MCM Comic Con Avis 67

Honestly been going for a few years now. This is probably the second worst one ever since covid.
This is a money focused cash grab! less venders, the same booths selling fake merch, oversold and a lot more.
I've never wanted a refund so badly from this event. For a ticket to cost over £100 this wasnt worth it in the slightest. Spending too much on the guests that you can't even see due to over seeling. They've lost focus on the main thing, the visitors. Bring back the days of bigger named brands like lush, CEX, or even bring in a bigger gaming sponsor so we can enjoy that.
Good points: met my mates
Bad points: Over sold, low vender numbers, low food choices, security thinking they know everything when they don't even know the schedules, awful bag checks that dont even check properly, the smell of weed.

Never been to anything as disorganised as this, it was pathetic. Also very oversold, no one cares about visitor experience they just want to bleed you dry of all your money, so upset

This is my 3rd visit to the London MCM Comicon. The previous visits where good this time very disappointed, sat here bored whilst waiting for daughter. The computer gaming has been reduced from a good setup to a couple of switches and 1 PlayStation. The Fringe stage (comedy) does not have comedy on. There are way more stalls, seems like a cash grab less for your money so they can charge more vendors. Also loads of wasted space near fiid that could have been used. If the gaming is not sorted will not be returning

Visited excell london today, Too many people crammed into one venue had to leave early as I was sexually assaulted by someone and couldn't even see who it was, not a single member of staff ask for help, god forbid there be a fire cause I can imagine people would be trampled, why sell that many tickets if there isnot enough room, literally just a money grab... do not go

Awful convention now, the prices have been put way up nearly £40 for a general ticket on Saturday is absolutely insane considering the quality of this convention has only diminished and it’s been reduced to nothing but stalls reselling aliexpress items completely lackluster guests attending too especially compared to other conventions such as comic con Liverpool or Scotland, this is meant to be Londons main convention and it’s absolutely awful and should be way better than it is.

I loved my experience so many things to do and some stuff are affordable for the quality of it but I went in October and I’m going again in may so I’m excited

Me and the boys did have a great time on Saturday and I have been to MCM many times at the Excel, this time sold as EGX. But looking at other reviews, I can see the frustrations. Advertising this alongside 'gaming' is just criminal, it really isn't. Back in 2017 I believe...there was loads of companies showing off their games with actual booths, not just stalls and prizes to be won. An example was Dark Souls 3 being shown off, there was literally none of that this year. None of me and my friends dressed up, but I did shop a bit and that was really all there was to do. I can put up with the amount of people, but the panels were underwhelming and nothing gaming related honestly, I wouldn't go back again, I'd just buy toys ect. online in future.

Expensive pop figures being sold overpriced where I can buy them cheap on eBay. Excel was dead no games or nothing to play. Why can’t we have an Xbox panel like a few years ago we had ? Why can’t we find bargains anymore at comic con ? I use to get free freebies for trying out stuff back in the years of comic con. But anyways. It’s packed and not worth the try to attend next year comic con.

Absolutely terrible service, emailed so many times to speak to someone and not once got an answer! Event was awful and not worth the money!!!!!

What a disaster. Firstly we were ushered into the venue without having our bag checks or having to show our tickets. We could literally have walked in.

No big name stands just carbon copies of anime and tat stalls. Way overpriced and overticketed. By lunchtime I had to get out as it was so crowded you couldn’t walk comfortably and if there had been a security incident the resulting stampede would have been fatal.

An absolute travesty that I’ll never go back to. Appalling.

Ruined by untrained staff and no signage. Event organisation and planning is terrible.

Takes 45 minutes to find where to collect your passes through poor directions from event staff. The pass collection point is convoluted and backwards!

This has become a bland cash grab, a glorified paid entry shopping trip. This year there were few to no big companies showing off new games/anime etc. barely any good panels and alomst nothing for kids to interact with.
To top it off there was a lack of diversity in shop types almost all stalls were sweets or cheap anime tat, by that I dont mean the good stuff, I mean copy paste straight from ali express style tat.
The comapany running this has manage to take away almost all of the community feeling or interaction for customers, they try to hide this by listing fan meetups that the fans are organising to cover the fact they themselves offer very little.

Great day spoiled by penny pinching.

A day out at comic con is usually a great experience meeting the independent vendors, artists and cosplayers alike. It's just becoming an increasingly expensive outing.

£25 for entry after 11am
£25 to park (train not an option for me)
£30 for 1 autograph from voice over artist
£45 for 1 autograph & a selfie with vo artist
2 hour line for that autograph sometimes (not long, just slow moving)
£5 for 200ml of choccie milk and 300ml of ice
£5 for dry, ungarnished hotdog
£3 for 330ml of cola
£3 for 200ml of tea/coffee

Still a day out we enjoy but can only do it 1 day per year as opposed to 3-4 we used to do.

