The Worst of Comic Con 2014

THE4LIST is slowly getting back to normal after an amazing week at SDCC. If you were there, we'd love to hear your stories. If not, you can read ours.

While this post might seem a little "negative" it should in no way discourage anyone from going to Comic-Con. We had a GREAT GREAT time. We simply wanted to give you the good and bad since there's always bound to be both. Why not get the bad out of the way so we can focus on the good stuff going forward. Here's our top worst shit that was shitty that we wished wasn't so shitty...... but it was BULLSHIT!. Seriously.... total shit. 

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KEEP WALKING.....

If you've ever walked the floor at the convention center you already know what we're gonna say. It's a lot of walking.... walking, walking and more walking. Heres the problem though.....You're not allowed to stop!. Comic-Con is FULL of booths and displays. Marvel has a stage at their booth and something is usually going on... want to stop to look. TOO BAD. Theres hundreds of comic con employees constantly telling people to keep moving. Want to take a breather and lean against a wall? too bad... want to stop and look at something, too bad...want to snap a picture of some goofy celeb signing autographs? too bad... You're constantly set in motion. The only time you are allowed to stop walking is if you're waiting in line......

LINES

Have you ever seen a line anywhere? They don't compare to comic con lines. There's lines EVERYWHERE and they're usually hours long. I've waited hours in line for no reason. Want to buy something? Get in line.

Q:"Wheres the line?"

A: "oh, its on the other side of the convention center and wraps around twice." 

On preview night we were some of the first people let into the hall, we were going for Hasbro exclusives. We got to the booth and were told the line was already capped (thanks to all the exhibitors that are already in the hall getting in line before the public to buy everything and sell it in THEIR booth for 5 times as much). We were directed to another line against the far front wall. Upon getting there it was already 500 people deep. So we waited, and waited, and waited and waited and waited. We were then told they were all out of exclusives and to disperse, but we waited. We were then told they weren't out of stock, so we waited. Then told they were out again, but again we waited. Then told they DO have more stock, so waited. A few hours in we learned that Hasbro WAS out of stock and would give people in line a ticket to come back the next day until they ran out of tickets, so we waited. Another hour later we learned they NEVER gave the tickets to people in the line but randomly handed them out to anyone walking by...this was when we stopped waiting. The entire line was then again told to disperse, but they waited. Comic con had to resort to hysterical tactics: A woman from Hasbro shouted "EVERYONE IN LINE FOR HASBRO FOLLOW ME!"... she then led the line throughout the convention floor to absolutely nowhere. Most kept following until the woman just ran off into the crowd. The line was officially dispersed into oblivion.

That's the nature of the lines. You're in them not even knowing if its worth being in. Most of the time it isn't, so you waste hours upon hours of your con standing around doing nothing until you're told to leave. It's just how it is at SDCC. What's worse is when you wait in line for hours upon hours only to FINALLY GET LET IN but then told "Oh , you need a ticket to be in this line" 

WHAT?!..YOU SHIT BAG GOD DAMN UUUGHHH

...breathe

Q: "Where do I get a ticket?"

A: "There's a line for that upstairs.

TICKETS

If youre interested in buying or doing most things at comic con on the floor you'd most likely be out of luck unless you waited upstairs in line at the 'sails pavilion' for TICKETS.. tickets for everything.

Want to buy Hasbro? You need to wait in line outside for SDCC to open to then go wait in line upstairs to get a ticket. Then wait in line to be let into the convention center to wait in line again downstairs to get into the booth to wait in line again.

Want to try a cool interactive X-Men VR set up? You need to wait in line outside for SDCC to open to then go wait in line upstairs to get a ticket. Then wait in line to be let into the convention center to wait in line again downstairs to get into the booth to wait in line again.

Want to get an autograph from that guy in that thing? You need to wait in line outside for SDCC to open to then go wait in line upstairs to get a ticket. Then wait in line to be let into the convention center to wait in line again downstairs to get into the booth to wait in line again.

Most things that are highly sought after require tickets.

Did you see any great panels in Hall H or elsewhere? Some of them give out tickets. These tickets are redeemable for schwag a 1/2 mile or so away in the Manchester Grand Hyatt. One of these tickets was redeemable for a button, another for an iron-on patch. Both being slightly bigger than the ticket itself. 

