MegaCon Orlando 2018 – Convention Report
MegaCon Orlando is a yearly event that takes place in Orlando, Florida at the Orange County Convention Centre, catering to all kinds of fans. Love horror… this convention is for you, love Doctor who… this convention is for you, love animé… this convention is for you, love Marvel, love DC. This convention is for you! By now you get the point, whatever you love there is no doubt this convention will have you covered. MegaCon 2018 ran over 4 days, with events, panels and guest every single day. This was Nerdly’s first international convention, both as fans and as press. Unfortunately we weren’t able to cover the entire 4 days due to our 9 hour flight back to reality on the final day of the con.
Day 1
MegaCon officially started at 4pm but Press, VIP and Premium ticket holders were allowed in 2 hours early before the “official” grand opening. With over 500 stalls ranging from DVD’s, TCG, gifts and collectables the extra 2 hours didn’t last that long. It took an hour to cover half of the stalls and that was at a jogging pace. There were several zones, such as:
- Cosplay Hideaway Zone – where cosplayers could sit and recharge and place should they need to repair any elements of their costume.
- Family Zone – activities for the whole family.
- Harry Potter Escape room – Play one of two Escape Room scenarios inspired by the world of JK Rowling. Try to escape from a vault in the Wizarding Bank or pass a very mixed up NEWT exam for potions.
- Nerf room – Need I say more? OK its a room where you use Nerf guns and bow and arrows to battle each other.
- Video Arcade room – Over 50 gaming stations offering a huge selection of games .
- Tabletop Gaming rooms – Role playing games, D&D, Catan, CCG’s, Miniatures, Board, LARP are just some of the types of games that took place.
- Artist Alley – Indie meets pro in this special area where you will find all of your favorite pencillers, inkers and writers. This is a ”must experience area” for anyone interested in meeting the rising stars and the people who work the front lines of the industry! Here you’ll find it all – comics, graphic novels, limited edition prints and best of all, original art and sketches
- Tattoo Alley – A veritable feast of tattoo artists plying their wares for convention attendees, showing off some superb skills and some amazing tattoo designs!
- Community Zone – Literally thousands of amazing costumes are available for your viewing.
- Celebrity Autograph area – A perfect opportunity to get that special something signed by your favourite celebrity.
We were lucky to attend some panels on Day 1, I attended DC Nation where Dan DiDio hosts this all-star gathering with Scott Snyder (Dark Nights: Metal, Justice League),Greg Capullo (Dark Nights: Metal), Tom King (Batman, Mister Miracle),Joshua Williamson (Flash), Jimmy Palmiotti (Harley Quinn, The Jetsons) and Amanda Conner (Harley Quinn, The Jetsons), talking and teasing DC’s upcoming stories! And Phil attended the Introduction to Tokusatsu a panel that covered the genre of Tokusatsu and a bit of its history; introducing some iconic examples of Toku like Godzilla and Super Sentai. After nearly being at MegaCon for over 4 hours we were ready for a well deserved break (and to soak our aching feet from all the walking – Phil) and ready for day 2 to start.
Day 2
This day was unreal as it was officially (well to us) WWE day and Scream Queen day. It started with more shopping at the stalls, deciding what would fit in our e suit cases and what wouldn’t. Phil met and talked with the legendary scream queen Brinke Stevens and got some signed goodies from one of his favourite 80s scream queens. We then had a photo op with WWE Superstar (and all-round nice guy) Braun Strowman… I liked the way they did this: you pay a set amount and have can have up to 4 people in one photo, definitely made the experience well worth the money! The photo-op was followed by a Celebrity Q&A with WWE Superstars Alexa Bliss, Braun Strowman and Shinsuke Nakamura – which I attended and cried at (just watch THIS video to see why).
While I was at the WWE panel, Phil skipped out on the end to attend a screening of Brinke Stevens short film Personal Demons, though that was ultimately postponed due to technical difficulties. After the panels had been completed it was back down to the celebrity section to grab Braun Strowman’s autograph on the picture we taken with him earlier and a signed photo from Alexa Bliss. Later that evening we learnt that Ember Moon and Johnny Gargano were amongst the crowd of attendees too but I wasn’t one of the lucky ones to meet them :(
Day 3
Even though the convention is 4 days long, day 3 was our last day due to having to be at the airport in the middle of day 4, which was upsetting as I missed the Q&A with Cress Williams, China Anne McClain and Nafessa Williams from Black Lightning and the Q&A with the Pink Power Ranger Amy Jo Johnson. Day 3 started with even more walking around the stalls taking pictures of all the amazing skillful cosplayers and enjoying the section with the “as seen on screen” vehicles and a HUGE photo opportunity area. It was also the day for Jeff Goldblum’s Q&A which was packed out – which meant we weren’t able to take part in it, it was just too full of attendees! Up next was the Q&A with Once Upon A Time star Jennifer Morrison. After the Q&A it was one last lap of all the stalls and zones, saw John Cena from a distant and day 3 came to an end along with our trip to Florida.
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Overall this convention was awesome, to a point where words really can’t explain, we have attended UK conventions in the past and MegaCon Orlando went above and beyond what I was expecting. I ended up completing over 32,000 steps over the 3 days and possibly still only scratched the surface of everything this convention had to offer.
Check out some of the awesome official convention photos below (pictures courtesy Rachel Parker, MEGACON Orlando) and check out our gallery of images right here.