TRANSCRIPTION

Raymond Bruels: This is the Aggro Cast. This is Ray.

David Hades Becker: And this is David.

RB: And today, we are talking about our San Diego Comic-Con recap. We, uh, I know this is a little behind only because we got back and we had Con Crud.

DHB: Yep.

RB: And so I’m now to a point where I’m not coughing and hacking up a lung every five minutes.

DHB: I’m pretty much the same. But at the same time, there was also so much to pack in from all that.

RB: A lot. And if you’ve, if you’ve been dialed in to our website, you will see a bunch of articles that have come out regarding some of the various things at Comic-Con. But this will be our podcast review, uh, talking about activations, panels, our critiques, and, uh, some of the communication.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: So what would you like to start with first? Do you wanna talk about the, the fun stuff or do you wanna get the critiques and the cri- criticisms out of the way?

DHB: Well, I mean, I normally go with getting the critiques and the negatives out of the way. That gives, you know, get the bad news out there first.

RB: Okay. It’s like good news, bad news.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: All right. So David is a veteran of Comic-Con.

DHB: Yep. Next year will be 20 years.

RB: And I’ve only been going for, like, the last four?

DHB: Yeah. I think about four years now, yeah.

RB: And the very first thing that I noticed was on Wednesday, the line situation.

DHB: Yeah. And the lack of communication for the line situation ’cause I think we were just going there to pick up our bags and our lanyard. We were told to get in one line that took us around the entire buil- building pretty much to get upstairs to go back downstairs so we ne- to leave, to get back into another line.

RB: Yeah. It was ridiculous because literally they walked us all the way down the convention center to where the Hall H pavilions are set up to keep people out of the sun.

DHB: Mm-hmm.

RB: So we had to snake through all of that just to get into the line that was lined up around the, the front of the convention center. And like David said, then we got upstairs for our bags and lanyards, and then they ushered us out a door that kicked us out and we’re like, “Wait, to get back into the vendor hall, we’d have to get back into that line?”

DHB: Yep.

RB: No, thank you.

DHB: Yeah. We, we - I believe we called that a t- a day for us like, "Okay, no preview night for us," and we just kinda like went around and checked everything else out there.

RB: Yep.

DHB: But that wasn’t the only time that happened. It happened constantly throughout the entire convention.

RB: Yeah. There were so much bad communication and line stuff. And the way that they shut down, like a lot of times, they were shutting down the space between the, the outdoor pavilions for people for the Hall H line and the walkway that takes you out to the bay.

DHB: The, the Bay Area, yeah.

RB: And we were having to wait a lot just to cross that or we were having to walk all the way around because the first couple of days, they completely shut it off.

DHB: Yeah. Like they, it was… normally it’s like a little quick little cut through where they, they break it, break the lines so people can walk through ’cause it’s a lot faster to get to the Bit- uh, the harbor out back, check out everything else. But I think it wasn’t until Friday afternoon, we got, went by there and we could actually walk that area.

RB: Yeah. It was-

DHB: It was so weird.

RB: …it was so different. And there was no real explanation as to why they had changed so much of that from previous years.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: And it’s not like it felt like it, it made a difference. It wasn’t a positive impact.

DHB: The only positive impact was I think it added an extra thousand steps onto my walk for the day.

RB: (laughs) Well, ’cause we, we drove in on Wednesday, so that was five and a half hours, and then I think I clocked 20,000 steps on Wednesday.

DHB: Yeah. I think it was about the same.

RB: And s- ’cause we got our, our bags and our lanyards and then we went to the Magic: The Gathering party.

DHB: Well, we did stuff way before then. We’re already, we were supposed to head to activations-

RB: Uh, uh, all right, all right.

DHB: …and other stuff. We’re talking about bad communication now.

RB: Yeah. So yeah, there is a, there was a lot of-

DHB: But-

RB: …bad communication.

DHB: …because it wa- uh, t- on the bad communication side, it wasn’t just that. It’s like the area, they generally have an area that’s just ADA, which perfectly fine. I think this was the first year they closed down two sections of the inside just for ADA and nobody was using it. And i- normally, it’s a place for if you wanna just cut through to get to another hall area, it’d make it so much easier, but they weren’t letting anybody through. And it w- it was the area where, yeah, generally people check in, get their ADA pass and move along, but it was literally just s- shut down with nobody in there.

RB: Well, and no signage.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: So the only way we knew that we had stumbled upon it was when we got yelled at. I don’t have a grudge against that individual for… but it’s just the fact that there was no signage to support them. So all they could do is yell and like, “No, no, you can’t come through!” And…

DHB: Yeah. And ’cause th- that’s all they can do and they have, you know, couple hundred thousand people who are gonna try to walk through there. And I’m like, “I, I get it. It needs to happen, but more communication needs to happen.”

RB: Well, and on the, the communication front, there were a couple of the activations that we had invitations or, or had signed up as press and we walked out to try to get our little pass or our wristband. People weren’t there. We’re like-

DHB: Yep.

