Swag and Freebies

19 JULY 2011


Again, if you know anything good, post it in the comments.


Warner Bros. is bringing 130,000 giant Con bags featuring different shows from Supernatural to Fringe to Vampire Diaries. For the first time, the bags convert into a backpack, which is a cool trick. They'll have the usual people passing them out on the floor but you can also visit booth 4545.


Hit up Macy's at Horton Plaza on Friday between noon and 6 pm for 10,000 free chocolate chip cookies, courtesy of Doubletree.

Discovery Channel is giving away Shark Week bags on the street. In a world of free bags, these rank high.

The River pilot on Friday (2:15, room 6a) is giving away "a Comic Con exclusive" which is most likely a t-shirt.

Fox is giving away mini-posters on shows like Fringe, Glee, Terra Nova, Bones, The Simpsons, Family Guy, etc.

Not actually swag, but a raffle: Dark Horse is giving away $500 of free digital comics every day. Come to their booth at 2615 to enter every day from 9:30 - 10:00 am.

Friday's NCIS panel is distributing free t-shirts. So is the panel for Bones.

ABC is giving away flight bags (not regular Con bags - these retail for $89) at their Pan-Am booth 3921. This booth has a Pan Am 1960's replica first class cabin and if you visit, you're given a boarding pass and flight time to come back and watch a preview of the show. If you've never heard of it, it stars Christina Ricci and is about pilots and flight attendants in the 1960's. Mad Men in the sky, I'm guessing.

The Lost Girl panel is distributing free prequel comic books to everyone who attends the panel. Which is on Friday at 7:30 pm in 24ABC. This is the Syfy version of the Canadian show about a bisexual succubus.

WB is giving away a ton of stuff. To start: "several" Swords of Omen from Thundercats. Enter at their booth, 4545. They're also giving away - I am not making this up - a Tweety Bird-brand Volkswagen bug. Presumably you can have the Tweety Bird painted over.

Also from WB: playing cards, puzzle cubes, Lt. Jim Gordon replica eyeglasses, collectible salt shakers from Supernatural, and Vampire Diaries Blood Bag water bottles, Fringe luggage tags, Harry Potter pins, and WB scavenger hunt cards. All of which will be showcased by a 30 foot Warner Bros. water tower, with giant mirrors and movie star portraits dangling above the peasants, and the second floor of the booth surrounded by a ring of fire. Probably Siegfried and Roy will pop out at some point with their tigers.

You can get a free 30 Days of Night trade by handing in a Twilight book at the IDW booth, #2643. Recycling at its finest.

Cirque de Soleil is performing for free Thursday night at Petco Park. "KÀ is a gravity-defying production featuring an innovative blend of high-flying feats, puppetry, projections and martial arts. KÀ unfolds on a custom-built, colossal, 360-degree rotating stage which forms the backdrop for this cinematic journey of aerial adventure and perpendicular acrobatics." I saw this in Vegas and couldn't describe it anymore coherently than that. If you're a Cirque de Soleil person, you'll like it.

The CBS booth is offering Enterprise bottle opener key chains, Star Trek wrist bands, NCIS phone skins, 2 Broke Girls sharpies and change purses and various DVD sets. I'm guessing some of these will be raffled.

The Ringer panel is giving away quite a bit, including custom Ringer stools and the chance to win a 3-night stay in a luxurious suite during Comic Con 2011. That's what the press release says, anyhow, but since everyone is already is on the line for their hotel bill this year, I'm not sure how that works. Anyway, another 100 people will get signed posters of the cast. The panel is at 1:45 Thursday in Ballroom 20.

CBS is holding a sweepstakes to give away 5 "Person of Interest" iPads. See their booth 4129 for details.

The Nintendo Gaming Lounge (San Diego Ballroom at the Marriott) is giving away Pokémon AR marker cards and pins, Pokémon cinch sacks, Pokédex 3D T-shirts, Kid Icarus: Uprising AR Cards, and downloadable treasure maps for Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies.