It's no longer a Comic Con. it's more of Toy Con. There's only a small section of comic book seller. The majority are toy sellers

A taste of SDCC and not all in a good way! Disclaimer; I attended on a Saturday, this was not my first con, I am a San Jose resident and I pre-purchased my tickets online. And now without further ado the review: The Good First of all having another con in Northern California is great and I am glad were not forgotten completely. There were plenty of celebrity guests many of which could have been headliners at smaller cons and of course they managed to bag the legendary Stan Lee. There was a large selection of panels across the whole weekend, and it appeared they did plan those well so similar interests didn't overlap. Also having the museum pieces was a nice addition to the regular vendor hall and panels. The volunteers were also amazing and remained professional throughout all the bad and ugly which I will get onto. The Bad The layout was awful; having the panel rooms right next to the registration was a really bad idea for traffic flow, there was no sign posting and the map only covered one of three floors. The wrist band tagging in made sense going in I guess, but the scanning out seemed pointless. I guess this was the tech portion of the con? The vendors were a mixed bag; artist alley saved it for me really. So many vendors were very overpriced on comics, vintage toys and collectible merch. I am not an expert on it all but I know the going rate for some items I was looking out for, and they were more than double the price sometime four or five times. I saw comics I had bought for $10 online a couple of weeks ago with $35 price tags. I took a closer look giving them the benefit of the doubt that it might be mint, nope same if not worse than I got online. A tonne of Pop figures and Tsum Tsums going for more than your local Hot-topic and just regular old ones too, nothing exclusive. I ended up buying one TPB and a couple of items from the artist ally and left with over $100 still in my pocket I had assigned for that day. The Ugly The crowds; my god the crowds. I am talking Disneyland at its busiest, Black Friday, Music Festival kind of crowds. The sheer numbers mixed with the disorganization was a perfect storm on Saturday. Registration was mess, first of all pre-ordering online meant nothing you got in the same line as any Joe that decided to turn up on the day. Secondly they had two lines that had to funnel into one for registration. The first line was out the front door and round the corner, the second line was for everyone that already got into the convention center though the other entrances and snaked it's was around the whole ground floor. Eventually the second line inside got so huge and was blocking so much traffic to panels they let it go first snubbing those in the other line that had been waiting for hours already. I was one of the lucky ones, 1 1/2 hours after getting there I had my wrist band. A lot of people were getting upset and missing panels they wanted to attend, I personally missed two. Oh and registration is a fancy word for scanning a QR code on your ticket. There were was only one refreshments stand inside. By mid afternoon the line extended across the entire width of the main hall and looked to start snaking out the door. Not even little stands selling bottled water like at other cons I have been too. The heat was unbearable; there was talk that the air-con broke down that's when my party decided to call it quits feeling dehydrated and getting headaches. In conclusion the whole day was meh. The bad and ugly cancelled out anything good for me. I have never left a con early but I did this time, to be honest if I hadn't already payed $50 for a ticket I would have walked out after an hour in the registration line. I hope the organizers learn for this experience, how they managed to mess it up I don't know. This can't be there first rodeo, but for some maybe it should be their last. read more

I'm a San Franciscan who has been spoiled by Wondercon when it was in the Bay Area and I've been to Wizard World Sacramento since their second year. Silicon Valley Comic Con is a "smallish-going-on-medium" convention. This year 2017 was my first time attending and I was not impressed. The big 30th Anniversary Star Trek Panel (and the previous years Back to the Future panel) requires a special purchased pass to enter. If you're not willing to fork over the extra money, the celebrity panels leave much to be desired. John Cusack was the only "movie star" although he has absolutely no connections to any of the comic con's genres. Grant Gustin and Tom Felton from the TV show "The Flash" was the main celebrity panel. This is weak sauce compared to Wizard World Sacramento which is a similar sized Con, but WizardWorld is better organized and has a greater balance of and a lot more Comic Con related celebrities. And Wizard World doesn't charge extra to enter any of those celebrity panels. If you're into informative panels there is a good mix if you arrive early enough to get into the room. Also some rooms are hidden in places where you can't find and the staff are helpless to point out. The booklet has no usable map/info. There ARE decent panels with writers, scientists, game designers, or even lesser known celebrities. This is where SVCC shines... IF you can find your niche and they have enough space for everyone who wants into the rooms. The convention floor has a decent mix of stalls selling merchandise. There are interesting movie props on display, maybe two stalls giving out free goodies. There was a car sponsor with an interactive booth. NASA had a big section for educational displays and demos. This comic con is very grounded on the educational and informative side. This is okay to spend the day, like "a day at the zoo or museum" If you're a San Jose native, I think this is plenty worth attending multi-day. But I don't feel that it's interesting enough for two or three days for out-of-towners who would stay in a hotel. And I'm afraid that the venue may not be large enough for this to be an actual great con. The cost for me of going from San Francisco to San Jose for the full weekend Silicon Valley Comic Con stay is about the same as if I went to Anaheim for Wondercon, (tickets are half the price but travel costs more) and Wondercon is a full fledged comic con with booths manned by Marvel, DC and Hollywood. Maybe I'll try again in a few years. I hear that this year, the San Francisco Comic Con is graduating this year from a hotel to an actual convention center. That might give SVCC a run for it's money. :P read more

