FANeXpo 2012: a final look

Another FANeXpo has come and gone, and a week later, as I look back, I realized a couple of things.

The first thing I realized is that I enjoyed it way less than probably wanted to.

And this was despite me actually getting more actual convention-related activities as far as my normal attended-as-a-fan conventions go. I went to a panel, I attended a screening among the usual "hanging around on the dealer's room and convention floor" deal.

But overall, it was a frustrating event for me. The lines were long, the crowds were too big and the planning felt shot and unprepared for what the days brought. This was particularly evident and true on Day 3, which is supposed to be the marquee day of the entire convention - the one day that is perhaps the most "worthwhile" day in which to attend the event.

And it basically works into my number one criticism and suggestion for this convention: the floor they use is too small a space for the number of people that are there. The very fact that they ran out of tickets on Saturday at 1PM and had to hold people outside in line for up to and over an hour because of capacity issues.

And even when they're "under capacity" the place still feels too crowded and jammed of people to really enjoy what is going on.

I'm familiar with the Metro Toronto Convention Centre downtown, and I know renting the space costs a lot of money. Like through the nose money compared to other locations across town. That's the price you pay for using a space in the heart of the downtown core that's both accessible and large.

But I also know Hobbystar - the company that creates and plans this entire convention - they rake in huge amounts of money at these events.

Therefore it is not difficult for me to imagine them being able to rent other spaces (particularly spaces in the north building) in order to bloody well spread out covention goers and provide more space for the convention in general.

Right now, everything is situated on two (albeit huge) floors of the south building. But it created huge crowding issues as lines merged or scattered and the people walking past them had to slow because of it.

And because everything that is going on is going on in these two floors, it basically forces more people than it can handle into the space causing the "sardines in a can" metaphor to come to light.

If they plan to continue to improve this convention, they need to move some of those events - namely "big name" panels and screenings - into another part of the building (I'm thinking some of the bigger rooms in the north building) so that the lines for those events interfere less with traffic of regular convention attendees that are just there to take pictures, view costumes and buy stuff in the dealer's room.

The "lower traffic panels" can stay in the south building's north side in order to make use of the rooms available there.

Of course, the additional problem this would cause is that "so and so panel was too far away from so and so panel". My answer? The ones that need the bigger rooms are all bunched together. The ones that don't and is back in the south building are no more than 5 minutes away. Deal with it.

The other good thing that does is that it also extends and expands traffic and gives additional places for people to meet up and chill without leaving the convention.

Yes, additional traffic means additional resources to manage and maintain traffic like security and volunteers.   But that can be made up by simply adding 100 more convention goers at the price they charge for tickets!

So what should happen to some of those bigger panel rooms in the south building then though? Move the food courts into them. Why? Because working past the food court (which were both situated at entrances to the convention) during lunch and dinner hours were a nightmare to deal with and you move the patrons who simply intend to eat away from people who only want to - what else - enjoy the convention floor.

AND it creates a space that booths can move into on the dealer's room floor and maybe widen the existing hallways of the convention so that traffic moves more smoothly right?

This convention has had to deal with a tonne of problems and drama as it grew up in the last decade I've been attending. From having an weapons retailer selling weapons illegally to underaged kids (not to mention selling illegal weapons itself) to the fiasco of 2010, it can't say it was a smooth process.

But even so, the convention grew. And now, the convention outgrew the south building space two years ago. It needs to move past it and move up if it in any way plans to seriously compete with the likes of Comi-con going forward.

The crowding was a real pain and without enough areas to loiter and hang out, it made the place feel like it lacked the easy-going personality of a real genre convention and was just filled with the stresses of real life all bottled into two seemingly tiny floors of a convention centre.

The point of a convention is to create a shared space for people with similar interests to get to know each other and engage in their interests. It's to escape the sometimes cruel and judgmental realities of the modern world.

This year, FANeXpo failed mightily in my mind to do that.

It had its moments, but overall, not impressed.

FANeXpo 2012: the doctor who society of canada

Over the years at FANeXpo, official fan societies have increasingly demonstrated a strong presence there. So much so that they now have designated spots for fans to learn and maybe even get involved with the execution of various events with the convention.