Karl at apex direct mail sent out duplicate passes them insisted that we send all the serial numbers and some back on the threat that otherwise they would all be null and void. I appreciate that people make mistakes however his attitude and the company are defensive and sarcastic in their communications and we have not done anything wrong. Why am I now sorting out their mistake? Unprofessional.

Thought we give visitors a bit of an insight of what's happening behind the scenes at MCM London. MCM has been contacting many of the small table vendors that they will not get a table at the next (May 2024) convention. In the same email, they offered traders a space of exactly the same size but for 2 1/2 times the price they would pay for their table. Many of the small traders won't be able to afford this or will need to increase their prices to make up for the exorbitant stall fees they are now paying. So don't be surprised if at the London May show your favorite stall is gone or if prices for goods have gone up. Eventually, only traders that sell merchandise they mass import cheaply from China and that take up rows of tables will be able to exist at MCM.

OMG, I absolutely loved MCM Comic Con. I went on the Friday with priority entry and it was relatively quiet. I'm too broke to do the photo ops and signing so I can't give any opinions. It was my first one so I saved up to buy some manga. The manga has money off depending on how much it costs to make up for the buy-two-get-one-free deal. The food was divine, Though it was quite expensive ngl. Do prepare yourself for a LOT of walking. Cosplayers were absolutely amazing, regret not asking people for photos cause I'm too nervous—Overall fabulous day, and I'm saving up for the weekend pass for May 2024! Good day.

Honestly a terrible waste of money. It exploits fans wanting to see their idols but charging loads of money and providing a very unorganised event in return.
For our event we arrived at 12 and were just scouting out where we needed to go in two hours time when we hear this woman shouting about the event and where we should queue, which wasn’t told on the app or anywhere else. We queued for two hours and they started letting everyone in ten minutes before it started (so obviously it took longer than 10 mins). The event started about 15-20 minutes late and still finished on time, so they cheated us out of the time we’d spent £25 each for (priority paid a lot more). They made the Australian host sing and dance to these terrible songs to try and tie over the time but he was clearly overworked, looking dead behind the eyes and drugged out of his mind, so that didn’t sell.
Afterwards we quickly ran over to the book signing as the website said you didn’t have to book a ticket - ANOTHER LIE (sorry for caps). It was also posted on the app as being photo ops and autographs but that was also wrong - good job we didn’t have a ticket, eh? We got there and there was no staff to help so we asked someone else there. They said unless you bought a ticket this morning you couldn’t attend. Apparently (they bought priority) they arrived at 10am and you had to get tickets for the signing when you arrived, but by the time they got in they had already sold out. How is that fair? It wasn’t advertised online so how was anyone who wasn’t in that small group expected to have a chance.

Everything else was also stupidly priced but you kind of expect that with money grabbers like this.

Pros - A lot of good guests up for panels, photos, autographs, a lot of really good artists, some decent merchandise. Other reviews say it's cheaper online, it's not. It's the same price or cheaper at the event for most things. If they left after 2 hours then they didn't even look at everything so how can they write a fair review? I was there all 3 days. Saturday was definitely the busiest. If you can swing it, go on the Friday. It's the least crowded day.

Cons for the Con -
1 - Show up on Sunday, they say, "There aren't any Sunday tickets left, only weekend tickets." So on Sunday, the last day of the event, you have to buy a 3 day pass to enter instead of the day pass. Please explain in what reality that makes any kind of sense? It feels kind of illegal. If this happened to you, please report it to Citizens Advice Bureau and the Consumer's Association. This happened to my friend who only came for the Sunday.
2 - Forcing people to pay tracked shipping for a physical ticket who live nationally, but allowing international guests to use a digital ticket to claim their ticket at arrival.
3 - Having physical tickets, it's nearly 2024... join the 2020's and go digital to reduce your carbon foot print.
4 - Further to having to have a physical ticket... it never even gets scanned. Just glanced at and they let you in. On Sunday, no one even asked to see my ticket to gain entry.
5 - Further to this; should you lose your ticket prior to arrival, you have to pay full price again because they don't even scan your ticket to let you enter after you have it to know if you someone already entered using it.
6 - It's "Comic" con and there was very little to do that actually felt related to comics in any way.
7 - Photo spots probably oversold because they shout at you when you enter, "No handshakes, No Hugs, No Poses!" I've been to many other photo ops and this is the first time I've ever been told I shouldn't even shake hands with the guest.

Sum it up.. I won't ever go another event hosted by MCM.

Had lots of events up as free on the website, the morning of the convention they changed it to tickets that cost over £90 after marketing them as FREE

What a waste of money. Never going again or recommending to anyone. Arrived with plenty of time but then parking? The whole place was a nightmare. All parking either cordoned off or no signage to alternative parking. I came to excel before and it was fine to park. But today was horrid. Then the events themselves were lackluster and really disappointing. Save your money and watch stuff online and be happy.