RB: …“Well, what the hell’s going on?”

DHB: Makes it happen at Adult Swim and there was another one that had happened at where we just kinda showed up like, kinda did the meme from Pulp Fiction.

RB: Yeah. (laughs)

DHB: Uh, where do we do, where do we go?

RB: Yeah. And it’s like, well, okay, this is great. We showed up at the time that was designated and no one was around.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: That was the other thing. So talking about critiques. This isn’t necessarily communication, but when we showed up on Wednesday, normally so much more of the stuff seems set up.

DHB: Right.

RB: But as we were walking around, there were literally things that they were still unboxing that they were gonna set up that day.

DHB: Yeah. Like, uh, Google was still being set up. The Percy Jackson thing for the Hard Rock was being set up. So was the Predator thing. Like there were so many things still being built.

RB: Well, and we didn’t know about the Predator thing.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: We walked by and we’re like, “What the hell? This is awesome.” But we had gotten no information whatsoever as press regarding that even being there.

DHB: Yeah. Well, that and there was a couple other things that was like we got information, I think one of them on the car ride out, they’re like, “Hey, this is gonna be out here.” Or like for instance, like the Superman thing. They said, “Come out e- as press,” and like show up at these times and I was like, “Do we need to set an appointment or just show up during those times?” And there was really no k- I- I’m almost certain we snuck into somebody else’s time slot ’cause we just kinda showed up and they’re like, “Yeah, you’re press, come on in.”

RB: So we had gotten an email about some kind of T-shirt giveaway that they were gonna be doing in the streets for that new movie, Prime, uh, Primeval. It’s where they’re fighting dinosaurs.

DHB: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

RB: I never saw them.

DHB: I never saw them. And the other one was c- there was another email that came out about the Star Trek dancers.

RB: Yeah.

DHB: Like, I know you saw it, but I, I’ve only seen videos of it later on.

RB: Yeah.

DHB: And-

RB: I stumbled upon it, uh, just walking through.

DHB: Yeah. And then, but that was an email we got as we were driving out saying, “Hey, keep an eye out for this ’cause it’s gonna be happening.” So I was like, “Well, how am I supposed to tell everybody this is happening?” Or how, how are even people gonna be knowing ’cause everybody’s gonna be traveling or busy doing everything down there?

RB: Yeah. It, yeah, so communication, that get, that hearkens back to the communication issue, was that there was a lot of miscommunication going on, even just with the PR teams that were managing the activations.

DHB: Mm-hmm.

RB: Um, we did meet the PR, the lead PR person for, uh, the Twisted Metal activation.

DHB: Well, Twisted Metal and the Alien.

RB: FX, yeah.

DHB: F- FX Alien. And they nailed that. E- and I, when we get into the positives, I have a couple things I wanna drop on that because I learned some stuff over the course of the weekend on how that PR team nailed so many things.

RB: But yeah, it was just go- going back, the fact that setup seemed so delayed-

DHB: Mm-hmm.

RB: …this year.

DHB: Well, even Jenna mentioned, ’cause she was down there two days before any of that, and she was watching people just drop boxes off and do nothing the entire time she was there. They could have been setting up for like, I mean, depending on the permits.

RB: Yeah.

DHB: Like, that might be the only thing, um, is they just didn’t have the permits or the time to actually do it, but boxes were already dropped and just kind of sitting there with security watching it.

RB: Yep.

DHB: S- same thing with, uh, Petco Park.

RB: Oh, gosh.

DHB: Like, they had it fenced off, but all they had was just boxes sitting in there the entire time, I mean, for like two days doing nothing.

RB: Are, are, are we gonna criticize Petco? Is that, is that where we’re at?

DHB: Dude, that’s where I was building into.

RB: (laughs)

DHB: That wa- that was my segue in, into Petco because why are we even doing Petco anymore?

RB: Petco is such a waste. So we had hoped that Petco was going to have more going on ’cause there had been some advertisements for various things that were supposed to be at Petco this, this year. And we’re like, “Oh, cool. So maybe they’re trying to rekindle that area,” ’cause the last few years have been really mediocre and it’s just like they shove, like, things that don’t normally fit within the Comic-Con programming into that space. So we get out there, ’cause mostly I wanted to, I wanted to see the Magic: The Gathering photo shoot with the Cabbage Man because of the last Airbender set that’s coming out. So we were like, “Okay, let’s get out there. Let’s see what the line’s like.” And it was terrible.

DHB: Yeah. Well, it was, the line was already capped by the time we got there for that.

RB: Yep.

DHB: But that was also the only thing out there un- unless you wanted food trucks. There was a photo op for the new Winx TV show. Something-

RB: There was-

DHB: …something to do with eBay.

RB: …an eBay thing, yeah.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: It ha-

DHB: It was terrible.

RB: Yeah, and that, that was it.

DHB: I’m like, “You should just shut down Petco.”

RB: Yeah.

DHB: There’s no reason.

