Back from SDCC 2010

The San Diego Comic Convention 2010 was packed, as usual. The only similar experience I've had in my past would be that moment in high school right after the bell rings and everyone's trying to get to their lockers at the same time. But multiply the number of students by ten and divide the number of lockers in half. And give everyone giant (as in, big enough for two young women to make dresses out of them) shoulder bags in addition to all the usual backpacks. It was fun, but I'm glad to be back home, in the much lower population density you get in Nebraska.

One of my main targets for the con this year was the Hasbro booth(s). The main Hasbro booth had the upcoming figures on display behind glass panels, which was cool to see. Some new figures were there that hadn't already been shown online. The Hasbro Toy Shop booth was where the exclusive figures were being sold, which was definitely on my list. Three or four years ago the booth had an exclusive Rodimus Prime figure. The line to buy it was so long that it wrapped around the entire booth section and security had to be employed to turn people away so that it didn't get even longer. I didn't manage to get into the line that year (even though I got the figure later).

This year I was afraid I'd have a similar experience. Maybe Blaster isn't as interesting to collectors, or maybe even the other exclusive toys they were selling weren't as popular as in the past. For whatever reason, I managed to walk right into the line at 4:30 on my first day there. That was pretty cool... except for that fact that in the morning the only way you could get in line was to go to a booth on the second floor of the convention center, wait in a long line there, be given a ticket, return to the Toy Shop booth and then wait in that line before you could buy anything. So, I eventually managed to find out where the heck the ticket booth was upstairs, got a ticket that was only good after 4:00 pm that afternoon, and had three hours to kill. Then when I finally got back to the booth at 4:30, there was so little demand that they weren't even checking for tickets anymore... Oh, well. The end result is that I know have a brand new, shiny Blaster and three of his cassette figures. I also picked up a re-issue of the 1986 Hoist figure along the way.

It isn't pictured above, since I'd already added it to my Prime/Primal lineup on the shelves, but I also picked up the "Disney Label" Mickey Mouse/Optimus Prime figure.

So not a bad trip, overall. I also finally have my fixed Xbox 360 back at the house. I had the red-ring-of-death two days after buying the Transformers: War for Cybertron game for it... I've only played five minutes of the game so far. Hoping to make up for that soon ;)

The rest of my collection should be going on the shelves more quickly, but still with some delays I hadn't expected. A couple exterior projects for the house need to take priority this week and the next. But I'll keep posting as I go! Until next time!