MegaCon 2017 – Full Breakdown

While this wasn’t my first MegaCon ever, this was actually my fourth show, it was the first time that I went for all four days. Believe me this is no easy thing. You go through all of these emotions from the four days that it’s just crazy. On Thursday you’re super excited and sometimes a little nervous because you don’t know the setup or how everything is going to be. On Friday you kind of feel like a pro since you spent most of Thursday wandering around. Saturday your still pretty excited depending on what you’re doing, but the thrill of being at the convention is dwindling and by Sunday you are dead tired. You want to finish up and get the hell out of there.

I will say that out of all the MegaCon’s that I’ve been to, this one was probably the best and most exciting. I had sprung for some VIP tickets which meant a lot of saving throughout the year, but it was well worth it. The VIP pass gives you access to a lot more things and it also has a bunch of benefits. In the past years I was lucky if I was able to get one or two autographs at most, but this year I was able to get a total of 14 autographs as well as have front row seating at 4 panels. I was also granted priority access to the photo-op’s which was nice. I have to say though that with the photo-op’s even if you didn’t have VIP passes, you were still able to get your pictures taken, but by that time the celebrities had seen anywhere from 100+ people and they look a little tired themselves.

That being said all four days were action packed ones and there wasn’t a day that I wasn’t busy. I did get to do my usual walking around, but felt this year that a lot of the vendors and artists at Artist Alley were the same from last year and there really wasn’t anything new. By Friday I felt like I had seen it all and there was nothing left to see. The amount of Cosplay this year was top notch like it usually is. There were a bunch of Overwatch characters this year as well as the usual comic Cosplay.

One of the most interesting things I had seen all weekend came courtesy of artist Nathan Salmon, you should follow him on Twitter @salmnat. This guy is just amazing and can basically create anything you want in under three minutes. I had him create three pieces of art work for me and he even let me tape him working on two. The first piece he created was a simple rainbow waterfall and the second piece was from Fallout. Check out the videos below.

Like I said before, I was also able to attend four panels throughout the weekend. One for was Richard Dean Anderson, Famke Janssen, Jeri Ryan, and Mass Effect with Jennifer Hale and Ali Hillis. Luckily I was able to record all four and you can watch them below.

I have to say that out of all the MegaCon’s that I’ve been to, this was by far the best one. I had a really great time and I don’t know how next year will top this year, but as always I’m excited to find out.

MegaCon T-Shirt Challenge!

I know you guys are all wondering how this impossible challenge went for me. From my gaming goals for the year, you can see that I like a challenge, so I challenged myself to wear a different T-shirt for each photo-op I had planned and each selfie. I have to say that it actually went quite well and here is a breakdown of everything:
• Rocky Horror Duo Photo-Op with Nell Campbell and Patricia Quinn – COMPLETE! – Wore a Rocky Horror Picture Show shirt I got at the convention.

• Stan Lee Photo-Op – COMPLETE! – Wore a Deadpool shirt.

• Billy West Selfie – FAIL! – I couldn’t find a Futurama T-shirt before the convention or at the convention.

• Alice Cooper Photo-Op – COMPLETE! – Wore an Alice Cooper T-shirt.

• Felicia Day Photo-Op – COMPLETE! – I wore a Guild T-shirt.

• Famke Janssen Photo-Op – COMPLETE! – I wore a Jean Grey X-Men T-shirt.

• Ali Hillis Selfie – COMPLETE! – I wore a N7 T-shirt.

• Jennifer Hale Selfie – COMPLETE! – I wore the same N7 T-shirt.

• Tim Curry Photo-Op – COMPLETE! – I wore my Rocky Horror Picture Show T-shirt.

• Elyes Gabel Selfie – FAIL! – I didn’t think I was going to meet him or even take a selfie so I wasn’t prepared.

• Nolan North Selfie – COMPLETE! – I wore an Uncharted 4 T-shirt.

So out of every photo-op and selfie I only missed two. Not bad right? Since this year was such a success I plan on doing the same thing next year. We’ll see if I’m able to beat or match my record.