RB: Or, or ’cause I originally, I remember when we went down there, it seemed like that’s where the Twisted Metal bumper cars was gonna be ’cause there was plenty of space so they could have done that. Same thing with South Park.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: But like, South Park was a good 15-minute hike away from the convention center for where that was at. And even though Twisted Metal was just kinda like across the street on the other end, they could have fit both of those in Petco instead of making people walk further and people could have still had their time and do everything.

DHB: And given people a reason to go to Petco.

RB: Yeah.

DHB: Because at this point I don’t fucking care what’s gonna be in Petco, ’cause at this point there’s no reason for me to hike my ass out there for nothing.

RB: Y- Well, unless it’s on the first night where they’re ushering everybody to walk around the convention center to get in.

DHB: (laughs)

RB: ’Cause then we had to walk over the bridge and we could look into Petco, which is how we saw there was just empty box or boxes everywhere ’cause nothing was set up.

DHB: But like, it took us, we, it took us longer to get through the security line as a team than the time we spent inside of Petco.

RB: E- exactly.

DHB: It was, it was terrible. It, that is a massive critique. If you go out to Comic-Con, I would recommend do not waste your time with Petco unless there is something out there. W- walk over the bridge ’cause you could take the bridge over to the harbor area. If you take that one route, you could see what’s in Petco and see what’s gonna be worth your time. It has not been worth the time the last three years.

RB: Yeah.

DHB: In- including, like, it feels like they’re putting more and more on the little walkway towards Petco. ’Cause last year I don’t remember having as many of the weird little photo ops. They actually had the Naked Gun, uh, Lilo & Stitch, the Thunderbolts, like all that stuff leading up to it, that felt like stuff they could have put in Petco. Yeah. But it was just on that little walkway there.

RB: Well, and they would have had more space because they shoved all of that stuff into that sidewalk area.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: I know one of our team members actually went to the Thunderbolts ice cream thing and it was like a 30-minute wait.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: But you’re cramming a bunch of people into a tiny space to move through that line. You could have given people a reason to go to Petco by pushing that stuff into Petco.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: But-

DHB: The o- the only thing I can think is it’s permits and then it might have been cheaper for them to put those little photo ops right there on that little s- sidewalk instead of trying to rent out the space over there.

RB: And then the, the only thing that I saw as we were leaving Petco, there were some gals that rolled up with a cart that had the pudgy penguin bags.

DHB: Yes.

RB: And they were handing out bags and I’m like, “Okay, cool.”

DHB: Yeah. I don’t even think they were handing them out like they were supposed to be there handing them out. I think they were just, “We n- wa- don’t want to carry this box around anymore.” ’Cause that’s kind of what they were, it felt it was like, “Okay, who wants a bag? Just swarm us.”

RB: Yeah.

DHB: “Take ’em.”

RB: Yeah. Petco was terrible. The outside, I don’t know, the vibe felt different with some-

DHB: Oh.

RB: …of the outside stuff.

DHB: Yeah, it di- it definitely did. Well, it also felt a little, uh, weird on the inside too, y- which builds onto the whole communication thing was normally in the past people understand and know how some of the lines work and all that stuff. But there was multiple times, ’cause th- they were doing the Airbender thing as well inside n- in-

RB: Nickelodeon.

DHB: …Nickelodeon.

RB: Yeah.

DHB: And the line was capped well before they even opened the doors. So I’m like, “How is that working?” And, or they would tell people, “Come back at this time,” and, and then people would show up and be told, “Oh, we capped everything two hours ago.”

RB: Well, and my understanding with the Nickelodeon thing was after the first day they stopped doing that inside the vendor hall.

DHB: Oh, okay.

RB: Because of the line issue. I think they pushed it all towards Petco.

DHB: Gotcha.

RB: So the Magic, ’cause they were giving away an exclusive Magic card for the, The Last Airbender set. And yeah, they pushed it all to Petco.

DHB: Well-

RB: But then, then, th- that’s why the lines were, like, four hours long.

DHB: Yeah. But, but at the same time it wasn’t even th- just them, it was also Tron was doing their special thing for the Nine Inch Nails album and, like, a bunch of other ones. It was like we walked by there, by the time we found out this was a thing, line was already capped and they were sold out for the entire weekend.

RB: Yeah. Well, and I remember us stopping by the Tron thing-I walked up just to kind of see what they were selling, and the guy behind the counter was just not, was not enthused.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: I was like, “So what are you, what are you selling?” I had to ask him three times before he actually responded to me. I’m just like, “If you’re here, please be aware, and I’m wearing my press badge. I’m, I’m here asking questions. I’m not trying to jump the line. I just want to know, so like, we could actually, you know, report on it.” ’Cause they had, they had record pressings-

DHB: Mm-hmm.

RB: …that were, were cool, and they had decals and other stuff, but-

DHB: Well, a- and there was the, the photo op, and apparently that was a whole separate line you, you had to get into, so people didn’t know that was going down because nobody wanted to actually talk about it and communicate.

RB: Well, and we didn’t even know where the hell it was.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: Like, we were looking to see where in the vendor hall it was, and we had to blunder through it.

