Comic Con Honolulu July 29th to July 31st, 2016
In the last few years, the comic and pop culture convention scene has exploded in the islands. As wonderful as this is for fans and attendees, it means there's more competition for who gets our hard earned money. This convention is simply not up to the quality of other similar ones in Honolulu. That being said, I did have fun.
The main problem this convention has is that it used to be known as Hoku Con, which was an extension of Kawaii Kon, both of which focus more on anime than comics. These genres are very separate, which was great that they had distinct events. The rebranding of Comic Con Honolulu implies a focus on "comics" which had a very sparse offering at this convention. There were few booths selling exclusively comics, very few artists, and almost no panels about its namesake subject. This is a general pop culture convention, so the name just does not fit. It's hard to tell what the focus of the convention is, almost like it is trying to find a niche that has already been filled by other conventions.
Arriving early, I was surprised at how few people were there. The pre-registration line was almost completely empty, and we only had to wait about five minutes in line to pick our passes. The nearby "pay at the door" line was very full, but did not take long to empty. Looking at the lines throughout the day, I noticed there was never a wait after the initial registration, which is always a nice benefit of small convention. Autograph tickets were also on pre-sale in the lobby for people to save time. Information booths and a weapons-check were also in the lobby, none with lines.
As people registered, they waited at the main doors until the convention opened for the day. Throughout the day, there was a nice buzz and amount of people, but it was never too crowded. The convention is very small. The main floor consisted of the exhibitors area, artists area, autograph section, and the Convention Center-run concessions. Prices for the latter were high, so we never went here for food. The vendor selection was another complaint. We saw our usual toy and collectible dealers including Other Realms. There were a few comic booths that had great issue selections. My main complaint here were the completely unrelated vendor booths: T-Mobile, weapons, essential oils, and other junk. These booths had no place at this event except to pad the organizers earnings and help fill the room. I don't know why anyone would stop at these booths.
The artists were some of my favorites. It was great to see Mel B., Mog Park's work including the piece in the silent auction, and Katie Cook of ABC-3PO fame. I had Katie sign my copy of the book, her and her husband were super friendly and one of the highlights of my day.
I really enjoyed the tactile art pieces, of which I bought a few. I loved the clay custom game pieces by Epicycle Designs (I bought a set of Settlers of Catan resources), and the yarn art by The Little Outcrop (I bought a Wicket the Ewok). There were quite a few creative booths here and it was fun to peruse the art. Throughout the convention, they had a silent art auction with nice pieces as well. I liked seeing the Ghostbusters' car and two Jurassic Park Jeeps.
The autograph area was well organized and spacious both for the celebrities and fan lines. John Barrowman, Sean Astin, Phil Lamarr, Summer Glau, and the great George Takei were some of the highlights. It's great they got some well known people to come. I felt the prices were too high, which makes sense for the distance of the convention, but usually the smaller the event, the lower the ticket prices. I heard some of the celebrities thought the selfie fee was ridiculous, so I assume they didn't set their own prices.
Upstairs were the panel rooms. The temperature was so cool and comfortable in these rooms. I enjoyed the Star Trek 50th Anniversary Panel put on by the Last Outpost local club. The video game room had a stage for Rock Band, Super Smash Bros., and PC games going on all weekend including tournaments. It was fun to watch people playing. We spent more time in the table top room, where we played Carcassone and 7 Wonders. It was a relaxing break from the heat to sit and quietly play a game. I found many of the volunteers in this room to be rude, there's no other way to put that. It seemed they didn't want to help people learn games, especially kids. It made the group games unappealing. It was a highlight to just play Carcassone with Kristine. C.! I enjoyed how you simply give an ID in exchange for borrowing a game, then you can try it or learn with new friends!
Entry prices are too high. There were things about this convention that are 5-stars, others are 1-stars. Overall I had to give it a 3. I would return in the hopes they make improvements going forward. If you only want to go to one convention in the area, go to Amazing Hawaii Comic Con! read more