Wizard World Austin

Last weekend, for Andy's birthday, we went to the Wizard World Comic Con in Austin!  We're both con veterans and were stoked to find out that Wizard would be in town on his birthday.  After figuring out that parking in downtown Austin is just as bad downtown DC (if not more...where are the garages down there?!) we finally found a spot and trucked it over to the convention center.  It's always easy to find your way to a comic con...you just follow Batman.

Warning: I'm about to do some hard-core geeking out on you right now!

The line was as brutal as always.  Even if you pre-pay, you have to stand in line to get a wrist band.  With thousands of folks coming in from out of town, it was definitely crowded.  My favorite thing while in line was watching the two Batmans (Batmen?) having to pass each other multiple times haha!

Once in, we saw C3-PO and R2 right away!  I've seen a lot of Star Wars cosplay, but never a C3-PO.  So stoked!  The crowd around them was absolutely insane.  We also just casually happened upon Master Chief, Voltron and The Shredder.

Mini figs!  We love Legos here in Helms Deep and it was fun to point out all of the figures we already had.  Namely, most of these.

I'm really excited for the next con we go to, because we're both working on some Star Wars costumes to wear!  Andy's about done with his and I told him that I'm going to feel compelled to take my photo with him whenever he wears it haha!

I love cosplay troops.  These clubs build screen-accurate models and costumes and it's awesome.  Check out all of the props these real-life Ghostbusters made!  Ash is also interested.

So while we were putzing around and looking at everything, we saw Chewy and another Wookiee (he's from the pretend movies we don't talk about in this household).  We added ourselves to the crowd around them and were waiting for our turn to pounce for a photo op, when we heard a beeping behind us.  R2-D2 came tootling by offering friendly beeps of "excuse me" to the crowds.  I was snuck up on R2!  There's nothing better than turning around and seeing a life-size R2 acknowledging you ^_^

I finally got in there for a photo with Chewie! And check out Greedo being a lazy jerk.  The lower left is a creeper photo of Scott Bakula.  We also saw Jewel Staite and Norman Reedus.  Norman's line has gotten exponentially longer since The Walking Dead.  He's been coming to cons for Boondock Saints for yeeeears!  There were a bunch of other people we didn't see...there were lots of VIP exclusive meet and greets and such.  Would've been nice to see Shatner ^_^  But seeing Snake Eyes sneaking around the black divider (bottom right) was pretty great, too.

Master Chief!  I used to play Halo like a crazy person.  Arby and the Chief is my favorite Halo-related thing ever.

R2!!!  We actually saw these guys at a Maker Faire this summer and totally geeked out at how amazingly accurate their models are.  See the mouse droid in the foreground?  Both astromechs are remote controlled and awesome.  And I love the casual Rebels.  Just hanging out, shootin' the breeze.  The Stormtrooper, however...always on duty.  The last photo is this crazy G.I. Joe set up with pretty much every toy...ever.  It was fun seeing all the ones that Andy used to have as a little boy.

A TARDIS! A TARDIS! A TARDIS!  We actually saw this through the doors as we were in line and I had my eagle eyes out for it.  There was a standee of 11 and Amy Pond next to it...so they were cropped out :P  I was so stoked to finally get a photo with a TARDIS!  My outfit is a loose interpretation of Rose Tyler at Bad Wolf Bay and I've always got my sonic screwdriver pen with me...so this photo was just the culmination of my nerd-dom.

There's nothing more romantic than a photo with your husband on his birthday in Cobra Commander's helmet ^_^

We had such a great time people watching and taking photos.  Years ago, comic conventions were a place to find things you couldn't find anywhere else.  I used to go so I could find rare back issues of things and lots of toys and imports that my local shop didn't have.  I think a lot of the discovery is gone since the internet is so huge and you can really find anything on there now.  But now, cons for me are more about the people.  Marveling at their creative costumes and seeing how happy and into everything they are.  I just love being around folks who are super into what they love.  There's no better place for that than a comic convention.