DHB: Well, not even that. It was on Sunday, I walked through the sales pavilion. In the free press area, the table was just covered in little promos for that one booth. They were, like, they didn’t put their little promos out anywhere because we’re talking a good 100 feet of table covered in, “Come to this booth for the Tron: Ares, uh, pressing,” and-

RB: Wow.

DHB: …talk, or, like, somebody bungled that. But at the same time, I think, I think it’s also the people ’cause we also went to the Troma booth. I was just trying, not even, like, doing anything press-wise. I was just trying to talk to the person running the booth and get some information just in general on what they had there, and they looked like they w- did not want to even be there.

RB: I’m like, “Were you just tired?” Because I know it was later in the day. So they had the original director of the Toxic Avenger movie there, and he’s like a 70-plus-year-old guy, and he was more enthused-

DHB: Yeah, he was-

RB: …than the people running the booth.

DHB: Yeah. He was animated. He was willing to talk to everybody. Uh, uh, we didn’t get to talk to him, unfortunately, because he was talking to everybody else.

RB: And he was taking pictures with people.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: He was signing stuff. And the one, the one person that walked over to actually say hi to us seemed so nervous, and w- I’m like, “Don’t worry about it. I’m, I’m not here to bother to ask questions.”

DHB: Yeah.

RB: “I’m just looking.” It just… God, the vibe really felt really strange this year.

DHB: It, it did, yes.

RB: There were so many more people in the vendor hall. Like, when we were walking around… So we finally, after all the activations and stuff, we finally cut some time to be able to walk through the vendor hall, and there were so many people compared to previous years.

DHB: Quote-unquote “walk” through the vendor hall-

RB: Yeah. Yeah.

DHB: …because there was no walking.

RB: No, it was, it was like the, The Walking Dead. It was shuffling.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: We were shuffling through. Was this because there weren’t more Hall H panels drawing people out of the room?

DHB: Not just Hall H. There wasn’t many panels in general to draw people out.

RB: Well, and that was one of the things that we talked about, was we had next to no interviews this year-

DHB: Yeah.

RB: …as press. There were no interview opportunities.

DHB: Exactly.

RB: It’s not just the fact that we didn’t have any, we didn’t do any interviews, it’s the fact that there weren’t, there weren’t really any offers to have interviews.

DHB: Yeah, I think that at most we got two interviews, one for the TV show Upload, and then the other one was for the Alien, uh, VR game that they weren’t talking about anything that we hadn’t already covered from last year.

RB: Well, and then there were a couple of things that are outside of our bailiwick, like there was an author. “Well, here’s this author that has written a, a book series.” While we haven’t read the book, we’re not familiar with this author. Why would we-

DHB: Yeah, like what, what questions are we gonna ask?

RB: Yeah. So we’re not, we’re not informed of this, and they didn’t provide a whole lot of information regarding that author. So yeah, we weren’t informed, and there was next to nothing for video games.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: There was one, one thing that we stopped by and checked out. We did move through the Stern pinball area, but as we had commented on in our previous podcast-

DHB: They were pushing Jaws.

RB: It was the same stuff.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: There was nothing new.

DHB: The only thing that was new there was they had a photo op with the wax figure of the, uh, the, the captain.

RB: Yeah.

DHB: That was it.

RB: Need a bigger boat.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: Um, (laughs) but yeah, so this, this year was just bizarre.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: It was really bizarre. And so that’s why activations became the big thing for us this year.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: We had talked previously about all of the ad- the emails and advertisements we had seen for the activations, but then when we got there, holy shit. I feel like our entire weekend was activations.

DHB: Yeah, and I think I clocked it. I think I did a total of four hours in the convention hall, and that’s including the hour that we were in line f- or we were there for the Toxic Avenger panel.

RB: Wow. Yeah, and-

DHB: Yeah.

RB: …everything else was walking to activations-

DHB: Yeah.

RB: …and, and doing activations.

DHB: Exactly, yeah. ’Cause like, I mean, even if, if we want to go back to that, we could, we could start doing the po- positives. Well, positives and negatives ’cause some of the activations really weren’t worth it. But like, we started out doing the, the Paramount Lodge, and we got walked right into that, and y- there was the thing for Dexter, the Star Trek thing, and, uh, was it Land Mast? A bunch of other little photo ops in there, and la- um, the tour of the killer museum for Dexter and all that stuff. So it was like fun little things like that.

RB: I tell you, though, as, ’cause we went through, we, we had their little chicken sliders and fries, and-

DHB: Fries were so good.

RB: But stepping outside after having gone into the Paramount+ and seeing the line of people-

DHB: Yeah, the-

RB: I’m like-

DHB: …four-hour line to get in for the next day.

RB: You poor, poor people. It’s…I don’t feel it’s worth that line.

DHB: No.

RB: And did you notice? They had no swag tables to buy anything.

DHB: Yeah, they, yeah, there was nothing in there to, to actually peddle or anything like that in there ’cause it was-

RB: ’Cause normally they have something where you can go in and buy…And like, we got a Star Fleet bag.