Overheard at the Convention

When you’re at a convention, everyone basically talks to everyone. If you’re standing in line, the person behind you talks to you or a crew member will be extra chatty. Everyone is always friendly because there’s no judgement and everyone is there for the same reason. When you’re in line with someone for an autograph or a photo-op you bond even more because for some reason you’re there to meet that celebrity or take your photo with that celebrity for sometimes the same reason. This also happens at panels as you sit next to random people and to kill time until the panel starts you chat. Anyway, I heard some interesting things at this years MegaCon and I thought I would share it with you because who doesn’t like to be a little gossip every now and again?

The first thing I overheard was when I was standing in line at the MegaCon shop. At the time, I listened to what seemed to be this cute couple dressed at Captain America and Black Widow talk about their future plans and kids. Having an extra 20% off coupon I was going to turn around and hand it to them until they reached the Love is Love comic book. When her husband was looking at the comics I heard her say, “Ew! Don’t pick that up, it has gay stuff in it.” Being part of the LGBT community I took a deep breath and bit my tongue as I heard the husband say, “You’re right this stuff is gross and doesn’t belong here.” Seriously? Needless to say, this couple did not get my extra 20% discount.

Then there was the guy and girl standing next to me on the photo-op line for Stan Lee. At first I thought they were a cute couple that looked loving as everyone was excited about getting a picture with Stan Lee, that was until the guy opened his mouth. It started with telling his girlfriend that she stepped on his new shoes and how would she like it if he did it to her. It grew worse from there until he was basically verbally abusing her and threatened her that if she ruined his $300 Guardians of the Galaxy print that he would cut her. WTF! All the girl did was stand there with her head down. Then I had to listen to him tell someone how he bought a VIP ticket for himself but he wasn’t wasting that kind of money on her. Some guys are just assholes.

My next story comes to you via some random guy sitting next to me as we waited for the Famke Janssen panel. He was having the absolute worst day ever in the most dramatic fashion. And he kept repeating it until I asked him why he was having the worst day ever. Big mistake. Huge mistake because the flood gates opened. Everyone except this guy apparently was told that at the photo-op with Famke Janssen that she doesn’t want to be touched so don’t touch her. Can you guess where this story is going? This guy touched her and she freaked the fuck out. Like total meltdown kind of freak out. Seriously though, they told everyone no to touch her. I’m sure they didn’t miss this guy because you were literally stopped and told not to touch her and have to give some kind of understanding of the notion that you couldn’t touch her. And then he was pissed because Ian Somerhalder was there and he just hated him because this one time he insulted her sister. This conversation went on so long that I zoned out and thanked God when the panel started. I felt trapped there and wished I had a Wild E. Coyote sign that said “Help Me!” After the panel was over the guy booked it out of there and the guy that was behind me tapped me on the shoulder and told me how bad he felt for me. I thanked him and we chatted about the weird conversation as we waited for the Jeri Ryan panel.

While waiting to get down to the floor show, I was chatted up by this nice guy that was trying to go to as many panels as possible. When he said that he went to the Rocky Horror Picture Show panel, I asked him how it was since I missed it and apparently I missed a lot. While Nell Campbell was telling a story, Patricia Quinn said that she was lying and asked her to tell the correct story. When Nell refused, Patricia walked off stage never to return. The moderator tried to go after her while Nell Campbell and Barry Bostwick continued to talk to the audience but Patricia Quinn never returned and the panel went on without her.

While waiting for Nolan North, I watched Troy Baker’s handler come out and get things ready. Disappointed at the small line Troy had, he started calling out to people asking if they wanted to meet Troy. Who doesn’t want to meet Troy? It’s not like other big voice actors were there, I mean he was stationed between Jennifer Hale and Nolan North, but you know who are they compared to Troy Baker? Apparently Troy won’t come out until he has a huge line of people waiting for him. Diva much?

And that was just about everything I heard at MegaCon 2017. Some of it was sucky, some of it was downright outrageous, some of it was interesting and gossipy, and other things just proved a point about Troy Baker that I already knew.