I went for the first time yesterday. We had so much fun and can't wait to go next year. We will dress up next year! There was so much to see and do. Parking is a little difficult, but drive around the neighborhoods. A really nice lady let me park in front of her house. If you are thinking about going, GO!!! So Fun! You will meet lots of great people, too! read more

I have just spent two hours trying to find parking and did not have any luck. Every garage is full so if you are driving there today, find other means of transportation. I did go early but I guess people beat me to it and after the pic Megan put up maybe it's better this way. I gave up. read more

Absurd prices for photographs, staff on a bad mood with lacking information about the panels, a 200 yard line for getting food or a drink on one single spot (if you decide to grab something to eat, you'd probably waste 1,5 hours). No parking spaces on a 2 mile range of the convention center. Nobody to organize the lines. It was like the Wizard Con from last year, but less organized and costed 3 times more. Never been to the San Diego's, but it must be 10x better than this. read more

I had a great time at Comic Con. I went on Friday, parked across the street and got my wristband with no waiting in line. On Saturday, I pondered taking the light rail, but I decided to risk driving in even though I knew it would probably be super crowded. I arrived around 10:30 and most lots were full. I was able to park by the Tech Museum and arrived in time for the 11:00 session. It was only $7.00 for parking. I was expecting to pay much more. I enjoyed the convention! It is so cool to have something like this in San Jose! I am looking forward to next year! read more

This was amazing!!! I was a semi volunteer. This has been a highlight for me in a rather challenging year. The action started Friday night. I saw a huge line of people waiting for William Shatner. Then also the African American women from Star Trek. This event was a HUGE draw. I was told 35,000 tickets were sold for Saturday. When I was over in the hallway I saw Peter Mayhew from Star Wars and Christopher Lloyd was walking right by me I asked Christopher Lloyd if I could shake his hand and he returned the favor. That shows that he has class. This was a great event!!!! read more

Oh, woz...your event wins for the most disorganized convention ever. It is hyped to be a TECH comic con, but was SO no-tech in any way that would make an attendee's experience easy and enjoyable and ONLY tech when collecting MONEY! The SJ convention center is too small for a comic con. It handled Friday night's crowd easily, but Saturday - chaos! Parking lots - all full. Wasted almost an hour looking for parking. If we didn't already have our tickets, we would've bagged this. Get there super, super early or take the train. Inside: not enough staff, directional signs/people, nor volunteers. There are lines galore, though! Lines crossing lines. A line that stretched a block-long for the Saturday tix/registration, and at least half-a-block long lines to enter into the speaker rooms, three of which are clustered next to each other. The lines snaked around willy-nilly, running into the registration line. All this caused many people to be waiting in the wrong lines. RFID chip bands are issued to prevent scalping & fake tickets. People buying for the day don't need wristband tix. They caused the long lines because you made people take time to enter their personal info into your database. What do you think people buying tix the same day are going to do - buy them then go outside to sell them for more? Sheesh. Admit you want to our info to sell on a list. The largest room, which held the extremely in demand Back to The Future (BF) panel, shared the same aisle space as people trying to enter and exit the Exhibition Hall (EH) AND had two snaky lines - one for "news" people and one for attendees. (F*** the "news" people! We don't need them in this day and age. Twitter, Facebook, Yelp - the Internet - have replaced them.) A floor in between the Concourse and the Lower Level is not shown on the maps, adding to the confusion of where to go. Another woz-bad: charging $10 to see the BF panel on the day of, payable through an app or when registering. No where on the web site was this update added. Why not collect it at the room's door, since you made the change the DAY OF? We did not find out until in the panel line already. We were app-less, and as it was not a simple matter to get to the registration desk (read above), the one event we really wanted to attend, we couldn't. BS! After the panel, autograph lines extended out of the EH and mixed into the general in/egress lines. Oh, mon chien! The costume contest (CC) was a joke! Cheesy and amateurish. I was embarrassed after having hyped it up to my friends, based on having seen costume contests in other conventions. We walked out after our futile hopes of it getting better were not met by the "51st" contestant. We were able to get into only 5 speaker/events, including the CC. We walked out of two, but did enjoy listening to Shatner, Fillion, and the Mars panel. We waited in line for an hour and a half to experience the "Sweet Escape" virtual reality. Enjoyed my "first time" and the guys at monstervr.com (Michael Wolf!!) are great! read more

