Overall Impression:
Terrible, poorly organized convention. Lots of backlash this year, I hope they fix these issues next year regarding the number of people. I got 15/32 items on my wish list which is pretty awesome. I spent well over $1200 making this the most expensive 3 days of my life, probably. I “saved” about $325 but I can’t really call it “saving” if I don’t really NEED ANY of this stuff. It’s still $1200 in the hole. I think the 3 day pass was well worth it, being able to come and go as I please, going home to rest/drop off loot. My apologies, my post discusses the amount of people more than the con itself. I didn’t take pictures, I didn’t see famous people, I didn’t participate in any tournaments, events, or panels. I go to the con solely for the dealer room…and the happiness/fun of my purchases cannot be expressed in a mere blog post.        …It would take a few blog posts. And a few galleries.

Purchased Items Day 3 section added Sept 1, 11:30PM

Day 1

Friday, August 27 – 3:30 pm

I’m at the pink dot at 3:30pm. Z and I got to the end of the line around 5:10pm…about an hour and a half after we started to line up. This is the pre-paid line, the line where people pay in advance. I would assume it would be smaller than the non-prepaid line as it requires planning ahead and most people don’t do that. However, if you know you’re going, like every year, then you fall in this group. Anyways, not sure how far the other line went. I would guess…pretty far.

The line, looking South, from the North East corner of the line

Nothing too notable about day 1. I’m more about the dealer room person than the other rooms/events/actors.
Purchased $325 worth of stuff…I thought that was a lot of money. Until the next day…… :S
Saw Helo (Tahmoh Penikett). Was a bit excited to see him, Helo was one of my favourite BSG characters.

Left around 8pm. The pre-paid line, at 8pm still looked like his:

I was shocked at how many people were/are going this year.

Got home at 8:30. My feet were dying…and I’d only been up and about for 4.5 hours. Pathetic! But I’m not that young anymore…

Day 2

Saturday, August 28 – 11:00 am

I couldn’t believe that the line was still this big at 11am. Not sure if this was the prepaid line or what…because I got a deluxe pass, I walked right in. It was sweet bypassing the line of 5 million.

I thought yesterday was really bad in terms of people (the number of people compared to the space). Today was SO MUCH WORSE. Like, I went this year but I don’t know if I can do this again, next year. I don’t like all these people, especially when you’re carrying around giant bags with toys you don’t want to damage. It just…wasn’t fun when it gets this busy. I think the number of people in the building was over persons capacity because the fire marshal came around 2pm and said they weren’t allowing anyone into the building (deluxe pass, vip pass, anything). People could only leave. This sucked because even people with passes already couldn’t get in. I was fortunate, I was just leaving…when…(and I think this is the most fun thing for me this weekend):

The DeLorean made my day :D Saw it right when I was leaving, at around 3pm.

Another 4.5 hours on my feet. Maybe that’s my limit.

Day 3

Sunday, August 29 – 2:15 pm

I was up late the night before reading comics….got to the con a little late today but it’s okay. Much to my dismay, it was still pretty busy. I hit up every row one last time, purchased some Udon Street Fighter TPBs and some more chibi-prints and 8.5×11 prints from Yanimator. I talked to him a bit, asked him if he had a website (to which he replied “yes…but nothing updated”, which pretty much means no. I mean, I think his art is great, I bought 8 prints from him this con which totaled $65…I just wish I could see more of his recent stuff whenever I wanted. My allergies have been particularly bad these last few days, the con atmosphere doesn’t help much. All these big, sweaty people…*shudder*. I walked behind Cavil (BSG) and his granddaughter for like, 2 minutes…that was pretty awesome. He’s about my height…on TV, he looks taller :P I left around 4, I had seen enough…maybe I’ll go next year….maybe. I got so much stuff this year…

Purchased Items

I’ll let this image do the talking:

Day 3: More prints

The top 8, from Yanimator, clockwise from top left:

Ino Yamanaka (Naruto), Naruto and Sakura (Naruto), Tifa Lockheart (Final Fantasy VII), (the) Little Mermaid, Harlequin (Batman), Uchiha Itachi (Naruto), Lightning/Raitoningu (Final Fantasy XIII), Unknown (please let me know if you know who this is).

BTW, do NOT GOOGLE IMAGE Harlequin EVER. It’s like 4chan all over again. WHAT HAS BEEN SEEN CANNOT BE UNSEEN. /cry

The bottom pics, clockwise from top left:

Haruno Sakura (Naruto), Uchiha Sasuke (Naruto), Rock Lee (Naruto), Kirby stealing hats (Smash Bros.), Yagami Light (Death Note), L (Death Note), Ryuk (Death Note), Samus (Metroid), Toothless (How to train your dragon), Freakazoid! (Freakazoid! Runs around in underwear! Freakazoid! Freakazoid!), Cybersix (Cybersix), Bob (ReBoot), “I think I heard something” Soldier (Metal Gear Solid series), Robin (Batman), Superman, Wonder Woman.

The artist was selling 3/5$ which I thought was a pretty ridiculously awesome deal. With the Kirby, I ended up giving her $30. And I ended up giving Yanimator 65…yikes.

Wish List

Purchased
Will buy tomorrow
Won’t buy (right now)/Couldn’t find/Unreleased

Free pass: 3 FREE FanExpo iTunes download cards – couldn’t find, even after 3 days
Art book: The Art of Darksiders – 80
Art book: UDON’s Art of Capcom 2 – 80
Art book: Vent – Udon Compilation – too expensive, wait for paperback
Art book: Replicant Works – 2002 – 2004, 2007+ – dammit…forgot to look for this…. -_-;
Art book: Adam Huges Cover Run – 40
Comic: Street Fighter
Comics TPB: JLA Earth 2
Toy: Dragonzord – couldn’t find
Toy: Megazord – couldn’t find
Toy: Ame-Comi – Poison Ivy – 47.50 – 12.50 discount
Toy: Ame-Comi – Hawkgirl – 47.50 – 12.50 discount
Toy: Transformers Blastar (booth 925) – 50
Toy: Batgirl DC Direct JLA Classified Classic – 15
Toy: Transformers Masterpeice/Walmart – too expensive
Toy: Supergirl Mattel – 45 – 5 discount
Toy: Hush – Catwoman – already have one (broken), no rush to get one
Manga: Battle Vixens 12-15 – to buy
Statue: http://ryanlb.com/images/sdcc09/black-canary-statue.jpg – 80
Statue: http://ryanlb.com/images/sdcc09/power-girl-statue.jpg – 80
Statue: Zatanna Statue – 80
Statue: http://ryanlb.com/images/sdcc09/wonder-woman-statue.jpg – to buy…maybe?

UNRELEASED
Statue: http://ryanlb.com/images/sdcc09/catwoman-statue.jpg – 100
Manga: Prince of Tennis Manga (38/42) as of Aug 25, 2010. Waiting on Box Set
Manga: Hikaru no Go (21/23) as of Aug 25, 2010. Waiting on Box Set
Manga: Naruto Vol 28-49/??(as of Aug 25, 2010). Waiting on Collector’s Box Set II
Toy: Ame-Comi – Jesse Quick
Art book: Icons: The DC Comics & Wildstorm Art of Jim Lee – Not released yet
Art book: Street Fighter II – The Ultimate Edition – Unreleased?