Comikaze 2014! Stan Lee! Jamie Bamber! Battlestar Galactica Reunion! The Hollywood Sci-Fi Museum! And More!

My annual outing to downtown Los Angeles, otherwise known as Comikaze was this past weekend. You could tell from my other posts, I had a blast. I think what sets off Comikaze from other cons, is it still has that underground feeling, there are still people selling comic books, people still look at the small press aisles, that kind of thing.

Plus, it has a very family atmosphere. I saw more kids in costume and just being silly than at any other con I’ve been to. It was so fun to see a dad and his boys just playing and having a good time.

The first thing I did when I arrived was check out the Stan Lee booth. I have a Thor hammer I really wanted signed and what better place to do that, than Comikaze! His autograph tickets were cheaper than expected, and less than at other shows he’s been at. I was pretty excited.

After that, Susan and I had some time to get the lay of the land.

We headed to the Hot Topic stage to catch the Battlestar Galactica reunion panel. It was great to see the stars of one of my favorite Sci-Fi shows on stage. Jamie Bamber arrived late and faux wrestled with Michael Trucco.

They told some stories of being on the set and Michael talked about how he was supposed to be on the show for two episodes and they kept extending his role.

Edward James Olmos mentioned how he was the only one who didn’t have a character bible, and Jamie Bamber recalled all the changes his character went through.

After the panel was over we took to the convention floor. Starting at the far end, Susan and I saw Renegade collectables. They had a fun booth and I ended up buying a Fight Club prop. Now, the woman told me that this bar was one of the rejected samples from the mold that they used for the bar of soap with the Fight Club logo used in the movie poster.

I’m not 100% sold on that, but it’s damn cool anyway.

There were also a bunch of props on display, including some from VHS, Jurassic Park,

and the shit demon from Dogma. You don’t get a chance to type out shit demon too often so when given the opportunity, I have to jump on it.

There were a lot of celebrities in attendance as well, Alfie Allen, Elvira, and Eric Roberts to name a few.

John Barrowman’s line… It was long and going strong all day…

Susan ran into some old friends…

The vintage video game display was back. I love this. It’s so fun to see a pirate play Space Invaders! Only at Comikaze I tell ya!

Another interesting booth was gamechurch.com spreading the word of Jesus one con at the time. I like the message, I’ll have to check them out more. The guy at the booth said, “We’re just here to tell you, God loves you.” It wasn’t pushy and made me actually want to know more, as opposed to most religious groups who ram their doctrine down your throat.

We then headed back to the Hot Topic stage for the Stan Lee panel. You have to see Stan The Man, I mean hello!

He was spry and full of sass just like usual. It’s great to hear him talk and some illustrations from his upcoming book were shown.

We then saw some of the demonstrations at the con, where else do you see Spider-Man and Captain America play a little one on one?

Then, there was the Howie Mandel emergency.

You can read all about that here.

After that, Big Mike and I headed to the Stan Lee signing. I was really excited for this one. Stan Lee is a legend and he’s created some of the most indelible characters of our time. It would be silly to list them all, but man… He’s an icon.

The Stan Lee Museum had artwork, maquettes and posters on display.

I had my Thor hammer, and Big Mike had a Spider Man action figure. The line was long at the 11 a.m. signing was cancelled and folded into the 3 o’clock signing. It was a little bit of a wait, but it was worth it. I got to hang out with Big Mike and I’m really excited about how the Thor Hammer turned out!

Then I met up with Susan and went to meet Jamie Bamber from Battlestar Galactica. Jamie was super nice and signed my Battlestar poster so awesomely. I hate my photo with him, lol. But what can you do. He was extremely kind and hanging out with his Battlestar co-stars when I walked up.

Then we headed back to finish walking the floor. The Troma boot was hopping, and there was some awesome cosplay, which I’ve already talked about.

Even a full size Groot made an appearance!

The Hollywood Sci-Fi museum had a nice booth with a real KITT car from Knight Rider and a replica Delorian from Back to the Future on display.

Susan and I got some photos in James Kirk’s captain’s chair, we had to do our best William Shatner pose.

I talked to the people at the booth, and the Hollywood Sci-Fi museum is going to be opening soon. Check them out, it should be really neat from what I can tell you. They are going to have an original Star Trek bridge replica and they saved a lot of the Next Generation bridge from the now closed Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas, which will be on display as well.

They are raising funds, and it’s a great cause so check them out!

We ran around some more, and I even found another cool Funko Pop! Vinyl! Blood Splattered Carol from The Walking Dead! Love it!

After all that, we were a little bushed. I got to run into John, and some MTF Readers, which was awesome. So glad all of you got to head out.

If you guys are looking for a really fun Con and don’t want to deal with the madness of SDCC, I highly suggest checking out Comikaze. We had a great time and I’m sure next year is going to rock even harder!

Until next time kids…