Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Wizard World Philly 2013 Review




Yet again it is June and yet again the Trio of Three headed down to the city of Philadelphia on the weekend of June 1st and 2nd for the annual pilgrimage of geek and hero worship that is Wizard World Philly.  This year there was a lot for everyone to get engrossed in as stars from the Walking Dead, Firefly, Star Trek and Doctor Who filled the convention center with their presence. 

The aisles were filled with tons of dealers from comics to Mind Craft to all sorts of Doctor Who merchandise to get the fans excited for the 50th with an array of cool knick knacks to be had.   This year I found it to be organized the best in years.  When we arrived on Sunday we entered the Penn Convention Center and promptly walked to the far end of the building where they had it all set up.  What was really great is that once you got there you were able to process your VIP tickets and get your goodies and then head to the VIP line. 



This was a great improvement and made things easier than standing in a line and then getting cut off to get the goodies and then lose your spot in the line you were originally in.  I also have to applaud the people running the autograph lines as they had everything planned just right and when the star had to leave they handed out tickets with numbers on it. When the autograph session started up again they had those with the tickets form another line in order and then had them enter the autograph line first.  This was a good move as those who were waiting before were not screwed if they did not make it the first time.


The Trio of Three was on a mission to see three guests.  After a problem free ride down on Saturday and after digesting the news that Matt Smith had decided to leave the role of The Doctor we headed to the Penn Convention to meet Gina Torres, Summer Glau and John Barrowman.  It was pretty good timing when we got to Gina Torres line as there wasn’t many people there to see her yet.  She was very nice to her fans and talked to everyone that went to get an autograph from her.  She talked to my son who said he wasn’t having a good time as we had just came from John Barrowman’s line where it was cut right at us.  So that action got my son miffed.



Summer Glau’s line was a pretty decent size but it moved incredibly slow.  She would talk to her fans for at least 10 minutes and would pose for pictures also.  This made the line incredible slow and standing around and waiting a long time to meet her was a bit of a downer but that is all part of going to conventions and part of the convention experience.  At least the people in line where sociable and when I got to Summer Glau I was able to talk to her for a bit which made the wait worth it to get the last signature for this girls of Firefly cast photo completed. 


The highlight of the weekend was the VIP experience the Trio had with John Barrowman.  He is definitely one of the best guests I have ever met and if you get a chance to see him at a convention he is definitely worth seeing and you will have a good time and you will not be disappointed.  John Barrowman interacted with everyone in the autograph line and was a really fast signer.  He talked to my son for a bit and liked his Pokemon hat.  He was really funny and mostly everything goes with him. 



If mostly everything goes in the autograph line then everything goes in the photo op.  John Barrowman came out and addressed the line that he would do anything but kissing. As he did not want to get sick he ruled out kissing.   Indeed nothing was ruled out as people posed with John Barrowman getting felt up, hands on breasts, and all sort of weird things.  I went conservative and just posed with him.   


 He asked my son if he plays baseball and he said yes and I then mentioned he also does gymnastics also.  So John Barrowman wanted to see something and my son did a handstand and then John Barrowman tried to do one and held it for 10 seconds and my son kept going until john Barrowman picked him by his legs.  This was an awesome moment and was the highlight of the convention.  John Barrowman is the best guest I have ever met and would see him again in a heartbeat if he comes to my area again.  Thank You Wizard World for a wonderful time this past weekend.

1 comment:

  1. What awesome pictures and Barrowman is very cool to fans. I can't believe there aren't more people in the Torres line since she'd be the one I'd want to meet most.

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