Blackpool Comic Con - Saturday 12th September 2015

September 16, 2015


Saturday was the day of Blackpool's eagerly awaited comic con!

Me and my friends have been discussing going to this event since it was announced but only managed to get tickets a few weeks ago. 

First of all the guests that was promised at BCC was amazing and included Verne Troyer (Mini Me), Taryn Manning (Pennsatucky, OITNB), DJ Qualls (Garth from Supernatural) and Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs). Other comic cons I've been too hadn't managed to get guests like this before so that was the main reason for wanting to go to this particular convention. Other reasons included the Batmobile was there, yes I said the Batmobile!!! 



Our day started with a 45 minute train ride at 7.30am, this got us to Blackpool and in the queue for 8.30am, however our tickets only aloud us into the venue at 10.00am. The queueing time passed quickly with cosplayers entertaining us and the car displays was at the front of the building. At the time only Lighting McQueen, the DeLorean and Herby was there.



We was let into Winter Gardens at 10 o'clock, we went straight into the venue with little crowds at this time. My first stop was in the Spanish Suite, which had a few stalls selling Funko POP!s, t-shirts and art work. I spotted one stall selling Funko mystery minis and especially Supernatural minis!! They had some of the rare/hard to find minis out of box being sold. The friendly stall owner said he could do me a deal on the rare figure plus some others. The rare figure was priced at £20 on its own which was a huge chunk from my daily budget. Since I'm collecting the whole set the guy offered me the rare figure (the Hellhound) and Charlie for £25, I was still unsure with only having a £40 budget so I tried to haggle by asking for another common figure as well as the other two for £25, the guy was thinking for a while but eventually kindly said yes! I was shocked I've never haggled before! 
I got the stall holders business card which showed his business was called 'Crypt of Geek', you can check them out on Facebook or on there website here. They had loads of other mystery minis and lots of Funko POP!s too! I will be contacting them again for some more figures because of the great customer service and vary of stock. 


Walking around the convention there were professional cosplayers everywhere having photographs with other convention goers, I stopped a couple of the cosplayers to get a few photos myself. I was geeking out over the C3PO cosplay, as I've never seen anyone dressed as him before at other conventions. 


The main hall had loads of celebrity guests who was signing and having selfies with fans, also in the hall was stalls selling all different items from figures to clothing to fudge. 
There was a few displays in this area too, cut outs, a row of working R2D2s and some Terminator models. (The lighting in this room was terrible for photographs) 


My local comic/figure shop had a stall there, Funky Figures sells all sorts of figures and collectibles, you can check out the shops website here

Upstairs was more stalls, selling comics and graphic novels mainly; I had a small look through the comic boxes for anything of interest but came away empty handed. 

Next up on the day was the Supernatural Panel which we had all been excited to watch, we got to the panel hall early and maybe a little too early as we sat through the full Game of Thrones panel which was before the Supernatural one. However I enjoyed the GOT panel, I'm thinking of watching the show now and I also got to see Richard Madden who was Prince Charming in the new Cinderella movie and he is a hottie. 


1pm came and that meant it was Supernatural time, DJ Qualls walked on stage and announced that there was some disorganisation at the event and no one knew what was happening, so he was just going start and run the panel himself.  
At the time the situation was funny with how DJ handled it but this shouldn't of happened, this showed me that BCC had made a mess of things and wasn't sure how to organise the convention. I hope that the celebrity guests don't feel that this is how most UK conventions are run because they are not. 

Anyway DJ started off by explaining that he runs his panels like a game show and everyone who asks a question gets to pick a number and at the end, if that number matches his chosen number you won a golden tooth brush. (I'm unsure if there actually was a golden tooth brush as I didn't win) 
The Ghostfacers (AJ Buckley and Travis Wester) joined the panel shortly after and the questions started flowing, I fully enjoyed the panel and questions asked, the audience received some funny stories from AJ, Travis and DJ.  I got to ask the final question, which was for AJ and Travis to sing the Ghostfacers theme tune and they did!! 


My overall view on the convention was that it was very unorganised however I did have a great day with buying my figures and the panels I watched. Getting there early and into the convention whilst there wasn't many people inside the venue also made the day better for me. The stalls and attractions was spaced out over the venue and in different rooms, I liked this as there was something to see everywhere but as more people was let into the venue it got hard to see any of the stalls and what they was selling. 

Some of the guests was cancelled so I didn't get to see or meet Taryn Manning. There also wasn't many, if any staff members around to help with directions or questions during the day, we didn't find out about guest cancellations until we got home after the event. Lastly the 3 car displays that was outside the venue at the start of the event was the only cars there, no Batmobile or Ecto1 which was highly disappointing for me. 

I think with some more planning and some changes this event could be great because the venue is big enough to home an event of this sort, and the vary of stalls that attended was fantastic because there was a lot of different items, meaning something for every collector or comic con enthusiast. 

Did anyone else go to Blackpool Comic Con, what did you think of the event? Let me know in the comments or send me a tweet. 




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