ToG at the Con – Dallas Fan Days 2016

Another year, another con for the Temple of Geek crew. This year, Jeff and myself headed to Irving Texas for Fan Days 2016. This year’s featured guest, Stephen Amell!

We arrived at the Irving Convention Center and met with Susan Friedman and her staff with the Gentry Agency to check in. They are always amazing with us and I really enjoy speaking with them when we have the chance! Once we had our passes, we were on our way to the show.

This is where the adventure splits up. I go my way and Jeff goes his. My first stop was Stephen Amell. I made it upstairs to the celebrity signing area. I learned that John Barrowman was not going to be signing until 4pm!! He was still on his flight trying to get to Dallas. Robbie Amell and David Ramsey was delayed as well.

I was able to get into his line without too much wait. I waited for approximately 1 hour all the while speaking to the other guests and handing out business cards. I finally made it to Mr. Amell’s table and learned that I was not able to get a photo of him for our site. I did however give him a business card to which he asked me if my last name was really Slade. I assured him that it was and he told me he would not forget that.

I then proceeded to meet with Sean Pertwee who is one of the coolest people I have met. He questioned the origin of the double ‘n’ in my name to which I proceeded to explain that my parents were hippies! (A little joke I tell everyone as I do not know the true origin of my name. Perhaps before I die I will find out.) We took a photo together. I told him not to tell anyone that he is my favorite Alfred. He replied with “I am telling everyone!”

I met back up with Jeff and we headed over to the Bruce Greenwood panel. We learned that he has not seen the trailer to Star Trek Beyond and that the best practical joke ever pulled on the cast of Star Trek was the “Neutron Cream” incident with Karl Urban. Jeff recorded the panel and should be posting it later on our Youtube channel.

After the panel, we walked by the cosplay tables and met Marla of Mcubed Cosplay. I purchased some photos to show our support and also took a photo with her. We talked to her a little about our site and exchanged business cards. We hope to have her on a future episode of Cosplay Connection so watch out. You can check out her social media sites by clicking the following links.

Official Facebook: CLICK HERE
Official Instagram: CLICK HERE

After we left Marla’s table, I needed to get in line for my photo op with Stephen Amell, David Ramsey and John Barrowman. Jeff went to the Dukes of Hazzard Panel.

So, for the first half hour of waiting, I was bored out of my mind. I kept browsing social media to see if I was missing anything from the show. They kept us in this small room until 2:25 pm when they moved us to the photo op room.

There was a volunteer working the room named Courtney. She had the line situation down to a science. She was very comedic and made the rest of the wait fun and entertaining. She would walk around the room like a warden in a prison making sure we had both feet on the taped white lines. She would yell and ask people if they understood her instructions. Apparently, we were her favorite line. They need to make sure they keep Courtney for future cons because she was a breath of fresh air.

After the photo was taken, I headed outside where I met with some cosplayers and took photos. I met up with Jeff again and we headed downstairs to the show floor. We walked the shops and I  was able to snag some cool 80’s cartoons artwork. I then located a Transformer that I have wanted for years. I found Generation 2 Megatron in amazing condition and complete! I snatched that piece up for my collection.

It was nearing 5pm and Jeff needed to charge his camera. We headed outside again where we took some more photos of cosplayers. We then headed into Stephen Amell’s Q&A panel which I will write about on another post. One thing I will mention was that his Q&A was crashed by Star Dust of WWE which you can check out here.

IT was 6:00pm and everyone was leaving the AMell pane. We hung around in the grand hall for the Cosplay contest. We saw some amazing cosplay and I was able to get a couple of shots. The host of the contest was hilariously entertaining. Robbie Amell even stopped by to announce one of the contestants.

The show ended at 7:00pm and we all left the Irving Convention Center to head home. It was an amazing day at the con.We want to thank the Gentry group for the opportunity to cover the convention We are looking forward to Dallas Comic Con in June where Stan Lee and Kevin Smith are headlining.

Here are some of the photos that we took at the convention.

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