Guess what time the exhibitor's hall opened this morning?

8:30 am.

This has to be the earliest start for any exhibit hall that I've worked in. But this con is a bit unusual in that it lets the pre-reged members have first pickings before letting in general admissions.

It's super nice for the members, but really, really tiring for exhibitors!

I made the drive with S.Y. from West LA to Pasadena a little before 7am. We arrived via amazingly clear freeways a little before 7:30. I say amazing because freeways in LA are almost always sort of crowded. But I guess people don't wake up on the weekend before 8am, so could make our way to the land of giant robots without any impediments.

Apparently the line for general admission took about an hour to get through. The general public is allowed to go to the exhibit hall and but wristbands for autograph sessions. I'm not really sure if they let them attend panels.

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The hall, of course, was busy and quiet in waves. Today, there were A LOT more families. Also? A lot of people with massive amounts of Transformers bodyart. Sleeve and calf tattoos of battles and stuff. Which must have been all sorts of painful, yes?

It was also sweet to watch dads buy robot stuff for their kids. I guess that's a great way for geek-dads to bond. Over the love of giant robots. And of course, on the hope that their kid will be that genius scientist who INVENTS GIANT ROBOTS!