As New York Comic Con didn’t open until midday we were in no rush to go anywhere – we’d already seen most of what we wanted to. We got up just before 08:00 and hung around the hotel for a few hours. By the time we joined the queue at 10:30 there were quite a number of people already waiting. After scanning our passes we were directed into a queuing hall where we then sat and waited for over an hour.

Fortunately we were in the first row, even though there were a lot in front of us. The downside though is that the queue was badly organised. People were queuing four or five abreast and when they let us in they didn’t do it row at a time, they did the first two rows at the same time meaning that people that had come in after us would get in before us. It was a disorderly mass of movement from there through three doors to a single (switched-off) escalator that led up to the show floor. In this madness there were some people that were trying to run up the down escalator as well, just to try and beat the queue upstairs.

Once inside the show we spent the next five hours walking around it to try and cover as much as we could. I don’t think there were as many cosplayers as in San Diego on this first day, but there were far more stalls selling goods than there. In San Diego there were big corporate stalls such as Sony and Microsoft and every few private sellers; here the majority of stalls were small independent shops and artists. I didn’t understand why manufacturers such as Chevrolet were there though – I can’t see the connection to comics. I heard a rumour though that Chevrolet were brought in at the last minute to fill some space that had been left by Mattel pulling out – I don’t know how true this was though.

We both ended up buying more than we intended, and eventually it got to the point where we decided we’d buy no more for fear of running out of space in our suitcases. My sister at a few points decided to sit and wait with the bags whilst I went around a few aisles. I think if it had been in the UK I may have spent far more than I had done. One of the stalls we visited was run by the guys that do the “Toy Hunter” series on TV, so my sister decided to buy a plush “Gizmo” from the movie Gremlins from them, and knocked them down a little on the price.

The show floor was almost split into two as the various halls meet. Probably around two thirds of the way into the hall the ceiling lowers and then on the other side of this is another large hall (though not as big as the other side) which is mostly more artistic stalls. In amongst this area is WETA, the workshop that did the work on films such as The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. One thing that did surprise me though was that they had a large model of Thunderbird 1 for the upcoming new series (to be aired in 2015) – something I didn’t realise they had involvement in.

Once we’d finished we headed to the ReedPop stand outside the show where we picked up the lanyards and t-shirts we’d preordered. Thankfully it was a shortish walk back to the hotel from there, but we did stop off at a 7 Eleven to get food for the next day. Having dropped off our shopping we then headed out to get some dinner.

For the evening meal we decided to go back to the Jolly Monk as it was nearby and easy, and went for their daily special. This was a smoked bacon wrapped meatloaf with double buttered mashed potato and sautéed green beans. It was actually very nice, and the service was excellent so we made sure we left a good tip for the waitress.

For dessert we walked a few blocks past Times Square to a place we’d seen before and bought a Double Mousse New York cheesecake. It was quite expensive but also very large, and very nice. We certainly wouldn’t be going hungry any time soon! We also picked up a couple of almond croissants on the way back for the following morning’s breakfast.

Once we got back to the hotel we stayed there for the remainder of the evening and checked how our suitcases would fit our purchases. It had been a tiring day, yet there were another three days of Comic Con to go.