[GalaxyCon 2024] A Gamer’s Review

In this review of GalaxyCon, I’ll talk about my perspectives on what I believe are the main things that really make a small fan convention enjoyable: the celebrity guestlist, the artist’s alley, and the cosplay.

While the staff at SmashPad isn’t paid, one of the coolest perks we have as writers, critics, podcasters, or content creators in general is access to various events for free (or rather, in exchange for coverage which is always loosely defined) — ignoring the cost of travel, lodging, and food of course. Thanks to the work I put in with SmashPad, I’ve been to a bunch of gaming events like E3, Summer Game Fest, and PAX West, and I’ve also gone to big events that cater to more fandoms like San Diego Comic-Con, D23 Expo, and a handful of other conventions, and they’ve always been a blast for different reasons. Still, getting to cover the small events is also a treat, but they also hit different for gamers, and oftentimes for us, they don’t hit at all.

In this review, I’ll talk about my perspectives on what I believe are the main things that really make a small fan convention enjoyable: the celebrity guestlist, the artist’s alley, and the cosplay.

Meeting celebrities and other talent

My hometown, the City of San Jose, hosted GalaxyCon for the first time this weekend. I’ve known about it for a while because I’ve been on their mailing list for a couple of years. Given my unemployed status and pulling out from events like this year’s San Diego Comic-Con and PAX West, I didn’t plan on going to GalaxyCon, but one guest changed my mind: Charles Martinet.

As soon as I see he was a guest, I registered for press access right away, and as soon as it was granted, I scheduled an interview with him, which you can watch and read here.

Aside from the voice of Mario himself, there weren’t too many guests that tickled my fancy aside from some of the professional wrestling talent, namely Trish Stratus who was my first celebrity crush as a teenager, so of course I did a photo-op and got some autographs from her–and yes, I paid for them.

I guess I should mention that.

Oftentimes when you’re allotted a press badge, the only free thing you’re entitled to is entry itself, as well as the leeway to approach talent because you’re on assignment depending on what you’re told. When I interviewed Charles Martinet, I obviously recorded it with permission. I probably could’ve asked him for a selfie, but I didn’t do that because I thought it would be unprofessional–not to mention the fact that he was selling them at his booth. On that note, I did stand in line at his booth after the interview and paid for two autographs and a selfie, which set me back $200. It’s steep, especially as someone without a regular income, but when is the next time I’ll see him?

To me, that’s what these smaller fan conventions are all about. They give you the opportunity to interact with people you’ve followed and / or have been a fan of for so long. I don’t get into gaming if I don’t play Mario, and Charles Martinet was obviously a huge part of that. In addition to Charles Martinet and Trish Stratus, the “headliners” for GalaxyCon San Jose were Weird Al Yankovic and William Shatner. For being a headliner, I didn’t see too many people crowd Weird Al’s meet-and-greet line, but William’s was always rather full, which obviously makes sense since Star Trek is and will remain a hot ticket for nerds all over the world. Aside from them, another popular guest at GalaxyCon was Jodi Benson, who most know as the original voice of Ariel from Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Whenever I came to “Celebrity Row,” her line was always the most massive.

You don’t really get this kind of up-close-and-personal look at celebrities with the bigger cons. The only catch is that you have to pay. Again, I paid $200 for a couple Mario autographs. I also dropped $80 for a professional photo-op with Trish Stratus (which comes with a printed photo and digital copy), and then $130 to have her sign the photo we took together along with her Funko Pop. And then there’s the price you pay if you want to authenticate the autographs. At this convention, the authenticator was JSA, who charged $10 an autograph for talent at the show, and separate fees for autographs from other talent you want authenticated who weren’t at the show.

I don’t want to spend too much time talking about the money you have to pay to enjoy these meet-and-greets. As someone that did pay for these services, I obviously have an opinion for the prices various celebrities charge, but at the end of the day, it’s all based on your FOMO. I’ve been doing these things for almost a decade now, and in that time, Charles Martinet never went to con that I went to, so it was something I felt the need to do.

If I had to give a rating to the amount or variety of guests featured at GalaxyCon San Jose, I’d probably give them a 3.5 out of 5 just based on having Charles Martinet there because he tickles my fancy as a gamer. I’m docking them a little bit because AEW wrestlers Swerve Strickland and Britt Baker were supposed to be there. They actually replaced Darby Allin, but neither of them showed up. That’s not GalaxyCon’s fault, but it definitely affects people’s overall enjoyment of the guests that were there. That said, there was A LOT of talent here. I’ve never actually walked a Celebrity Row that vast. At the same time, if you’re not a fan of comics, Disney, gaming, wrestling, or anime, there probably wasn’t much for you here as far as guests go.

Fan art galore!

Talent and autographs are a huge part of any fan convention, but I’d argue that a bigger part of the experience is the fan art you’ll find in either or both the Dealers’ Hall and Artists’ Alley. For those of you uninitiated, while they both exist for the same reason (to take your money), they’re both very different things.

