This past year the Huntsville Comic and Pop Culture Expo had its 3rd convention. Brittany and I attended the first, missed last year, and were able to go (and take Melody!) this year. I have to say I was blown away by the convention. Not blown away like "OMG this is better than Dragoncon", but blown away by how much it has grown and how much we enjoyed it. Below are my thoughts and opinions.
So there appeared to be a pretty heavy Power Rangers influence this year. Two of the main celebrity visitors were Austin St John and Johnny Yong Bosch. They had multiple panels and signings and the works. There was also a panel on Super Sentai (which if you didn't know is where Power Rangers gets all its robots and fighting sequences). Kevin Sorbo was there, but we didn't do anything related to him. (I have never watched Hercules or Andromeda ). The most random guest there was FunnyMaine. I guess it's not random for the state of Alabama (he does videos describing how University of Alabama fans watch games), but he seemed quite random for a comic convention. As a Power Rangers fan I definitely enjoyed the line up.
So the panels were a mixed bag for me. I mostly enjoyed the panels, but I thought they were amateurish. The Super Sentai panel was a young man who stood up at the front talking about this show and showing clips on his laptop... from YouTube. Now this might not have been super awkward except his laptop screen was the only screen... it wasn't projected onto the wall or anything. So yea I couldn't see. The kid appeared to know the topic and had a lot of enthusiasm, but I think he needed a moderator or something to help him along.
I really enjoyed the panel with Austin St John and Johnny Yong Bosch. Just like with the Super Sentai panel I think it really needed a moderator. You can tell that ASJ and JYB have spent some time together and interacted really well on stage. We got seats on the 4th row for this panel, but there really wasn't a bad seat in the room. Overall it was a fun panel!
Brittany and I went to the FunnyMaine panel. It was totally not what I expected. I guess I was expecting something like a comedy routine, and it wasn't anything like one. He sat up there and took questions from the audience the whole time. And well... apparently people REALLY want to hear his opinion on Alabama football. Also did you know that he has done some work for Big Bang Theory? Yea me neither... Kevin Sorbo did a panel, but we didn't see any of it (except when I stuck my head in to see if it was finished...). I'm sure he did a good job...
So the big thing for me was that the panels needed some form of moderators. Someone to really steer the conversation and to get questions from the audience. The guests took questions, but a moderator would really help. I would be willing to be a moderator if they need volunteers next year! I also think more fan lead panels would be fun. Those are the parts of Dragoncon that Brittany and I really enjoyed. The Disney, Star Wars, Back to the Future, etc panels we really enjoyed. They were smaller, mostly fan run, didn't really have celebrities or anything. I think these would go over really well in Huntsville and I would even be willing to help put some panels together. I think they'd be a lot of fun and keep people moving to different panels.
Outside of the Von Braun Convention Center were some food trucks. I thought the food trucks had a really good selection. Sure one of them looked like a creepy RV, but that's the fun of food trucks right? We ended up eating lunch out there. Britany and I each got food from different trucks and enjoyed it. The trucks appeared to start packing up during the mid afternoon. The ones that were left appeared to still be selling quite a lot of food. I enjoyed all the options!
So the absolute best part of the convention for me were the vendors. I LOVE going through the vendors at Dragoncon, and I honestly liked the selection at the HSV Expo better. It is (of course) way smaller that Dragoncon, but I liked what everyone appeared to be selling. There were LOTS of toy vendors and we all know that makes me like a happy camper. There were comics, toys, cosplay, books, swords, and all sorts of stuff. I even bought a few original GI Joes and got a good deal for them. I almost bought some original Power Rangers toys (to replace some from when I was a kid), but went with the Joes instead. Over all I was really impressed with the selection and number of venders.
A couple of small but neat things the convention had... A kids room. There was a room on the second floor to keep your kids entertained. There were coloring sheets with crayons, stickers, LEGOs, faceprinting and games for the kids. As a parent, who took his kid, I loved this area. There was also an arcade and a board game room. I thought the boardgames room was kinda strange (I didn't understand the games or see many people playing normal games. I know), but I thought the arcade was a really nice touch. The games were in free mode and they had a decent selection. I thought these things were great little additions to the expo.
So some final thoughts. For a 3rd year convention I think it went really well. Awesome vendor selection, fun panels, and a good crowd. My one complaint is that I think there needs to be more panels and for the panels to be moderated. I really can't wait to see what is in store for next year.
Fun story. Melody decided to throw her wubbanub from the second floor onto the first floor. It landed on Austin St Johns autograph table. So naturally I ran off to get it, but during that time the people on the first floor had some fun trying to get it back up. Before I could even make it down there (and I was moving quickly) the really nice people downstairs threw it back up to Brittany. Leave it to my kid to make a scene with a bunch of people!
Please ignore my terrible photorgaphy skills