My husband and I were in attendance at Silicon Valley Comic Con last weekend. So, today is my Monday morning quarterback comment about the event. Would we do it again? Perhaps, but with some caveats. Parking and planning are two factors that I will keep in mind (AVOID Impark City Parking on 285 Market St.-deceptive signage-in small print, it's NOT 5.00 per day, it's by the hour!). Signage for registration was poor; we did find the line, but directions were not clear. It was apparent that SV Comic Con's staff had underestimated, and as a result, were overwhelmed by the no. of attendees at the event. The registration line looked a scene at the airport during holiday season. Perhaps I forgot how disorganized Science Fiction conventions can be. Perhaps I'm mixing up how professional events (like a Computer Tech Summit or an Auto/Home show) and Fan events are organized. The lines for getting into panels were intermingling with the registration line, adding another layer of crowd confusion. After we got our wristbands, we tried to get into panel rooms, gave up on the notion, and went to the dealer's room. (We missed some of the panels with the time spent looking for parking and registration). The dealer's room was packed with people. I was not able to really see any of exhibits, as the crowds were intense, The exhibits (like Stan Lee's area or the Obi-wan Ranch) had another long line to visit that area. Enough. We got out of the dealer's room and took a break from the mess by going to the upstairs outside patio area of the convention center. My tall husband was able to see the line below for registration was snaking around outside next to the Marriott, Market Street along San Carlos. Wow. We found lunch at Johnny Rocket's. Not our first choice, but, getting a table without a 45-30 minute wait was worth it. They were unprepared for the onslaught of convention attendees. I'm grateful that we had a place to sit, have a cold drink and some food. We went back in, trying to see if we could see a panel. No luck. Back in the dealer's room. It's still very crowded. We just decided to sit down by the wall and figure out our next move. The stopping. move a few feet, stop again pace of the convention had become very old. We went home, took a break, and came back. Dave and I was able to catch the film presentation of Browncoats: Independence War at 7:00. We felt fortunate that we able to make it into at least one panel for the day. (VIP had first priority for the seating) That was a good experience. We returned on Sunday- the crowds had lessened to a manageable number. We were able to catch two Star Trek fan film panels and one called "Con Men" (funny in a cringe-worthy sense- think of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" for the Science Fiction crowd.) We also revisited the dealers room and got to see more of the dealers over just trying not to get lost from each other in the crowd. Would we do it again? I don't have an answer yet. I'll shake the Magic 8 ball again. . read more

I only attended on Sunday, and I believe many of the issues from Saturday had been ironed out, or weren't as bad due to lesser attendance. Of course, I had read horror stories from Saturday and was hyper-prepared, having already added various photo ops I had bought to my wristband, which I got in the mail, and I showed up very early to avoid the parking and registration issues. I would agree that the venue was probably too small, and there wasn't as much variety in vendors as I would have expected. However, the AC situation was fine, the crowds were fine, and although the pricing seemed steep, I enjoyed the photos and autographs I paid for and got, even if it was at times confusing where I was supposed to be or what I was supposed to be doing, since the volunteer staff was pretty uniformly nice, but not always well-informed. I would hope next year they consider having the autograph tickets have a tear off or be punched, as it was kind of a bummer to have to turn them in; they were nice and they would have been a cool memento (and some kind of authentication of the autograph). It also would have been appreciated if the schedule was firmed up much earlier-- I bought several things online before knowing if they would conflict with each other, which thankfully didn't backfire on me, but nearly did due to one guest's flight and scheduling issues (no one's fault, but different volunteers were different levels of understanding). I'm glad they have this event and I really hope they learn from this first year and make it even better in the future. read more

my brother, a friend of mine, and i tried this con out with high hopes only to leave with glum disappointment and low expectations. the prices for tickets were absurd with very limited experiences which was mostly pointless and was basically mandatory to buy vip. the lines were completely disorganized and had to wait almost 2 HOURS to replace my friends bracelet and employees who were misinformed by the policy and regulations for the replacement bracelet fee almost charged me twice as much as original. everything felt so claustrophobic, limited and half of the building was blocked off to those who only had vip could enter. not to mention it was raining when i arrived early to attend only to get informed by staff that the con would open at 4pm?!? with that being said it gave us little to no time to take in what we need to see and experience. the autographs are a whole other story with insane last minute price changes. as much i love conventions i felt like there could be room for improvement since it was a little poorly executed when i attended. id probably wait a few years until they listen to all these significant feedbacks. read more

