Today was Preview Night, which allows attendees to go on to the show floor prior to the main activity beginning tomorrow. Here are some of the Disney events going on.
ABC: The ABC booth is themed to “Soundstage 2.” Small groups are escorted in at a time where they show a three minute clip of the new Muppets show coming to ABC this fall. They also showed the set of “Up Late with Miss Piggy” which is the show within a show on The Muppets. One at a time, attendees are taken to a photo booth where four pictures are taken. Through some ABC magic, a Muppet or the Evil Queen from Once Upon a Time is added to your picture. You can then Tweet the pictures to enter to win a ticket to either The Muppets or Once Upon a Time cast signing happening later in the convention. Each guest is given a button as they exit.
Tsum Tsum: Disney Consumer Products is featuring a Tsum Tsum booth this year. While no products are available for sale, they showcased the upcoming Aladdin (August) and Nightmare Before Christmas (September) tsums. There was also other Tsum Tsum products including apparel and mugs. At the booth, you can guess the number of tsums located in a container. The attendee that guesses the closest without going over will win some of the yet to be released tsums.
Marvel: This pavilion is focused on Ant-Man which is just over a week away from release. The exclusive merchandise at the booth proved to be quite popular. There was also a “green screen” Ant-Man photo opp that allowed you to join the fun of the film. There was also a Twitter vending machine. If you tweeted a specific hashtag, a special Marvel prize popped out of the machine. We won a Groot keychain. Look for more activity in this booth as the convention continues.
Star Wars: Lucasfilm has a huge presence with various licensees ranging from Her Universe to Petco showcasing their wares. The highlight of the booth is Rey’s speeder from the upcoming The Force Awakens.
Disney Publishing Worldwide: Disney Publishing had a small little bookstore that sold books from all their lines. They were also handing out a chapter sampler & gadget cloth for the upcoming Black Widow novel “Forever Red” written by Margaret Stohl which will be released in October. There will be more giveaways and author appearances at the booth throughout the convention.
Disney Infinity: Outside of the convention hall was a special pop-up shop for Disney Infinity. Guests were able to participate in challenges and scavenger hunts to win prizes. If you were willing to pre-purchase the game at the store, they would give you a Darth Vader figure right there on-site. They also featured a “green screen” experience where they would allow you to interact with a character of your choosing. Every guest that participated was allowed to select one Infinity figure to take home with them. There was also complimentary hors-d’oeuvre and beverages.
Tomorrow the action begins in earnest. Follow us on Twitter @Laughing_Place for updates throughout the convention.