So here it is Sunday. I check out of the hotel and my friend Andrew picks me up and we go over to his house. I spend hours sorting out Mega Bloks. I was fortunate enough that the night previous, one of the Mega Brands folks did get a half a tub of bloks for me after mine had been taken. So there I was sprawling my bloks out on my friend’s parents living room floor sorting pieces. Some good conversation with his folks about all types of things from gardening to cultural history and more.

Andrew’s mom makes a fantastic Chicken and Potato dinner. MMMM MMM Good! Around about 11pm, I’m finally off to go back home. After a lay over in Harrisburg, PA for about 4 hours, I finish the trip and get home. Exhausted, but having had a lot of fun, despite the failed events of the previous day.

I made plenty of new friends within the Halo community, met my Halo heroes from 343 and Mega Brands and did manage to get at least some Halo swag.

One thing I know, I’m going to solemnly swear to get in shape for this next year!

Stay tuned for an article on Cosplay at the con. And later today my serval part review of Forward Unto Dawn Episode two, with a graphic novel to follow. (Likely tomorrow).

-Sal (HFFL)

Okay, this article is likely to be long. Some parts will be funny, others may be considered gross, but it ALL happened to me, and in the interest of reporting the whole truth as I recall it, it’s all in there.

So without further ado, what can only be described as epic fail after another in a comedy of errors, here is my Saturday experience of New York Comicon…

Midnight. After having had chili at my friends house just an hour before, we get to the hotel. I ask the attendant to please give me a wake-up call at 5:30 am. We had to be at the con by 10am for something special. (You’ll read this alter.) I settle in after about a half hour to get some sleep. Oh but wait, the “guests” above me decide to play STOMP THE YARD on their floor/my ceiling. I try like hell to ignore it, but FOUR hours later after some VERY choppy sleep due to their stomping, I couldn’t do it anymore. I called the attendant to contact them to tell them to stop making noise. And as any immature party goers would do, they stopped for a couple minutes then stomped more and starting tossing things on the floor to make yet more noise.

I called the attendant again and told him he had 10 minutes to get them to stop or I was calling the cops. As it were, I only have about a hour left to try and get some sleep before getting up for the next day of the con. Well, the people above just kept at it and got even worse. So yeah, I called the cops.

About a half-hour later one of the cops came down to my room and explained what they did. It was a marijuana party upstairs. They arrested 3 people. One person had a broken leg. Hmm, maybe form stomping? Anyway, the kids upstairs didn’t want to take him to the hospital because they were high off their asses and didn’t want to get in trouble. (There’s a life lesson in there folks…LEARN IT!)

So at this point I try to get the remaining 30 minutes of sleep until my wake-up call. Oh, but the attendant doesn’t give me that call… No instead I get a text from one of my buds that they are coming to get us at 6:45 instead of 6:30, so we have extra time. But wait…the text was sent at 6:30am. Damn, I had to rush now. I was already tired and now felt ill from the chili. Having to race to get ready sure as hell didn’t help anything. Somehow I manage to be ready in 25 minutes. A little late, but the guys didn’t pick us up until then anyway, so okay…

We get to the train and depart. Now comes the gross part… Before I get to that, let me say that I learned from my first experience in New York 15 years prior that you should NEVER not have a roll of toilet paper handy…

So yeah, the chili kicks in and I have to take a dump…while on the train. Thank GAWD there are bathrooms on the train. My bud Jon shows me where they are. He stays just outside the door as it’s busted. I go in and immediately notice that some jackhole plugged up the toilet. Well, I can’t help it, I have to go. While doing my business, someone tries to enter the bathroom despite Jon trying to stop them. The door opens enough that I know at least 3-4 people got a good sight of me on the toilet. There’s practically no toiler paper, so I give a call to my bud Andrew who’s in the next car over to bring me my roll of TP. He brings the whole back pack. Once again the door opens, this time it’s Andrew. I have to carefully, waddle the 5 ft to the door and retrieve my pack with the TP. Success! And at least the faucet and dryer works. Thank GAWD! We head back to our seats where two others from our group are and ….our seats are taken. I have to stand for awhile. Finally one of the other guys gives up his seat for me, knowing I’m feeling like crap.

We get into Manhattan on time and head for the Con. At 10:30 am Frank O’Conner, Franchise Development Director of Halo 4 at 343 will be signing special Mega Bloks Forward Unto Dawn posters.

I’m about 4th on line. I had also purchased a McFarlane Halo 4 Master Chief the day before, so I had Frank sign both the fig and the poster. No sooner does he sign it that I start to put a rubber band on the poster and RIPPPPP. Damn rubber band caught the end of the poster and tore a large gash into it.

Does it end there? Nope, not by a long shot. I’m tired, sick, pissed off…I need a break and it’s only 10:45 am. So I trek my mesh folding chair down to the VERY crowded lobby, set it up by the windows away from most of the people and just sit. I become the meeting place for my group of friends at the con as they stop by from time to time to check on me and rest themselves. However, twice I had to get up and go to the bathroom, only to get sick both times as well. I know I grossed out a Batman and Robin duo of cosplayers, but heh, haven’t they seen worse fighting the likes of Clayface? LOL

At this point I’m back at my resting area. I don’t even go into the con until near the end of the day. I was lucky enough that I stopped by the Aliens/Colonial Marines video game booth, only to run into none other than Lance Hendrikson himself. He’s known for his fame as the android in Aliens as well as the voice of Admiral Hackett in Mass Effect 3. So this was a great thing. I asked him for a photo and he was all to happy to take one with me.

