Review NYCC/NYAF 2010

[Amicitia]

Just throwing up a quick post to start the thread and say that I crossed Michele's trail today... I found the Toonseum booth only to discover that she had struck first.  Jim was quite impressed at how fast you managed to get there.

Maybe I'll catch up to some of you fellow L con-goers tomorrow!

[Amicitia]

I dunno why I'm up so early, but I guess it's time for a con review!

After some confusion involving a) how to get into the con, b) how to get a real map, and c) where the shell everything was, I set out to explore. This con is - really big. A friend and I played an hour-long game of Try To Find Each Other. While she was trying to figure how to get to the other side of the con, I tried to locate my other friend, who allegedly had a booth in Artist Alley. What I didn't realize is that there were <i>two</i> Artist Alleys. Which explains why I couldn't find her on the directory boad. But I did see Michael Dooney listed there, so I headed over to his table. After being indecisive and possibly annoying for a while, I went away with an art.

At about this point I discovered the other half of the con, where my friend who had been wandering around this whole time found me. We then wandered around the other Artist Alley, where my artist friend really did have a table, but somehow we were blind and didn't see her.

After sitting in on a very entertaining superhero psychology panel, we headed back up to the exhibits room, which is absolutely enormous in itself. I think you could spend a whole day in there. We found the Toonseum table more or less by accident and said hello to Jim. That's where we found the business cards for Cowabunga Corner, a fine program which Jim was delighted to have been interviewed on. 

By the time we finished (sort of) exploring the exhibit room, my friend had to leave. As I was walking her out, I ran into my other friends, which really is an incredibly unlikely thing. They knew the location of the artist friend's table (one of them being said artist friend), so we went back there and hung out for a while. Then I took off for the Fantasy Writers panel, where a writer I like and some others writers I don't know talked about writing, getting published, and their online gaming habits. It was very cool and I'm glad I stayed late for it. 

Time to get ready for another day!

[Michaelangelo]

Thanks for starting the topic!.

Hehehe Jim was easy to find, I got there first thing. Put the cards on the table after he kept introducing me to everyone. Though I'm getting a head of myself. Let's start with Thursday

I got here around 10:30am and went straight to my hotel, a small place in Greenwich. After checking in I cleaned up and rested a little in my room. I was amused that I could see the Statue of Liberty out the bathroom window. My view from the room is a brick wall with windows on it hehehe

I went out for a walk, going pass 11th & Bleeker to head to Amy's Bread, a bakery I like to visit each time I'm in NYC. While there Kazari contacted me to meet up at Plantet Hollywood for dinner, which would be in a few hours. I left Amy's and walked pass Ray's Pizza to get to a store I was meeting Mike Pollock at, as he agreed to an interview for Cowabunga Corner.

After the interview I went straight to Time Sqaure for Planet Hollywood getting to have one of my favorite dinners here in NYC with Kazari and her mom. After dinner I headed back to my hotel room for the night.

Friday I got up at 6:30am, got to the convention by 8am getting in the line, which was little to nothing at that time. Talked with the people around me, Kaz and her mom joined me in line. I had fun with getting freebie bags. They had Marvel Super Sqaud toys in them, I got five sets (Merry Christmas to my Nephews).

Once they let us in, the line was evil.. Pushing us through the door. I held my arm above the crowd but it still hurt. I got straight up stairs, looked to my right to see Jim Martin at the Tooneum booth.  I went over there to hang out. Waiting for Rutger and Dennis to meet up with me. They seemed to have a hard time finding me, so after an hour I went and found them, leading them back to the booth.

My nexxt job was finding Scott, I knew the area his table was at.. which was close to Tooneum. I looked around as Rutger and Dennis got their autographs from the great people at Toonseum.  I ended up calling Scott to find him, that worked. After I found him I went back for Rutger & Dennis, when they were done at Toonseum, we went to Scott's booth to hang out.

Rutger had a time where Michael S. Was doing autograph's, his paper said Bandi Entertainment.. though Mike was not there, so we did some shopping.  On our way to artist alley I spotted Mike a Funimation's booth. So I stopped there to talk with him.  Introducing Mike to Rutger and Dennis. They got autographs and talked a little with him.  Though the guy running the line rushed us. We than got Artist Alley.

