Wondercon 2010: Friday & Saturday

Following up on my post about Wondercon. This time for Friday and Saturday. So, Friday I helped out at the Toyslogic booth. The crew and I met at around 7am at the TL warehouse and grabbed whatever we needed before heading out to the Moscone Center. We got there at around 8:30 am and met up with 2 guys who were helping out that day as well. We finished setting up and got the booth ready for some figure selling.

The dealer hall opened at 10 am and in less than a minute we saw people flocking in and checking things out. People came up and took a look at the figures laid out on the tables and shelves. They asked questions about figures and their prices, and they generally bought stuff. There were some cheap figures there that normally went for almost double the price. Those figures sold well. It pretty much went on like that until 7pm when the dealer hall closed. We restocked some items and covered up the booth before grabbing dinner at a French restaurant with a live Jazz band. It was pretty cool and the food was alright. However, the past week of hard work and long hours took a toll on me and I was exhausted and dehydrated. It was my last day helping out though so I was relieved.

Saturday was the day I was finally able to enjoy the convention. My nephew and I got ready and my buddy Hsunami Prime met us at my place where we took the BART to Moscone Center. The cool part was that not only was I able to keep my free dealer pass, but I got 2 free extra passes as well. So when we got to Moscone, security was only letting people in on the far side and those people had to line up to get in. We just showed security our passes and they opened the door nearest to the hall for us and let us in. No waiting, no lining up, and no frustrations. Very cool. The dealer hall was busier than what I saw Friday with crowds of people roaming around.

It just got busier as the day progressed and at times it felt almost impossible to get through some aisles. One of the first stops we took was at the Kick Ass booth. There we got some free swag. A small 3d poster and bumper sticker. There were 3 booth babes there and I had my nephew pose with them so he can show off the pic later.

We checked out some booths near by and just wandered around checking stuff out. At one point we saw James Marsters (Spike on Buffy, Brainiac on Smallville) signing autographs at a booth. There were tons of people so I didn't bother lining up. We also saw Chris Gore, Attack of the Show's resident film expert. I wanted an autograph and opinions on some movies, but again the line was long.

We just wandered around checking stuff out, left to grab lunch, came back and wandered around some more.





All in all a pretty good trip. I think for next time, I'm going to spend more than just a day and actually make time to check out some panels. I regret not being able to check out the Kick Ass panel with the cast including Nicholas Cage, The Prince of Persia panel with Jake Gyllenhal, and the Doctor Who panel with new Director/Writer Steven Moffat. The first episode of the new Doctor Who series was premiered there so I would've loved to see that.

And of course my hauls from wondercon. Not a whole lot and the 2 MMS figs and the sweet knight figs I got from TL as part of working there. The rest I got for cheap at various other booths.

Wondercon 2010: Set up day

This week, I helped my friends at Toyslogic set up for their booths at Wondercon held in San Francisco. Set up day was on Thursday and I met up with the crew at the TL warehouse in Concord at 6 am in the morning. We loaded up all the boxes of figures in a big shipping truck and drove to the Moscone Center in San Francisco. We got there at 8:30 and met up with a couple of other folks that were going to help set up. At 9am we were let in the huge dealer area where we looked for our booth number. From there we waited for the truck to arrive with the figures and set up the display racks.

I noticed half way through the day that our booth was right next to some really "Kick Ass" booths.

Yup, across and to the right of us was the booth for Kick Ass the movie. They had 3d posters set up as well as LCD screens where the trailers played.


Across and to the front of us was the booth for Dante's Inferno.

This booth had LCD's connected to PS3's and you can play a demo of Dante's Inferno. There was also a statue of Dante inside.

Across from that were various other booths. Since the TL booth was at the rear next to the lounge and restrooms, we had a good view of some cool stuff.


It was a lot of hard work and we had to have it set up for all the con goers to see. At the end of the day we pulled it off, but it was around 7pm when we finished. The booths looked pretty good though. Check them out below.


Oh yeah, What I got out of working there was these figures.

All in all, it was a pretty good experience and getting paid in figures was cool. Today I'm going to Wondercon as a normal guest and I get to keep my exhibitor badge. That means me, my nephew, and my friend don't have to wait in line to get in. Awesome.