First it was 501st Legion, a Star Wars fan group based on players representing the Empire that now has one of the most prominent presences at the convention.

Then there is the Ontario Ghostbusters.

And of course, Steampunk, the alternative lifestyle based on steam-powered technology in the 18th and 19th centuries.

And now, so it seems, there is now a Society for Doctor Who (henceforth known as the DWSC)

The story that tells of how this society was created is actually quite interesting.

Apparently (and as I was told by one of the supervisors at their table/booth at the convention) last year at FANeXpo, a group of Doctor Who enthusiasts were attempting to round up individuals dressed in Doctor Who costumes for a fan photoshoot of costumes, walking around the floor and informing every and all who were in Who-themed costumes about the gathering.

When the time came for the photoshoot, this group of people that began the search were staggered by the number of fans that had shown up. They had never before realized or imagined the sheer number of fans for Doctor Who in Toronto.

And these were just the people who had chosen to cosplay Doctor Who, nevermind those that were there but not in costume.

Even the media took notice of the turnout, with CTV News interviewing them as part of their coverage of the genre fan convention in Toronto.

Afterward, the group of now friends realized that this shared interest in all things Who was large enough and popular enough to support a club of sorts in Toronto. They met so many people who loved the show and wished for an opportunity to gather and meet others who feel the same way at continuous events both large and small in which to share in their interest.

And so it began...

The Doctor Who Society of Canada (DWSC) is a not-for-profit organization that is run by unpaid volunteers. It advertises itself as strictly a social group of fans from coast to coast, building friendships through social interaction, intelligent exchange and commonality.

As all things seemed to today, it began on a Facebook page as a means to post social gatherings and ideas. It has now expanded to organize a monthly social gathering for its members and those interested that is either a cosplay, screening or pub night as a reason to get together.

The "flagship" chapter is based out of Toronto, but they have other chapters in Ottawa, Kitchener/Waterloo and Halifax, with plans to eventually head westward, following genre conventions there to build a greater following and support.

The group incorporates a variety of  individuals with different skill sets in which they express through their love of Who.

Of course, there are the cosplayers, fans who as a means of expressing their fandom create costumes and dress up based on their favorite Doctor or Companion or even race from the Who series both old and new.

But then there are the artisans, particularly those with metalwork and electronic skills who then use these skills to build and create such things as robotic Daleks.

There were two of those running around FANeXpo, taking part in an event they called "Dalek Exterminations" - which shares a similar concept to the 501st Legion's "Find that Drone" activity.

The Who versions though involved fans who have the chance to track down and avoid being "exterminated" by the Daleks and of course, take a picture with these creatures.

 To officially become a member of the DWSC requires an interest in Doctor Who and a willingness to show up and take part in their social gatherings.

Because the DWSC is not-for-profit, there is also a yearly membership fee, but at a reasonably low price as a reflection of the fact that it is first a foremost a social group. For those aged 13-18, the cost is $10 per year, while adults pay $20 CDN dollars yearly to get involved.

Upon becoming a full member, they then get a: Membership Card, 4 issues of the DWSC newsletter, advance and front of line notice for DWSC events, Discouts on ticketed DWSC events and finally, access to an annual "Members Only" event.

 It calls itself a fledgling group, but by the looks of the weekend, it certainly has the wheels to become one of the more prominent and impactful fan societies in Canada.

Interested? Check them out on their Official Website, Facebook page or via Twitter. Allons-y!

FANeXpo 2012: it's my cosplay!

When one cosplays people ask for one of these three things:

- I want it to be fast
- I want it to be cheap
- I want it to be good

At most, you can only achieve two out of the three requests when it comes to cosplaying.

As I generally am a perfectionist and expect my costumes to be passably accurate and well made, my costumes are almost never cheap. I can easily sink over $100 dollars on the fabric of my costumes alone, and that's just because I am incredibly picky about colour, weight and feel.

I therefore usually stick to a "one costume a year" approach. That is, if I make a costume for myself, I make only one to therefore save on the costs of having to worry about having to create another.

