Comic Con 09: The Exhibit Hall

Comic Con.

I’m tempted to stop typing right now. But Kripke is in his hot tub yelling, “I don’t hear typing!” so I guess I better keep at it.

My first day at Comic Con was a little less hectic than usual since I decided to stay in a hotel for the night. I even took one of those pedicabs to the convention center and it was a nice, relaxing way to start the day.

My first stop was the exhibit hall and incredibly, I could actually see the floor! There must have been some major panels going on upstairs because I had a chance to walk and even see some of the great booths. I made a beeline for my favorite booth – Warner Brothers to see if I could spot any sign of the Winchester Brothers and I found them — or as close as I was going to get since Jensen and Jared weren’t scheduled to be at the con. (I held out hope that they might surprise us, but alas, they didn’t.)

I did manage to snag one of those cool Vampire Diaries / Human Target bags. Looks like there was no Supernatural bag this year, or did I miss it? On the last day of the con, they did hand out buttons with Dean and an evil-looking Sam on a white background with the birds and inkblots behind them. They also handed out mini-posters for their new shows but I slapped my own hand to keep from taking them as I still have a pile of posters from last year that I haven’t touched.

BBC America had a popular booth with a life-sized Dalek, there was a Wolverine wax statue that looked like it might move any minute and Fox had a nice display of Futurama action figures. Fox gave away an autograph book that had postcards from their shows in the front and blank pages at the back for signing.

Bigger is better at Comic Con, so one studio brought in the actual Black Beauty from the new Green Hornet movie, another had the bumblebee Camaro and a 12 foot Transformer, all of which was dwarfed by an enormous machine from Avatar!

For those who like to interact with their exhibits, you could jump into an electric chair and take a virtual reality trip through your nightmares. You could be photographed stepping up to the Stargate or get a Village ID badge courtesy of  AMC’s The Prisoner.

And check out the lovely ladies from the V Recruitment Center. They were handing out pamphlets detailing how you can become part of the Vistors’ ambassador program, an item that is actually seen in the V pilot. As an added personal touch (which is so in tune with the series) instead of simply handing out V buttons, you had to allow the girls to pin it on your badge lanyard. I’ll bet that bit of up close and personal converted more than a few male con attendees into V fans.

Up next, I’ll talk about the V panel, also Fringe, Smallville, Supernatural and John Barrowman flirts with everyone on the Torchwood panel.

My photos are not the best, so visit Original Prop Blog for some great photos of the big props at the con. Visit TheWB.com for more photos of the Exhibit Hall.