FanExpo 2012 con report

CON REPORT TIME!

I don't know if anybody was following my LJ to-do list post, but it basically describes in point form the mad scramble the week before the con to finish everything cosplay related OTL.

This year glayish and I decided to stay at a hotel. This was our 13th FanExpo... usually we don't bother with the hotel because it is a local Toronto con, and we could either stay with _anatra_ or just drive from our house. But THIS year, since we didn't do Otakon or Anime Central, we decided we definitely needed to splurge and do the hotel. (Plus _anatra_ is now a resident of Kingston, ON so we couldn't keep up the tradition of staying at her apartment OTL )

On Thursday we checked into the Radisson Hotel Admiral (on Toronto Harbourfront), which was about a 6-8 minute walk to the South Building entrance. I don't think many cosplayers stayed in that hotel, because the hotel staff looked pleasantly at us and welcomed us with amusement rather than epic hate o_o. The staff and service were incredible, and the bathroom lighting was white light and bright. Plus there was a nice Japanese restaurant, 24-hr Rabba's, and ATM right next door. SO convenient, so glad we stayed there.

Here's the view from our window:


Lawl sketchy parking garage, but nice CN Tower on the other block!

As soon as glayish and I finished checking in, we headed over to the South Building to buy our weekend passes. Didn't bother to wear any cosplay on Thursday because we got there so late, and we still had last-minute cosplay pieces to finish in the hotel room. It was a good thing we didn't because we were super winded from just the walk up and down the loading docks to the ticket booths then back to the hotel OTL.

We ate some Japanese food...


lawl the shrimp tempura XDDD (YU-GI-OH! GX REFERENCE)

And bought some snacks and coke for the night of preparation.

And by preparation I mean I had to shave/nair hair removal two thirds of my eyebrows off in order to be a Vulcan.



LOLL;;;;; Seriously shaving them off is the only good way to make sure I didn't look like I had crusty human eyebrows. Mine are so horribly thick and black that it had to be done.

glayish Similarly took a package of bleach to her eyebrows and hairline to get ready for wearing her lacefront blond THOR wig.

I finished up the work on the Loki muzzle, and then I crashed while glayish sewed on snaps late into the night.

***

On Friday we got up early and I started getting into my Sub-Commander T'Pol (Star Trek: Enterprise) cosplay!



glayish did not get into cosplay, as she promised to take some photos of me in the morning (since being in Thor meant little mobility to take photos).

These two are my fav from the weekend. Thanks glayish!


Star Trek T'Pol 2 by ~TechnoRanma on deviantART

Star Trek T'Pol by ~TechnoRanma on deviantART

Baww I love that colour. It's her suit from the 3rd season.

Sooo glad I dieted and lost the ten pounds (from 120 to 110). Though sewing the jumpsuit didn't end up being as easy as I thought it would be (30 metres of piping + stretch velvet is shitty to work with lawl lawl lala), I'm still pleased I managed to emulate the style of the official one.

I actually thought that I would not be recognized by many people, because honestly Enterprise was kind of shitty, and it got cancelled pretty soundly... But I actually got recognized a LOT and received so many compliments ;_;!

I have to say, considering this was the first time I have made a costume from something other than Anime, the comments I received were much different. For one thing, any guys who took my photo were not creepy and/or rude. Almost always my sewing, accuracy or crafting skill were complimented. HUGELY pleasant surprise and difference to the shitty comments I usually pick up from anime/gamer con-goers. >:I

Anyway, glayish and I walked around the dealer's room and that's when things started to fuck up.

lol *r@ge*

Long story short, we had to dash back to the hotel and by that time it was lunch time so we found food and I recovered while glayish started the task of putting on Thor.

TOO MUCH INFORMATION: sudden, explosive pms everywhere

glayish finally got Thor on!! After being around her for like 2.5 months while working on it 24/7 it was a relief to see her look so good!



We walked back to the con and met up with Yvonne who was wearing some cute Lolita dress.



She totally had the right idea XD; Hahaha ohh the weather :'D.... Toronto picked the worst weekend to be so damn hot and humid LOL;;!!

We wandered the con and dealer's a bit more and around 4pm _anatra_ arrived at union station from Kingston, ON!