DHB: We got the Land, uh, Land Mast b- mug, the Dexter, uh, I want to say it was like a, a tablecloth, something like that.

RB: Yeah, it was like some kind of, uh, canvas cloth that was blood spattered. Really, there was, there was nothing to purchase. There…You had, you had your drink tickets. I would not recommend people stand in line for as long as they do.

DHB: Yeah, not, not for that at least ’cause like, I think we were, we would have been in and out of there, if we weren’t just trying to kill some time before the next thing we had to go do, probably in about 10 minutes, 20 minutes.

RB: Yeah.

DHB: And that’s going through, taking the, to doing all the little photo ops, having our two drinks, and…

RB: Yeah. So I would not recommend people going to Paramount+ standing in line just for their offerings.

DHB: No. Like if you can luck, if you luck out and you get one of the reservations, sure, but standing in line, uh, w- wasting your time. If you have n- if you have nothing else to do, maybe.

RB: Another point about communication. Trying to get into the Star Trek thing. So we walk up, and there’s an entrance, and we’re like, “Okay,” and they’re like, “No, the line’s over here.” So…I think Jana and I got moved three times-

DHB: Mm-hmm.

RB: …to try to find the line, which then we had to go all the way to the back of the building to go in. And then we go in, and we say hi to some of the actors dressed in Starfleet Academy, uh, regalia. And then we get up to the line to their photo op, which was essentially on the holodeck. We were like, “No, stop,” because they were letting people through the back door that we were told, “No, that’s not where to go.”

DHB: Yeah, ’cause they had a secondary line, and they’re like, “We can’t just make people have to get into a different line again.” So they let, they ran that line through, and we were kinda standing there for, like, 10 minutes, waiting for them to go through that.

RB: And standing in line, for what it was, I do not feel was worth it.

DHB: I didn’t even get the picture. It, it was supposed to send out in texts. Still haven’t received it.

RB: Wow. That sucks.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: Yeah, ’cause really, you got somebody that sits down in a chair, like a captain, and it, and the scenario of the holodeck, you’re like in a, a pulp ’50s alien sci-fi movie, with strange aliens on the screen, and you can take a picture where you’re posing.

DHB: Yeah, you’re trying to interact with it somehow.

RB: Yeah. And then they send you on your way. So Paramount+, you know, if I was gonna give it a, a grade, which I’m not, um, you know, we don’t, we don’t really do that, but if I was gonna give it a grade, be like a (laughs)-

DHB: Yeah, uh, ou- outside of the, the lemonade was good, the fries were good, and I personally enjoyed the Dexter thing, even though that was a 45-second walk-through thing.

RB: Yeah.

DHB: Other than that, yeah, it was, if you have nothing else to do and somehow re- get a reservation, maybe it’s worth your time. But outside of that, not really.

RB: Speaking that lemonade, that’s the one thing I, I took away from this year. I never knew how much I needed lemonade-

DHB: Yeah, the frozen lemonades?

RB: …in my life, because between having it there at the Paramount thing, and then we found a restaurant that had it on tap, and I think I went back there, like, four times. It was that great. But going back to activations-

DHB: Yeah.

RB: …so, we got through Paramount+.

DHB: So, we got through Paramount+, and we were supposed to do adult swim, and that’s one of the ones where we showed up and nobody was there.

RB: Yeah, we hiked back, like, a mile and a half.

DHB: ’Cause we also had to walk around the entire convention center to get there, ’cause we couldn’t walk through the little cut-through. But then we went and did the Magic: The Gathering/Spider-Man thing.

RB: That was awesome. If you haven’t read my article on Aggro Gamer, I definitely recommend it. We got up to the floor where it was being held. We heard the music blasting, and we weren’t really sure what we were getting into, but we got through in, through the door. Lo and behold, there was DMC from RUN-DMC. Then there was a, a place where you could pick up some of their welcome decks, because for the Spider-Man set, they are coming out with two 30-card packs in a box that is a welcome deck that teaches you not only how to play Magic: The Gathering, but also introduces you to the Spider-Man cards. So you get the welcome packs. We were able to, as press, we got one of each of the welcoming packs. I don’t know if that was something that we were supposed to.

DHB: No, I think it was, I think it was something special that they did at, at one point, ’cause it was like, I s- I think some of the people from Disney showed up, and like, “Well, we can’t just give the people from Disney these.” So they, like, they gave it to all the press that were also sitting there at the same time.

