SDCC Day 3

I have to say that the panels I went to today were awesome and they really made the trip worth it. The Stargate SG1 Continuum panel was the most awesome thing of all-time and I’m not just kidding around or being sarcastic. Richard Dean Anderson rocked. He was incredibly funny and entertaining and was very O’Neillesque. Seeing Anderson in action really made me realize that O’neill is one of those rare characters that was modeled more on his respective actor’s personality than by a writer’s imagination. That made his participation in the panel really fun to watch. The other actors were really great as well. SG1 has just about the greatest cast you could ever get for a sci-fi series so the panel was an excellent experience for me overall. Definitely one of the best things I ever experienced at a convention. I bought my tickets to the con solely to see this panel so it was not a letdown.

Pics behind the cut!

Sean-Man 0, Idiot Rent-a-cops 2 (or) SDCC Trip Day 2

There was something I neglected to mention in my last post and that is the fact that I almost had an incident with this dumbass security guard at the Mattel store at the Con last night (preview night). I was trying to find my friend Rob so I decided to go in the little Mattel hut to find him when this dumbshit asshole working the event jumped in front of me, almost put his hand on my chest and stated “THIS IS NOT AN ENTRANCE!” in the most threating/militant voice he could muster. He pointed to this incredibly long line and said “You want in you go there.”

When I talked to my friend Rob later on he said “they let me right in,” meaning that the guy was probably just trying to be a facist asshole on a power trip.

After the thing with the security guard, I noticed that most of the employees at the Comic Con were treating the convention-goers in a similar fashion throughout the night. I mean, it’s one thing to be an asshole to the convention-goers if they’re an asshole to you, but there’s no point in being an asshole to the convention-goers if they’re polite and respectful to you. I mean, most of the interaction that I’ve noticed between the employees and the convention-goers has gone like this:

Convention-Goer: “Oh, is this the line for the autograph signi-”

Con Employee: “YES THIS IS THE LINE!”

I mean, it would be understandable if the employees were indeed military commandos but they’re far from that. They’re the rentiest (and yes, I am aware rentiest isn’t a word) of rent-a-cops ever. Even Wal-mart security guards are more menacing and credible than them.

So I was kind of pissed and offended by the rent-a-cop’s sudden uncalled for snapishness yesterday but the anger and frustration I felt last night had nothing on the anger I felt today at the con after dealing with the fucking Marine Security I had to deal with at the Rose McGowan/Robert Rodriguez signing earlier today.

So I’m not a fan of Red Sonja at all but I thought it would be cool to get Rose McGowan’s autograph seeing as how I really love Charmed and was once a big fan of hers.

So I think it would be great to get her autograph. So I flip through the schedule book I got after I get my badge and I realize that Rose and Rodriguez are going to be signing stuff after the Red Sonja panel. So I’m like “Great! I don’t have to go to some panel for a movie I could give two shits about,” and I head over to the booth she’s signing at an hour early so I can beat the line. So I’m in this line that’s pretty well organized and hassle free and I’m starting to talk to some of my fellow McGowan/Rodriguez fans when some more asshole security guys approach the line and are like “We’re going to break this line up. There’s too many of you here.”

So they put us in two or three different lines that are disastrous before deciding that they’ll put two-hundred or so of us in a roped off area and release us five or six at a time to get in the line to get the autographs.

You ever try to put 200 or so people in a 20 x 20 space? It has to be about the worst thing of all-time. You literally have zero room to do anything and it’s like you’re inadvertently dry humping/fondling everyone around you. Having a big backpack and/or “manpurse” and shopping bag while you’re in said cramped space makes it even more “fun.” It got really hot while I was in the line for a half-hour or so and I got really dehydrated and I honest to God felt like I was going to throw up/pass out. Seriously. I could feel that special “vomit taste” in my mouth. But that was fine. That was okay. I could accept that because I knew I was going to get my Charmed book signed and I knew I was going to get to talk to Rose McGowan. I mean, I’m not a major fan of hers now, but back in the day she was one of my favorite celebrity crushes, I mean, who could forget her bonerrific performance in the first Scream movie? The “nipple sweater” scene was classic.

