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: 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!