Category: Miscellaneous

Based on feedback, the shirt I wore to the con Saturday seems to have been a hit 🙂

I originally tweeted the image from Japan; specifically from a KFC in Asakusa. It was the result of using the ‘beauty mode’ of my digital camera on a shot of Bernard. No other effects were used, and the result was hilarious and priceless!

A couple of weeks ago I had the idea of printing it into a shirt and wearing it to the con. I had this done at a shop in the mall. It only took about 15 minutes and cost $25. The image quality is high, but I don’t think it will survive many washes 🙂

The whole shtick was premeditated, including posting the images without referring to the shirt. I told Colin Baker it was my brother on the shirt and he pointed without me asking!

I noticed many. many people glancing at the shirt, both at the con and on the NY streets. It certainly stood out amidst the sea of Star Wars and superhero shirts!

The funniest reaction was from cosplayer Monica Lee (who was on Heroes of Cosplay). When I walked up to her she actually raised her hands and gave a little shriek! “Your shirt!”, she said. When I explained it was my brother, she said it was scary!

All told, a great success and I’m glad I made it.

The shirt is now in storage, and will remain there for the foreseeable future. Will it ever again see the light of day? Time will tell..,

That’s She-Hulk assaulting one of New Yorks finest. Not a cosplayer, an actual cop! His partner was snapping a photo on his iPhone. Only at day four of NYCC!

Same old schedule: we got up early, got to Javits center when it opens, and had fun at the con!

Today was the first day KLS finally allowed me to actually buy some comics! Despite the size, NYCC still has a large comics presence with many vendors, and I can (and have!) spent hours browsing. This bores KLS to death, so we split up this morning and I spent an hour or so – and a grand total of $5.50 – buying a pile of 25-year-old comics 🙂

Today was also the one and only day Patrick Stewart was at the con. I received a late request for an autograph (from SFL) and to be honest was looking forward to ‘meeting’ him (and wouldn’t have lined up just for myself) but when I went downstairs I was told the line was by ticket only (and the tickets had been presold). Even then the line was enormous and it was hard to believe he could sign for so many in only two hours. Sorry Florry, I tried!

Here’s a random crowd shot from today:

Mid morning we ducked into the end of a Q&A by the guy who played Ianto in Torchwood, since the same room would be used for a William Shatner Q&A afterwards. When it was about to start, the lights dimmed, Star Wars music played (?) and this guy walked in:

OMG it’s Anthony Daniels or C-3PO himself. He then proceeded to tell jokes and stories about himself and Star Wars and 3PO for an hour, absolutely charming the audience in the process. A very funny man, and I look forward to seeing him in Episode 7 🙂

And what about Shatner you ask? No idea. Clearly they moved or canceled his Q&A, but why we don’t know.

Afterwards we rushed over to another panel, this time in the biggest room they have. It was a Big Finish panel celebrating Doctor Who and it drew a massive audience:

Nick Briggs and Colin Baker did a fine job entertaining a mostly young female audience with their anecdotes and opinions on all things Who. Great stuff!

And then, since we had a train to catch, this…

And so the con ends for another year.

After four days we feel like we’ve been running a marathon over and over, but there’s really nothing like the mix of celebrity, fandom and shopping that we see at NYCC and that’s what keeps us coming back year after year.

Hopefully in some small way I conveyed why we enjoy the experience as much as we do. If you’re ever in NY when it’s on, I think you’d probably enjoy it as well 🙂

Ok I’ll get this out of the way first: the crowds were horrible! In a sense everyone was cosplaying today, as a sardine in a can. Even the lines for the men’s toilets were dozens long, and we all know that’s crazy talk!

The day started with a line to get an autograph from Colin Baker. Ever the charming gentleman, this is now the second time I’ve seen him at this con:

He was guarded by the same Dalek that is here every year. I inspected it quite closely and discovered many of its parts actually move! I wonder if it could be manipulated from inside?

We had a tentative list of six panels to attend, but only made it to one. This was because of the queues mostly, which tend to eat up as much time as the panel. Getting to two consecutive panels not in the same room would be optimistic (to say the least), and there are ~20 different rooms.

Anyway we got to the room for our panel early and sat through the preceding panel on the TV show Once Upon A Time. Since we don’t watch it, we mostly enjoyed the respite from the crowds, but I just sat there and harvested 3DS street passes. I’ve got >100 these past two days alone, from six countries. If you sat in a central location I suspect you could just collect them nonstop for as long as you like.

The panel we were interested in was for Rebels, the new Star Wars animated show due next year. Not much has been revealed but we were treated to a great overview of the Imperial forces as seen in the show and the first-time-ever reveal of a new villian:

That guy is working for Vader and his job is to hunt the Jedi that survived Order 66. Thrilling stuff! But in all sincerity, Rebels looks great so far.

Speaking of Star Wars, here I am with a life-sized Yak Face:

And eating lunch in the VIP room:

More purchases were made. I think our bounty is about eclectic and otaku as any, and I haven’t even bought a comic yet! Maybe I’ll list some of the stuff here…

Being the biggest day, Saturday is when the cosplay goes to the next level and today absolutely did not disappoint. For instance… here’s a wonderful Ursula the Sea Witch from Little Mermaid:

An amazing (mostly cardboard!) Ultron:

A great pair of Star Wars fans:

A genuinely creepy Gollum:

And this dude:

The quality of this Daft Punk cosplay beggared belief. He had a stereo strapped to his back, and dozens of LEDs under the surface of his visor animated in time to the music. I wouldn’t be surprised if he just purchased this helmet, but if it was home made then he took cosplay to a new level.

Oh, and here’s the same girl from the Kotobukiya booth in her day 3 outfit:

She’s doing girls from the Bishoujo figure line. For tomorrow’s last day, she said she’ll be batgirl 🙂

Bernard: want me to buy this for you? I’ll only charge a modest finders fee:

All told we spent 7+ hours there today, and I was ruined when we left. Tomorrow is the last day but promises to be another full one. I wonder what new things we may see…?