Autograph Session – MegaCon 2017 – Gina Torres

Being a Firefly fan, meeting Gina Torres was a must. How could I have skipped that autograph session? She also happened to be my last autograph for the event. The wait for her line was crazy long, even being a VIP. There was also a lot of confusion because she never came out for autographs before her panel so numbers were given to those people and they were made the priority. This was fine because I still had a lot of time before I had to make my Mass Effect Q&A Panel.

When it was finally my turn, she shook my hand and introduced herself to me while I did the same. I told her how much I enjoyed her in Firefly as he daughter picked out the color pen she should use for my autograph. The color choice was excellent as it really pops on the Firefly poster that she signed for me. The session was short, but her line was super long and by this time I was also super tired. When she was finished I told her it was a pleasure to meet her and thanked her for my autograph before I went on my way. It was a nice autograph session to close out a super crazy event and a bunch of different autograph sessions.

Autograph Session – MegaCon 2017 – Nolan North

Sunday was kind of like my clean-up day for the autographs. They were autographs that I wanted but ones that I just couldn’t fit in the previous days or because people simply weren’t there all four days. Nolan North fell into this category and he was one of the autographs that I was waiting for because of my love of the Uncharted games.

When I got my chance to meet Nolan North, he was super nice about signing my poster and we chatted about Uncharted for a little. I did mention that I was a little displeased with the fact that Uncharted 4 was seriously lacking some Chloe. He did point out that she is getting her own DLC, but I said it would have been nice to have more than a note from her in Uncharted 4. He then comically said again how she was getting her own DLC!

After that I got a quick chance to ask about my guilty pleasure TV show Pretty Little Liars. Anyone who watches the show knows that he plays Spencer’s dad. I of course had to ask him who “AD” was even though I knew I wasn’t going to get an answer. It’s just one of those things that I had to ask. I gave him my theory that Spencer was “AD” and he said he had never heard that one before, but if I was right I would get a shout out. After joking about what a man whore his character was on the show it was time for a selfie and time to move on.

Autograph Session – MegaCon 2017 – Elyes Gabel

If you’ve been keeping up with my MegaCon blogs, then you know I talked about Elyes Gabel being at MegaCon. I didn’t think I would get the chance to meet him, but after my Tim Curry photo-op, I was passing by his booth and there was one person ahead of me. Debating whether or not to go, I remembered how much my mom loves him on Scorpion and decided to get an autograph for her.

Even though it wasn’t for me, Elyes was completely cool about the autograph and personalized it for my mom with a special message for her. He even took about 15 – 20 minutes with me talking about a bunch of different things like Scorpion, especially after my dad asked if Walter and Paige were the end game couple. He said he wasn’t sure and then my dad mentioned that Walter was married to Happy and then Elyes Gabel asked us to choose who we would pick. My dad picked Paige and I told him that I would choose Happy. He looked surprised and felt told him that it was because she was super smart and an incredible engineer. He responded with how moody her character was, but I told him that I liked the moody girls which got a genuine laugh from him. We chatted a little more and then he asked how old I was after the Happy debate. I told him that I was going to be 32 and he said that I looked like I was 22. Who knew Eyles Gabel was such a charmer? We spent even more time talking about some various other things and I have to say that Elyes Gabel is an amazing person. After we finished chatting we took a selfie and then I got a hug from him. I apologized that he had to bend down so much because he’s super tall and I’m super short and he laughed it off an and told me he would send me his chiropractor’s bill. It was a really great day to end a very busy Saturday.

Autograph Session – MegaCon 2017 – Jennifer Hale

This wasn’t my first time meeting Jennifer Hale, I had first met her about four years ago at my very first MegaCon. To be honest, at that time I was thinking about going and then they announced that Jennifer Hale was going to be there and my ticket was bought. I mean I didn’t think I would ever get the chance to meet her once, but since the time I had originally met her, I acquired a new piece of Mass Effect art work and it was sorely missing a signature from her. I think that when you have a certain piece of art work from one of your favorite games what makes it more special is having the people who are in the game sign it. It not only makes it more special, but also more personal. Since she was attending I figured why not and stopped at her super crowded line after meeting Ali Hillis. You can read about my experience meeting Ali Hillis here.