First we said hi to Michael Dooney, I bought some prints. They both got prints and autographs as well. Next was Denny, back ground artist for 4kids. They got autographs and we each got a print.  The next two artist we looked for wasn't at their tables, we finally got to see one more and that was Scott Cohn.  They got sketches and prints from him.

Next was going down to the IGN Theater (The Hall H of NYC Comic Con). Got there for Robot Chicken and Venture Brother panels.

I will talk about those in another post.. going to give my hand a rest... typing this all on my phone.  More to come. 

[Amicitia]

Back again! Today was super-awesome. I got on line a little after ten and was inside by eleven, only being a few minutes late to the fanfiction panel I wanted to go to. Theoretically it was the same panel as last year's, but the audience asked a lot of interesting questions that made it go off in a different direction. Afterwards I stuck around to talk to the guests a little.

Then I headed across the hall, to where Michele and Co. had already set up camp for the actor panel. This panel was a little odd - they didn't allow video, and the actors just talked to each other, instead of taking questions from the audience. Because I haven't been to so many of these panels before, they said a lot of things that I hadn't heard before and found interesting, and also it was kind of neat to watch them ask questions of each other, because they were clearly learning new things too.

I joined Michele's gang to head back up to the exhibit hall, where we stopped by the Toonseum table before heading off to visit Scott Williams. At this point Willowfly called me, and I asked Scott if he would talk to her, which he did, which was incredibly nice of him.

A few minutes later I ducked away to find Mike Dooney again, and I'm glad I did, because he was down to his last copy of the print I was aiming for. While I was walking away I ran into another friend who I'd heard was coming, so maybe this kind of thing is not quite as unlikely as I said this morning.

I took a break to eat some food and chill out behind my artist friend's table, and eventually another friend found me there. We walked around for a little while, after which she had to leave, but by then the con was starting to close up anyway. I went back upstairs to find Michele, and the two of us met up with Scott, who had agreed to go out for drinks when he was done working at his table. So we did that, which was very cool. After he left, Michele and I went to go find our separate ways home, but first she frogmarched me into a shady corner and subjected me to a rather strange interrogation.

I left her at the bottom of the escalator, and no sooner had I reached the top than I was recognized by a high school classmate. She still lives in town also, and we spent the bus ride home talking on and off about other people we knew. What a strange weekend...

Until tomorrow! 

[Michaelangelo]

Hey all, back with more review.

Back to Friday night, I went to Robot Chicken Panel which was a lot of fun. Macaulay Culkin was a surprise guest at the panel. They started off showing video clips for up coming Robot Chicken, season 5 and Star Wars 3rd robot Chicken episode.  It all looks great, can't wait for December. They opened the floor for questions, I got in line right away.

I wanted to ask if there will be TMNT in season 5, because I know Seth wanted to do something with the NECA Toys. Though the first group of people up there were asking two questions, each! This took up time, Seth realized this and finally stopped them.  To late for me, only two people a head of me. After they cut the line I headed back to the seat. Rutger and Dennis decided to leave for the day. I got my stuff and moved closer to the front of the panel.

The Venture Brother Panel started.. Mike was late, surprised? I didn't think so. The funny thing is, Doc called him from the stage telling him to get to the panel. Than he came in from where us fans come in, so he had to clime on the stage.  The panel was great a lot of q&a.. same thing where people are like "What's going to happen next?" and they're like "We're not telling you". 

After the panel I went to the stage to say bye to Mike, to my surprise while I was talking to him he went "Hi Crittle!"  I turned around and Crittle was walking towards us. She got to say a fast hi, though the con workers went around kicking us out. I left with Crittle and her new Boy friend, my first time meeting him. I asked what they wanted to do, he said he wanted NYC Pizza, so I lead them to Ray's for dinner... after eatting I went back to my hotel for the night.



