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NYCC Day Three

Saturday, October 13th, 2012

The cell signal’s a bit slow here at the hotel, so I didn’t go back to read last years comic con post. But I reckon if I did then Saturday would have included mention of the same thing we encountered today: the crowds!

It was like half of the otaku in America was at NYCC today, and we were in the thick of it!

We started early by sitting in the front seats of a Moyoco Anno panel. She’s the creator of several manga series I’ve enjoyed, including Happy Mania and Flowers & Bees. She was reserved, amusing and very polite, as she discussed (via a translator) her career and influences.

One particularly funny moment during the panel happened during the audience Q&A. Here’s a photo:

He even tried to ask his question with the mask on!

We saw a great many other ‘celebrities’ today, including Tom ‘Draco Malfoy’ Felton, Burt Ward, Adam West, Blair Butler, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Booker T, Brutus Beefcake, the Bella Twins, Kelly Kelly, Joel Hodgson, Nicholas ‘Zander’ Brandon, Tera Patrick, Lou Ferrigno and this lovely girl:

Sadly AW, I couldn’t get her autograph since the tickets had sold out in advance 🙁

Conventions like this are about seeing creators and celebrities, about playing games or seeing movies in advance, about meeting other fans and seeing cosplayers, but also (and importantly), about buying stuff! And believe me when I say a large portion of the shows many halls are dedicated to vendors selling all manner of things. What sorts of stuff do we buy at NYCC?

Well, for starters, figurines:

Clothing (such as bathrobes):

Wigs (of any colour):

Art (paintings, posters, prints):

Curiosities (most of the ‘steampunk’ variety):

Toys (including collectible ones):

Stuffed animals (such as Monster Hunter themed):

And model kits:

Today’s vast crowds also included even more cosplayers, and sadly the human density made it tricky to get photos of most of them. But, as with the previous entries, three highlights from those I saw today:

The last one was a tree person from last years Doctor Who Christmas special. The middle one gets points for originality with her ewok costume. And the girl on top? Well I’m not sure who she is dressed as, but she was tall!

Tomorrow is the last day. We’ve spent hundreds so far (including many Christmas gifts for the usual suspects), but there’s still cash burning a hole in my wallet! Will I cave and spend $100 on a Gundam kit?!? That would be crazy, wouldn’t it? 🙂

Posted in Art, Books & Comics, Games, Miscellaneous, Movies, Otaku, Tech, Toys, Trip | 1 Comment »

NYCC Day Two

Friday, October 12th, 2012

Here’s how I feel right now:

Assuming, of course, that her face says “My hips need replacement and I need to sleep for a day!” 🙂

We spent over 7 hours at the con today, and the highlight – indeed the highlight of the entire con I expect – can be summarized by this photo:

Yep, I was star struck a little. As would be expected meeting a childhood hero. He was personable and charming and gracious and everything you’d expect him to be.

Later on we also went to his hour long panel…

…which was held in a massive room where all seats were packed! The moderator made a few funny jokes about the disparate audiences, which included the old-schoolers and the new, much younger fans (who were well aware Doctor 5 is now Doctor 10’s dad-in-law)!

We actually saw two panels in a row in this room. Before Peter Davison we sat through Grant Morrison which was very entertaining, including the bits when he spoke about his experiences summoning demons via black magic (he didn’t seem to be joking).

But thats not the only Who we saw today! Not only was the Doctor Who shop twice as big as ever:

But they even had a special guest in the form of Karen Gillan’s cousin, aka. young Amy Pond:

There was also some actual comic appreciation going on today! A good chunk of the main hall has vendors like this:

I bought some comics today, and then later on in the day met (and got an autograph from) Amanda Conner, whose comic art I’m a fan of.

There’s so, so much more. About a dozen hours at the con so far and I still feel there’s lots to see. Tomorrow we’ve got more panels to see and some special autographs to (hopefully!) collect.

Before I end for the day, the cosplay! To say the quality is high is an understatement. Check out the three best I took photos of today:

Posted in Art, Books & Comics, Games, Miscellaneous, Movies, MTG, Otaku, Toys, Trip | 1 Comment »

NYCC Day One

Thursday, October 11th, 2012

We had an early start today, then hopped on a train for a mini-vacation in New York City. As we have the last several years, we’re going to the New York Comic Con!

