I attended the San Diego Comic-Con yesterday and was unfortunately craptastic experience.
I arrive at SDCC at 9:30am when the doors open and immediately go to the GENTLE GIANT booth to buy the BOBA FETT PROTOTYPE BUST - My MAIN reason for going to the con. I stand in line for 90 minutes, then when I'm 5 people away from the register, they put up a sign that its sold out FOR THE DAY. What sucked even more, is that I witnessed people cutting into line. I throw a Hail Mary and talk to the manager to see if there's anyway to purchase one and have a friend pick up tomorrow (it was the only day I could attend the con), but no dice. Wow, what a shitty business model - to only bring enough busts to sell for 90 min? That's less money in their pockets. And this is not their first rodeo so they should know better regarding attendance and demand.
Then I go to the HASBRO SHOP booth to get the LA DODGERS MY LITTLE PONY for my kids. I am informed I cannot enter the line to buy without a ticket, and that they capped the day's tickets at before the con even started because the line to get said tickets formed at 3:30am. Fucking ridiculous.... (and I'm still not confident that story was smoke blown up my ass)
Next I then go to the SUPER 7 booth to buy the MOSS MAN CHIA, HE-MAN M.U.S.C.L.E.S. pack and possibly the stupid HE-MAN REACTION FAKE PROTOTYPES... and maybe HE-MAN Glasses... they hand me a Skeletor Coin and inform me that I must leave the Convention Center and venture out into Downtown to another location to buy the items. Fuck you. I refused to jump through their asinine hoops and decided to do without.
Look, I understand there's limited space to physically store all the products, so why not have the option to purchase the item(s) on site and have them shipped to you at a later date? I mean, I'm waving money at them to take!!!
At this point I was so fed up, the con was over for me.
I left in a grumpy huff and went had lunch and a drink. Done.
I think this will be the last SDCC I attend...
Wonder Con from now on.
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* The Good News: On the way out, right next to the exit, a vendor had the My Little Ponies for $10 (same price Hasbro was selling for, weird) so my kids atleast got a treat. And my friends scored the ALIEN MINI-MATE for me (thank you!)
* The Meh-Good News: I said fuck it and bought a Boba Bust on eBay for a small, "acceptable" mark-up cost.
* The Extra Kick to the Nuts: My friend Jason is at the con right now. He informed me he simply walked up to the Gentle Giant booth (no line) and bought a Boba Fett bust. WTF????
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I went last year but forced myself to avoid any exclusives/hours long lines etc etc. You can certainly tell there are locals who make it their business to gobble up as much exclusive shit they can to sell on the secondary market. I saw people going in with their entire 'families', getting in every exclusive line, buying as much of everything they could, and leaving. They didn't give two shits about the Con.
I had a wonderful time but man, had II thought I needed any of the exclusives I'd have been pretty pissed off and disappointed too.
SDCC has become a travesty of its former self. I started going in 1995 then around 2005 it morphed into an entertainment/cosplay/toy/panel monstrosity. Two years later I watched a dude punch a security guard because he couldn't get his free poster signed and that was it for me. None of my friends, who went for decades, even go anymore...its kind of sad. It was our annual pilgrimage. A time when I saw people I only saw once a year. It was a time to be one with your tribe (of Dorks). It was a time to meet your heroes. It was a time to see things in person you'd only read about. It was a time to hunt for the treasures from your childhood. It was a great time...then it wasn't!
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