Saturday I got here at 8am, Kaz was already here in line. I joined herr for a little bit but I knew we didn't need to be in that lines for the panels so I went to the front of the hall where the panel would be.. there was a big door down blocking off the hall so I sat down to wait, which is when I took time yesterday to type up the Thursday/Friday review.  After writing that review I sat for awhile waiting, Kaz joined me as soon as they released the other line and waited with me. At 10:30am they let us to the panel rooms.

I went straight to the panel for "Lost Boys" and got front roll seats, setting up my camera. We hung out with the other early comers. Once the panel started we got a lot of laughs, Corey is Great! The full panel was fun, filled with laughs, video footage of the new "Lost Boys" movie (October 12th on DVD), and picking on Twilight hehe

After the panel Kaz and I headed to the Voice Actor panel, where we me up with Ami,  Jephael, and Voicechaser. We hung out till the panel started, as Ami said.. they talked amonst themselves with no pictures or video allowed.. no Q&A from the fans.. some of the stuff was interesting, though I'm not big on panels where a lot of it is being translated back and forth.. I know others enjoy it.. just not my thing.

After the panel we talked with Tom, Mike, Rachael, and Veronica for a little bit. Than it was up to Toonseum and than over to Scott. Went back and forth between those two booths for a bit before heading to Artist Alley. I got to meet Gary Feilds from Archie Comics and bought a few original art work pages from him.  After artist alley we went out side to do some video for Cowabunga Corner, interview Jephael.. right after his interview his father and him said good bye.  I than interviewed Voicechaser... we laughed a lot...

After doing video Voicechaser and I went in for a bite to eat... than she had to leave. I turned my. Focus on trying to find Rutger and Dennis as I didn't see them all day.   No luck in finding them, Ami got a hold of me so we met up with Scott to go out for drinks.  After drinks Ami did an interview for Cowabunga Corner. I got back to my hotel and went to bed early.

Now sitting at the convention waiting for the new day to start. Sunday review coming soon.

[Kazari]

one word for this con....CROWDED!

My little tidbit for the con:

Thursday: Arrrived at the hotel 3pm and called Ivey to setup a dinner date! Headed over to the city with mom. We had some time to kill before meeting up for dinner so I went to Midtown Comics! Got a really cool X-Files novel! Then we went to Hard Rock Cafe to get a shirt for my bro and Toys R Us! I'm a Transformers nerd so I squealed seeing a huge Optimus Prime statue! Went to Planet Hollywood since mom and I were both starving and ate while we waited for Ievy. She was late because Mike got out later than they planned.  It was great seeing Ivey and I haven't seen her with long hair before Once we said our goodbyes, mom and I went back to our hotel in NJ!

Friday: Got up early and headed over to the con! Ivey was gracious enough to get us spots! It was longer than I expected for Friday! I was amused seeing a guy in Halo cosplay I was cosplaying Mass Effect.  As Ivey mentioned, the crowd was insane to get through the door! I told mom to hang out and I literally popped through the door! Once inside, I parted ways with Ivey because there were going to have the lead writer for Mass Effect 2 be at a booth at 3pm! Since I did have some time to kill...I went over to see Michael Dooney! This was the first year sadly that I couldn't buy many prints Sooo many Don ones to choose from! I bought one and he was pleased to see that I was the first TMNT fan that he knew to visit! Once saying goodbye, I went back over to stand in line for the ME2 writer.  While I was inline, I saw these dreamy Predators cosplayers! The writer and artist for ME2 were super nice and sweet! They loved my outfit and my plushies! Once I got their autograph and picture, I dragged mom off to hunt down the Predators! I love when people are in character, BTW! One of the Predators pretended to choke me in the picture! After that, I pretty much went back to the hotel to beat the 5pm traffic into Jersey!