Very cool guy!

I walk around a little bit more and run into this giant:

It’s Kratos from the God of War series. This statue had to be about 12 feet tall.Impressive!

I went back to the Mega Bloks booth, my bud Sparky from Mega Brands gives me the three wristbands needed to get into a very exclusive Halo 4 343/Mega Bloks LAN/afterparty.

I set up the chair between the two escalators going into and out of the con and do some people watching. NO NOT STALKING…lol. Surprisingly even among all the people and action, I get a little sleep.

Around 6pm I and my bud Jon walk over to the hotel where the party is going to happen.

We’re early so we just take a few to rest. Sparky comes by and buys us a drink. Man, I had the chance for whatever I wanted…but feeling as I did, I just got a Gingerale.

I get in line for the party being first in line. Woot! I’m about to experience the pinnacle of Halo Fandom. I’ll get to meet folks from 343 as well as Mega Brands the makers of fantastic Halo Mega Bloks sets.

Mega Brands Folks:

Tanya, Public Relations and Communications Specialist at Mega Brands. She’s a really cool lady. Got to hang out and talk with her a bit during the con and at the part.

Bisma, Director, Brand Management at Mega Brands. Another cool lady. I helped her build a positionable tower of Mega Bloks. Really nice person.

My buddy Sparky and I, with Deedree (spelling) the blonde lady over my shoulder and Jen barely peeking over Sparky’s shoulder. All from Mega Brands and again, awesome people. All the folks from Mega are class acts.Professional, friendly, and willing to listen to their fans. I can’t say enough good things about them. I’m so happy to have any association with them.

343 personalities:

Alison Stroll, Senior Producer on Halo 4. She’s a fun lady. Didn’t hesitate to tell my to STFU about apologizing for something I though I had overstepped my bounds on. She’s just a real person. Love that!

Tyler, Producer formerly the Toy Liaison between 343 and their licensee partners and I. I talked his ear off, but he was all to happy to reciprocate. I think over the course of the weekend I talked to him for 2 hours. Really good guy.

Here is Sotaro Tojima, Sound producer extraordinaire at 343 and I. He was SO thankful for all of the input I gave him about the sound quality of the game and music. Thanks for the follow on Twitter Toji!

All starts well, I get several games of Halo 4 in (an article later on that and full game play breakdown). There are also a few rooms with Mega Bloks to build which I enjoy for a bit. Mostly though I walk around talking with all the personalities. I meet a couple of community folk too like BravoMLG and Claude from HBO (Halo.Bungie.Org). Play some more game, build more, and am having fun. I had only ONE alcoholic drink and Jim Beam and Coke. Again, I don’t want to push it as I’m still ill. I did give out about 30 business cards and got some in return. All in all going good so far at the party.

Sparky comes by and hands me what I consider to be a distinct honor. It’s a nameplate of my gamertag made completely out of Mega Bloks. WOW, it’s awesome and I was all too excited to receive it. Though I don’t think I came off as that. (I was trying to keep my elation inside).

The party is only 4 hours long and let me tell you it goes by FAST. Near the end, my chest starts to hurt. Uh oh, not good. I go and sit down by myself. Several people stop by to say hello, then ask if I’m okay. One of the Mega folks sits with me and tries to calm me down. I’m given some water to cool off, but none of it works. The manager of the party area is concerned and after about 20 minutes they call the paramedics. Now before this I was given a whole tub of Mega Bloks, about 20 of the Forward Unto Dawn posters (of which I was going to give out here on the blog), a Halo 4 Mega Bloks Warthog set, 3 swag bags (of which the contents of two I was going to give out on the blog) and the nameplate. I was taken to another area for privacy and left those things at the bar.

I was given an EKG and was okay, but my chest was still hurting. I was given seltzer water and taken outside for some fresh air. I have had anxiety attacks before and knew this was one. The paramedics wanted to take me to the hospital but it was my decision. So I decided not to go. (BTW, I strongly encourage if this happens to you folks to GO to the hospital and dont’ take after me.)

I get back to the party as it’s winding down and wait a second…my stuff is GONE! I don’t know if the Mega folks packed it up or it was stolen. But it’s gone. Sigh…of all the stuff, losing the nameplate is the worst.

My buds, the brothers Jon and Andrew call their folks to come get us and all of the stuff the other guys had. This is now about 12:30am. Their folks are about an hour and a half away on Long Island. We get picked up and get back to the hotel about 3am. I knew I wasn’t going to make my bus in the morning…

And so my last day of Comicon comes to a close. Yikes. so many fails. But there was some redeeming moments at the LAN at least and to the folks at 343 and Mega Brands I owe a HUGE Thank You! (Which I’ll be writing out later in greater detail).

Whew, long article…. Final Part 6, Homeward Bound.