2019 Huntsville Comic and Pop Culture Expo
Earlier in March we attended the Huntsville Comic and Pop Culture Expo. It is our third time to attend, but it has been going on for four years. We missed the second year because we had other things going on. Now we are always sure to mark it on our calendar so that we never miss it.
Just like last year, the Expo was on Saturday and Sunday. We looked at the schedule, and we decided to only attend Saturday. The price difference to buy a weekend pass vs day-to-day pass wasn’t worth the risk. And thankfully we were right. We were able to accomplish everything on Saturday so there was no need to go back on Sunday. Next year we may actually attend on Sunday. We have heard it is far less crowded, and while we usually base it on the panels, there wasn’t enough panels we wanted to truly attend anyhow (I didn’t attend any this year).
This year they moved the Expo to the South Hall but still within the Von Braun Center. Last year it was hosted in the North Hall. The North Hall floor space is smaller, which is why they moved. They wanted to be able to accommodate more vendors. My only complaint with this is the panel rooms were not as convenient. While they were easier to locate, if a line formed to get in the room, it would run into vendors. In the North Hall, then panels were located upstairs so the setup was a bit more fluid.
The Expo opened at 10 am, and we arrived around 10:15. Parking was super easy and cost $5. We had to wait in line to buy our tickets. Unfortunately even people who bought their tickets before hand had to wait in the same line. That would have been slightly frustrating had that been us. However opted to just wait until we got there. The line was fairly long, but we were through it within 5 minutes or so. It cost $30/person, and Melody was free. And we were all given wristbands to wear throughout the event.
We were given a map, but honestly it wasn’t super helpful. It was literally just a layout of the South Hall. It did show where all of the vendors were located, but it did not show which vendors were where.
There were a few vendors set up outside of the hall, but none that intrigued us. So we headed in!
Right as you walk in, Panel Room A is to the left. And below you can see the small amount of space for lines. Brad did go to one panel here, Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. He said the room was not much bigger than the rooms for the panels in the North Hall.
Below are some pictures of the vendor areas, but we continued on to the Video Game Room.
The Video Game Rooms were nice and empty at this point. All the games were free to play. They also had some computers to play games on as well. We kept to the arcade games though. Melody enjoyed it, ha!
Then we headed to the Kids Cons Room. It was honestly more lackluster than I could have imagined. They had a station where you could be “sorted” into your Harry Potter house. She was given a sticker and a wand. She loved the wand and still plays with it today.
Then we went and had a balloon animal made. She picked a cat.
They also had butter beer and Bertie Bott’s beans. We didn’t try the beer, but the beans were simply jelly beans and not very good.
They also had an obstacle course (duct tape on the floor), a few super heroes and photo props (Melody refused to go near them), and a spot where you could get tattoos. I think they offered face painting later in the day, but we never made it there for that.
They also had a robotic area right outside of the room that kids would watch.
The room was a duel purpose room and was converted into an auction later in the day. As you can see, I really expected a bit more. They really talked it up in the promotions, but I felt it was too large of a room for as little as they had.
We walked through some of the vendors, then we decided we needed to eat. They advertised a food truck rally, and I noticed some of the food trucks they tagged on facebook. We were looking forward to trying out some of the trucks, so we headed out to find them. We looked and looked, but we didn’t see them. Finally we went and asked someone. Apparently they cancelled it because of the chance of rain. This was really disappointing. I eventually saw on facebook where they announced this, but it was too late. Looking back, I wished we had walked over and found somewhere nearby to eat Downtown. Instead we went to the concession area located inside of the South Hall. It was overpriced, and not exactly healthy. Thankfully they did have french fries which were great for Melody. The line was also fairly long since this was the only food option. Brad ordered the hamburger combo, I ordered the chicken finger combo, and we also bought a popcorn. $26 later we had lunch. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of the food. It was decent, but nothing amazing.
The nice part compared to last year when it came to food was the seating. They put out numerous tables and chairs for people to eat at outside of the Hall. I found a table with Melody while Brad carried our food. We had to share a table with another couple, but that was the trend. There was also lots of space to walk around here too and let Melody burn some energy.
Melody and I hung out here to continue to eat and relax while Brad attended the Power Ranger panel. It was exceptionally crowded, and I didn’t want to take Melody in there.
We then went and looked a some more vendors and visited the Video Game Room one last time.
Then we had to get our picture taken to document our attendance!
And a side note, when we exited, we were overwhelmed by smoke. No smoking is allowed inside of the VBC obviously. So everyone sat outside and smoked. It wasn’t nice at all to walk out to that.
*Below are all the finds we had with our vendor shopping.
Bows from Spitfire Ribbon
Beaded Snow White from Beads by Randy and Jeff
A few GI Joes from Cookeville Vintage Toys (Melody also bought a few small toys from them as well but she wouldn’t let me take pictures, ha)
Stuffed Animal Crossing Bells from Squishy Pickle Plush
And while we didn’t buy anything yet, we found a really cool artist D Whitaker Ink. He has some really neat stuff!
*We also each got a swag bag. They were supposed to be for the first 1000 people, but they were not handing them out. I saw them sitting in a corner and knew about them, so I went over there and we grabbed two. Nothing amazing, but still something free.
*And lastly, here is a fun before and after for you. The first picture is from our Joe Con visit back in June. I started my weight loss journey back in October, so it is neat to be able to do these pictures.
