Yo! How has everyone been? Con season is almost over and it has me thinking about what I should focus on after. Twitch? Youtube? blog about different topics? make a comic? write a script? make skits? these are all things I've been contemplating but I haven't decided yet. Anyways, I went to Fan Expo yesterday (Sunday) for the first time in 7 years. The reason I didn't go for so long is because it was really disorganized and overcrowded. Plus, the staff seemed like they weren't properly trained to deal with so much people. The only reason I went this year was because my friend wanted to meet PJ Phil (he's a YTV host from back in the day) and since I grew up watching Phil as well, I decided to tag along. I was sceptical going in to this con because of my past experiences, so I was prepared for the worst.
My friend and I went on Sunday because we knew it would be the least packed that day. The good thing about this year was the fact that they used both the South and North parts of the Metro Convention Centre (it's about a 15 minute walk between the buildings but they really needed it with their huge crowd). In 2008 when we first attended, the convention was only in the South building which caused overcrowding, so it was good to see that they got more room for the event. We entered the North building first and this area had the celebrity signing, horror and community sections. The vendors there all had great products to check out and take pictures of. Here are some of my pictures from the North building:
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| This was a signed poster from the group Goblin. I wanted to ask if it was the same Goblin that worked on the Suspiria soundtrack but forgot to go back. |
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| Just some random props I saw hanging around the horror section. |
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| Had to take a picture with Jason! This was selling for 350 which is a pretty good price. |
Those were all the pictures I got at the horror section. They also had free face painting for kids in that area which I thought was a good idea. Now I will show some of the stuff that was being sold in the North building.
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| I have a lot of friends that play League of Legends (I play as well sometimes) so I had to get pics for them. |
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| Had to take a picture of all these great banners! |
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| Some artwork that was in the area. I never seen this Army of Darkness one before. |
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| Some street fighter and Simpsons figures. I got the Honda one in a Street Fighter surprise bag that I bought at Unplugged Expo. |
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| These were probably the greatest find at the expo. Unfortunately they weren't being sold because of how rare they are to get nowadays. |
I was really impressed with everything that I saw in the North building and it got me wondering...what could be in the South building? So my friend and I walked there (took about 15 minutes) and this area had the artist alley, video games and movies. To my surprise, they also had a Street Fighter V beta with all the announced characters so far! Unfortunately, they didn't have arcade sticks and we weren't allowed to record any game-play. I picked R.Mika both times and lost but she seems to play really different in this game. Also, it's going to take a while to get familiar with the new mechanics but I had a blast trying it out. My friend did manage to get some footage before we were shut down:
I didn't take much pictures on this side because I was too busy playing the games lol. Here are the few I did take:
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| Doing the signature pose near a Halo Lego Figure |
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| The Witcher trying to stop the signature post |
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| Had to get the power rangers and TMNT in there |
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| Can't forget Deadpool! |
It was a pleasure meeting him and it brought back memories of watching the Zone when I saw his table lol. He's a genuinely funny person and you could tell he enjoys meeting everyone that grew up watching YTV back in the day.
All in all, I would say I was pleasantly surprised with how good this event is now compared to the last time I went. They have really come a long way and hopefully they can find ways to continuously improve this event. They also had other attractions that I took pictures with but didn't include in this blog (you can always check out my Instagram if you want to see more). There was one problem and it was the fact that it was almost impossible to leave their official parking area near the North Building. We waited about an hour and a half before we went back to the car to exit and there were still problems. I would suggest getting some workers to help remind people to pay before they exit and to help them out by the exit bars so that they can leave with little issue. Other then that, it was a great expo; This pretty much sums up my feelings:
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Two cons left and then it's back to hibernating lol. Until next time!
