London Film and Comic Con 2018

Last month my family and I made our yearly trip to the Olympia Exhibition Centre for London Film and Comic con (LFCC). The event is held over three days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) at the end of July and the highlight of the convention calendar for me.

The show gets bigger every year and, in my opinion, this year’s line up was fantastic. With big names such as Jason Mamoa (Aquaman, Game of Thrones), Sam Neil (Jurassic Park), Meat Loaf and Steven Seagal attending the event. Along with not one, not two, but eight doctors from Doctor Who appearing over the three days!

As expected big names meant higher attendance and with that longer queues! I’ve never queued so much (or so long) in my 10 years of attending conventions!

Day 1 – Saturday

We arrived at the convention early Saturday morning and headed to the entry queue where there were already hundreds of people waiting. Mum and I went to the diamond pass area to collect our lanyards – I’ve spoken about diamond passes before but for new readers, a diamond pass gives you priority access for a particular guest along with an autograph, photo shoot, talk and some goodies.

My dad had kindly bought me a diamond pass for Sam Neil who plays Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park as a very early Christmas present. 😅 We joked as a family how we should all get each other Showmasters vouchers for next year.

Having successfully picked up our diamond passes and virtual queue (VQ) tickets, my friend Shannon and I volunteered to go back to the hotel room (a short walk away) while the others shopped. We were staying at ‘Simply Rooms and Suites‘, a fairly simple hotel and a great location for the exhibition centre.

Meeting “Meat”

We made our way back inside an hour later (we were made to queue again to gain entry), and I headed to Meat Loaf’s autograph session with my mum. She had a disability pass meaning she could have a helper in the queue with her, and a diamond pass which gave her priority access to meet Meat. We waited in his queue for over an hour but it was worth it.

Meat Loaf was one of the friendliest, engaging people I’ve ever met and took time with everyone – which is why the queue took its time. Mum was in her element and is happy to have met one of her idols.

I mooched around the stalls a little while waiting for my photo shoot with 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi. I picked up a Jayne Cobb bear from the Firefly store and took some photos of an impressive Star Wars Lego display. It was of the planet Endor.

Doctor Who?

Peter Capaldi was lovely and posed with a shocked face with every body – it made the experience more enjoyable. I wish I could have spent more time with him but he stayed on diamond pass only all weekend for his autograph sessions. Still I’m very happy I got to meet him! 😊

The show was due to close shortly after my photo shoot finished – Saturday had really ran away with me! I spent most of my day in queues and it got to the end of the day and I still hadn’t used my diamond pass. 😥

Day 2 – Sunday

I spent Sunday rushing back and forth between photo shoots and diamond pass activities – I had a lot of clashes. Photo shoots and talks scheduled at the same time as each other or ones that overlapped – thankfully the Showmasters crew helped me out. I was feeling very anxious and on the verge of a panic attack at one point. 🙁

The crew swapped a couple of my photo shoot times around and let me hop out of one queue and back, to my original place, in another. Thanks guys – the crew don’t get enough credit for the hard work they do and I wished I’d gotten their names.

Morning photo shoots

My first photo session was Sam Neil who loved my Primark Jurassic Park t-shirt. He said he’d never seen one like it before! 😊

This was quickly followed by a cuddle with Jason Mamoa. I only had a few minutes interacting with him but he seemed very friendly and approachable.

Hey Alan!

I had brought my Jurassic Park boxset for Sam Neil to sign, so headed to his autograph area next. He was very engaging at the table and happy to put a little quote on my boxset “don’t move”.

I love how the autograph turned out and the boxset has pride of place on top of my display cabinet.

Doctors!

I had photo shoots booked with Matt Smith and Christopher Ecceslton in the afternoon. My aim was to complete my signed figure sets (only missing Matt Smith and Christopher Ecceslton’s autographs) but unfortunately, due to high demand, they stayed diamond pass only for autographs. I am thankful and happy to say I have now met every living male Doctor. 😁

Please excuse the blurred look and weird glare on these photos! They’re photos I took of the originals as I couldn’t get my scanner to work properly… 🙁

😍 So so happy with these! 😍

It’s the dinosaur man! … again.

After my afternoon photo shoots with the Doctors, I listened to Sam Neil’s talk. He talked about his life in New Zealand, upcoming work and of course, Jurassic Park.

It was a great convention but I’m still not sure I saw everything. Especially in the dealers area! Next year we’re planning to attend on the Friday as well, its usually quieter and we can get some shopping done. 😉

Have you been to comic con? What’s your top tip for schedule clashes?