Atlantic City Boardwalk Convention 2015 Friday Recap of #DoACBC | Fanboys Anonymous

Atlantic City Boardwalk Convention 2015 Friday Recap of #DoACBC

Posted by Anthony Mango Saturday, May 16, 2015
Since Fanboys Anonymous revolves around the various different aspects of geek culture, any opportunity that we get to embrace our inner nerd is relished. One of the best places to do that, of course, is at a convention, and our latest endeavor in that regard was the Atlantic City Boardwalk Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts and last minute booking problems and so forth prevented us from being able to go the full four days, but we were thankfully still able to attend on Friday.

As far as the size of the convention, it's naturally bigger than your normal upstarts as it is held in the Atlantic City Convention Center instead of a small community center or the more warehouse-type buildings. However, don't let that intimidate you. In no way is this anywhere near as big as something like New York Comic Con in comparison. This is the perfect size for a starter convention to attend to get a basic idea of how these go, where you have enough time to visit all of the different attractions and attend several panels as well. To give you a basic rundown of some of the things we were able to do, take a look at the sections below.

Cosplayers

It's always fun to see what people are dressed up as at conventions, since they're celebrating the characters we love. As expected, the top choice seemed to be Harley Quinn, and believe me when I say the three below are just a fraction of the ones that were roaming the floor. Costumes ranged from the more serious and darker ones to silly renditions of cartoon characters and even more than one version of Where's Waldo? which is totally cheating and not fair.

Suicide Squad sexy Harley Quinn cosplay sexy Harley Quinn hot cosplay
Suicide Squad Harley Quinn "Bitches of Cosplay"

ACBC convention Supergirl black cosplay Atlantic City Boardwalk Con Robin cosplayer
Supergirl Robin

cosplay Mario and Luigi Mario costume
The Super Mario Bros
Atlantic City Boardwalk Con Cosplayers Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver
The Twins - Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch

ACBC Captain America costume ACBC convention Deadpool with Kidpool cosplayers
Captain America Deadpool Family

Erza Scarlet cosplay Casey Jones Pokemon cosplay Steven Stone costume Metagross
Erza Scarlet Casey Jones Steven Stone

ACBC convention Garnet costume Steven Universe armored Lex Luthor cosplay
Garnet Lex Luthor

Atlantic City Boardwalk Convention Waldo costume
Found him!

Stan Lee Museum

A neat little section is what they refer to as "The Stan Lee Museum," which basically houses all sorts of miscellaneous treasures from over the years that involve the man himself and his creations. There are a dozen or so glass cases filled with special drawings, signed memorabilia, and odd trinkets, but what immediately stands out is the collection of Iron Man statues. You pretty much can't be around that area and not notice Iron Monger and the bright glowing lights of the Arc Reactor chestpieces.

Tony Stark versions Iron Man weapon Iron Man 2 briefcase armor
Iron Man armor busts Iron Man Mark V Armor

Iron Man 2 drone Stane Monger Extremis armor
Different versions of Iron Man armor

James Rhodes armor War Machine Loki Scepter Mjolnir Marvel weapons
Iron Man armor War Machine bust Marvel Cinematic Universe Props Display Case

Pingo Doce green drink Incredible Hulk blood Peter Parker Midtown Science High School Infinity Power Stone Orb Guardians of the Galaxy
Pingo Doce with Guarana Kick Peter Parker's Diploma The Orb (Power Stone)

The Garage

If the Marvel movie props aren't necessarily your thing, but you still enjoy checking out some of the iconic pieces of superhero film history, there is also a section dedicated to automobiles dubbed "The Garage." You could get your picture taken alongside The General Lee from Dukes of Hazard, the Ecto-1a from Ghostbusters II, and of course, multiple different Batmobiles!

Batman Begins Batmobile Convention Garage The Dark Knight replica Batpod car
Tumbler Batmobile from Batman Begins Batpod from The Dark Knight

Batman 1989 Batmobile Convention ACBC DeLorean car from Back to the Future
The Batmobile from Tim Burton's Batman The DeLorean from Back to the Future

Panels and Celebrities

We didn't partake in the autograph and photo sessions, but we were able to check out a few names along the way during our rounds.

Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash's secret weapon for finding out what every piece of memorabilia or history is worth—Rob Bruce from Comic Book Men—was a really fun chat and is a very down to Earth, cool guy. Here's hoping we'll be able to get him on one of our podcasts soon!

Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash Robert Bruce
Head of Fanboys Anonymous Tony Mango (left) and Comic Book Men's Robert Bruce (right)

Fellow resident Fanboy Sam Lascio is also pictured below, chatting it up with the folks responsible for the documentary The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened?—writer and director Jon Schnepp (who you may recognize from Metalocalypse and Aqua Teen Hunger Force) and executive producer Robert Pierce. They're also awesome guys in their own right, so don't overlook the tables facing the wall and skip by them!

The Death of Superman Lives, What Happened? Atlantic City Boardwalk Con Metalocalypse
Guardians of the Galaxy Michael Rooker Yondu ACBC conventionDefinitely a highlight of the day, though, was being able to sit in on Michael Rooker's panel. It was a lighthearted affair filled with tons of jokes. Rooker, of course, was his usual self, prompting the first question of the Q&A session to be: "Are you as big of an asshole as you portray in your movies?"

He filled the audience in on some of the backstage info about filming Mallrats and Guardians of the Galaxy as well as his more troubled background that forged him into the badass that he is, including a story of when he walked down a street and saw everyone locking their car doors, which just made him want to become The Hulk and toss their cars around.

Michael then gave out four special figurines that he would sign and number later on, with the final one going to a little kid dressed up as Yondu, showing that despite his rough exterior, the guy's got a soft spot deep down as well.

Merchandise and Vendors

Speaking for myself and myself alone, when I go to conventions, I don't care as much about what's for sale compared to much of the other stuff. This is a force of habit of just being tight with my money, so I don't get as much of a joy of looking around at what I'm not going to purchase. However, as with any convention, there's plenty of different vendors out there for you to find a multitude of things that you would want in your collection. Whether you're a collector of T-shirts, toys, artwork and specialty-made crafts, or pretty much anything else you can name, you'll be able to find it.

Below is an example of one thing that did stand out to me, though. Superhero Jewelry had a wide assortment of very cool looking rings as well as other things, such as below:

The Flash ring costume inside
DC Comics ring replicas
Of course, there's much more that we weren't able to participate in, such as the Cosplay Ballroom Party, the After Party, and so forth. However, that was due to time constraints on our part.

If you've got the time, head on over to ACBC for the remaining two days this Saturday and Sunday and geek out with your fellow Fanboys, pick up some swag, buy some merchandise of your favorite characters, and take some pictures with the celebrities that you're fond of. For more information, visit http://www.doacbc.com.
THIS POST WRITTEN BY: ANTHONY MANGO

Tony Mango is the founder, editor-in-chief, head writer and podcast host of Fanboys Anonymous as well as all other A Mango Tree branches including Smark Out Moment. He is a pundit, creative director/consultant, fiction writer and more. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

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