This past weekend was New York Comic Con which took place at the Jacob Javits Center. It was that time of the year where all the geeks were united under one roof. My friend and I got three day passes and we were set for the whole weekend.
When attending the Cons, it was always a sensory overload. So many sights and sounds to take in all at once. It was difficult to decide where to go or look first. This was probably my fourth time attending the Con, and it never ceases to be overwhelming and awesome at the same time.
My friend and I made an attempt to try and attend more panels this year. Of course, that didn’t pan out the way we thought it would. We mainly got stuck on the showroom floor and watching people pass us by in their cosplay. There were a ton of things that could easily distract a convention goer.
There were plenty of exhibitors from Square Enix to Midtown Comics selling merchandise that would make any geek giddy. Pictures are worth a thousand words, and I’m going to let the photos I took speak for themselves.
I am a huge Mass Effect fan. No surprise there, right? What do you think I found when I was walking around the convention floor? Mass Effect figurines!
The figures were done well. As much as I would have loved to have taken Female Shepard home with me, I didn’t have the space or the money to buy her. I will just have to be content with a photo of this awesome figurine. They also had Male Shepard, but I still love Female Shepard more.
A lot of the figures that were being sold at the convention were so detailed and looked very much like the characters from the video games. You know you were getting quality figurines when such care was put into making them.
Aside from the figurines, there were some pretty cool looking Lego statues on display at the Lego booth. Take a look at this Gandalf and Bilbo Baggins statue from the upcoming The Hobbit movie.
Or maybe you might prefer something big, green, and mad? Like this Lego Hulk?
Of course what convention would be complete without taking photos of some cool cosplayers. Among the popular costumes this year were Doctor Who, Bane from Batman, and the Black Widow from this summer’s recent Avengers movie. I took photos of the costumes I liked best, but there were tons of others that were just as good too.
While my friend and I didn’t quite go to as many panels we would have liked to (we went to just two), at least the panels we went to were pretty major. We attended a panel for Stan Lee on Saturday and then a Q & A session for Tom Felton, better known as Draco Malfoy of the Harry Potter films, on Sunday. To me, these two panels were the highlights of the convention experience.
Unfortunately for Stan Lee’s panel, I couldn’t get an actual photo of him from where I was sitting because my friend and I were too far back from the stage. The best I could capture was the screen they showed of the stage and table. This panel talked about upcoming television projects as well as to promote Stan Lee’s current show, Cocktails with Stan. Stan Lee seemed like a very nice guy with a great sense of humor too.
And of course, there was the Q & A panel for Tom Felton. Seats were completely full, but a limited amount of people were allowed to do standing room. My friend and I were lucky to get in on the standing room only space, and we stood at a pretty good spot to see Tom. He answered mainly questions about Harry Potter, a few on his post-Potter projects, and dealing with fame and being typecast in roles. Tom was charming, funny, and just a very down to earth type of guy. Hopefully he gets more film roles in the future.
There you have it. This is my New York Comic Con experience over the three days I attended. It was fun, chaotic, and full of geeky goodness. I am hoping that next year I will do better with the panel attending. There were some panels for manga and anime related things, but unfortunately I never made it to any of those. Maybe next year!
simpleek 
First, I would like to say how jealous I am that you got to enjoy NYCC. I have never been but I think I will plan a trip up there to at least experience it once. It looks like you had a lot of fun, seems like all the internet geeks I know were there. Do you live in NYC?
It really was fun. I would recommend going even if it’s just for one time. And yes, I do live in NYC. Born and raised. 😉
I’m glad you had fun! I have yet to attend a Con, so I’m jealous. =) And based on your post here, now I know to save up money and make my first Con a shopping excursion as well. Those figures look amazing!
This is why my friend and I didn’t go to as many panels as we wanted to. Most of the time you get stuck on the showroom/exhibitor floor. When there’s so much being sold or games to demo it’s really hard to squeeze time for panels. Unless there is something specific you absolutely cannot miss like the two panels we did see. 😀 And yes, saving as much money as possible before a Con weekend is always a good idea. You never know what you may want to buy!
Didn’t go to New York Comic-Con this year but I’m glad you had a good time! Though I have to say I miss New York Anime Festival before it was combined with NYCC.
I only got to attend NYAF once, and that was the last year they decided to keep it separate from NYCC. It’s a shame too. I enjoyed it as a separate event. If anything, NYCC ended up swallowing NYAF and hardly anyone notices much of the anime/manga side of the convention. Either way, it was a fun weekend.
Sounds like you had a great time~ I didn’t know getting into panels was so hard. The one time I went to a convention. I went as part of my anime club and we were sort of on duty so panels were never even part of the plan. 😦
A few thoughts:
-Those Mass Effect figures are made by Square Enix aren’t they? I say this because it says play arts on the little display and I recall that’s the name of the figures line from SE. It’s nice to see some more collaberation between east and west. :3 Also, yeah they are lovely, too bad they are so expensive. D:
-Lego Figurines: I thought those were cosplayers at first! Until I read what you wrote and clicked to make the picture bigger. It’s always amazing what you can build with lego.
– Cosplayers: All very nice. Lightning’s has a lot of details (and if I can be nit picky, the wig is the only thing lacking detail as it isn’t styled a la Light’s usual hair style, but this is a really minor nit pick. ^__^;;; Don’t mind me~ ) I want that Layton hat! It’s so big. *drools*
-Wow, Darco is all grown up. My mental picture of him is forever fixed on how he was in the first few Potter movies (just like with the rest of the cast as well). xD
Ugh, typed this waaay too fast. A few typos:
*collaboration
*Draco
Yes, the figures were done by Square Enix. Or at least I remember reading that somewhere about the Mass Effect figures. I loved gazing at the Mass Effect figures as well as the Final Fantasy ones too, but I wasn’t willing to drop $60 or more on them either.
Yup, those were Lego statues and not cosplayers. 😛 I can see how you would think they might be cosplayers, but a lot of those Lego statues were about the same height as most convention goers. They were nicely done though.
I agree about the Lightning wig on that cosplayer. It wasn’t quite how Lightning’s hair looks in the games, but the cosplayer obviously had to work with what she got. I still liked it overall. My favorite was Professor Layton and Luke. As soon as I saw that couple, I really had to stop them and ask for a photo.
It is strange how Tom Felton and the other HP crew are all grown up. It’s very surreal! Even I can’t not think of them as those little kids from the first film.