Saturday: Met up with Ivey at the con center! I got there first and sadly they told me that I couldn't wait upstairs for the Feldman panel that I had to go downstairs. Ivey met up with mom and I then she went up to see if she could wait at the panel door since one security officer said it was ok.... I just don't trust these people! The line inside wasn't bad and they let us in early! Feldman was awesome!! He was super funny and I even got to see some clips from the Lost Boys 3 movie! He kept making fun of Twilight and calling it "Twinkle" XD! After the Feldman panel, it was horrendous! The crowd was terrible! You could hardly move! I don't like how the 2 cons were merged! There were ttoooooo many people!! I went into the VA panel and grabbed snacks because I was starving. During the VA panel,  I was kind of disappointed because I was mainly going to see Michael Bell and thought he would be there. He wasn't so since I was starving and having a migraine, mom and I snuck out to search for food. The dealers room was more terrible! It was exhausting and frustrating to get through! Once I found food, I went off to Artist Alley to find Denny Fincke and one of my TF friends.  Denny was awesome!! He had so many backgrounds in pencil that he did for the series. Sadly I couldn't buy any Too expensive LOL He was happy that I knew where each artwork was from! I bought a Brock Samson sketch from him and 2 prints that were colored from the 2003 series of TMNT.  I also met Andrew Pepoy for Image! Sadly no TMNT inks...I was hoping to find cyborg Don! I also ran into Gary Fields and bought a TMNT Archie page from him.  Michael Dooney wasn't at his booth so I couldn't say bye to him...which is good because I would have been tempted to buy another artwork from him!

I decided to venture back into the Dealers Room to say hi to Scott! There I met up with Ivey, her friend and Jephael! I said my hello to Scott then walked over with the others to see Jim Martin. He told me about puppeteering for Leonardo in TMNT 3. Wow that was very complicated O_o. I then went to find my TF friend again but the crowd was so bad where I thought she was I couldn't get through! I gave up and decided to call it a day and head back out of the center for food and medicine! I had another migraine I tried to meet up with Mica and Jen but they weren't feeling too good.

Mom and I ate at the Heartland Brewery at Port Authority then went back to the hotel to finish the night watching a movie!

Went home today...had fun! I wish I could have stayed longer and the crowd wasn't as bad If it is like this again next year, I may not go LOL

[Amicitia]

/skids in

Wow, I can't believe this con is over already... now I have to go back to my real life.  But first, review!

Today I got in a bit later, because there was nothing in particular that I wanted to be there early for. It was still crowded, but compared to yesterday it seemed downright empty. So I was able to explore the Comicon Artist Alley, which I hadn't really looked around yet, in relative peace.

While walking up and down the aisles, I found Denny Fincke. I didn't know who he was, but I saw he had Turtles stuff... and there was no one else at his table, so we got to talking and he told me some interesting things. (Go here for some of said interesting things.) A very nice interlude. Every so often in my exploration, I veered back to the autograph tables to see if Tom Wayland was there. I've seen him at other cons, but I hadn't caught up to him for his autograph yet. Eventually he did turn up, and there was no line there either, so after he signed my book I talked to him and Jamie McGonnigal for a bit.

After that I headed downstairs to the actor panel. Michele was there already, as usual. We watched part of the panel, then snuck out to get to the Toonseum panel. We sat down, and I thought another fan there looked awfully familiar... it was my travel buddy from when I went to England in June! I said hello to her on her way out, then moved up to sit in the front.

This panel... well, honestly, I was a little disappointed. I was hoping they would have props, or puppets, or at least pictures of props and puppets, but - nothing. Overall, I found it similar to the Sesame Street event last year, but I enjoyed that one a lot more. I was also surprised to see that the room wasn't even full.

Anyway, Rutger and his friend Dennis joined us at this panel, and after it ended I went to walk around with them. Ultimately we reconnected with Michele as the con was closing, and after some tough deliberation I decided to meet back with my travel buddy for dinner instead of going to Rutger's birthday party. Sorry Rutger. 

This was an amazing con. Yes, it was crowded. Yes, it had organizational problems, and yes, there was some bad scheduling and awkward use of the building space. But I met up with a lot of friends, had a lot of great interaction with guests, and never really ran out of things to see and do, despite being there for most of the time the con was open and only going to (I think) six panels. Thanks to all you guys who came - it really is more fun with friends! 

[Michaelangelo]

HehehKaz that's funny... Ami, Scott and I went there after the con on Saturday too.. mainly for drinks. I just find it funny we went to the same place. I'll write up my Sunday review tomorrow evening. Heading to bed now.