Yvonne, glayish, and I walked back to the hotel and met up with her. glayish sat airing herself out after wearing Thor in the heat, and _anatra_ immediately started getting into Loki!

I had wanted to go to the Friday Star Trek photoshoot gathering, but _anatra_ wasn't done getting her cosplay on, and of course glayish was going to wait for her, and Yvonne would rather wait for glayish, so I didn't want to walk over and stand around alone without knowing anybody else, cause every time that I do that I end up getting latched onto by some fail individual... so I didn't go to it. -_-

_anatra_ finally wearing Loki!



So we finally walked back to the con centre in time for the 6:00pm Avengers photoshoot!

Which they were a big hit at!


On the way back to the south building (Tumblr Gifset)

Friday photoshoot, dats sum Thorki (Tumblr Gifset)

We did a last minute run through the dealer's room just as they were closing, and I managed to snag a cute well-made Totoro plushie that my manager at the office asked me about getting.



Yvonne and I also picked up Axis Powers Hetalia SEASON 04! BUT I HAVEN'T WATCHED IT YET. OTL!! MUST DO. Before somebody spoils me horribly on the gag reel.

We exited the dealer's hall and ran into Paul Hillier who was looking to get some Thor + Loki action.

We went outside to the small green park that was fenced off for the huge entry line and did an impromptu photo & video shoot. I sat on a bench and nursed my blistered up feet while taking some stalker video and pics.


Somebody in the crowd watching screamed 'HUG HIM' (Tumblr Gifset)

Close up of Hug (Tumblr Gifset)

After parting ways we trekked over to Jack Astor's to meet up with jiyoon, Amy, Kijs, Warrilow, and another of _anatra_'s friends.

We were a bit late, but when we got there, the others had gotten a bar table high up and uncomfortable to sit at while in such restrictive cosplays. I don't know WHY they didn't just get a regular fucking table but there we are.

Anyway fucking kijs elbows our waitress who can barely squeeze to get around him cause of his size in the first place, and she spills a glass of coke ALL THE WAY DOWN THE SIDE OF MY JUMPSUIT.

,,, Fucking )(@I)WpoiP;, i WAS LIVID. Cause wtf I spent 3 weeks making and handsewing this suit to wear the weekend, and I can't exactly get it dry-cleaned while I'm at the con!!!! Yvonne, jiyoon and glayish had to spend the next 30min helping me club soda wipe down and dry myself off in the bathroom.

And the most infuriating part is that fucking kijs didn't bother to apologize when I got back - as if I didn't KNOW he was the one who elbowed the waitress!! I cannot abide that awful conduct.

Tore apart my half of a jalapeno burger and then we walked back to the hotel room. jiyoon and Yvonne came along and we ate ice cream and recovered a bit from the day. Yvonne went back to her apartment nearby and jiyoon and I watched as glayish and _anatra_ practiced their masquerade skit.

I mixed the audio for them. I also styled the Loki wig, made the Thor arm warmers, and the Loki muzzle.

***

Saturday

WE GOT UP EAAAAAAARLY ON SATURDAY. jiyoon showed up with Tim Horton's @ 8:30am ;_;!!! Yvonne came over as _anatra_, glayish and I got into costume.

_anatra_ was getting into her armored version and cape of Loki for Saturday since she planned to wear it in the masquerade. She was having issues though, so glayish, Yvonne, and I went to go line up for entry to the con.

Yvonne was sooo nice and lent her premium pass to glayish so she could get inside to line up for the masquerade registration. So Yvonne and I waited in line about 10 min to get inside. Even though it was 10am it was still insanely humid and the sun was burning. OTL. Not fun.

Anyway we got inside and hung around the masquerade reg line. It was super packed even early. Finally _anatra_ got over to the con center and after the walk and waiting outside in the heat she was a mess of overheating and sweat X_x!! We all went to the bathroom to help fix her up, but she still needed spirit gum for the wig which was suddenly slipping around everywhere o_o;;;

glayish and _anatra_ got a call that their commissioned props had arrived at the hotel @_@!!! There was major drama leading up to their props not arriving on time, but then, they did!



