More than 50,000 attendees are expected at this year's Fan Expo in Toronto, a unique and expressive convention celebrating the many different factions of fandom, from those in deep with comic book heros and science fiction voyages, to purveyors of horrific nightmares and anime dramas amongst so many other singular interests. This year there are over 600 exhibits, but, as always its the major booths that grab the crowds on day one. More than just the promise of a free shirt or a pamphlet, this year's major brands enticed fans to enclose themselves into some rather novel compartments.

"Here Kitty..... Here Kitty, kitty". These are the first words you'll hear inside the claustrophobic space of Fox Home Video's Transterminal Cryo-Fader Hibernation Chambers. The special props recreate the signature sleep technology from the popular Alien series, allowing fans to seal themselves away for a peak at the upcoming release of the Alien Quadrilogy gift set on Blu-ray. As scurrying, scratching, and breathing noises populate the dark, a built-in LCD screen in the lid delivers a quick montage of some of the more terrifying scenes from across the four films in the franchise, which for this latest release will include four hours of newly released footage. 

Star Wars action figures dominated Hasbro's booth this year. In addition to a vignette dedicated to their line of figures for the Hoth battle in The Empire Strikes Back, fans were invited to seal themselves inside a life-sized bubble-and-card package to assume the role of their most collectible figure, the original Boba Fett.

If there's one booth that easy to spot from even the farthest corners of the Expo it's Disney's Tron display. Celebrating both the upcoming film and video game, fans were enticed to walk between the legs of a massive Recognizer to play demo stations of the Tron Legacy video game while getting up-close and personal with props from the upcoming movie and inspired products including an iPod dock shaped like one of the movie's signature discs.

Microsoft scored with a popular booth this year, offering many fans their first chance to spend real time with both their upcoming Kinect motion-control system and games while giving Halo fans a chance to jump into the multiplayer side of Halo Reach.

One adventure that isn't free at the expo is the "buried alive" coffin ride from Powerhouse of Terror, a Halloween-themed haunted adventure based here in Toronto. For $4 you can have them seal you inside a coffin powered by hydraulics. As the wooden casket rocks, shakes, and leaps on its footing, a built-in night vision camera system sends a video feed to an outside monitor where expo attendees can watch you scream and react in the dark. I'm guessing few people take that ride more than once.