This was its first year, so I expected some hiccups. There were definitely some moments of chaos, especially with the Back To The Future panel lines. With that said, things went much smoother as the weekend progressed. The volunteers learned and adjusted accordingly. By the time Stan Lee appeared on Sunday, they had figured out how to get the lines somewhat organized and restricted so that people couldn't just dart in. My friends and I saw some pretty decent cosplays (I got a compliment on my Harry Potter necktie!), and the vendor's room was every bit the wallet trap they usually are at cons, haha! I got a bunch of trading cards (over 300 for under $25) that I'm planning to turn into an oracle card deck and possibly a major arcana only deck. For those from out of the area, take time to find someplace to eat outside of the convention center. The food inside is hella expensive and not worth the money. There are quite a few restaurants within walking distance, and a mini Safeway. Oh, and get your wristbands early; either have them mailed or pick them up on the pre-registration day. read more

Terribly disorganized for the over priced photo ops and autographs. Schedule was totally disregarded, so be prepared for hours of waiting to meet the main celebrities. read more

I've always wanted to attend the SDCC so when i heard there was one in SV, I thought why not. Boy, what a horribly disorganize events. I purchase my tickets online and still had to wait in registration for an hour to get my wristband. I thought the $4 online convenience fee would mean i can avoid the lines. I want my four dollars back!!! Once inside, the exhibitors booths are too close together and not enough room for people to walk by. I agree with prior post that this is one big flea market. I did enjoy listening to Jeremy Renner and Nathan Fillion. I really wanted to go to the Back to the Future Panel but it require purchasing another $10 ticket. I know this is their first year but I expected better especially since it was sponsored by Steve Wozniak. Totally not worth it and won't be repeating the experience. read more

Notes to Woz: First the good: Hearing Palmer Luckey speak was an honor and delight. To Be Fixed: * Parking: need shuttles, need traffic control, info about mass transit, lite rail on website * Registration, it was great if you had registered a bracelet thingee before arriving, it sucked huge if you didn't * SIGNAGE: so basic, Need huge signage everywhere * Panels: when I finally found the room, they were full, a serious bummer as the panels were why I came * Food Trucks!!! SERIOUSLY * Have something going on in that big room at all times, have all panels there, have comedy, have skits, play you tube, do something, keep those doors open * Visual Treats and vignettes needed throughout the venue, especially where people are waiting in line (which was everyone all day long) * Text people when it's their turn for an autograph * Web site was a hot mess: links didn't work, weak in content, need information about parking, about registration, * Get something out to the attendees as soon as possible in way of thank you for coming, we know there were big problems, we already are working on fixes, in the mean time here are your free VR glasses (one can dream) Now Steve, don't give up, this can all be fixed. read more

We loved it! Awesome. Sat in on the panel with Back to the Future cast, what more can you ask for?

Ok. 2 things about this con that seriously needs to happen. Organization and making it worth the money. The con was cool and all as a cosplayer...but if you went to experience a comic con...yeah no. Preregistration and normal registration line was together. So eta 1.5hours to get inside. Does not matter if you pre-reg . Having the badge in and out of area created a cluster fuck infront of the exhibit hall. You charged the dealers so much more than any con I've seen so barely any dealers....the lines man...it was free for me but waited from 4-6:45 to get Stan lee photo(since it was free I don't give a fuck..also I look kick ass in the photo). Not in a line moving but waiting.the time kept getting pushed back. I feel bad for the ppl who have to wait till 7:30 to get signatures...also...Volunteers were alittle lost themselves lol. So get it together man. I know not all cons are the same, but there has been enough cons to know what people like and don't like. This con was worth Sacanime price. Not the $100 for a full weekend. PS and this is a big one. More panels, use the damn Marriott if you have too. Just please organize it!!! I walked the whole dealer room 30min Friday. Sad, so damn sad. read more