So I finally get out of the cattle area and I can finally breathe again without feeling like I’m going to throw up and I get to Rose and…am handed a pre-signed poster by a fuckin’ rent a cop I had issues with earlier in the day. “They’re not signing the stuff you bring in?” I ask.

“NOPE AND YOU’RE HOLDING UP THE LINE. MOVE ALONG!” Was pretty much the fuckface’s response.

The thing is though, Rose saw me and smiled and held out her hand so I could hand her my book when the fuckass jumped in front of me and claimed they were done signing stuff the convention-goers brought with them.

So…yeah. Dumbass Rent-a-cop 2, Sean-Man 0.

So after that I had to carefully walk around looking like a nut carefully holding up the poster as I tried to find the stupid poster vendors selling the overpriced poster tubes.

So yeah, not a good day in terms of dealing with the security people at the con. After looking at the lowgrade Wesley Snipes lookin’ motherfucker who screwed me over a the McGowan/Rodriguez signing, I realized that he was actually a Marine the organizers of the con hired (the normal security assholes wear red whereas the Marine volunteers where these green shirts with the Marine Corp symbols on them). Now, I know I probably couldn’t kick a marine’s ass, but I know I could of have probably crushed the fucker’s testicle if I just kicked him in the groin as hard I could with my Doc Martinesque shoes. And yeah, I know I’d possibly be kicked out/beaten up/arrested for that but come on…I’d probably be the true superhero of the con. Geeky browbeaten virgins would probably run out and tearfully hug me.

So I was, once again, pissed off by the stupid idiots the organizers hired to manage the event but my faith in the con was restored shortly after that when this lady at the Tonner booth did a really nice thing for me.

So I was going to buy the “Pirate Elizabeth” doll at the Tonner booth (yes I am indeed secure enough as a man to admit to buying Tonner dolls because, dolls aside, they are really articulated and detailed figures) when the woman behind the booth said “that’ll be fifty-nine dollars.”

I reply with “I think the price is higher. The tag on the display (doll) says $150,”

to which she replies “Oh no! You’re right!”

See, the thing is, they were selling Elizabeth Swann in the dress she wore from the first Pirates movie
for $60 while the Pirate Elizabeth from Dead Man’s Chest was going for $150.

So she says “Well, I tell you what, since you were so honest I’ll go ahead and give you the doll for the fifty-nine dollars.”

I’m really surprised by her kind offer and am kind of stunned but I also feel bad because I don’t want the woman to get in trouble with her boss at the booth for that so I ask “Are you sure? I don’t mind paying the price on the tag. I don’t want to get you into trouble or have you lose out on any money,” to which she replies “It’s no big deal. I would actually get into more trouble if I had to ring you up twice” (the first thing she did before she handed me the doll was swipe my credit card).

So yeah, that was something to me. That made me feel a lot better about the asshole security guards at the con.

So all in all I had fun and got some cool toys today/tonight in spite of the security guard assholes. Earlier in the day I bought the Tomb Raider Tonner Doll.

I’m not going to take any pics of the Tonner stuff I bought today (I don’t want to take the dolls out of their boxes until I’m back in Oly) but I will be posting some pics later on though. You’ll just have to look at these prototype pics for now:

While they are indeed dolls, they are pretty articulated and super-detailed so I think you can still feel like a “manly enough collector” for buying them (if being a “manly enough collector” is something that’s important to you) and not a “dainty boy with Barbie issues” (not that emos “dainty boys with Barbie issues” aren’t cool). And lets face it anyway, most action figures are pretty much dolls, really. So make your jokes if you want, I think these dolls are cool. They’re super-expensive but they’re cool.

I also bought the awesome and badass “Cloud with Daytona” today as well and I’m looking forward to looking at/reviewing that one because I’ve wanted the FF figures forever and they’ve only been available via eBay before now. I mean, sure my local comic store would have one or two from time to time but not all of them at once.

I also had an awesome time at the Robotech panel but I will write about that another time.

So yeah, I suppose I’ll leave you with my “thought of the night” (rent-a-cops suck) and the only pic of Rose McGowan I was able to take:

More updates tomorrow.

SDCC: Day One

So today was the “preview night” at the SDCC and I have to say that if the rest of the convention is like tonight, I’m probably going to make this my first and last SDCC.