What’s great about meeting Jennifer Hale is that if you bring her something that she hasn’t seen before she’s always super impressed and will take some time to chat with you about it which is pretty cool. Even if you don’t she always takes the time out to chat with her fans and that’s one of the great things about her. What’s even cooler was that because I brought something similar the last time I met her she actually remembered me. Do you know how great that felt? Pretty damn great.

Seeing that Ali Hillis had personalized the same piece of art work, she did the same for me before snapping off a few selfies with me. I got the chance to tell her how much I missed her in Mass Effect and I got a smile before she told me to make sure to let BioWare know.

Autograph Session – MegaCon 2017 – Ali Hillis

After two back to back photo-ops and wanting to get to the Famke Janseen panel, I knew I had to be quick to meet one of my favorite Mass Effect voice actors. I have to say that Saturday was just a huge day of jumbled nerves because I was meeting some pretty awesome people. As many of you know, Ali Hillis plays Dr. Liara T’Soni who just happens to be my FemShep’s favorite lady. I had three autographs I wanted so it meant I got to spend a lot of time with her.

While getting my autographs, I just had to show off my Liara tattoo, which she then proceeded to take a picture of and even tweet out to the world before I told her that she was my favorite character. She thanked me and told me to lean in close as she gave me a little Liara as she continued to sign. She commented on the pieces that I had brought to her and told me that she personalized one special for me because she never signs like that for anyone else. With one more autograph to go I had to tell her that five out of six of my FemSheps choose Liara each time. That got me a look and I said that I was sorry as one of my FemShep’s just had to choose Samantha Traynor. Looking upset she told me to lean in close again as she gave me a disappointed Liara impression. It made the whole session just that much more amazing, I mean I didn’t think it could be topped, but there was one more moment because I of course needed a selfie.

Everyone by this time knows that I had my dad with me so when it comes to selfies he’s the one that gets stuck taking them for me. I had him take one picture before Ali Hillis took my phone for herself and told me she would take our selfies to make it look like we were best friends and because she knew how to take the best selfies. After snapping off a few shots, we were done. Turns out Ali Hillis really does know how to take the best selfies. Seriously one of the best convention moments of the day.

Autograph Session – MegaCon 2017 – Famke Janssen

After meeting Felicia Day, I realized that Famke Janseen had finally come out to her booth, after there was some debate on whether or not she would come out before her photo-op and panel, and basically rushed to the nearest VIP escort to get pushed to the front of her line because I had my photo-op with Felicia Day in 10 minutes. I was cutting it super close and I totally knew this which made me even more nervous than I already was because I was about to meet the original Dr. Jean Grey.

There were five other VIP’s in front of me and I was a nervous wreck as I kept checking the time. When it was finally my turn, I knew I had to be quick so I told her how much I loved her as Eve in How to Get Away with Murder. If you watch How to Get Away with Murder how could you not love the character that she played? She played it to sheer perfection. She smiled and thanked me as she signed my autographs. Totally forgetting about X-Men, I knew it would be my only chance to ask her a question so I asked her if she would be on How to get Away with Murder again. I got a smile out of her as she said to me “you never know” and finished up. It was a quick autograph session, but the line was huge and I had a schedule to keep.

Bad Reputation for No Reason Before going in for the autograph and photo-op I had kind of heard some bad things about Famke Janssen and none of them were true. She was super nice for the autograph session and in the photo-op as well. Her only request was that she not be touched. I respectfully made my way over to her said hello with a wave before standing at a decent distance next to her. I got a great smile out of her and thanked her for the experience of meeting her and the photo-op she looked surprised like no one had ever thanked her before and said “you’re welcome” before I was ushered out.