[Michaelangelo]

On the last bus of my trip home, so I figured I would type up my Sunday review.

 I got to the convention center around 7am, than sat back for hours waiting for it to open. The day was planned for interviews and Panels. I was scared I would't get this all done in one day.  I went in once it opened and walked the floor... I found the Adult Swim booth and got a Dean Venture Toy.  I than went and found TMNT-L Casey Jone, he was working a booth in the far end of the con.

I showd Casey my Dean toy and told him how I wanted the other two they had there but didn't have the money. Casey was nice and gave me enough for the two toys. I worked for it though, he had me run around the con and buy some stuff from another booth. I got done doing that just in time for the first set of fan interviews.

We had a fun group go out side for interviews.  Everyone got interviewed one at a time, than we all split our own ways.  I went up to Scott Williams.. he asked about his interview, so we went out side and got that done. After that I showed him where the voice overs in the city panel was, though he decided not to crash it.

He went up stairs and I stayed at the panel... this was another serouis panel, all about the inside working of voice acting.  Ami met up with me for that panel. We cut out early though, to race to Jim and Noel's panel. This panel by far takes best panel of the day.  We got great stories from these wonderful puppeteers... heh and the mail man from Mr. Rodgers.  It was such a pleasure to get to hear their stories.

After that panel I some how got into the Bruce Campbell panel, didn't really care for his ego in the little bit I saw of it.  I also didn't have time to waset my last hour in there.  I left and went up stairs, counted my money... with the little bit Casey gave me I had enough to buy an original background piece from the Battle Nexus hall of statues!  I made sure that was ok with Casey first. I bought the piece than went to say my good byes to Scott.

Than went and spent the rest of the con with Toonseum, as I got Noel's autograph and he agreed to do an interview. I waited for the line to be done, Than he stepped out side with me for the interview.  After that it was off to spend time with Rutger for his bday.

I'll like to add in here how disappointed I was with the staff this year at the convention.. they were rude, pushing and just annoying.  They wouldn't ease up at the end of the day pushing everyone out of the building... and at the beginning of the day it was like you were forced into areas you didn't want to be.  This is my first time feeling this way about the staff at these conventions held at the Jarvis. So I know it did not have to be this way. If this kind of personality keeps up over the con in the following years they may loose at least me for lack of respect to the people who paid a lot to be at this event.

[Leonardo_Mystic]

I'll like to add in here how disappointed I was with the staff this year at the convention.. they were rude, pushing and just annoying.  They wouldn't ease up at the end of the day pushing everyone out of the building... and at the beginning of the day it was like you were forced into areas you didn't want to be.  This is my first time feeling this way about the staff at these conventions held at the Jarvis. So I know it did not have to be this way. If this kind of personality keeps up over the con in the following years they may loose at least me for lack of respect to the people who paid a lot to be at this event.

With combining usually two seperate cons into one this year, maybe they were a bit overwhelmed. They may have not been used to that many number of people. I would not take it too personally.

Glad everyone had fun overall. Maybe I'll get to go next year, if I don't decide to do Disney again.

[Jephael]

Sadly I was only there for a day, but it was a good day indeed! I got autographs from Michael Dooney, Mike "4Kids Leo" Sinterniklaas, Veronica "4Kids April" Taylor and many others!

It was also nice seeing Ivey again and meeting Ami and Kazari. I kinda wish we hadn't gotten separated though because I really wanted to hang out with you gals a little longer. Oh well, maybe we'll meet again sometime.

[BubblyShell22]

Wow. Sounds like you guys had some fun. I wish I could've gone.

[Amicitia]

I don't know if other people got this, but in case you didn't and want to drop in your two cents...

NYCC Survey

Go there to complain about the staff, the scheduling, or whatever else you didn't like. Because griping about it here sure won't make next year's con any different! 

[Michaelangelo]

Heh trust me, I already filled that out today *G*

[Michaelangelo]

A write up I did about NYCC/NYAF for the new "Cowabunga Corner" website.

http://www.cowabungacorner.com/?p=279