SDCC Con Coverage featuring Between 2 Sentinels

Article by: Dave at Toy Store Guide
@toydelorean on Instagram

The summer’s biggest nerd party returns to Southern California.
The 2026 edition of Comic Con International had a lot of similarities to prior years. Hasbro and Mattel booths in their usual spot, people pushing to get on capped lines, and Marvel holding a panel in Hall H. Every year things do evolve though, making the convention feel like a living entity.

This year we were joined by friends who were attending San Diego Comic Con for the first time. They have been to the New York Comic Con multiple times and were now ready to handle San Diego. The main thing they commented on was the chaos of SDCC. The giant capped lines that stretched through the walkways making it hard to impossible to navigate the giant room. New York also has long lines for booths but not like this. The queues also make it hard to take a peek at what the booth is selling. A booth will set up a nice display showing off their products but then will have a line blocking it from passersby. When our friends tried to check out the booth they were quickly and abruptly rushed away. It would reason to believe that staffers and people in line would think they were trying to cut the line or at least not want them to slow down any purchases.

At first I did not notice the show floor being any crazier than past years. I also understand that you have to have a reservation to visit certain booths. Those booths have exclusive items and people make plans to get there super early and wait in lines for hours for the opportunity and chance to buy a collectible. It is a big deal to set up at SDCC, or any convention, and putting together an attractive booth is a big undertaking, it is interesting that most attendees will not be able to look at some booths. As the weekend continued, I started to notice how much more hectic the convention was, and found that many seasoned attendees and exhibitors also mentioned the uptick in disorder and confusion.

Now for the new fun things!

Just like every year, SDCC is the biggest stage for pop culture. Marvel and DC had presentations in Hall H. Hasbro and McFarlane held panels upstairs. But the show floor… The show floor was packed with new properties, books, and toys. And for closer looks at some of what the floor had to offer we are leaning on our friends J-Shot and Matchu from the podcast Between 2 Sentinels.

MONDO Booth Tour:
Ghostbusters, Masters of the Universe & Ninja Turtles Masterpieces!

After a special intro from New York Knick and epic Mythic Legions collector Trey Jemison (right off of his NBA Championship), J-Shot takes dive deep in Mondo’s booth and its serious lineup.

When the convention floor became a dungeon.

Matt Dinniman self published his first Dungeon Crawler Carl book in 2020 and the eight book on May 12. The story follows Carl and his ex-girlfriends cat Princess Donut as they try to survive multiple levels of dungeons on an alien reality show with the fate of our world at stake.

I am ashamed to say I hadn’t heard of Dungeon Crawler Carl before this year’s con. Leading up to the convention I saw that the first Dungeon Crawler Carl action figures would be released at the show but did not predict how popular the brand had become. As soon as I arrived in San Diego all of my friends were talking about Carl and Donut. How on the flights and drives to get to southern California they all were listening to the audiobooks, which are fully produced radioplays where narrator Jeff Hays voices hundreds of different character voices including Carl and Princess Donut (spoiler alert: the cat talks).

The lines to purchase the Carl and Donut figure were long, the line for the exclusive even longer and you needed to win a reservation the month before to wait on the exclusive line.

Cosplayers? For a property that seemingly blew up within the past year, there might have been as many attendees dressed up as Carl as people dressed as Spider-Man. The costume mainly needs a leather jacket, boxers with hearts on them, knee pads, and maybe a Tortoiseshell Persian cat, but it was amazing to see how Dungeon Crawler Carl’s fandom has exploded like Carl’s Jug O’ Boom.

One of our favorite stops at Comic Con International is the Nacelle Company booth, who had exclusive COW Boys of Moo Mesa figures and another “bootleg” Biker Mice from Mars figure. Join Between 2 Sentinels as they take you inside the Nacalle booth and explore the latest collectibles, upcoming projects, and nostalgic toy reveals from The Nacelle Company.

Inside the Nacelle Booth at SDCC 2026!
Star Trek, NacelleVerse & HUGE Giveaway!

For all their booth tours and coverage from the con head over to Between 2 Sentinels Youtube page. And stay tuned because NYCC is only a couple months away when we get to see what J-Shot and Matchu discover and see Dungeon Crawler Carl’s continued rise to fame while they head deeper into the dungeon.