RB: And then I saw Brian Kibler and Olivia, his fiancee. He is a Hall of Fame Magic: The Gathering player. She’s no slouch, and they are both the hosts of a YouTube channel, Commanders at Home, I think. But I got to see them and talk to Brian for a little bit regarding Magic, and, and he was saying that, well, with the IP of Marvel, this is probably just the start, ’cause they had done a Secret Lair set with some Marvel cards. They were cards from previous sets that they had just re-skinned as Marvel characters, like Captain America, Captain America’s shield, Deadpool, et cetera. But now that we have a Spider-Man set, which now we’re getting more information released as they are talking about it, ’cause…Yeah, read my article. They, there was a lot of consternation about the fact that they were having a pre-release, the pre-release weekend for Edge of Eternities, and then they had this Spider-Man party at Comic-Con. I feel like, and I agree in some ways with some of the, the YouTubers talking about how it stole the thunder for the set, but it’s gonna be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these Marvel cards. And they just released a, uh, a sneak peek of one of the Infinity Stones-

DHB: Oh, nice.

RB: …that’s gonna be in the set. And I don’t think this was supposed to be a very big set. It was supposed to be, like, 200 cards, but they decided to make it, I think, it’s, it is a little bigger now.

DHB: Well, they like money.

RB: They like money. And that’s a whole other podcast-

DHB: Yeah.

RB: …we could talk about, because there’s a, a lot of stuff when it comes to money, but the party.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: The party was probably th- my second favorite of all the stuff that we did, because yeah, you had the, you had DMC, and he was, he was so wholesome, talking a message of art and community and-

DHB: Yeah, exactly. It was, he built all of that up, as, as well as hi- as doing the job of hyping up the cards and telling people all the other, like, y- helping usher people through the whole experience as well.

RB: Yeah, ’cause, you know, Spider-Man being from New York, DMC from New York, and then inside, they had actually done some theming. So, they had a bagel shop-

DHB: Yeah.

RB: …that you could go in and you could get a comic book. They had a newspaper stand that, when you open up the newspaper, it’s actually a play mat for Spider-Man. And then, of course, they had a photo op of J. Jonah Jameson and The Daily Bugle’s office.

DHB: Yeah, his office, it looked like it was being attacked or something like that.

RB: Yeah. And so you could go and you could take a picture behind his desk and curse Spider-Man. So yeah, overall, it was a lot of fun, and I’m really glad that we had that opportunity, especially since I have gotten back into Magic: The Gathering, and we could, we could get, you know, get a look at the new Spider-Man cards. And some of the cards are just awesome.

DHB: Yeah, and, and from what I understood with that whole thing, it’s, minus the, I think, the food, drink, and then RUN- uh, DMC for RUN-, you know, not playing, that’s when people that were not press were getting a similar thing. Like, they’d get there, they’d get, uh, one of the little boxes, learn how to play the game, and they could do all the other little activations in there.

RB: The, uh, the other celebrity that I met, unfortunately it was too loud, so it was kind of an awkward exchange, but the professor from the Tolarian Community College, which is another-

DHB: Mm-hmm.

RB: …YouTube channel. I saw him moving through, and I tried to say hi, and unfortunately, I was a little bit long-winded while the music was thumping. But it was great to, to see the professor live and in the flesh.

DHB: Right.

RB: But yeah, so that was great. We did the Magic: The Gathering party.

DHB: Yeah, and I, that kind of wrapped up that night. So, there, there was a couple other things, I think, it was, we did, like, a dinner and then kind of went back to the room.

RB: Was there a party?

DHB: There’s always, uh, the Ready Party 1.

RB: Mm-hmm.

DHB: Uh, we got something coming out on the, the site for that, though. Uh, so we don’t have to dig into that too much-

RB: Yeah.

DHB: …’cause I know not all of us went to that.

RB: ’Cause there were three parties all together that our group-

DHB: Yes.

RB: …was a part of.

DHB: Correct.

RB: Um, ’cause there was a Ready Party 1, the Fandom party-

DHB: The Fandom party.

RB: …and then the Mosh Isley.

DHB: Yes.

RB: Yeah. And I only went to one of ’em because I’m old, and I like sleep. And after the drive and 20,000 steps, I was just cooked for that day.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: And then, of course, we were clocking, you know, 16 to 18,000 steps the rest of the day. So-

DHB: Yeah.

RB: …how you guys managed to push through…

DHB: I do this every year.

RB: Yeah. (laughs)

DHB: I, I get used to it. But, uh, moving on to the next, next day, next few days, we can do this out of, out of order-

RB: Yeah.

DHB: …but we can talk about all the other ones, ’cause there’s, uh, and we mentioned it before.Twisted Metal had bumper cars out there.

RB: And that was my favorite. So when I say m- the Magic Party was number two, number one had to be the Twisted Metal bumper cars.

DHB: Yeah. C- not, not only was it fun to do the bumper cars, they had people out, they had actors out there for s- some of the roles like Calypso, Sweet Tooth, which was the same Sweet Tooth that has been in all their other activations they’ve done since the series first started.

RB: Is it Baby, Baby Doll?

DHB: Uh, yeah. Um, yeah, Baby Doll, and then Grit, Mr. Grimm.

RB: We got through the front gate into the line for the bumper cars, and there’s a, an actor as Calypso who was just fucking nailing it.

DHB: Yes.

RB: And, and so he was, he was mocking us the entire time. We were running around, bumping into each other.

DHB: Did not break character once.