Apparently 100,000 tickets were sold for the event. That’s fine and that’s to be expected but…damn. Did every fucking attendee have to come tonight? I mean, I know that the convention was going to be packed but I didn’t think the fucking three hour PREVIEW night would have like fifty or sixty-thousand people there. Needless to say, I wasn’t too happy about the crowds being there on a night where nothing major was going on.

In the end though I don’t think it was the crowds that pissed me off as much as it was Sideshow screwing the attendees over. I think that’s really what set me off and pissed me off.

I’ll explain: a couple of toy companies, as I’m sure you all know, offer exclusives to Comic Con Attendees and Sideshow was offering the 12” Aayla Secura that I really wanted to get. So I get to the Sideshow booth, I see a couple of Aayla Secura figures behind the counter and figure “Great, I got here just in time.” So I ask this woman if I could buy one and she said “We’re sold out.” She goes on to explain: “We actually aren’t selling these to attendees. You have to preorder the figures on our website before you get to the con and we’re all sold out.”
All I really have to say is this: WHAT THE FUCK? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard and that’s a horrible thing to do to the attendees who didn’t know that you had to pre-order the figure and couldn’t just buy it at the con. Why even call it a Comic Con exclusive when really it’s just another bullshit “internet exclusive?” So yeah, that really pissed me the fuck off to the point where I really don’t want to have anything to do with Sideshow Toys ever again after I get the Indy figure I preordered a while ago.

So yeah, that just wasn’t cool to me at all. The lady did tell me that I could possibly get one on Sunday though because some people “just don’t pick up their preorders.” So apparently they’re equal opportunity “screwer over” people and are just as happy to fuck over the pre-order crowd as much as they are the people who just want to pay in person.

As much as I hate Sideshow for screwing me out of the one fucking exclusive I really wanted, I do have to say they had some cool busts there:

Still though, the whole thing about the figure just pisses me off and makes me feel a little sick.

I guess seeing Ultra Magnus at the Hasbro stands made me feel a little better though:

And yeah, I know, not the best quality picture in the world but there were a lot of pushy people around so I didn’t really have time to take a better shot. Maybe tomorrow.

So hopefully I will have some better luck with being able to buy the toys and stuff I want to buy at the con tomorrow. I don’t know. One can hope.

SDCC bound…

That’s right I’m heading out to San Diego in five hours for the convention. I’ll try and post some updates and pics here and there as I go but that might not happen if I get too busy/sidetracked.

As far as exclusives go, I’ll buy the Aayla Secura if I see her but I’m not going to like, try and kill myself to get to the booth and buy one. Same goes for Nemesis Prime. If I’m around where he’s being sold and there’s still one to buy, I’ll get one. If not though? Well…that’s when I have to say “fuck that.” These days there aren’t any toys out there that are worth that kind of hassle.

Speaking of toys, I picked up Universe Prowl and Sunstreaker today. Prowl isn’t as crappy as I thought he’d be but he’s still nowhere near as beautiful as the prototype. Hopefully I’ll be able to write a more thorough review with pics later on.

So…

Until I meet Vivian from MC Nudes, I’m going to have to say that this:

…Has to be about the most beautiful sight known to man.

Overall the Toynami Masterpiece Robotech set really isn’t that great compared to the 1/48 Valks or even the 1/60 Valks but holy crap do these guys photograph well…

I really like this last pic because it looks like the Valks have some kind of glow/aura about them. Basically what happened is I did the anti-blur setting and I was moving a lot when I took these.

I was telling a friend of mine that if there were ever something that could inspire me to write full-on reviews again it would have to be these guys. Shit, I don’t think I’ve written a major review since Medicom Spider-Man.

I’m really not going to make any promises but I think I very well may do a review for these guys with a pretty extensive gallery as well because they really are beautiful to look at. The LED light makes all the difference in the world, really.

As usual, click on the pics to see them bigger and in a better resolution.

I love Kramer. Michael Richards on the other hand? Douche.

You want to see the funniest episode of Seinfeld?

It’s right here:

I know this is a year old and it’s not as funny now that it’s been a year since Richards’ displayed his hateful ignorance but this parody of his foolishness is still great. Every couple of months I’ll find this video somewhere and laugh my ass off. George’s reaction to Kramer’s “apology” is hilarious.