This was the first year I had heard anything about this "
Montreal Comiccon" and I have to admit, I was super excited; it was a convention in my hometown and it had the title of Comiccon attached to it - which I later learned that all "Comiccons" are not connected to each other.
This was going to be my last con of the year, which kept my hopes up for finding elusive statues and other goodies. As well as just being in the wonderful communal feeling of fandom. This was also the first time I went with family.
Now let us begin:
The price for one day - bought online beforehand: 20 + fees = 22.
The price for the weekend - bought online beforehand: 40 + fees = 43.
The price for one day - bought at the door: 25.
The price for the weekend - bought at door: 45.
Certainly glad I decided to buy the tickets online 2 days beforehand, as they were completely sold out by the time we arrived. So for future warning: BUY TICKETS ONLINE BEFOREHAND. This is now on it's way to becoming a large scale-well demanded convention, so be prepared.
Going with family, I laxed on my feelings of going early - which my gut instinct always tell me to do, but it benefited my sister so I didn't see much issue. The convention opened at 11:00, we left at about 1:30, late for me but what could I do? Then we got there and I instantly knew what to expect - the line was insane so I totally called it being like Fan Expo 2010 - lots of people and no space - my instinct was right again. The line was about an hour spread across and down 2 different floors, but it wasn't that bad as it was constantly moving - but it definitely reinforced my belief of buying the Premium tickets for Fan Expo every year. They took our papers without hardly looking and we got into the convention hall at about 3:00, so really, not that bad of a wait for showing up halfway through the convention.
The first thing you walked into was rows and rows of stores - my favorite part! I dearly love the shopping so it wasn't a shocker to me, but to my first-time-conventioner-family it was a mild disappointment - for you see they've seen all my pictures from Fan Expo, and anybody whose gone to Fan Expo knows that it's an extremely large convention. I believe it's Canada's biggest, and big-cons are always chalked packed with awesome things. Montreal Comiccon was in it's mere 4th year, so it's quite the small scale convention in comparison - so when my family didn't see big things pop out at you first time you walk in, it's disappointing.
After the rows of vendors, it was about 2 rows of artists, and then the signing areas. They decided to hide the Batmobile and DeLorean BEHIND everything. So when my family discovered it, they felt a lot better and excited.
Unfortunately to my dismay, I discovered that one of my coveted statues was sold mere hours before I arrived and for an amazing price - so my day was dampened by a lot. So for future reference - always go at opening the first day, granted my gut instinct told me to in the first place.
We only stayed an hour and a half before hunger started to wrack our bodies, and to be honest...we had walked around the convention twice in that time.
All-in-all, it was a cute convention. Small compared to what I'm now used to, and very...unorganized. Not unorganized per se, but they certainly did not anticipate the amount of people going so they did not get a very large hall center. This was apparently 3x bigger then the convention hall than last years so it's quite obvious they need to expect bigger and better things from now on. And have panels (even if -I- never go to panels, it's still something to do that a lot of people love). And have a separate room for the Movie reveals, as blocking off and putting up blankets around the space does not cut out the sound :p
I decided to go only one day as I had familial matters to attend the next day, but for the price of one day, this may very well become a yearly thing :)
TL:DR :: Small convention / long lines that moved quickly / needs better preparation for next year, as this is quickly becoming in demand / LOTS of shopping.