WonderCon 2012: Day 1 recap

Well, I'm back from my 3 day whirlwind adventure from WonderCon and we have a lot to talk about. First of all, this was our first con since 2007 when Anime Expo changed venues from the Anaheim Convention Center to the Long Beach Convention Center, so we were pretty excited to get back into the con scene. Hopefully, we'll get to experience WonderCon once again next year (or some time in the future) when it returns to its rightful home in San Francisco. 

But let's get to the juicy stuff. I'm going to give you a play-by-play of what we did all three days, with the bulk of the events happening on Day 2. Each day will have its own separate post. If you are so inclined, you can also check out my Flickr photostream starting with Day 1 right here. 

Day 1, Friday, March 16

We got to the con late, probably around 3:00 PM. The Anaheim Convention Center wasn't too crowded and we anticipated that this would be the best day to roam the exhibition floor, autograph areas, and Artists' Alley.

First thing we hit off was the CAPCOM booth where we watched a few attendees play the Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City demo. Tsudoku played the demo the following day when he had some downtime in between panels.

At the CAPCOM booth - attendees trying out the Resident Evil:
Operation Raccoon City demo 

We hit the floor again and stumbled across the Ralph Bakshi booth celebrating the 35^th anniversary edition of Wizards. I would've bought the DVD but it was on Blu-ray and we don't have a Blu-ray player (because we're luddites), but I wasn't willing to walk away without some sort of memento from Mr. Bakshi, especially since I know how much my man admires his work. So, I asked Mr. Bakshi if it would be alright if I could take a photo of him and my boyfriend and he obliged! What a talented and sweet, sweet man! 

Peter (tsudoku) with the legendary Ralph Bakshi 

Wizards promo standee 

Back to the floor! We took a few photos of some pretty awesome cosplayers and wandered around until….

R2D2!! And not just one, but a pack of them, rolling in the wild! Look at how excited I am!

Look at me--super excited!!

We then head to the autographs area of the exhibitors' floor where I managed to snag a photo with Kent and Vyxsin, two time contestants of The Amazing Race. My mom's a huge fan of the show and she's totally going to flip once she sees this picture. 

Vyxsin, me, and Kent. I look hella tanned.

I also tried to get a picture with the gorgeous Cassandra Peterson, a.k.a. Elvira, but her manager intervened and said it'd cost $20. So I asked if I could shake her hand instead and she delightfully said, "Of course!" shaking my hand and then pulling me in for a quick hug. Guys, in case you were wondering, she's charming and more beautiful in person, and ahem, squishy.

We bought a couple goodies from the Artists' Alley afterwards: tsudoku got a pocketwatch for his dad at the Tyrannical Piratical booth and me, a painfully delicate owl giclee print from Z.E. Pangborn. The only panels we attended that day were The Science of Battlestar Galatica, a very educational panel hosted by Dr. Kevin Grazier, and Detecting Deviants in the Dark Knight hosted by retired FBI supervisory special agent Mark E. Safarik and three forensic psychiatrists, H. Eric Bender, MD, Praveen R. Kambam, MD, and Vasilis K. Pozios, MD.