So you get a ticket that makes you walk to a 'far off destination' to get an item that makes you wonder "Why the hell didn't they just give me this trinket in the panel instead of a ticket?"

I assume there's some semantics behind it, but you feel ripped off after you make the long trek only to be handed a sticker in exchange for a ticket. While the Game of Thrones schwag bag is definitely worth it, others simply aren't, but you can't blame them for thinking of the fans. Hall H is the location to get most of these but some other panels join in too to say thanks to their fans (....as he winks at Geek & Sundry)

Hall H

Remember the days when getting up at 5 am seemed a little insane to get in line for Hall H? Well nowadays that 5 am on Saturday morning will guarantee you get NOWHERE CLOSE to Hall H. This year saw a "super secret" line for Saturday in Hall H that formed at 4pm...ON THURSDAY!!!. YES.....THURSDAY!!!. While you can't really get upset at idiots who line up that early you can have a blast making fun of them on social media. However they will have the last laugh.

This years secret line was discovered by the "SDCC Unofficial Blog". An unofficial resource website for all things con related. They interviewed the people in line and decided to join them. SDCC has policies against this stating that lines CAN NOT form for Hall H until after the previous days Panels are over, but both groups decided to ignore repeated attempts to enforce these rules. For 2 days they would not listen to SDCC employees and simply posted updates to their respective twitter feeds to gather "Strength in numbers" to oppose SDCC security. The more people in line, the more unlikey it would be for SDCC to enforce their policies and stop the lines.. This in turn forced many to ditch the con on Friday ENTIRELY to hop in this line that was growing and growing and growing. The more it grew the more everyone that saw it thought "Shit!!! We have to get in line NOW (Friday a.m.) for any chance to get into Hall H on Saturday". For anyone 'in-the-know', their Friday was spent baking in the sun. For anyone NOT 'in-the-know', their Saturday dreams were smashed when they showed up far too late for any chance to attend.

We were in Hall H on Friday. We got in line around 5 a.m. seeing as this has been the norm for the past years. We saw the interview for the secret line but weren't yet worried, just amazed it had already formed. Friday night, we decided to get in line at midnight. Seeing as 4-5 a.m. was the norm for Saturday, we wanted better seats this year and figured midnight was a good time to shoot for. BOY WERE WE WRONG.

Upon showing up at 12 am. we were sent WELL past the Hyatt. This line was then moved into the parks near Joe's Crab Shack. From there we set up to sleep in the park but were woken up because some guy "believed" there were hidden sprinklers that were going to come on at 3 am. (they didnt). So we were forced onto the sidewalk and into the Basketball court. This was our refugee camp for the night.

We tried to get as much sleep as possible but were woken again at 6 am by SDCC staff explaining that the new "wristbands" were ALL handed out by 10 pm the previous night.... before we even arrived!. We were told we were roughly 2000 people back from where they expect the Hall to fill up and cease entry.

When you camp out LONGER than ever for Hall H on Saturday and find out your 10 hours stint should have been 15 hours for a shot, it really puts a damper on your day. I'm happy for all the people who got in, but I feel utter remorse for all those that did not considering what had transpired this year. If camping for 24 hours is the new norm to get into Hall H on Saturday, then Hall H is no longer worth it if you ask me.

The last annoyance was the ticketed re-entry line for Hall H that had to keep moving.... YES there was an incident that combined EVERY single one of the worst parts of our SDCC above. Hall H allows people to leave Hall H ONLY if they plan on returning before the panels ends. They hand you a re-entry ticket, you can then use the bathroom outside Hall H instead of waiting in a 200 person line inside Hall H or go 'pump breast milk out of your boobs in private'. However, if you try to gain re-entry with your re-entry pass, you soon learned that you were not allowed re-entry. A huge line soon gathered to get back in that were told could not form and we had to keep moving. To make matters worse, an attendee suffered a seizure right next to this crowd of people who were trying to get back in. We argued that we should not be in the way of a medical emergency and they MUST let us re-enter and they soon obliged -"with an escort". I later read that the attendee is fine and nothing life threatening happened, but it always sad to see someone go through something like that. I commend SDCC paramedics for their prompt response to the situation.