My SDCC 2016 Experience, Part 2

Part 1 of my experience can be found here.

Day 3

First line of business for Saturday was to get a wristband at the Tokidoki booth for a signing with its creator, Simone Legno. I've managed to do this several years in a row, minus one year when I didn't get to their booth in time He signed a small figure and did a sketch of Bastardino (aka Cactus Dog). It's one of the very few signings during the convention that I feel isn't much of a hassle to get into.

Prior to the signing, my friend and I roamed the exhibit hall. We checked out a few booths that we had missed and also ran into some familiar faces.

Danny Trejo visits the My Little Pony throne.

The Walking Dead producer Greg Nicotero chats with attendees.

Although I barely took any photos of attendees in cosplay (I also decided not to wear one of my costumes due to the weather being too warm/muggy), I was happy to see a few from my current favorite video game, Overwatch. And there were a bunch of Pokemon trainers each day because of Pokemon Go, obviously.

I loved this little guy's reaction during his photo-op with the Power Rangers.

Awesome renditions of Tracer, Roadhog, and Junkrat from Overwatch.

The afternoon was spent checking out the off site events behind the Convention Center. Some of these included FX, Adult Swim On the Green, and the yacht from Fear the Walking Dead. The weather was too hot to hop into any lines, so we continued to wander until we were back at the Marriott Marquis and hung out again at the Con Suite. After about an hour, we headed back to the Convention Center and got on the hotel shuttle. My pending Saturday night plan was to try and check out at least one off site event on my list. But because the shuttle got caught up in traffic and we couldn't find a place for dinner right away (most restaurants outside of downtown were either near closing or were closed by 10), I asked to be dropped off at the Gaslamp area. One thing to make note of when attending SDCC is to not expect everything to go as planned. Always have a Plan B (or C, D, etc.) so as to not disappoint yourself. I managed to meet up with other friends who were in the area and eventually had a late dinner before calling it a day. 

Day 4

This was the last day of SDCC, so I had to make the most of it. I was ready to head out a bit after 9am. I managed to dress up after all, sort of. I put together a casual getup as Tadashi Hamada of Big Hero 6, complete with Baymax. A friend and I headed to Nerd HQ. This was the only time I was able to check the place out. Last year I had gone to their dance party on Saturday night, which I had hoped to do the previous evening, but to no avail. One thing I did do differently this year was check out their gaming area. I played a demo of Titanfall 2, which was pretty fun. I also visited the Krave Kafeteria, which served visitors bowls of Krave cereal throughout the day. NOM. They even gave out full size boxes for free, but I skipped on taking one since I didn't want to have to carry it around with me all day. 

We crossed over to Marriott Marquis to pass through the Nintendo Gaming Lounge. This by far marks the most times I've been to this hotel during any SDCC year. Our timing was perfect because at the photo-op area was Pikachu. I haven't had a pic taken with him in a few years, so you bet I was excited! I was back at the photo-op area less than an hour after because Mario also made an appearance. The lounge had their usual game demos and a tournament for Super Smash Bros. They also had the upcoming NES Classic Edition console on display. It's less than half the size of the original NES, plus it's pre-loaded with 30 popular games. Do I want this? Heck yes. 

Finally made our way back to the Convention Center to walk around the exhibit hall, and then go to the parking lot at the Hilton where my friend parked to chill out and play Pokemon Go. The game had a panel in the afternoon with rumors going around via social media that the creators of the game planned to drop a legendary Pokemon. Sure enough, it was too good to be true. Not a total loss since I was able to level up a few of my collection and catch some new ones. Great way to define adulting, eh?! Afterwards, my friend had to start their drive back up to the Bay Area, so I headed inside the Convention Center to meet up with other friends. We were out of there before the PA system made their closing announcements. 

My traditional post-Con plan of going to Altitude for their all day happy hour and watch the convention area empty out was a no go since everyone else in my group was out and about. However, I got to go to Bub's at the Ballpark again for their awesome tater tots. Couldn't stay out too late since I still had to drop by the condo to move out my stuff...again. I would have surely been able to do more this year if I didn't have to relocate so many times. It really seemed like an OK plan at first since it saved me some money on lodging, but man, so tiring! I had 2 days remaining of my trip and used them to decompress. I did some additional hotel hopping, but it wasn't as bad since I didn't have to be anywhere downtown. A local friend was nice enough to treat me to a post-Con massage. So happy I finally got around to doing that after a few years of considering one. I also shipped my SDCC purchases home, and they arrived the next day after I flew back to SF.

This was actually one of my smaller hauls from SDCC.

Got into apparel this year. Loved what I purchased from toddland, Sanrio, and Tokidoki.

And that concludes my time at SDCC 2016. Each year will always differ from the last, whether it be good or bad. My main focus for next time is to make improvements with my planning on all parts. You can see more photos from my time there in my Project Life July post.