We love attending Salt Lake Comic Con and their smaller event FanX. So when they announced they were going to do FanX in 2017 (after we were told they were going to skip it this year), we knew we had to go!
And boy are we glad that we did!
This even smaller 2 day event (normally 3 days) ended up being one of the best comic conventions we have ever been to!
Since not everyone was able to attend, I’d like to tell you some of the highlights and even lowlights of our time at FanX so you can feel like you were there too!
Highlight: Amazing Celebrity Guests
They had some amazing celebrity guests at this years show. It was absolutely fantastic! Just to give you an idea, they had 3 of the main stars from The Princess Bride (Cary Elwes, Chris Sarandon, Wallace Shawn), Both Highlanders, John Rhys Davies, Jess Harnell, Emilie De Ravin and Sean Maguire from Once Upon A Time, Weird Al, and so much more!
Nessa from 2dorksinlove and I with Weird Al
On top of that, they even got 3 guests who have never done conventions outside of San Diego Comic Con (attendance at San Diego Comic Con is mandated by the studios). These celebrity guests were Zachary Levi from Tangled and Chuck, as well as Dule Hill and James Roday from Psych.
With so many celebrity guests, it made it hard to choose which ones we wanted to meet since we knew we couldn’t meet them all. Here’s to hoping that the ones we didn’t meet will come back another time.
Lowlight: Not Enough Time
As I mentioned before, FanX normally runs for 3 days but this time they only had it for 2. I thought that would have been perfect since FanX has typically been a slower convention for us.
Marvel and I waiting to get onto the convention floor
But boy was I wrong! Because of the shorter amount of time, and the number of guests we wanted to meet, it felt like we were always in lines, even with the “express pass” that our VIP tickets gave us. In the future I hope they do 3 days for FanX again to give us more time to do everything we want to do.
Lowlight: Stan Lee Canceling
Comic book legend Stan Lee was the main headlining guest, and of course we had wanted to see him. Lately his health hadn’t been so good and we were all worried since he’d canceled a convention the weekend before due to health reasons.
Sure enough Friday afternoon they announced over the intercom that he had canceled. My husband Sean and I were sad and disappointed but it was understandable.
He was kind enough to do a panel via Skype the next day and he said he will try to come in September for Salt Lake Comic Con, as long as his health is good. Here’s to hoping he keeps his health up!
Highlight: Zachary Levi
Zachary Levi is the star of the tv show Chuck as well as the voice of Flynn Rider in Tangled. This was his first convention outside of San Diego Comic Con and he was originally only supposed to be there on Friday, but he loved his time at FanX so much that he ended up extending his stay and coming back on Saturday!
We already got an autograph from him, but since he was coming back, I decided to swap my Stan Lee autograph that I’d prepaid for to get a photo op with Zachary Levi instead. Since Sean doesn’t like to do photo ops, I decided to share it with my good friend Nessa over at 2dorksinlove.
One thing I wanted to point out that was really neat that Zachary did was that he treated everyone as if they were special. He didn’t rush and he paid attention to what was being said. He also gave people hugs if they donated $20 to his charity Operation Smile. Over the span of 2 days, we raised over $10,000 dollars for them!
And what’s probably even better is he wants to come back again, and I know the fans want him to!
Highlight and Lowlight: Autograph vouchers
A new perk for VIP and Gold pass holders that they tried for this year was giving out Autograph vouchers. These vouchers could be used for preselected celebrity guests. VIP pass holders got 2 so we had 4 in total to use, but we only ended up using 2 of them because the lines for the other 2 celebrities we were supposed to get autographs for were way too long each time we went to redeem them.
I say that this is both a highlight and a lowlight because I was really excited to get the autographs as we are more into those than photo ops. But the limited nature of which guests you could use them for made it feel like sometimes you had to use it for someone that you weren’t a big fan of. Ultimately it came down to choosing which ones were more worth our time and energy to wait in the lines as well as which ones we were a bigger fan of.
I did get a photo op with one of my photo op voucher celeb choices. I’ve been a fan of Emilie De Ravin since her Lost days!
I think if they continue to use these autograph vouchers as a perk for the Gold and VIP passes, they may need to tweak the way they’re used to prevent some of the hiccups that happened.
Highlight: Cosplay
Cosplay is always one of my favorite things about going to comic conventions. I love seeing the hard work people have put into making them and then finally getting to show their costumes off! Of course we like to get in on the action too!
We went a little bit more low key this time around but we still had a lot of fun! Plus I’ve already got the wheels turning in my mind for our cosplays for Salt Lake Comic Con in September.
Take a look at a few of the cosplays I loved this year as well as Sean and our daughter Marvel in their costumes.
Captain Amari and Junkrat from Overwatch
Hamilton and Eliza
Sean and Marvel having fun in costume
Sean and Marvel as Dad 76 and mini D.Va from Overwatch
As you can tell, we really did have a great time at FanX this year, despite some of the hiccups and lower points. I can’t wait for September’s main event as well as for FanX next year! Hopefully you’ll come join us!
What would you have liked to have seen at FanX? Let me know in the comments!
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