SDCC 2006 pt. 2

[furtech]

I'm not sure what the armor in the above photo is, but I saw it at the Square-Enix booth (I think). At the S-E booth they also had original pages from a manga I'm not familiar with (but looked neat) called, "Emblem of Roto". The Mach-5 is always an eye-draw! I loved that cartoon as a kid and seeing the car sitting there all-sleek and pointy is just too-cool! The last figure is a dark elf from the Worlds of Warcraft card game area.

There was much stuff to see and buy, though I managed to get through the con with only one large purchase for myself: a pirate belt with a cast bronze buckle. Before this, I'd used "Santa" buckles with new leather; this new buckle is -very- nice. Speaking of Pirates, they were everywhere! Here are a pair of rogues fronting for a booth selling "Pirates of the Carribean" merchandise. I still think FC missed the boat by not having a pirate theme this year!

The Chiodo brothers were there selling original art from the films and projects they've worked on. They have a special effects shop that has been around for years and always does good work. I love all the personality they get in their characters !

Here's a creature that reminded me of missmonstermel's work. Not toothy-enough, tho'. There aren't enough monster-makers in fandom and I looked forward to meeting her here. Tried to meet her again on Sunday, but no-go: she apparently had a really good time Saturday night and wasn't expected until after noon. Total bummer. But who could fault someone for having Too Much Fun at Comicon?

I seriously thought about buying this mask for Jen Seng, but they didn't have any for sale yet. I would pay good money to see her trick-or-treat as dwarf-Guile!

One of the more original costumes was this armor, made of palm fronds . Kind of a neat design, and the wearer had the right look for it. He said he didn't make it but (unfortunately) I didn't ask him where he got it. That would be great to build some tribal-creature-thing to go with!

A lot of pictures of the Lucius Malfoy statue have popped up, but one detail I noticed (I'm a costumer, remember?) was the buttons: they're tiny snakes! Of course, this makes doing the costume a bit harder, but it's not like I haven't done metal-casting before.



Although the corporate booths have squeezed many of the indies out of the show, there were still a lot of small toy and comic companies there. Small as in, one-person shops. The unfortunate part of this is that they -all- seemed to be selling the same thing: retro-invaderzim-goth toys. I have no qualms with any of those descriptors, but they all seemed soulless-- no personality at all (which is apparently their goal) and despite being unique designs, they could all have come from the same line of toys.

At the other extreme, there were those -desperate- to be unique/edgy/so-dumb-it's-cool (ultimately failing). One booth had a huge display of "toast" merchandise. Yup, toast--
This had "Wacky!" written all over it. (<--animators know what -that- means!)


My biggest peeve of the con is the presence of baby strollers. Not just "strollers" but those SUV-baby strollers that are just as inappropriate and obnoxious as their auto-counterparts. I used to have sympathy for new parents here...then I thought about it and got madder and madder: why in the WORLD do you bring babies and toddlers to the ComiCon?!!! They're WAY too young to appreciate or enjoy the show. Do they bring babies because you are so mundane that you need an excuse to be there? Or are you just -stupid-? Leave them at home, get a sitter or take turns watching them...but DON'T bring them into a convention hall filled with 125,000 people and barely room to walk! Those *&*(^^*(*!! huge strolling TANKS clog the aisles and are a hazard!


I would love it if they banned these like they did rolling carts. The only other thing almost as dangerous as these things are geek-backpacks: those packs that are about a foot-and-a-half thick with a poster tube sticking out of it. The clueless doofesses who wear them turn unexpectedly and if you don't get throated by the tube, you get knocked off your feet by the sheer mass of the pack hitting you. And the wearer is clueless to what he/she has just done.

Still, the show is a lot of geeky-fun and I look forward to next year, wherever it is held. Apparently it was so big this year that they're looking for new venues to hold SDCC at. The two leading candidates are the Anaheim Convention Center (good choice!) and the even larger L.A. Convention Center (mistake!!! No amenities or hotels nearby!). I sure would miss San Diego, though.

Comments

[dustmeat.livejournal.com]

I completely agree about the strollers---why are they even there? It's the same with street fairs, they run over everyone's toes.

[shoka.livejournal.com]

Strollers are annoying, but Thursday was the worst: some enourmously fat guy was riding a scamp-type scooter which was easily as large as a Goldwing motorcycle in the dealer's room. He took up more than half an aisle all by himself.

Agreed about the poster tubes and about clueless costumers who swing around their props. I was almost clipped in the face by someone waving a solid wooden paddle by some anime clad yaoi fan who wanted to spank an uke who was behind me.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Yeah-- some of the people in those scooters are a menace, too. Still, as annoying as the experience you and Roz had, at least these people are there because they want to be (as opposed to dragged-along kids).

Anyone who swings a prop around at the con should have it and their badge removed. There's just no room for overt stupidity.

[cooner.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've been saying the same thing about strollers in theme parks for years: If the kid's not old enough to move around under his own power for the length of the day, he's too young to appreciate the themeparks. This weekend I also decided this goes for Comic-Con, as well.

(It's a double-whammy, too: Not only are the SUV strollers big and bulky and potentially damaging, but their drivers seem to always have this sense of entitlement that because they are "with progeny," they should by default always have right-of-way or get jumped ahead in line, any other societal conventions be damned!)

As for San Diego: Yeah, that'd be sad if they have to move. I'd still attend if they moved almost anywhere else, but it's hard to imagine Anaheim or Los Angeles having the same "neighborhood" feel for after-con hours that San Diego has. Such a variety of restaurants and other amenities all within reasonable walking distance ...

[furtech.livejournal.com]

I've got a plan for those suvstrollers who act entitled: just stand in front of them and ignore them. When they ask you to move, just look at them and don't move. What are they gonna do, try and run you over? Their only option is to go around you and maybe say something rude. I just got fed up with the strollers who bang against your leg, expecting you to move faster or get out of the way.

