Source: Shannon for The Game of Nerds
Well, friends, the convention year has ended for us in the Bay Area. Heroes and Villains Fan Fest joined forces with its sister convention Walker Stalker Con and made their way to San Jose for HVFF’s fourth birthday. We have always really enjoyed HVFF when it has come to town. It’s not a HUGE convention like Silicon Valley Comic Con is, but it’s a great family event and first-time event for newcomers. Many were worried that with the addition of Walker Stalker that it would become “too scary” but there were plenty of kids running, laughing, and enjoying the convention. Our biggest problem last year was about how there was very little room to move around the convention and lines for guests were exceptionally long. It was clear that HVFF took note of it because things were SO much better. The venue was extremely spread out so that you had plenty of room to move and enjoy the vendors. While we did have VIP/Media passes, the longest line we stood in was 30 minutes and a guest told me even with regular passes the longest wait was under an hour. The longest we’ve ever stood in line was 5 hours to get our picture with Stan Lee, so it’s safe to say this convention was a walk in the park for attendees.
There were plenty of amazing actors who came out to visit San Jose, California. Some fans were upset due to last minute cancellations and schedule changes. They felt like the convention didn’t really attempt to add anyone new to the lineup to make up for it and that they were already focused on the next show the following weekend in New Jersey. Some cancellations included the Gotham cast two days before the event along with a few other actors going to one day or switching days. From the CW shows Stephen Amell, Tom Cavanaugh, Danielle Panabaker, Robbie Amell, Caity Lotz, David Ramsey, Rose McIver, and Brandon Routh were all there to interact with fans. These actors do such a wonderful job of interacting with the younger fans who clearly idolize them. Teen Wolf fans were ecstatic in getting not only Colton Haynes but Tyler Hoechlin and Gabriel Stokes as well. With this being a combined event with Walker Stalker Con, there was a lot of WalkingDead and Fear the Walking Dead castmates there. The Walking Dead’s Jesus and Shane were the people to see that weekend and had long lines the entire time. We all know Jon Bernthal went on from The Walking Dead to take on the Punisher in the Marvel Netflix series. So there is no surprise on why he was so popular. Jesus though met his fate last weekend on The Walking Dead so most people had to talk to him about it. If you have no idea what I’m talking about check out Jon’s article here.
Normally, as media attending the event, we would hit every panel and vendor we possibly could, but this time we did things a little different. Sorry if you were expecting panel recaps but we have a perfectly good reason. Jon Hicks and I were babysitting a Pop box. Have you seen the Lifesize Funko Hopper Cosplay? Yes, the one on Reddit. This literally what everyone at TGON was screaming when they saw it…
Source: vashtie Tumblr
Honestly, we had no idea that the Pop box was going to be such a hit. We didn’t realize it was going to take two extra humans to manage the box, take pictures with fans, and hand out business cards. While we may have not gotten panel coverage we were supposed to get, we did have an absolute blast. We got to interact with so many fans and hear what they had to say about a variety of topics. We even made quite a few friends along the way with certain celebrities. Plus the POP Box won the Cosplay contest after much pestering by everyone to enter so that counts as a win in our book. We will definitely be adding more boxes to our convention line up in 2019 with TheVIParolaz! the event ended on a high note when Jon Hicks was asked by Legends of Tomorrow actress, Jess Macallan to take a picture in his Riddler cosplay. The picture was then posted on her personal Snapchat account. If you didn’t know, The Riddler happens to be Jes’s favorite DC character.
Some other great points of this event were the variety of new vendors. We found a lot of small shops that sell custom merchandise that we will be featuring on the site soon. The fact that there was more room to walk around made the buying experience so much better. I felt like I had time to really look at each vendors product instead of quickly “window shopping”. I really love seeing the small unique stores come out! It was perfect for finding that gift for the special nerd in your life. One great addition was Wild Bills Soda who was selling mugs and old fashion soda right in the middle of the convention! We kept making rounds to refill our cup because taking pictures can leave you thirsty. They even had Silicon Valley favorite Psycho Doughnuts selling their famous doughnuts at the entrance. I hope they continue to add more food and drink vendors next year. All in all, this was a great combined convention event. A lot of people were worried about it becoming like SVCC, but it was actually a very calm event. The only time there were crowds were for actual autograph/photo lines or the main stage in the center of the convention. Otherwise, we felt very comfortable walking around with no issues. We hope that this convention comes back again next year with even more actors! I would love to see JDM or Norman Reedus! Were you at Heroes Villians Fan Fest / Walker Stalker Con San Jose 2018? Let us know what you thought about the event in the comments!
This sounds like a really fun event! Have you ever been to San Diego Comic Con? I’ve heard that trying to reserve a hotel stay and attend popular panels/autograph and photo sessions have been an issue in recent years due to the lack of space and accommodations.
We’ve been trying for over 8 years to get tickets and have no luck at all. We had a writer go last year and he said it was impossible to do anything. 🙁
Yikes, that sounds terrible. I wonder if moving the Comic Con to a different location would help solve some of these problems? Maybe hosting two smaller Comic Cons instead of one, large one?