(Plus there is also the time involved as well in sewing every costume) 

Therefore, when it came to cosplaying at FANeXpo on Saturday and Sunday, as part of my costume rule, I simply reused the costume I had created for Anime North of this year.

It was a two-person cosplay with a friend. He was the ressurected Zabuza and I was the ressurected Haku from the Anime/Manga series Naruto: Shippuden.

I couldn't begin to tell you the work and the effort put into making both of these costumes. Yes, I made both because I had the sewing machine and knew how to use it.

It was a hardcore week of sewing to assemble everything while working and going to school, but before that, it was several weeks of purchasing parts from all over the place. The greenish-blue fabric for my jacket ultimately was found at a specialty fabric store on Queen Street West (and cost a tidy penny too) while the purple leggings and armbands was a lucky find at a Fabricland... but also required me to sew black lines down it as part of the detail.

Basically, it was a lot of work.

The decision to make these costumes was actually funny. We had originally planned to go as the actual characters from the first season (and Naruto's first opponents) but as Anime North got closer, we began to worry about the construction of the sword.

The idea then was to create the half-sword that dead-Zabuza had in one of the mangas to save on weight.

Long story short, he made the whole sword in the end, but the resurrected idea stuck and we kept with it.

And I won't lie, it turned out to be a pretty sick idea.

Now at the time, the anime episode that coincided with their resurrection wasn't out yet. But by the time  FANeXpo came out, it was. So I watched it.

And that confirmed my happiness with the decision to stick with their undead versions.

Seriously, their characters were and still are sick, and I really loved the way that their story came full circle with how much Kakashi and Naruto ultimately cared for these particular opponents, how they ultimately defined how Naruto viewed the world and those around him. It also highlighted how they were far from inherently bad people, just individuals that were down on their luck and forced on opposite sides by outside forces.

It's a great episode and a great story.

Anyway, the fun part was on Saturday, while walking around the Dealer's room I overheard more than once that "I saw them at Anime North!" Hey, we were memorable!

And finally, people seemed to have really enjoyed the costumes. Despite the fact the $30 dollar crazy eye contacts dried our eyes out, and our costume became quite restrictive, it was fun.

And that's the point. 

Cheers!

FANeXpo 2012: cosplays on day 4

Cosplays on Sundays are often much more muted and quiet as most and many tend to use the last day to make final purchases, say good-bye to old and new friends before packing up and leaving for home and the harsh world of actual reality.

But reality can be delayed for a day, and there are still some who appear for one last hurrah at being your favourite superheroes or characters, or else just prefer the fun and voyeurism of wearing a costume. I did it for Sunday, and I wasn't the only one.

But first... my last COSTUME OF THE DAY!

To be honest, I don't know what this is (apparently it's from a game as one of my friends were able to identify it but I can't recall precisely what he said) but I thought it was adorable, well made and well executed. The construction looked solid and as a sewer I know that despite its simple concept, working with latex and making it come together cleanly and flawlessly is very very difficult to pull off!

Anyway, my regrets in terms of not finding (or lack thereof) of certain cosplays, I was really really hoping some group of guys would get together and dress up as the characters from The Big Bang Theory. But alas it was not to be and I was sorely disappointed on that front.

I saw a Katniss (from the Hunger Games) with the silver bow and the outfit from her bout in the arena but I did not see the girl on fire dress, an outfit I would have found worth a good picture.

And finally, you can tell the abundance of superhero movies and lack of anything fantasy or sci-fi has left the convention overrunned by Avengers, Batmans and Spidermans.

So here are the rest of my cosplay photos. Hope your weekend was costume-filled and fun. It's always and adventure for me.

FANeXpo 2012: highlights from day 4

After three days of events and nerdisms galore, we are finally on the fourth and final day of this year's FANeXpo!

On this day, my convention started relatively early, as there was a panel at 11AM that I wished to attend for somewhat educational purposes called "The Space Insider: An In-Depth Look at Space Programming" hosted by Ted from InnerSpace. It was a lightly attended panel, as you can see below...

... and it wasn't quite what I expected, but I still enjoyed it. I got to hear about what new shows they were planning on creating into the next year and hear the creators and producers talk about their shows. And I found it to be humourous, light-hearted and in the end, a fairly intimate panel in the end.