Autogrpah Session – MegaCon 2017 – Felicia Day

I have to say that even though there were a bunch of people that I wanted to see at MegaCon, Felicia Day was at the top of my list. Because of schedule stuff I knew that Saturday was going to be a super busy day and I have to admit I was super nervous that I wouldn’t be able to see who I had wanted to see on Saturday. Like I said though, Felicia Day was at the top of my list for Saturday autographs. I first seen Felicia Day in Dragon Age: Redemption before she was in Dragon Age II: Mark of the Assassin. After that I watched The Guild which I thought was awesome because it was different than anything I had seen before. Being a gamer I could completely relate to it and since then I’ve re-watched the series multiple times. I even recently read and reviewed her book which you can read here, spoiler alert, I also thought it was pretty damn awesome.

Since it was Saturday I had to use my VIP power. The floor was literally packed with people and each and every line had lines that doubled and tripled. Everything was kind of a mess and unorganized, but I was finally able to find my VIP escort to take me to Felicia Day. She was super nice when I met her and even gave me a high five for wearing a Guild T-Shirt. When I got that high five I knew the rest of the day was going to go my way. I mean how could it not? I just got a high five from Felicia Day! The session went great as I told her what a fan I was of hers and she even personalized my autograph. We even joked a little about her height because I didn’t expect her to be that tall and I thought we would be the same height for our upcoming photo-op. Before I left she said that for the photo-op to remind her to slouch down so that we looked like we were the same height. I laughed it off and told her that she didn’t have to do that. Being able to see Felicia Day first that day set the bar really high for Saturday and my autograph list was still pretty long.

BONUS! When I got into the photo booth with Felicia Day she totally remembered who I was, even though she had probably seen a bunch of people after our meeting because there was probably a full hour or more before the actual photo-op. My favorite part though? She totally bent down a little to try to match my height because she remembered what we had talked about. This had to be one of the best moments and best professional photo-op’s that I had at the convention and I have to say it just made me feel really awesome.

Autograph Session – MegaCon 2017 – Stan Lee

I knew going to MegaCon that there was a 10% of getting this autograph. I was lucky enough to get in on one of his many photo-op’s that quickly and I mean quickly sold out, but even with a VIP badge there is no guarantee you’ll get his autograph. Each day you’re looking at line that’s probably more than 1,000 people. No joke. The Stan Lee line wraps around longer than any other line and usually ends up going into someone else’s line no matter how much space they reserve for him. If you’re looking for a guarantee, you have to buy the Stan Lee experience, which after everything that I had already spent was not in my budget. Well Friday, it just so happens that I got really lucky.

I bought my Stan Lee autograph ticket on Friday knowing that I just might have to go back and return my ticket on Sunday and get my money back. That’s how the Stand Lee autographs work. First you stand in line to buy a ticket, and then you get back in line and actually line up for the autograph. The fact that there was so much confusion on Friday played in my favor as the Stan Lee crew didn’t know where to send half of the VIP’s who bought an autograph ticket so they sent me to the VIP escort desk along with some other people not realizing that there was already a VIP line which was already out the door and in someone else’s line. Cut to 10 minutes later when there was ANOTHER VIP line coming in the other way with some guy screaming “what the hell are these people doing in the exit!”

Because of this the VIP line that I was on was just pushed ahead and they just wanted to get rid of us, meaning that within the next ten minutes I had my Stan Lee autograph on my Alice Cooper comic book which I had signed the previous day by Alice Cooper.

Maybe It’s Just Me? I kind of think that the Stan Lee autograph session was done all wrong. When you get up to the autograph area some guy grabs your ticket and your merchandise before sliding it down to Stan Lee. Once you get to stand in front of Stan Lee, they work the man like a machine as some guy tells him where to sign and talks to him about business matters. Seriously? You’re item is then pushed down the line for you to pick back up. I barely got out a “Thank you, Mr. Lee” before being rushed along to pick up my waiting comic. While that made me a little upset, I’m still really grateful that I got to see Stan Lee and to have his autograph. I understand that the line is ridiculously long, but still. Like I said. Maybe it’s just me.