Disclosure: Mama Smith was given free admission to Niagara Falls Comic Con in exchange for this post. All opinions expressed are 100% her own.
So it finally happened. I finally went to a Comic Convention! I have been a geek all of my life so this was an amazing experience for me. I knew it was going to be a blast, but I never could have imagined all the awesome celebrities I was going to meet and how nice they were going to be.
Last Friday, my husband and I packed up the car and drove up to Niagara Falls – which is only about a 2.5 hour drive for us. We took the girls with us because we knew that they would love the experience as well. The convention was from Friday to Sunday but we only had Saturday Media Passes so we did some sight seeing after we arrived. Friday night I could barely sleep, I was too excited! Saturday morning we all powered up with some breakfast at the hotel and headed over to the Scotiabank Centre – the convention hall. Just walking up was surreal. Seeing so many people in costume was amazing – my daughters loved it! We checked in and immediately went to get our photo op passes (we knew they might sell out). The three that we decided to attend were Sean Astin, Billy Dee Williams, and Scott Wilson. These were all later in the day so we had the morning and early afternoon to explore.
What fun! There were many merchant booths (which we searched for POP figures of celebrities we were going to meet to have signed for my collection). Then we headed to the back of the convention center where the stars were at booths signing autographs and taking photos. The line for Jason Priestly was not bad at all and so of course I hopped right in. I loved him in Beverly Hills 90210. He was so nice! What a great guy. He shook my hand and looked right in my eyes. He asked my name and then asked about the girls. He was super sweet to them as well. After taking my photo with him, he told me to check them and make sure that they came out, or we could take another few. I was floored by that as I figured most celebrities would want to rush through the line.
After Jason, we headed over to say hi to Christopher McDonald. You probably know him as Shooter Mcgavin. He is a bit of a hometown hero for my husband, as he is from a very small town with just one gas station. They chatted about the town for a few minutes and we got a great photo with him. My oldest daughter was being a little bit fussy but he even tried to cheer her up. Next we waited in a long line for Sean Astin. When we got up to him he was a total sweetheart. The girls were tired at this point and he even talked to them as Special Agent Oso to put a smile on their faces! What a great guy! I got my Mikey from The Goonies POP figure signed and chatted with him about how they should have a Sam (from Lord of the Rings) one because we couldn’t find it anywhere. He told us how he thought POPs are weird – haha! We told him we would see him later at his photo op and went on our way.
Scott Wilson (Hershel from The Walking Dead) was really nice too. We talked about binge watching The Walking Dead. I couldn’t find a Hershel POP so I bought the Well Walker POP for him to sign. He thought it was a really cool one and unique to have him sign it (that walker was found on his farm after all). The photo ops were in a separate room. Here you waited in a line with your ticket for the celebrity you were going to meet. There was a back drop set up and they printed a great quality photo for you right there. You could pay $10 for a digital copy (and $5 for an “Instagram ready” photo – how great is that!). I would say my only complaint about the whole day was waiting to pick up the Sean Astin photos. They were done right after the David Hasselhoff with Kit photos and I imagine that is why there was such a delay (about an hour) in picking them up.
In between Scott Wilson (who immediately recognized us by the way) and Sean Astin we had about an hour to kill. We decided to browse the shops again and – to our surprise – Margot Kidder (Louis Lane in Superman) was there with NO LINE! We couldn’t believe it! We ran up for our photos and an autograph. Next to her was Billy Dee Williams with just two people in line so we eagerly waited for his autograph as well. We also checked out the cars that were on display and my husband and daughters got some awesome photos with The Interceptor from Mad Max!
The cosplay contest was a lot of fun to watch. We only caught the end of it but there were some amazing costumes! Groot and General Grievous were my favorites by far. Overall, the day was pretty amazing. I wish that our photo ops for Billy Dee Williams and Scott Wilson didn’t overlap Sean Astin’s Q&A but what can you do. If I was not heading out to LA the next day for the Inside Out Premiere we would have stayed all weekend and done more. We definitely plan to be back again next year – and you should too! Make a mini-vacation out of it and see the falls while you are there.
Stay up to date with Niagara Falls Comic Con on their Facebook Page and Website. I hope to see you there next year!
Tessa Smith is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved Film and TV Critic. On Camera personality and TV / Film Critic with 10+ years of experience in video editing, writing, editing, moderating, and hosting.
3 Comments
Hi Mama Smith, I’m the general grievous from Niagara Falls Comic Con, I really had fun walking around taking pics with everyone, when I first got there I was mobbed for pictures in front of the star wars 501st garrison display and alot of the people that were in line for a picture with darth vader came over to me, I think he was a little pissed, me stealing his thunder. Oh well. The costume now resides downstairs in my sons basement studio, its a conversation piece when his friends come over. I’m going to touch it up with a voice changer and better looking legs, that kinda sounded weird didn’t it, better looking legs. Anyway, hope you come next year and hope to see you and your girls. Take care
Allan
Oh wow!! General Grievous was one of our favorite costumes there! It is really cool! My girls still talk about it! I showed a lot of my friends the photos and they were super impressed. Great job! I hope to be there next year! See you then!! 🙂
I’ll be there for sure, Its fun just to walk around and take pictures with everyone, make sure you and the girls grab me for a picture, i’ll let them both use the light sabers on me or something, take care and see ya next year.