San Diego -is- the ComiCon...sigh.

[waynekaa.livejournal.com]

Would you still call it SDCC if it was at the ACC? :D
Then I'd ponder going.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

I would reluctantly shorten the name to "ComiCon".

[spunkywulf.livejournal.com]

AAAAAAAHHH the Guile mask!!!! XD Hahhahahhahahh I don't think dwarf Guile would even begin to describe me if I wore that... more like... dwarf Guile with girls arms and... boobs. XD Thanks so much for thinking of me though!!! You're the sweetest :)

Oh, and my God, people seriously brought leagues of those SUV strollers to ComicCon?! Those strollers are hardly appropriate for standard suburbian sidewalks, let alone a crowded convention hall! Your commentary on both the strollers AND the Giant Geek BackPacks was more spot-on that I could ever wish to be. I think I was actually given air by one of those before, because I weigh about as much as a penny :(

[martes.livejournal.com]

I saw people with empty strollers filled with purchases, or strollers with kids obviously too old for them. It's a way for people to get around the 'no rolling carts or luggage' rule.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

There's no reason they can't use the kangaroo pouches or backpacks like Karisu mentions below. That would encourage them to think twice before bringing them to the con. Heck, the weight (and thought of carrying it around all day) of a few potential purchases kept me from buying the item!

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Hahaha! Yes! I want to see Transexual-dwarf-Guile-girly-arms! You'd get ALL the candy!

[karisu-sama.livejournal.com]

When our kids were toddlers, we used the smallest possible lightweight folding travel stroller we could find for them; maneuvering one of those annoying giant jogging things at a con would have been insane. (Not to mention, after about age 2.5, our kids were expected deal with relying on their legs - I think it's utterly nuts to coddle 4 and 5 year olds with strollers!!)

Before my kids were old / heavy enough to force the use of any stroller: really small baby (but at least old enough not to get sick from crowds) = kangaroo pouch, older baby who could sit up = sling harness on hip. Takes up less space, & could see where the kid was not to swing them into anybody. Builds both parental strength and character. :p

BUT yes: when they were young, it was always ONE of us getting to go into the panels and concerts and dealer's hall and such, while the other would hang out somewhere outside the crowd and deal with the kids - then we'd trade off. Neither of us wanted to be hampered by an attention-needing small child while in a crowded room for whatever reason. Therefore, we each got about half or less as much "con activity" as we normally would, but at least we both got to SOME. Certainly though I would never take a small child who is too young to be anything other than "dead weight" into a place like the SDCC dealer's room - heck, it's too crowded for ME to be comfortable in.

However: as a parent, I know how extremely hard (never mind frikken'expensive out the wazoo) it is to find any decent childcare, and particularly for anything involving overnights (ie: a weekend), pretty much impossible - especially if like us you don't have any family closer than 2000 miles to sucker into watching them.

For many people, not bringing the kids to events when the kids are small = not ever attending themselves (or doing much of ANYTHING for themselves), and basically capitulating to a life of being only an imprisoned kid-slave who can't have any sort of existence outside the drudgery of childcare. This leads to serious resentment - possibly hatred - of the kids, who really are innocent and don't deserve the resentment, even though they do require the care. (Too bad our society no longer is built on large extended families where there is always someone in rotation to take turns taking care of everyone's kids, so all parents could have some quality of life too.)

Parents should not go out of their way to impose, or use their kids as an excuse to demand all sorts of "entitlements", but kids ARE still part of the community, like it or not. My formerly wee ones who were taken to loads of cons (because, frankly, cons ARE our family's social life) have grown up to be active fans and participating members of the con community. Dealing with "the little kid issue" takes a certain amount of consideration and concession on both the part of the parents and the part of the rest of the community.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Right-- you guys are good parents. And you -know- what a rarity that is these days. When you have infants/toddlers, you have to make some sacrifices, give some things up for a while (the key is that this is a -temporary- situation). Too many of these nitwits drag infants and toddlers to inappropriate places because they assume--no, *expect*-- that ALL people LOVE baybees and will just thrill to see them! You two are thoughtful and considerate parents.

I fully appreciate how hard it can be to raise kids without the usual relative support group to help. Yes, they are part of the community-- but "community" has become a far more complex concept in these modern times. At the same time it seems that parents have gotten more stupid or selfish.

So a parent has to give up some activities for a few years...a healthy relationship shares those sacrifices: maybe one goes to the con while the other stays home and vice-versa the next time. When Frieda was in her decline, I cut -way- back on the conventions I travelled to because kenneling her was hard on the old dog. And when she was in her final decline, I skipped a LOT of events-- including SDCC-- because kennelling was traumatic for her (too much barking, confusing her). Resentment never entered my head: she was my friend and she needed me to do these things. Plus, I knew that a pet like a dog will have special needs (over, say, a fish) and that sacrifices might have to be made. Obviously I felt that the good points far outweighed the bad in getting a dog. The trouble with a lot of parents is that they have kids without realizing the responsibilities and sacrifices that will have to be made (for that matter, many people who get pets do the same thing).

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Only ONE major purchase? What willpower! ;D
I *really* splurged this year, moreso probably than in many years, part of spending the most amount of days there I ever had.. and probably a lot just to purge some island fever I've been having I guess.
Great report!

[furtech.livejournal.com]

I'm still in the midst of a major cleaning/purge of stuff, so I think ten times before I buy anything. A pirate belt has SO many uses that I couldn't just pass it up!

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

wow... well if you run out of dumpsters or recipients, I'm a willing victim of most collectible white elephants and assorted artful goodies ^v^ .