They went back to the hotel to get the props, while Yvonne and I went to check out the Dealer's hall and Artist Alley. Turns out the Marvel Booth was having a cosplay contest! We watched the cosplayers and I took a bunch of photos (will have to upload later). There were so many 'fem' versions of the characters. It's likely because the majority of cosplayers are women, and most cannot create muscle suits or want to crossdress.

After that, Yvonne and I parted ways. She went to her DC panel and I went to go line up for a slice of pizza ($4.25 FFFFFfkfkdk). It took so long, I had to hurry to the line for Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway) in Hall G.

I managed to cut in line with a group of girls XD;; and I grabbed a seat and ate my pizza while I waited for the panel to start. SOMEHOW glayish and _anatra_ had managed to get back to the con and found me in Hall G. I hadn't been saving seats, but it was lucky I put my bag on the chair next to me and the man next to me had done the same! Thor and Loki joined me just as the panel started.

Kate Mulgrew was FABULOUS. She had wonderful anecdotes and an entertaining answer for every question without it ever getting boring. Very excellent panel I loved it. I was absurdly pleased when a 7 of 9 cosplayer told Mulgrew she was in love with her XD.

I was sitting behind a Spock (2009 version)!



I didn't see many Star Trek costumers overall, but he was good.

After that, Saturday kind of passed in the dealer's hall and various south building levels. We met up with Yvonne again and saw Rae with her son and her sisters. Since I had missed the Friday Star Trek photoshoot, I wanted to try and get to the Saturday one. Only, I think I must have mis-read, because when we showed up to the spot the place got CROWDED with the Star Wars 501s. OTL.

Yvonne and I accompanied glayish and _anatra_ to the masquerade green room where I helped both of them fix up for judging. We hung around a bit before I got into contact with Jess to line up to watch the masq.

We got a spot in line and had to sit uncomfortably for 40 min before they let us inside Hall G to sit. It was a looooooong wait for the masq to start. The quality of the costumes were great O_O!! FanExpo has really come far in that respect. The novices were amazing wtf. glayish and _anatra_ were entry 76 so it took a long long time to get there XD;.

But yonder skit doth appear.



Wooo! So directly after, Jess, Yvonne and I booked it to the green room to see them. We hung around and talked, and eventually Jess had to leave to catch the bus home. The rest of us waited on the masquerade results. glayish and _anatra_ won Best in Master Division. That was nice considering how long each had been working on everything. I put many hours in, too.

Saturday night, we were all exhausted and got out of our cosplays and generally felt awful. jiyoon showed up and she ordered Chinese food, and well all gorged on it at 1:30am.

***

Sunday it was torture waking up.... ughhh

I got into my Nyotalia North Italy cosplay and Yvonne wore her Belarus. We got everything in the hotel packed up and filmed some THORKI / THUNDERFROST (Thor x Loki slash) porn on the hotel bed XD (Gif sets of that coming later).

We checked out and packed up the car and then headed for the south building together.

I guess we got photographed while crossing the street, because THIS PHOTO showed up in the Toronto Star! The article was about the overselling of tickets and overcrowding, but, HELL YEAH IN THE NEWSPAPER NONETHELESS!!!! (Ironic, we barely had to wait in line to enter the convention all weekend)





Yvonne and I went to the Sunday Hetalia Photoshoot.. uhh but it was mostly fail. Nobody was running it, and I could tell they were mostly casually cosplayed. After that the rest of the con was filled with dealer's hall and wandering around.

We ended the day by going to Yvonne's building to use her 7th floor terrace to get some nice photos and video of each other. Hopefully some of those photos soon!

After that we had to go back to the hotel since _anatra_'s last train to Kingston was at 6:30pm, and our parking with the hotel ran out at 6:00pm.

Everyone was feeling terribly gross, broken, and exhausted, so unfortunately we had to skip out on the dinner with Jess, Lindy, Lisa, Andrew & co X_X!! Felt really bad about that, but damn, it would not have been pretty.

Said our good-byes, and headed home from the con.


All in all, there were some shitty things that happened, but mostly it was a great weekend! I am sad it went by so quickly. It was a lot of long nights of work to finish our cosplays, but in the end the reception was great, and the events were enjoyable! Of course getting to see _anatra_, jiyoon, and Yvonne again was brilliant.

Great con ^^. That's why FanExpo remains my favourite convention.