When I went to Texas over the summer, my sis and I attended a Wizard World convention (you can read more about that here). Simply by accident and at the very last minute, I realized that Wizard World was coming to Portland, so Hubs Man and I took a day to ourselves and went "con-ing".
The first person we saw was Tatiana Maslany from Orphan Black.
I don't watch the show, but Hubs has been watching it and thinks it is pretty good.
Second was Alan Tudyk. You probably know him from Firefly but he was also K2SO in the new Star Wars Rogue One movie. He was brilliantly funny and brought "gifts" for the people who asked him questions. The best "gift" was a broken clock from his house (but at least he signed it).
The highlight of our day, no doubt, was meeting Jon (Larry Wilcox) and Ponch (Erik Estrada) from the tv show CHiPS. Both Hubs and I have fond memories of CHiPS from our childhoods. One of the earliest photos my parents have is of me standing in front of the TV watching CHiPS. They said that I would come screaming into the living room, regardless of what I was doing, when I heard the CHiPS theme music.
When it came time for me to get a "big wheels", I refused the pink powder puff cycle with pastel tassels on the handle bars, I wanted a CHiPS cycle. So my parents got me one just like the one above for $19.99. I rode the wheels off that thing! Gosh, I wish I had the actual photos from when I was a wee tot.
Immediately after taking group photos there was a 45 minute Q&A session. It is truly rare to meet people you admired in your youth, it is even more rare for them to not disappoint you! This was their first convention appearance together and it was refreshing to see/meet guests who haven't been jaded by the convention circuit. They were funny, entertaining, honest and truly grateful to be there and meeting the fans. Both had great stories from the CHiPS days as well as stories from their lives, both professional and personal. I cannot express enough how much I enjoyed meeting them!
Overall, Wizard World is a smaller convention than we are used to. Much smaller than the conventions in Las Vegas, by far, but even smaller than the Rose City Comic Con in September. At first we thought that would be a drawback, but honestly, the smaller size made it easier to navigate and much more personal with the guests. It was easy to find seats and navigating the food/beverage/vendor area was fairly simple. I am already looking forward to Wizard World 2018!