RB: And even when we…After the ride was over, we stopped and we’re like, “Hey, can we get your socials? We want to congratulate you.” Never once broke character. I got a selfie with him, but like…No, he was like, “You want to know…This is my domain. Go talk to other people.” And he was amazing.

DHB: Yeah. Yeah, he, he was like the perfect hype into it all and just kept it going. And s- I, I did it twice and same thing the second time I went there, just nailing it. Hardcore just like, did not break character. And working the crowd, because people were standing in line for hours to go do this, and even with, uh…Sweet Tooth was doing karaoke with people in the crowd as well.

RB: That was great too.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: Seeing the karaoke. And I got a selfie with, with Sweet Tooth as well.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: And then they had some of the cars. Uh, they’re probably not cars from the show, but they were mock-ups?

DHB: Yeah, there was a couple mock-ups or li- like photo ops. Includ- including the one f- uh, Sweet Tooth’s ice cream truck was out there, and that’s the one they’ve taken on tours for everybody else to do. So there was that.

RB: And there were a bunch of the Baby Dolls running around.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: And then Mr. Grimm or, yeah.

DHB: Yeah, Mr. Grimm.

RB: Mr. Grimm running around being all spooky.

DHB: Trying to buy souls for selfies.

RB: Yep. And he looked great.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: How he was not dying in that heat, I will never know.

DHB: Yeah, full, full leathers and a biker helmet. Yeah.

RB: Yeah. But, so we, we went and we spoke with the f- the gals that were up front because we wanted to, to pass on our compliments, not only for the activation but also for the actors.

DHB: Mm-hmm.

RB: And we got to meet Julie.

DHB: Yes.

RB: And Julie, I guess, is the head PR person that…Not only for the, the Twisted Metal activation, but also for the FX Alien Earth activation.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: And Julie was awesome.

DHB: Yes.

RB: I have not had a lot of great experiences in person with PR people, but she was so excited and happy to hear from us and was thankful for our commentary and it was great.

DHB: Well, and, and took some of it to heart because, uh, there was obviously with the bumper cars, there was the waiver everybody had to sign. They had like, um, tablets out there to fill out and then there was issues with the wristbands. So the second time I went there, they’d gotten rid of the, the tablets to do the, the waiver and were literally handing out just sheets of paper ’cause it…That was pushing people so much faster through.

RB: And they had different wristbands.

DHB: They had different wristbands because, uh, people were swapping and all that stuff. They’re like, “Oh, we don’t want people jumping the line,” ’cause that was one of the ones you had to get a specific time for. They had a wristband if you were press, if you’re a VIP, or if you were just kind of a general, came in and had your, um, did your waiver. And they, they made it work the first day and then they got on the ball the second day I was there. Like, they were like, “We figured out what was wrong.” They corrected it, and it ran even smoother. E- even though the first night we were there, ran so smooth. They, they made it go even better the next time.

RB: And the other thing I thought was really impressive, as we’re driving away on Sunday, it was gone.

DHB: Yeah. Like you never knew it was there. It got taken down so fast.

RB: So efficient, so friendly, amazing actors.

DHB: Mm-hmm.

RB: Cannot hype up enough the work that they did for Twisted Metal.

DHB: Well, we can move right on to the other work they did for a- the Alien Earth things. We got to do…

RB: Yeah.

DHB: You got to do one half of that, but that was two, ’cause there was two different parts of that activation.

RB: Yeah, ’cause there was the daytime activation, which takes you through essentially a crash site where a company had collected eggs from the alien xenomorphs. And you could actually see them in containment cases, and you could see where some of the eggs had actually broken open. And so there were some, some giveaways that they did and then some photo op opportunities. And that was super fun. And-

DHB: Yeah, the weird, the weird creepy tunnel that could be a, uh, like a haunted house type thing.

RB: Yeah. And the, the xenomorph statue that was kind of on top of the crate.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: And there were a bunch of wallpapers you could download for your phone, so I, I have a-

DHB: And, and they’re still sending more of them. I got an e- I got a text today saying, “Hey, we’ve updated even more.” I’m like, “Okay, well, time to download.”

RB: Yeah.

DHB: And it wasn’t, not just for your phone, it’s for your watch, for all your Android and iOS devices.

RB: And I tell you, some of the previews I’ve he- I’ve seen for that show, I am so hyped for that show. But they, they also gave us a drink, a j- a g-

DHB: A j- jawbreaker.

RB: Jawbreaker.

DHB: And some pins.

RB: Yeah.

DHB: And that was the daytime one. The nighttime one, it was the same layout. You kind of went a different route. But they turned it into kind of s- a haunted house like scare action. ’Cause like, th- uh, which w- we posted the full video, uh, run through when I got to go through it. And it was like, they gave you a, um, a blacklight you had to take with, that was like part of your swag. And that built into the whole, um, finding where the xeno morphi- morphics, uh, escaped to. Some of the pods that were broken open, they broke up open live so you got splattered as well. Then the hallway where it was like, I think you s- you did a little jump scare where it was like normally a photo op, they had actors in there doing jump scares in there. All the way to like the very end where it was like the xenomorph and the facehugger actually appear in there and kind of give you that one big jump at the end before pushing you out. And then you got more of the same drinks and jawbreakers and all that stuff. So it was a whole different experience at night.

