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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

Building Again

Saturday, August 25th, 2012

It’s time for another building kit. Let’s see if you can guess what it is before I finish 🙂

I’ll start by saying that even though this looks like LEGO, it’s not. The pieces are much smaller:

Here’s the start. If you guess it from this you’re good!

Let’s add some pieces…

Got it yet? How about some more…

A spark has ignited in some of your memories! Let’s make it burn:

Oh yes, you know it now don’t you? What about after this:

Yes! It’s the Nanoblocks Neuschwanstein castle set. It’s tiny! That green base is only about 8 cm along the side. Here’s the finished product:

This version of the kit has 550 pieces. Nanoblocks also makes a deluxe, much larger version with 5800 pieces (and lights!) that I want. Maybe someone will buy it for me 🙂

Posted in Otaku, Toys | Comments Closed

Seaside Rendezvous

Sunday, August 12th, 2012

Everyone on the west coast went to Santa Cruz yesterday, so naturally we joined them. This meant that a 40 minute drive actually took 90 minutes. Then we had to find a carpark, which was not easy. But eventually we succeeded, and made our way to the shore.

That’s the pier there (or ‘wharf’ as they call it), and the less popular side of the beach. We walked to the end of this pier, filled with fisherpeople, souvenir stores, restaurants and homeless guys. We had a nice lunch in a restaurant with a view, although B & L looks like they weren’t having much fun:

Must be my company 😉

At the end of the pier, Bernard’s mood had clearly not improved:

It’s almost like he was faking it isn’t it? 😉

Bernard took a panorama of the wharf on his phone. Strangely, I seemed to end up in it multiple times. Once again, it’s almost as if this was done on purpose!

As you walk along the wharf, you can hear suspicious sounds emanating from underneath. At several points mysterious stairs lead to platforms underneath, where visitors can view the source of the sounds. They look like this:

California sea lions! Cute little buggers; this photo was taken by noodling my camera around a chain link fence. I was about 2 feet from this guy, who I suppose could have nipped my fingers off in a millisecond had we not become fast friends on sight!

After we’d spent enough time out on the wharf to guarantee beyond a shadow of a doubt that I had sunburned my cheeks and the top of my head, we started back toward the shore and the Santa Cruz boardwalk.

As you can see the crowds were quite large. The lines for the rides were particularly long, and in most cases in the open, hot sun. Needless to say, I joined none of them. Lakshmi headed for the sand, while Bernard and I zoomed toward the principle reason we’d headed to Santa Cruz – the arcade 🙂

We had a tournament! The rules were simple: Play games that gave scores, and for each game won (ie. higher score) that person got a point. The overall winner would be the one with the most points. The following fifteen games were played: Track & Field, Soul Calibur 2, Strikers 1945, Kung Fu Master, Tempest, Dragons Lair, Pac Man, Street Fighter Alpha, Tetris, Asteroids, Ripleys Believe It Or Not (Pinball), an old-timey arcade light-gun game, Panic Museum, a very terrible DC comics fighting game and one other I can’t recall.

Kung Fu Master is still fun. It had been aeons since I last played it!

Strikers 1945 is an awesome shooter. If I lived in Santa Cruz I’d play it all the time. I wonder if AW recalls the time he and I beat this on two player in a tiny little arcade in the Randwick mall?

The overall results of the tournament was 13-2 in my favour. The Schmitz arcade legend it seems survives in only one of us these days ;P

So effortless were my victories in most of the games that when it came to Pac Man, in which I went first and set a score that Bernard deemed undefeatable, we agreed if he scored 25% of my total he would win. Even then I prevailed! In fact on one of his lives it was almost like he was demonstrating the absolute shortest path possible into the jaws of the red ghost 🙂

Note the advanced “one hand leaning on the cabinet” pose I adopted for Pac Man!

Right after I had beaten Bernard in SF Alpha, a guy who had been watching joined in and challenged me. He was about my age and (I suspect) planning to impress his younger daughter who was wit him. In Bernard’s words, here is what happened:

“What happened? Well he was destroyed! (laughing) He didn’t stand a chance. He was destroyed. He didn’t seem to enjoy it at all. (laughing) He was destroyed pretty decisively. I think you perfected him actually on the first round.”

The guy returned for a second game, in which I played sub par to give him a chance, but rapidly defeated him again. He looked crestfallen. Such is the fate of all who challenge a master 😉

You’re wondering which of the two games Bernard was victor in? Well the first was Track & Field. Were I a sore loser I may be inclined to mention I may have prevailed had my jump button actually worked. But the other game? It was this arcade light gun game.

Bernard beat me convincingly in this game. 20 shots were provided for a dollar. I hit 7 targets, he hit 15. He actually played the game three times and did well in each. Had our tournament consisted of 15 rounds of this, the results would have been reversed 🙂

Posted in Family, Games, Miscellaneous, Toys, Trip | 2 Comments »

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