These are the kind of panels that you are meant to be at and enjoy at these conventions, unlike the huge conference rooms for the likes of John Barrowman and Christopher Lloyd. This was simple, and was a close-knit environment of enthusiasts listening to the experts talk and reveal industry secrets and stories. It was vastly entertaining and I thought one of the highlights of my weekend.

The panel lasted one hour, to which I made a quick tour around the fan community booths, including the 501st Legion (Star Wars)...

... as well as the Ghostbusters of Ontario...

... before meeting up with some friends for food.

While the con was nowhere near as busy as the Saturday, I found the dealer's room was still extremely busy on Sunday what with all the last minute deals. So after making some final purchases (I got a Doctor Who t-shirt) we went up to the gaming room hosted by Snakes and Lattes to play two rounds of Catan to finish off our convention weekend.

As far as conventions go, this was far from one of the best I've ever been to. In fact, it probably ranks as one of my most disappointing. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it and I got to rock my costume with it too. In fact, on my way to the panel that morning, I got caught. And so... 

I really do like that picture, even without my partner in crime who was dressed as Zabuza. And in some ways, that and the gaming was my weekend!

And here is the final cosplay post for the event. Click here to see it.

FANeXpo 2012: highlights from day 3

It's Day 3 of FANeXpo 2012!

And while I wish I had way more to tell you about today, I don't. For me, Saturday was a bit of a wash.

Why?

If I could describe FANeXpo on Saturday in two words, it would be this: LINES...

and CROWDS.

Here...

there...

... bloody well everywhere.

FANeXpo has worked very hard to become relevant in today's society. And one can hardly argue that they haven't done a great job of it. They have turned the event from something only hardcore genre fans would show up to to something that just about everyone wants to be at.

But...

The crowding issue today was way out of hand. In a move that had some recalling the fiasco of 2010, they had to hold crowds out of doors in the heat (and a good number of them in costumes that were far from comfortable in 30 degree weather) because they were getting too close to being dangerously overcapacity.

But once you got indoors, it made you wonder why you bothered trying to get in.

It was incredibly difficult to move around given the size of the crowds. Anything that one wished to do involved lines that went around the block, making it even more difficult to move around because they often would block areas in which people wished to move. It was a hazard to stop anywhere because chances are you'd cause a proverbial traffic jam.

At this point, it wasn't spectacle or fun or enjoyable. It was tiresome, painful and incredibly frustrating to be there.

And to further the problems of planning by the group, the convention sold out of tickets for Saturday at 1PM ... and failed to inform all the fans in line ... until they got to the front of the line after waiting for hours to get there.

(To a point, the security guard was probably within his right in saying that he wasn't about to tell close to 4,000 people that has been in line for a few hours already that they're all sold out of Saturday tickets)

I have had plenty to say about HobbyStar and how they have marketed and ran FANeXpo. After four years of volunteering there and several more as a general attendee, I can probably provide a complete expose on how they deal with fans, retailers and the whole she-bang.

But today should be a sign to the convention to rethink their floor plan. Within the confines of the convention, there is not enough space for all that was going on. Everything was jammed much too closely together and too much of the marquee events were happening on this one day.

DAY 3's DEALERS ROOM PICKS

The first of today's selection comes courtesy of Reboot (an awesome Canadian television series and one of the first ever computer graphic animated series).

I grew up on Reboot, and have been a big fan of its show ever since and even now. So the last two conventions I've been to, I've seen person after person wearing a Reboot button and I've been dying to figure out where they got it.

And then I found it.

Gavin Blair, one of the co-creators for Reboot as well as his partner in crime who was a designer for the show was selling these awesome buttons for $6 dollars. They are well made, poly-ethylene so they are soft and pliable with a two push-pin backing to allow for a straight and easy application on any accessory or piece of clothing you wish to apply it to.

Unfortunately by the time I got there they had ran out of the normal white buttons, leaving only Hexedecimal (red), Viral (green) and Guardian (yellow) buttons. So myself and a friend bought to Guardian ones, as a means to support the cause to bring Reboot back!

