This year’s Mega Con would indeed be different, in that I was going it alone for the first time. That, and for the first time ever, I was getting there intentionally early to beat the awful I-4 traffic that builds up early on Saturdays. I left my house at 7:30AM that Saturday, as what else is someone with not much of a life and a bit of money to squander supposed to do?
The drive up was uneventful, except for the fact that I breezed by my exit, oblivious to my surroundings and had to backtrack it. Once I got to the convention center at about 9AM, I could tell I was early, although the lines for advanced ticket pickup were about what I’ve grown accustom to after going for five straight years now.
Once I got in, it was awesome. I was early enough to get to actually see something from vendor to vendor and within about an hour I already had wasted some of my hard earned money on useless plastic to clog up my shelves (more on that later.)
I spent the majority of that day just soaking in all the costumed freaky people that I love so much. I didn’t go to any panels that day, as all of the panels I wanted to see were really on Sunday. Mainly I wanted to see the Battlestar guest panel that included James Callis, Lucciana Carro, Jennifer Halley and Dirk Benedict among others. Otherwise, there were just some Anime panels I wanted to catch about mecha and Evangelion specifically. I just wished I hadn’t missed the Anime costume contest.
As the first day wore on, I started feeling like shit. I was either getting a cold or having some of the worst allergies I’ve had in some time. Not sure which was happening, but regardless I felt like death warmed over from about 3:00 in the afternoon onward. Needless to say, that sucked.
After a long day of walking my ass off all over the Orange County Convention Center taking tons of pictures/wasting money, I set about checking into my hotel down the street. That was fun. Especially when a hotel has physically more rooms than they do parking spaces! Ughhh. Eventually I just said the hell with it and parked in what I figured to be the least likely tow-away zone, then went to my room to collapse. Then I of course took the obligatory, “con haul” pic I’m sure anyone in the loser reading blogdom has seen a million times over. And yes, you do see a robot or two in there, although none of them are transformable, but man, am I drifting now from my supposed toy robot enlightenment that my Macross Frontier valkyries were supposed to take me. But no matter, I just couldn’t help myself when I saw the Kotobukiya Linebarrel model kit I wanted to build the second I saw it in Hobby Japan a few months back.
The next day was really more of the same, just with more panel-y goodness than the first day and less toy robot related buying. I did finally get a hold of a Revoltech YF-19, though. The Battlestar panel was what started my day at 10:30. It was as great as I thought it’d be. All of the actors were very insightful and it was cool that I got to ask the first question of any of the panel attendees. I asked James Callis specifically how it felt, to week in and week out, get to play a character that emphasized most of human nature’s worst qualities. He seemed to really appreciate the question, as he answered it as best I remember, that he did think that his version of Baltar was less a villian than the first Baltar played by Colicos in the original series. The new Baltar is just much more of a misguided, flawed character than he is intentionally evil. I was satisfied with that answer, as I feel very much the same way about that character. When I went to his signing, he thanked me for the question and inscribed on my picture “Dear Zack, if you want ot know what it means to be human, honestly you’re asking the wrong Gaius! All the best, James Callis.” So SO AWESOME! This was after we both were discussing the show and it’s underlying themes of what it means to be human.
The anime panels run by Anime Sushi were pretty good. They even covered the Japanese series of Transformers, which I found a bit unexpected. Why? I don’t know.
So after all that, I went home feeling physically worse than ever and hoping that I get to feel better for FX International in Orlando in just a month and a half away.
Last but not least—I leave you to the pictures!
This is what 9 AM on a Saturday at Megacon looks like.
This is what anyone who's been to a Mega Con can attest--the floor is CROWDED most of the time.
Adam Hughes at work. I got a couple signed sketchbooks of his. The man is awesome.
The Doctor! Grown men in tights! Holy crap!
A big reason I was there is on the top line.
Geeks on the loose! On the prowl!
Tricia Helfer's ungodly line. She was only there Saturday.
Security had to convene at one point.
My Saturday haul. Yup, robots and anime chicks. Nothing else to see here. Loves me some Linebarrel, too.
Sunday morning, 9AM
Sunday afternoon
BSG panel
Callis speaks.
I need to use the commode. "By your command." And why the hell were they serving sandwiches in the "Restrooms?"
R2 + new school Cylon= too frakin rad!
A Watchmen movie this year meant stuff like this. Nice.
My favorite pic. Not sure what is more awesome, Iron Fist or Darth Vader in his Sunday's best on a Sunday?
As a side note, I looked at Flickr this week and realized that my pictures were decidedly crappier than most of the other attendees, so here’s a link to those if you just can’t get enough of Mega Con 2009!
