San Diego Comic-Con 2018 Recap

If there’s one word I might use to describe San Diego Comic-Con this year, it might be “different”. I definitely had a lot of concerns heading into SDCC this year. Marvel had dropped out, HBO would not be present, and the panels just seemed sort of lacking. I’m not sure if others felt this way, but I definitely started thinking, “What am I even going to do there??”. Of course as exclusives started being released and panels and guests were announced, all my concerns went out the window as the days leading up to comic con fueled my excitement for what was to come.

I decided ahead of time to “take it easy” this year. No Hall H camping, no last minute cosplays, and I was actually planning to get a full night’s rest every night. Crazy, right? What kind of con did I think this was?! As preview night approached, I thought maybe, just maybe there was a chance that lines might not be as crazy this year due to the lack of high profile movies and shows. However, I was completely wrong. Preview night was just as challenging as it has been in the past, but it was also just as fun.

The 2nd day of SDCC was a busy one as we barely made it into the Clone Wars 10th Anniversary panel after waking up early to pick up Conan show tickets for that afternoon. The Clone Wars panel was full of surprises including a lot of behind the scenes photos and art from Dave Filoni himself and of course the shocking ending when Dave showed us a mysterious trailer announcing the return of the Clone Wars! How exciting is that?! After the panel, I roamed the floor for a short while until it was time to head over to the Conan taping with the cast of Predator. I also wanted to be sure not to miss the Her Universe Fashion show that evening, which was going to be tricky since the Conan taping finished right before the show. Luckily I made it to both (huge thanks to Mandie aka Geeky Glamorous for saving me a seat) and as I rushed to the fashion show with Conan Predator Pop in hand, I barely made it in time to watch Ashley Eckstein walk down the runway in her Funko Pop dress! I noticed this year that there were a lot less dresses with fancy “tricks” (you know, like transforming and light up dresses) and that I saw some true geek couture on the runway. There were some insanely creative designs – some of my favorites being the ‘70s inspiredRocket Raccoon outfit, Eve Couture, Luke from Gilmore Girls outfit, and my favorite and final vote – Ripley from Aliens. I was so excited when they announced that Kristi Siedow-Thompson’s Ripley design won for audience’s choice! For more pics from the show, check out Bleeding Cool.

It seemed like day 3 and 4 was a duck blur especially since we were focused on getting autographs from the Adventure Time and Ducktales cast (woo-oo!), attending the Ducktales panel, checking out The Good Place experience, and attending the late night Twin Peaks panel. I did get a good dose of celebrity sightings these two days though – Ben Schwartz and Dani Pudi from Ducktales, the entire forking cast of The Good Place, and some quick selfies with some of the Twin Peaks cast!

Of course the last day of SDCC is always the saddest – you’re trying to take everything in one last time while trying to make sure you picked up all of the exclusives on your list, even though you’re dead tired. I was so happy to have run into some friends on Sunday and I my biggest surprise was probably the fact that I walked straight into the Hall H Legion panel without waiting in line! As always, we made it through all 5 days- our brains super stimulated, our legs a lot more tired, and our swag bags full of cool stuff.

In retrospect, this was definitely an “interesting” year of SDCC. I think that the lack of super high profile panels in Hall H made it easy for me to decide what I wanted to focus on so maybe it’s a good thing this year was a little bit more “calm”? Even getting exclusives was different this year with the online lottery system. I was lucky enough to “win” one of the LEGO exclusives, which in the end helped decide my fate for what lines I might be waiting in. Regardless of “winning” this lego, I’m not surprised that I still waited about 2 hours just to pick it up and to top it off, that ended up being the longest I waited my entire weekend at the con! If you’ve been going to SDCC for the past 5 years, that’s pretty unheard of! As for the rest of the exclusives, sometimes it’s team work and sometimes it’s just luck, but getting exclusives on the floor is a funny dance that is hard to perfect. Thanks to a lot of help, I was actually able to pick up some great stuff this year. I know it’s only about been a week since I got back from SDCC, but I’m already looking forward to next year!