Sunday, August 31, 2014

Pictures from the 2014 Comic-Con International, part 3: Preview Night...night


We're back again with more pictures from Comic-Con.  We're still on Preview Night, finishing up the convention and venturing out into San Diego in the evening.  Let's check it out!


This was one of the coolest displays at the show, as the dragon was partially animatronic.  The eyes opened at various points and glowed.


Oh, Sideshow...why do you make such great stuff?  You can't quite tell the scale here, but this Dr. Doom statue was around four feet tall.  An interesting thing about Sideshow is that while they have a large, prominent display at Comic-Con, they don't sell a single thing.  It's all just to look at.  I suppose it's a good enough marketing scheme that they keep coming back year after year.  I know if makes me want to buy their products.  Amazing how high-end collectibles have exploded over the last number of years.


I was fortunate enough to get a parking pass at the convention center for a few of the days.  I took the stairs back to my car afterwards to unload the things that I bought and I saw this vehicle parked close by.  They didn't just stick with the decal, though...the side of the car was similarly decorated, including the gas cap.  Dedication to Hydra, it seems.


There's a San Diego-area cinema makeup school that must see Comic-Con as an opportunity to market themselves...and when you get costumes like this, it's easy to see why.  I think the most impressive part of this New 52 Joker was the mouth; it moved naturally as he talked.


Time to cross the street.


The Gaslamp District always holds great events as it has a prime location in relation to the convention center.  One of the best is the Chuck Jones gallery and its display of high end comic and cartoon art.  Here's art based on the "How to Train Your Dragon" movie series.


The Interactive Zone blew up this year as compared to 2013.  Even though nothing was up and running on Preview Night, I walked over to check out what would be there.  Back again was the Adult Swim Funhouse.  It was the same thing as the year before, but if you've got something this big (and presumably expensive), you might as well get some more use out of it.


Next to the Adult Swim setup was a display of classic cars from the new Sin City movie, along with a backdrop from the city.


There wasn't a lot to the display beyond the cars on days when this was in use, but it was still very cool to see.


A Sleepy Hollow setup.  Interesting note: Sleepy Hollow films in Wilmington, North Carolina, former stomping grounds.


New addition to the Adult Swim area: Meatwad's dome.  Got a chance to go inside on Saturday night.


Pizza Hut was really promoting the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie at the show.  I got caught up in it for sure.  Here's a couch made entirely out of pizza boxes.  You could sit on it and put your feel up on the pizza box coffee table.


One of the highlights of the Interactive Zone, for me, anyway, was the TMNT pizza launcher.  It was functional and you could sit on top and launch fake pizzas out of it.  It was still being worked on into the early hours of Thursday morning.  I had a chance this night to meet the guy who was in charge of the team that build this monstrosity.  We talked for a few minutes about what went into it, and he seemed very excited about, well, my excitement.


As luck would have it, four guys in different TMNT shirts waked by as I was looking at the pizza launcher, and I was able to get this picture.  Pizza Hut apparently thought it was a great advertisement, and they used the image on their Twitter account.  Cowabunga.


After wandering away from the Interactive Zone, we went deeper into the city.  One of the places we visited was the Barcade, a combination of...a bar and an arcade.  Here we see a giant Jenga set, which soon afterwards toppled over with a loud crash.


At the end of the night, we came back to the parking lot to find people already camped out for the next day.  Many were sleeping and most of those awake looked miserable.  But this is what you have to do if you want to be first in line at Comic-Con, I guess.

Next up: Thursday!

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