San Diego Comic-Con 2013 – Preview Night: Zombies, Aliens, Thor and more kick off four days of frantic fun

in Entertainment, Events, Merchandise

The geek madness that is San Diego Comic-Con 2013 has kicked off in California bringing together massive hoards of pop culture fanatics for four days of excitement. And as with every year, a 3-hour sneak peek known as Preview Night revealed a glimpse of what the show floor has to offer this year with some especially surprising and impressive sights.

My time at Comic-Con this year actually began outside the convention center with a chance to sit down with Disney Infinity and play around for an hour. In short: It’s a ton of fun. More on that experience next week.

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Preview Night

On to the convention itself…

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Preview Night

Preview Night 2013 was as crowded as ever, with bodies darting every which way in search of exclusive merchandise and freebies across thousands of booths from exhibitors big and small.

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Preview Night

Among the many exclusives I grabbed tonight was a first chance to pre-order Super7’s “Alien” ReAction Figure Series – a set of figures that never was but should have been. And I just barely nabbed the ultra-limited SDCC exclusive “prototypes” to go with the full set.

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Preview Night

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Preview Night

I also got my hands on a limited edition Megaman 25th anniversary statue from Capcom, only 100 of which are being released each day of the convention. (It came with an inflatable Mega Buster for free!)

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Preview Night

A huge part of Comic-Con is people-watching, looking for the best cosplayers. On preview night, there aren’t many costumes to be found, but I did spot a couple good ones.

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Preview Night

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Preview Night

Even without costumed attendees, this year’s show floor has plenty of exciting photo opportunities and exhibits, the most impressive of which is from AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” featuring a huge prison set complete with a statue of Rick Grimes on top and walkers down below.

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Preview Night

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Preview Night

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Preview Night

The rest of the show floor features quite an assortment of sights, from Voltron to My Little Pony to Monster High to SpongeBob SquarePants to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and beyond. Here’s a sampling:

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Preview Night

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Preview Night

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Preview Night

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Preview Night

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Preview Night

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Preview Night

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Preview Night

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Preview Night

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Preview Night

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Preview Night

And no Comic-Con would be complete without Marvel, this year promoting “Thor: The Dark World” with a hammer photo op.

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Preview Night

That’s just a small sampling of what this year’s San Diego Comic-Con has to offer, as Preview Night’s measly 3 hours breezes by in a heartbeat.

We’ll be covering many of the highlights from throughout San Diego Comic-Con 2013 over the next few days (and beyond), so keep checking back here for more photos, video, and day-by-day reports.

More photos from San Diego Comic-Con 2013 Preview Night:

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