Today is KLS’s birthday as well, so that makes this little trip even more special 🙂

The show runs Thursday through Saturday, and we’ve got 4-day passes. We got to the city a few hours before the doors opened which was fortuitous, since I had to visit the Australian consulate. With that out of the way, after stops at a few shops (I spent $70 on the new Monster Hunter Jsoanese art book at Kinokuniya!), we headed down to the convention center.

For some reason I had assumed the lines would be small on this first half-day of the con, but as you can see that was hardly the case.

As usual, sensory overload was what followed. Hundreds of exhibitors filling several halls across 3 levels of a gigantic convention center…

Movies and books and comics and games and clothes, toys, cars, food and art. Free stuff everywhere, and even more (do much more!) for sale!

And then, the cosplay:

The major highlight of today was seeing the next Monster Hunter games so prominently featured at Capcom’s booth. I lined up to play the 3DS version and it was awesome. The WiiU version was also playable and has beautiful graphics. I can’t wait for these to be released.

After about 3.5 hours we were ruined. Not only had it been a long day, but we were toting heavy bags full of purchases ($280 in total already!).

We’ve only got to see maybe a half of the total show so far, and even then need to revisit the booths we skimmed today. But now it’s time for bed 🙂

Posted in Books & Comics, Games, Miscellaneous, Movies, MTG, Otaku, Tech, Toys, Trip | Comments Closed

iPhone Panoramas

Friday, September 21st, 2012

iOS6, the latest version of the iPhone and iPad operating system is out. Amongst other changes comes the ability for iPhones to take panoramic photos. Here’s one I just took:

Click on it for a larger view. Not bad is it? Considering how easy the interface is to use, I’m very pleased with the implementation and the field of view. Note that the version uploaded here (not the preview above, the image you seen when clicked on) is actually one fourth the size of the original (which is 8000+ pixels wide and 6MB). I can’t upload the original file due to filesize limitations on the blog uploader.

Here’s a closeup showing the detail level:

I rescaled the above (the actual picture you see when clicked on, not the preview) to double size. You can see it’s a bit pixelated to be sure, but still quite good considering how tiny a fraction of the original panorama this snippet is.

I’m planning on using my phone as my sole camera during my upcoming Australian trip. I was a bit hesitant because I always liked the panorama mode on my camera. While the new iOS version lacks some of the functionality (you can’t change direction or limit angle for instance), it seems to do a very good job.

Posted in Art, Blog, Miscellaneous, Tech | Comments Closed

That Monster Hunter Post You Were All Dreading

Thursday, September 20th, 2012

It never rains, it pours I guess.

Last year Monster Hunter Tri-G, an expanded version of Monster Hunter Tri, was released in Japan only for the 3DS. This made me a sad, sad boy, and I desperately hoped for a port. None was forthcoming, and I had all but given up hope.

Then last week, Nintendo announced their new console, the Wii-U, and right there in the official launch unveil and announcements was the one-two knockout punch for fans like me: a brand new Monster Hunter game would launch – in America – on Wii-U and 3DS simultaneously!

Of course when I say ‘brand new’, I mean the last in a generation of games that began with MH Tri, continued with MH 3 Portable (on PSP, never localized) and MH Tri-G (3DS, never localized) and will now end with MH 3 Ultimate. Here’s the produced talking about the two games, and confirming that you can share save files and play on either the Wii-U or the 3DS:

And here’s a screenshot of the 3DS version that was playable yesterday at the Tokyo game show:

Needless to say, this announcement alone makes me weep while holding my new – beloved – 3DSXL, and makes it a dead certainty that I’ll be getting a Wii-U 🙂

But wait! There’s more… much more!

Yesterday at Tokyo game show they also unveiled this:

Monster Hunter generation 4 will begin on the 3DS, in an all-new game that includes online multiplayer, a new weapon type (the ‘insect controlling stick’), jumping attacks, monster riding, and a new species of opponent (‘insect beasts’). Obviously there’s the spider thing seen in the video, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the giant scorpions from MH Frontier make an appearance as well.

So that just about takes care of the next two years of Monster Hunting. Who’s as excited as I am?

Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment »

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