fellow toy freaks and the exclusives. I got my ticket for a 10:00 time to be allowed into the purchase line (I could go in at any time after 10:00 - cool). Time now 9:45 - plenty of time to get back - the Con gods were smiling this day!

I get back to the Hallmark line, to an ecstatic wife when I show her my ticket to buy. She had gotten into a conversation with a fellow line waiter. She told him all about the GHG, and our philosophy. He thought that we were the coolest idea since double sided light sabers - speaking of which I have a cool story about that.

My cousin showed up and found us in the Hallmark line. Her dad (my uncle) is a huge Star Trek fan, and Hallmark had an exclusive Uhura ornament. I talked her into buying one for him for Christmas. She told us that her name was almost Nichelle, which I think would have been cool. He, like me, has a tree or 3 for his Star Trek ornaments. He stopped buying them a few years ago, but when I told her it was limited to 700 pieces, and it was Uhura - she gave us the money, and headed to her table up in the Sails Pav.

Now I can get a little less detailed. Hallmark opened, I got my Troopers and my uncle's Uhura. Went to Hasbro and picked up the smiling Lukes, Trooper, and 2 Transformers exclusives - an Optimus Prime Mighty Mugg with metallic finish, and a 25th Anniversary Soundwave - the one I wanted the most (next to the original Megatraon) as a kid. We went by the Lego spot to see about some limited mini fig sets that they were raffling off a chance to buy each day. 5 different sets, one for each day, 300 sets of each - nice exclusive. That drawing didn't start until 2:00, so we meandered. Went by Funko to pick up a TC-14 bobble head - 1 of 480 - got one. Then we went to ACME Archives to pick up my Leia cell - got it.

Headed over to Gentle Giant to pick up my pre-ordered McQuarrie Boba Fett bust. I feel so cool when I go there now. They ask me my name, I tell them, and they say, "We know you". I told them that after 6 years and hundreds of dollars, they'd better. GG was hosting a Slave Leia photo op, which my cousin wanted to see so she could take a picture for her husband that is currently on tour (He's the keyboard player for Foreinger). I just want to go on record saying - NOT ALL GIRLS SHOULD WEAR THAT COSTUME!!!

While we were waiting for my cousin we got into a conversation with the creator of the Red Star graphic novels. Red Star has been a part of GG since the beginning. Some of their first busts were a Red Star characters. This guy has had a booth with GG since I started going to SDCC in 2003. He sucked Brandy into a "please buy my book" conversation, and I was saved by my cousin calling me, heading down to GG. When I got off the phone with her, brandy said, "You're going to want to here this" This guy did some concept art for Episode 1 and was the one that came up with the double bladed light saber. Most of Lucasfilm thought he was nuts, but ol' Georgie loved the idea. So my cousin shows up, and we start talking about her first con experience. The portfolio reviews did not go too good. She never broke so many hearts in one day. She said a lot of people have talent, but when she would suggest some life drawing classes or a little refinement, it was crushing to some of these artists. You have to be willing to take criticism if you are going to make it anywhere. She looked at this Red Star guy's work, and got his card. He knew of Peter Chung, and admires his style of artwork.

We took her over to the artist alley to see if she could find any hopefuls in that area. She found a couple hopefuls, and got their info. She described herself as the enemy. Some of these guys hate the Hollywood types, but when you are offering work, they're all smiles - go figure. She had to get back to her train to head home so we went our separate ways and headed back to Lego.

It was about 1:30 now, so we had another 30 minute wait in line. We watched people playing "Lego Rock Band" - which looked pretty cool. Then 2:00 hit, and the line started moving. We got to the drawing box, and BAM we both get winning tickets - Con gods still smiling. We start to head in, and there was a guy offering $10 for people's winning tickets. I said, "Nice try scalper. I want this" These things are going for $80 on eBay, and cost $50. I bought two, one for me and one to sell. You know I am not a scalper. I start stuff on eBay for what I paid for it. If I make few extra bucks for my time in lines and tickets - so be it.

After that we headed on over to Sideshow, which was a mad-house. They were doing some raffle so it was pretty packed. One of the girls working there asked us if we wanted gift cards. They could be worth $20-$100, so yeah, we want cards. OUT OF SEQUENCE - got home to check 'em - one was for $20 and one for $100!!! Con gods strike again. They can not be used on all items, but they do have a few good SW items in the list. I'm debating between the light up poker chip set, 12 inch scale Jabba, or Ki-Adi Mundi 12". I'll probably go for the poker chips since they will only cost me $20.

We decided to head back to the car to drop off our goodies, eat some burritos, then get in line for the SW spectacular which was a couple of hours away yet. As we were walking out, we saw the line for Hall H, which holds 6000. We were still 2 panels to go, and it didn't look good to get in for the SW. Man, it felt good to sit in the car for a while and drop off our bags. We headed back down when it was time for one Hall H panel to be loaded. The line had not gone down much, still a few thousand easily. We overheard a staff guy talking to a con attendee - "Line isn't getting any smaller. We're escorting people in when seats become available". So now we had a decision - get in line or get over it. We sat in a wall, and I decided we should just go home. We were tired, didn't want to sit in the sun, plus I was recording the SW panel on G4 anyway. All I wanted to hear was the C5 location and time. If you saw the G4 coverage, you know how disappointed we would have been.

We walked down to the water, took our traditional picture, and then drove to Coronado. We walked on the beach, then sat on a bench, ate an apple, and soaked up some sun. If we win the Lottery, we would live there on Coronado. Once we have 3-4 million to spend on a vacation home, we'll talk about it.

All in all we had a great time - but next year 4-day passes so we can see it all, with a chance to see anything we miss...
Here is a small album over at Webshots.