A Dealers’ Hall is pretty much just a bunch of vendors selling things you’ll typically find in markets or storefronts. You’ll find mostly official merchandise catering to all sorts of fandoms, in addition to apparel and knicknacks that cater to attendees of these events in general. Dealers’ Halls are a great place to find rare collectibles like trading cards and Funko pops, in addition to licensed merchandise you typically would have a hard time finding even at a Hot Topic or Box Lunch.

An Artists’ Alley consists primarily of vendors selling their fan art. Almost none of the merchandise you’ll find at an Artists’ Alley is licensed or official, but that doesn’t make the art any less legitimate. It’s not out of the ordinary to find booths run by artists who worked on your favorite movie, game, or comic book offering their take on popular characters or franchises that they may or may not have worked on before. At an Artists’ Alley, you’ll find an endless supply of prints, postcards, stickers, enamel pins, and things of that sort while some booths will be a little more creative offering things like desk mats, ceramics, yarn toys, and more.

It’s really easy to be overwhelmed and tempted by all the things there are to buy, especially if you haven’t been to an event like this before, but I’ve become pretty numb to this. The reason why is because after going to SDCC and AX, which are known as the biggest fan conventions of their kind, I’ve seen a lot of this stuff already. The big thing with those events in particular is that they have deals with licensors to hold exclusives. An event the size of GalaxyCon doesn’t have that luxury, but at the same time, GalaxyCon is a whole lot more approachable to newbies.

While I’ll go on and on about how small their Dealers’ Hall and Artists’ Alley is, I do appreciate the fact that I can comfortably walk the aisles and not bump into anyone while taking a closer look at specific booths. I also appreciated the fact that so many fandoms were covered here. If you’re a mainstream fan of basically anything, you’ll probably find something at GalaxyCon’s Dealers’ Hall or Artists’ Alley to buy. We ended up buying a bunch of stickers for our water bottles as well as LoungeFly backpacks that neither of us have ever seen in person. I’d give the merchants a 4 out of 5 as a gamer. The only thing I’d change would be to add more.

Cosplay

This is the final pillar as far as fan conventions go, and to many it’s definitely the most important. I’d be remiss to not mention San Diego Comic-Con or Anime Expo again, as they’re the crown jewel of cosplay when it comes to those broad fandoms.

Whenever I go to an event, cosplay galleries are the main thing I’ll do because they’re just so easy. I see someone in gaming cosplay, and I take a picture. That’s it. That said, at least when I was walking the floor, I didn’t see much at all. GalaxyCon was nowhere close as far as cosplay goes, but there are reasons for it.

The San Jose Convention Center is not new to these types of conventions at all. One of the most popular conventions it hosts every year is FanimeCon, which was the biggest anime convention I’ve ever been to before I went to Anime Expo this year. In addition that, CrunchyRoll Expo was held here for a number of years prior to its indefinitely cancellation last year. Fanime has TONS of cosplay, and while CrunchyRoll never had as much, they at least had a respectable amount. Obviously, the fact that GalaxyCon isn’t centered on anime or gaming is a reason why there wasn’t as much, but as a San Jose local I’d also point to two other reasons.

The first of which is in its timing. FanimeCon takes place during Memorial Day Weekend, which also coincides with San Jose State University’s graduation. FanimeCon sort of kicks off the summer season for San Jose residents, and you can tell just by the amount of youth walking the streets of Downtown San Jose. Now, school is just starting for a lot of the Bay Area, and that definitely affects attendance. In fact, again, I don’t have any official numbers, but I felt like the convention hall was more packed on Sunday than any other day. In my experience, despite the cheaper ticket, the last day is always the most quiet.

Lastly, I don’t feel like the event was promoted all that well. Despite having a ribbon cutting that opened the event featuring the city’s Vice Mayor, I didn’t see too many local media publications covering it. My interview with Charles Martinet actually went longer than most of the outlets that were there, so I’d say that’s pretty telling. That being said, this is a new convention for San Jose, and it’s always weird being the first to do something.

Cosplay is a 2 out of 5 for me, and that’s being nice.

Would I come to GalaxyCon again?

I love going to these kinds of events, so the answer is yes, but it’s also really going to depend on who’s there. It’s great that we have dates for next year to look forward to it, GalaxyCon has already rebooked SJCC for next August, so I’m interested in going again to see how it improves, but the guestlist will definitely matter to me. Again, I went because there was ONE guy I had to meet. But aside from that, there was nothing really keeping me here.

One thing I didn’t talk much about was programming, but there wasn’t much there either. The panels that happened with the various talent at the show weren’t all that appealing to me, and while it’s nice to have the arcade and free video games downstairs, it’s all stuff I’ve played before or have at home. From the perspective of a gamer, it’s pointless. From the perspective of I guess someone that doesn’t have a modern console, it’s a good excuse to hang around there until late at night. Speaking of late night, there was some late night programming too, but they weren’t my cup of tea.

I’d give GalaxyCon as a whole a 3.5 out of 5. Is the overall experience worth it? I’d say it absolutely is. Just keep in mind that events like these cost more than the price of admission. If you’re a local, you can casually spend two or three hours here and be done. There’s no real need to spend more than a day here unless there’s some scheduling with guests that forces you to work it out that way.