The second item of the day is one that I feel lucky to have found. It is the FANeXpo exclusive Big Bang Theory Flash t-shirt and Sheldon stuffed doll combo for $30 CDN.

I have coordinated with the guy friend of mine to purchase this before the convention as he could have the shirt and I could keep the doll. But to ensure that we could get a shirt that fits him, we didn't decide to purchase it until Saturday. Which was our first mistake.

The first booth near the front we found only had Xtra-Large, which was too big for him to wear.

So we had basically given up on that when near the back of the convention behind most of the big tent events I found another booth selling convention exclusives. Hurriedly I rushed over and asked if they had a Large or a Medium.

They had both.

We settled on the large size (which fit my friend perfectly) and I got my doll. And that my friends, is how I got this awesome doll.

Want to see the cosplays on Saturday? Click here for the post!

FANeXpo 2012: revolution special screening

As part of the festivities on Day 2 of FANeXpo, CityTV was able and proud to present a "Canadian exclusive pre-screening" of the brand new J.J. Abram's series Revolution at 7PM in the big conference/screening room on the second floor of the convention (Room 701).

And yes, Revolution is this season's new show that I gushed about here.

It is poised to debut on television for the general public on September 17th, but like the nerd that I am, I decided that I was interested enough with this show to make this pre-screening what I term the "event of the weekend" - the one thing that I go out of my way to make sure that I get into.

Even though this convention hardly compares to Comi-Con, stuff like this still causes fans to start lines a good two to three hours in advance.

I showed up a good hour and a half before the show was supposed to start. And the line looked something like this.

About 15 minutes later, the line looked like this.

All told, it was the most watched screening in FANeXpo history so far, with people having to stand around doors in order to view the show.

Anyway, like all things at FANeXpo, the thing started a good twenty minutes late, apparently so to accommodate a special introduction by, as a girl in front of me called him all night long, "Bella's Dad" - a.k.a Canadian and Revolution star Billy Burke, who plays Miles Matheson.

He did indeed come in and say hi to the crowd.

On to the episode...

I found the pilot episode to be a cornucopia of interesting, fast moving and action packed events. You can certainly see the movie elements and mindset it drew from Abrams and director Jon Favreau in engaging its audience.

But when it was over, I had to say I was fairly disappointed in it.

You saw very little that you couldn't already figure out from the trailer.

Simply put, it was an elaboration - or an extension - of what was already shown in the trailer that was put out earlier this year by NBC.

Now it's not a put down of the series as a whole. As with all Abrams shows, he left many questions unanswered and didn't explain any of the pseudo-science involved in making this "phenomenon" possible. In a way, it's a means to keep his viewers watching in order to figure out the truth. And the concept is still very intriguing, while the characters (with what was seen so far) seems pretty solid and well-rounded.

But I thought they went about the whole thing the wrong way. The trailer should not have been what was a summary of the first episode, and if they really only had that first episode to build a trailer from, they could have certainly not have shown all the scenes at the end that revealed a number of things.

All in all, I will keep an eye on the series, but the first episode wasn't as earth-shattering as I had hoped it would be.

FANeXpo 2012: highlights from day 1

Welcome to Day 1 of FANeXpo 2012!

Though the floor officially opened at 4PM today, with the official distribution of advanced and regular tickets opening at 2PM, I didn't show up until closer to 7PM to make my rounds.

The reason for that is simple: after going to this thing for close to a decade, I've seen it all: the drama, the hype but most especially, the stupidly long lines. Especially the advanced ticket lines on the first bloody day of the convention. 

How long? Well you only need to look at the room where they handed out the advanced tickets.

So yeah. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt and never wore the damn thing. So rather than suffering in a stifling hot room with a lot of people by myself being utterly bored, I decided to stay home in my nice apartment, read a book, watch some television and come around later. So instead of a giant line, I was met with this.

No line. No people. 5 seconds to get my ticket. #WIN!

Though yes, I will admit, there is a downside to showing up on the late end of things though. For starters, the CTV booth was handing out 150 FREE Big Bang Theory Bobbleheads at 3PM (regular retail price is at $15 dollars on the convention floor) 

Though don't get overly excited either with that particular freebie though. They were mostly Howard Wolowitz bobbleheads. When I talked to one of the vendors there about it, it turned out they only had 5 Sheldon Cooper (aka the bobblehead everyone actually wants) to give away.