RB: Again, Julie, and you’ll probably never listen to this, but you were amazing.

DHB: Yes.

RB: Your team was amazing. The experiences that you guys put on were incredible.

DHB: Yeah. Well, I’m, I’m also wondering if she might have been in charge of the King of the Hill because that’s…Kind of falls in the FX Hulu, uh, bucket. And-

RB: Yeah, and King of the Hill was really good too.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: It was like an outdoor backyard party.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: So you had, you had some backyard games, like ring toss.

DHB: And like a beer pong.

RB: Yeah. There was the, the beanbag into the, the-

DHB: The giant like uh, tu- tub or whatever, yeah.

RB: Yeah. And you could get a, a breakfast taco and-

DHB: They, they had hats and all that stuff they were doing out there. There was a couple of photo ops, a couple other things.

RB: Yeah, it was, it was really cool.

DHB: The, they had th- uh, the water that was, uh, themed around the Alamo beer and all that stuff.

RB: Yeah.

DHB: So it’s really, really cool.

RB: I, uh, I really appreciate it. I’ve, I was never much King of the Hill, but for them to usher in for the bringing it back.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: It was great. It was a great activation to remind everybody of the characters. Pocket sand.

DHB: Exactly.

RB: (laughs)

DHB: Well, and it…They had that all in the, some of the swag you were able to win as well. ’Cause you, ’cause you had to play the games, and if you won, you actually got little, uh, swag and all that stuff. And that’s on the, the barbecue apron that they gave out i- in the, from the ring toss.

RB: Nice. So the FX thing was great. You got to do a little bit of the adult swim.

DHB: So, uh, actually getting into the adult swim, it’s not as bad as Petco, but it feels like it’s getting like Petco is where it’s almost not w- worth the time. ’Cause we got to go in as press or as a, I think like l- labeled as like friends and family. So this means we got to bypass the outside line. But once you got inside, everything else was a line. And so it was like we stood in, stood in…Didn’t stand in line to go stand in line. Or if you didn’t have the friends and family thing, you stood in line for an hour or two to get inside to stand in line.And I mean, it looked cool ’cause there was the giant inflatable butt bouncing room, that giant foam, uh, block thing you can jump into.

RB: There was a dinosaur-

DHB: Yeah. Dinosaur pho- photo op.

RB: …photo op.

DHB: Which is the only thing we got a chance to do because, like, the line was, like, four people long for that one. I know somebody else on our team got to do the, the slide a few times. But it, at the end of the day, it wa- it was mainly so they could put on their shows out there after seven o’clock. So like after seven o’clock is when they were starting to have some of the actors and voice actors also coming out and they were doing premieres for some of the shows. So didn’t get to do much in there outside of walk in, take a bunch of photos because it was set up as a cat pirate party or something like that.

RB: Yeah, it was, it was weird.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: Uh-

DHB: I wanted to go in the butt, the, in the butts bouncy house from Rick and Morty because they made Butt World.

RB: (laughs)

DHB: But I think once you got through the two-hour line to get into the place, it was another hour line to get into butt bounce house for, like, a minute. So, like, not worth my time to go through all that stuff.

RB: Yeah. And then the only other thing, well, there were a couple of other things in that area. There was Voodoo Ranger Boat.

DHB: Yeah. Which-

RB: Which you got some of our, our team members on.

DHB: Yeah. And, and that was more or less it was a themed bar. You got on there, they had a party going on. There was a couple of places to buy some drinks. Then you ge- just got to sit around and drink and have a good time on a pirate ship.

RB: And w- David met a fan.

DHB: I did meet, uh, one of her fans i- in, in the captain’s quarter of all places. So hello, if you’re listening.

RB: Were you the cabin boy? (laughs)

DHB: Yeah. (laughs) No, I was not the cabin boy this time around.

RB: But yeah, the Voodoo Ranger Boat.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: And then also out there was the Superman.

DHB: Yeah, the Superman, uh, Old Spice thing.

RB: Yeah. And that was actually really fun.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: So you go in, and they had a rocket ship that was a photo op that they actually took the picture. So you got to pose with a, a stick of deodorant, which is actually really nice.

DHB: Yeah.

RB: It’s a citrus smell. I’ve been, I’ve been using it because I, I just, I really liked the scent. And so we got our pictures. I was wearing my Green Lantern shirt. So I, uh-

DHB: And I, and I was wearing my Fuck Supes hat, so it kind of worked.

RB: (laughs)

DHB: (laughs)

RB: And so, uh, we, we got our picture taken. And then while we were just kind of chilling, I, I noticed that there was a playing card on one of the tables. I was like, “What is this?” And the gal th- was like, “Yeah, we’ve got Old Spice playing cards,” and gave us decks of playing cards.

DHB: Yeah.