Ani-Com Hong Kong

My first year here and whoa. A ton of people! I attempted to come here on Sunday at 1pm but the line was out the door to Renaissance Hotel or something. about a 2 hour wait. However, I bumped into some friends who came at 10am on Sunday and they said they only waited an hour, and friends who came at 12 didn’t have to wait. Seeing the line was ridiculously long, I came back on a Tuesday 3:30−4pm (Last day) and luckily, there’s no line! Tickets are $ 35 and can be bought from 7 – 11 (some sell out so you may need to try more. Ones closer to Wanchai usually have more tickets)
Even on a Tuesday, the crowd was not modest. I can only imagine how crowded it is on the weekend. Note to self, come only on weekdays.
Inside is every comic enthusiasts, gamers, animé fanatics, toy modelers, figure collectiors, superhero fanboys/​girls dreams. I’m actually not a huge fan of any of them but I’ve always wanted to check it out.
There’s a large Gundam exhibit with lots of new models and special editions and further on you can buy the kits. However, all the special editions were pretty much sold out by Tuesday. A lot are slightly overpriced too. They also had a Gunplay competition exhibit and the creativity of people is extraordinary! Unfortunately they closed that section at 5pm on Tuesday so I just nearly got through the sections.
The Lego exhibit had a short line but it’s really worth it, again there was a competition and people built their dream homes? I also particularly enjoyed the Lego of China with the temples. Really intricate! Inside you can buy a bunch of Lego and the larger models too, however I’m not sure if they had any rarer items left.
There was of course Marvel comics with tons of iron man and ultron, hulk, and the newly released Antman. There was a One Piece exhibit but there was a line. A PS4 exhibit and you can pre-​order Until Dawn. Their VR filled up quick and you will need to pre-​register beforehand. They also had a VIP lounge for PS4 subscribers but that closed early on Tuesday too.
There was a Google Play section and other mobile games, various comic books and animes, there was even a Chinese Animé section where I suppose the Chinese is promoting their own animé and they had some virtual reality gaming experience there too.
Overall, lots to see and lots to buy. It took us about 2 hours to walk through the whole thing and I would assume longer on the weekends where it’s more packed. However, I did not find it particularly different from C3 which had way less people. I saw the more cos-​players in C3 and a lot of the booths are actually repeated anyways. But heck, what do I know?
***
Tips: Come early, or on weekdays. Line gets super long. Tourists get to go through a different line and can bring 1 guest with them. If you have a child under 12, you can also go through the shorter line. Also if you’re taking part in the the cos-​play competition
Favourites: Cos-​players, lots to see
Meh: lines lines lines! Highly coveted items sells out fast
Last Words: Check out C3 as well, not too different and less hassle