Which makes sense when you think about it. Why give away something that people will actually pay for?

Oh and yes, the other thing I missed was watching Stan Lee celebrate the 50th anniversary of Spiderman today at 6:30PM in the dealers room by the Marvel booth which could have been cool in a "oooooh nerdy history" kind of way.

Though let me be honest here : FANeXpo didn't officially announce this event until literally hours before the show opened so I'm not even certain if it was in the plans.

In any case, a lot of people did show up. Though it is debatable whether they came to see the event and Stan Lee, or for the cake.

It wasn't too much off my back as far as I'm concerned though.(I'm nowhere near a fan of comic books. I watched the television shows and movies - but that's as far as it goes pretty much)

I still was able to grab a few freebies they had available there.

DAY 1'S DEALER'S ROOM PICKS

I actually have two Dealer's Room picks for the day (because it is the first day and it's all about the merchandise on Day 1) that you should look into or consider as a purchase.

My first pick goes to those adorable little POPS bobbleheads of various cult characters from Captain America to Slave Bikini Leia.

And seriously who doesn't love chibi?

Now the booth I took this picture at - Super Power Toys - was selling these for $12 per, but really they've proliferated in popularity to a point where you can basically find these bobbleheads at any booth that sells nerdy little devices.

I couldn't really tell you what I wanted. On one hand, the Star Wars one was sufficiently nerdy enough to make me look at it and squee but on the other hand, the Sheldon Cooper one was adorable as hell.

Oh hell with it, where are the ones from the Lord of the Rings?

Second pick is one of two massive t-shirt walls at the convention.

Now for me it goes without saying that the selection of nerdy graphic t-shirts sold to women are NOWHERE NEAR as cool as the one catered to men. And it really was never fair. 

But this year, I'm actually pretty impressed, if not fully approve, the selection available to women in the t-shirt section. It's much more interesting this year (and less pink most importantly) and it really does a good job of meeting the geek within without absolutely objectifying them.

The t-shirts retail for anywhere from $20-$25 dollars per, though some areas (like this particular wall) sells them at a special (though not really) at 2 for $45 dollars. Pick wisely and well.

COSPLAY

Honestly, cosplay should be getting it's own photo post, but for today it's not going to.

Why?

Let me just get this statement out of the way:

First day convention cosplays suck.

Few people shows up in costume and those that do, don't generally do a terribly good job at it. The look can tend to be bland or lack anything of interest.

That isn't to say that there was something there for the typical convention people to enjoy. And there isn't good costumes wandering around the halls. I'm just saying that the larger majority of these costumes are not anything worth writing home about.

I mean, the above Poison Ivy had a great costume if she didn't have so much of her chaps hanging out of it. (Now that I think of it, for some that could have easily been the highlight of their day)

But that may also be the longtime congoer in me talking like a cosplay elitist.

Either way, today's fare was largely unimpressive and fairly vanilla as far as costuming goes. Nothing really mind-blowingly bad or lame. 

I did thing this outfit was good.

(Honestly, don't know who she is or where this costume is from. If anyone can enlighten me I'm all ears, though I think they mentioned it's either Guild Wars or World of Warcraft this outfit was inspired by)

I thought was a very impressive costume on COSTUMING value - especially for the first day. Cleanly made, no weird bulges and the armour looked solid and made well.

But THIS had to be my Costume of the Day for me.

IT'S THE FAIRIES FROM FAIRLY ODD PARENTS.

Yes I realize this costume was a relative strange choice for "costume of the day" but hear me out. I thought the idea was incredibly clever both in choice and in execution. For one, it's so easy to assemble - everyone has to have at least one or two of these pieces in their wardrobe.

For another, they didn't go halfway with this either. Dyed hair, well styled and the crowns definitely made it clear who and what they are dressed as.

It won because for me, this was the cleverest and most original costume of the day. And that deserves big-time points with me.

Until tomorrow, here are some giant lego figures!