Today must've been Avatar day or something! There were a few ATLA episodes on midday, Bulletproof Monk's on now (with Mako...aka Iroh), Hook was on earlier (with Dante Basco, aka Zuko), and Hope Floats before that (with Mae Whitman, aka Katara). Now all we need is Star Wars (Mark Hammil, aka Ozai), and The Patriot or HP: Chamber of Secrets (Jason Issacs, aka Zhao)... Why oh why can't Jack De Sena be in more stuff?

That said, we have pictures!!!

Sixwing requested them, and I planned to post them anyway. I didn't take very many this year, since the novelty of photographing booths and stuff wore off and most of the great costumes were on Saturday (the panel day...and I was saving my pics for the panel--good thing, too, since I wasted a lot of space on those ^_^), but I've included a few of the ones I did take over the course of Saturday and Sunday. ^_^ Enjoy.

(1) Far west end, with last year's banner (these exterior shots are actually from a previous year, but the convention center hasn't really changed and I felt you might like to see what the place looks like) (2) Middle part. I unfortunately don't have a good shot of the sail pavillion, but this is nice too. (3) Out the back (at the part NOT looking towards scenic Sea Port Village), overlooking the bay, with some shipping docks and the Coronado Bay bridge in the background. You can just make out Coronado "island" on the horizon, along with what are probably a few battleships.

Now for the new stuff

The Panel
We were told to be there early, and for good reason. The line wrapped around the corner and down to the end of the ballrooms. We waited patiently while a DC comics panel finished up and then sat through a panel about new Nickelodeon toons (which was surprisingly interesting...especially the puppet guys) before Avatar came on. What a noisy bunch of fankids we were. The fangirls could have mauled Jack and Dante, and we all cheered when we heard *** and *** would be returning! Much love! We even saw them in the previews for The Secret of the Fire Nation. And a tour of Ba Sing Sei and all sorts of loveliness! We tried begging them for Appa plushies and a soundtrack. We hope they will listen.

From our (fairly close) seats, we see the panel, featuring host Eric Coleman, VP of animation development at Nick, some volunteer who was just there to keep the programming on schedule (my, doesn't she look bored?), head-writer Aaron Ehasz, director Giancarlo Volpe, and voice-actors Jack De Sena and Dante Basco. Each was given a convienent name-sign and the two voice actors were given little pics of their characters to place in front so the audience could identify them (where's Dante's? Did a rabid fangirl make off with it?). Trust me, no fan in there had any trouble telling you who was Sokka and who was Zuko, with or without the labels. At the point this pic was taken, Aaron and .... had switched places, and finally Aaron remembered to switch their nametags.

(1) Jack De Sena, the voice of Sokka, was absolutely adorable (just like Sokka!), and his enthusiasm showed through all over the place. It was really hard to get any good pictures of his face because he's very animated and he'd never stay in one position very long (and his lovely hair got in his face) (2) Dante Basco, the voice of Zuko, was the fangirl favorite (unless said fangirl was me! I'm a Sokka fan, through and through!). You might know Dante as Rufio, the new leader of the Lost Boys in Hook. Bang-a-rang!

Jack and Dante at the signing at the (very crowded) Nickelodeon booth down on The Floor, or, as I call it, The Pit (it's the big showroom where all the booths and venders are and it turns into a giant swamp of people!). Jack was holding up the line for the signing because he was "socializing" with us fans. We forgive him ^_^

Cosplayers
There were quite a few cosplayers this year (well, we can attribute that to actually being there on Saturday--the day of the masquerade), but very few pictures of them. Saturday was panel-day, and I was saving my film for the 3:15 Avatar panel. Chibu and I never did go back for pics of the KHII kids... There were a ton of pirates of all shapes and sizes, and many Stormtroopers (yay for the 501st Division), and the usual mass-Naruto cosplays. Sadly, if cardboard Alphonse was there again, we missed him. =(

(1) Shinra, Aerith, Sephiroth, and...whats-his-name... The Shinra guy even had a wheelchair (way to get around!), but that's parked elsewhere. They were quite popular with the crowd. The guy behind them wanted to play with Sephi, but couldn't, because HIS sword's real! No pulling real weapons out during the con, or the Elite guys'll jump you. (2) Aerith gets her revenge on Sephi.

(1) Aang really shaved her head! Wow! They were cute. Chibu and I got used to ducking so people in front of us could turn around and take their pictures. Jun eventually joined them, but by then my camera was away. (2) Kyoshi when I first ran into her around lunchtime. She was fixing her boots, I think. I had to have a pic. She was (a) the first Avatar cosplayer I saw there (b) Kyoshi, and I &heart; Kyoshi warriors...hence my usericon ^_^ (yes, the icon is me, photo-maniped) I admit to being a spaz.

Booths
I actually didn't spend too much time photographing booths this time around. Any booth photographs were taken on Sunday, our second day there, and Chibu and Mom thought I was pretty nuts, I think. None of the booths stood out quite as cool as they have been in the past, or some (like Sci-Fi's) was pretty much as it was last year (a really neat purple/white mass that was probably worthy of a pic, but I took one last year and didn't need a new one ^_^). I also took pics of the banners used at various booths featuring Avatar, but I decided not to include those pics. You don't really want to see a bunch of Avatar ads, do you?

Lego booth is always interesting. They set up nifty scenes with their figures and sets, like the Avatar and Star Wars sets shown off this year (yay for SW!). They also played clips from the Revenge of the Block...or something like that...a lego SW parody of Revenge of the Sith. How funny! (1) Here's a closeup of the Sarlacc Pit scene, complete with desert skiff, Sarlacc, Jabba, and crew. Lookie! Lukie's walking the plank! Terrible pic, I know, but it was very cool. (below 1) Batman, also from the Lego booth, was a huge all-lego statue. Cool as heck, but nothing beats the electronic lego R2 from last year ^_^ (2) Ed and Al statues watched over the entrance to the Square-Enix booth. (below 2) Sora was there too. (3) Hot Wheels, at the Mattel booth (I think), had the most pimpin' ride. I want one.

Chibu and Me

(1) Our pimpin' ride. The SD Trolley, brought to you by MTS. Fun. Here we're looking south from the Imperial transfer station, THE place to be if you need a trolley to anywhere in SD. (2) Chibu hides and models the one thing I purchased: our chinese hats, bought at a steal at 2 for $10. We were walking through the upstairs sail pavillion...love the little cart back there. So attractive, ne? (3) Me (left), Chibu (right) with Threepio and Artoo at Slideshow Collectibles. We couldn't touch the statues, so we look kind of dorky, but we had to have pics.