San Diego Comic-Con 2026 opens with exclusive merch, cosplay, Funko

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Comic-Con has made San Diego its home base for 56 years, drawing tens of thousands of fans each day to the convention center to walk the floor, shop for products and take in the sights.

On the first of four days of the convention, Citizen displayed its latest items for sale, including a new “Dr. Doom” watch tied to the release of Marvel’s “Avengers: Doomsday.” The watch will not be available to purchase until October.

“I mean, the minute the door opens, people are, like, ‘What’s exclusive? Can I buy an exclusive? I need an exclusive.’ Absolutely. We’re here for you!” said Beth Miller, director of merchandising for Citizen.

The convention floor was packed with fans, including many who put time and effort into elaborate costumes.

“I took inspiration from ‘Saturday Night Fever’ and John Travolta,” said Andrew Ghannadian. “And the head itself was a massive challenge. I can barely see through the strip right here, but it’s so worth it to be able to pull it off”

“There are a lot of male characters and I wanted put a female spin on it,” said Crystal Aquino. “So this took a lot of work. I built all this handmade. So this is all foam that I carved and it took, like, a month.”

Luke Pebler said his costume was inspired by a video game.

“This is from a video game called Death Stranded,” he said. “It came out a few years ago and I like the game and I thought it was very fun that you could pile your character so high. And I thought that could make a great, very large Comic-Con costume.”

Costumed characters were everywhere on the convention floor, along with hundreds of vendors.

Ray-Ban also appeared at Comic-Con for the first time, with new “Star Wars” Ray-Bans for sale.

“There is other IP that we will be releasing under the Disney banner as well, which I think is really exciting,” said Boyd Wilson, senior brand manager for Ray-Ban. “So a little asterisk on that. There’s more to come from the brand over the next little bit.”

Funko remained a popular stop at Comic-Con, with fans buying products as soon as the doors opened.

“We try and release a certain amount each day just to make sure that the fans, you know, who arrive throughout the weekend can get their hands on some of the special products we have,” said Josh Simon, CEO of Funko.

The Walt Disney Co. is the parent company of Marvel and this station.