Before the convention began, dealers were frantically setting up their booths. (Tony Weidinger)
Star Trek has a major presence at WonderCon and in the signage for the convention (Tony Weidinger)
The Penguin welcomed us to WonderCon (Tony Weidinger)
Waiting to get into the dealer's room (Tony Weidinger)
The crowds at WonderCon. Attendees were commenting on how crowded it was. Obviously they haven't been to Comic-Con. But those who had were appreciative of the smaller crowds at WonderCon.
Stormtrooper security (Tony Weidinger)
Well there's nothing like stormtrooper security to make you feel safe. The 501st were guarding the door. I don't know if they were official security or not but they acted like they knew what they were doing. I met one women who also thought they were sexy. Hmmm?
Lower level scout trooper security (Tony Weidinger)
Apparently there's a heirarchy to these clones. The Stormtroopers got the upper deck duties while this scout trooper was sent down below.
Will Arnett (Tony Weidinger)
The first panel of the day was for the new TV show Sit Down, Shut Up . It's a new animated comedy series on Fox. Executive producers Mitch Hurwitz ( Arrested Development ) and Josh Weinstein ( The Simpsons ) were be joined by voice talent Will Arnett ( Arrested Development ), Kenan Thompson ( Saturday Night Live ), Henry Winkler ( Happy Days ), and Tom Kenny ( SpongeBob SquarePants ).The show was inspired by an Australian live action comedy and producer Hurwitz said that when no one wanted to do an American live action version they decided to make it an animated series. But the show uses live action background for its characters to move around in. He said that grounded the absurd comedy in the real world. From the brief footage they showed and the actors' descriptions of their characters, it looked like it had the potential to be funny.
Kenan Thompson (Tony Weidinger)
Henry Winkler (Tony Weidinger)
501st booth (Tony Weidinger)
Back at the 501st booth you could find Darth Vader hanging with his homies. Darth Maul, by the way, was not a real person. The scout trooper and Darth were real life costumed people. I saw a Boba Fett hanging around too. On Saturday they will do their big group shot, which is always fun and impressive.
Mark Hamill signing autographs (Tony Weidinger)
Mark Hamill was signing autographs when my son took a picture of him. Hamill looked up and told my son he loved his hair. See below to understand why. Tony dug the compliment.
My son's white boy 'fro that Mark Hamill admired. (Beth Accomando)
And a correction to yesterday's comment, the game my son was looking forward to was Resident Evil 5 and not Street Fighter IV . He attended a panel on the Resident Evil and liked the information it provided.
Moscone Center South (Tony Weidinger)
Ah, the end of the first day. Isn't it pretty and calm. Tomorrow brings the big Hollywood panels for Watchmen, Terminator Salvation and Star Trek .
