I was a pretty excited about the event and my parents ended up buying me a ticket for Christmas. The event itself didn't seem to have that much for the first few months as it took forever for them to post a schedule for events and things (their guest line up kept growing as time went on as well). I think it was about a month or so before the event took place that they started scheduling panels and about 2 weeks before the event that they had a schedule for the guest panel/interview and some workshops.
It didn't feel like there was a whole lot this first year. I felt like I was in a trade show with lots of booths for vendors, artists and even some other events coming up later in the year. Maybe that's what these things are like? I was hoping for a few more gaming related events like tournaments or demos or what not. The venue has a lot of space and closed rooms so I could see doing a wargaming tournament or card game tournament or something. There was a (seemingly hastily put together) Settler's of Catan tournament as well as a Smash Bros. tournament but that was only for one day and I think they could have easily done something like a Warhammer tournament or Magic: The Gathering draft or what not. I mean Northern BC has a large community of wargamers and Magic players they could have easily tapped in to (no pun intended) for either logistical support or participants.
There were some cool guests though; most notably William Shatner, Jewel Staite and Tia Carrere. My family was totally stoked that John de Lancie was there as he appears in one of my favourite fandoms (Star Trek) and also one of my daughter's favourite shows (My Little Pony).
Speaking of Mr. de Lancie, when we went to get his autograph he noticed Penny and asked her if she was a fan of My Little Pony, to which she replied yes. He then continued to talk with her and told her that he suspected daddy (me) actually wanted his signature on one of the prints featuring Q and proceeded to pick one and sign it for me. Mr. de Lancie then told Penny that he would give her one too as a present and signed a print of Discord (his character in My Little Pony) to which she said thank you. He made the event quite worth it for both Penny and I. Kind of regretting not getting a photo with him, but c'est la vie.
My father in law also got something out of it as we shelled out the money to get him an autograph and photo with William Shatner. He grew up watching the original Star Trek and is a big fan. He also had a great time perusing the comic book vendors looking at old comics he used to read as a kid.
One of our favourite parts about Fancon was all the cosplay going on. Penny decided to participate when we told her she could dress up.
Her first day she went as Dr. Anna (this was her Halloween costume as well)
She eventually traded her sonic screw driver for a light saber when she saw the 501st Legion booth.
On the second day she dressed as Princess Elsa and again took the opportunity to get a photo with the 501st. She really likes them.
She also found a cool Batman cosplayer as well and insisted on taking a picture with him. She originally didn't want the Joker to be in it, but being the Joker he photo-bombed anyways. Penny is giving her best serious face along with Batman.
On the third day she dressed as the 11th doctor. We were originally going to dress her as the 10th doctor, but she really wanted to be the 11th as he was her favourite. This costume got the most comments and everyone addressed her as the Doctor when they saw her.
She was happy she got to go inside the TARDIS as the one in London was locked when she visited it last summer.
We also found a really good Cloud Strife cosplayer (I believe this guy won 2nd place in the Novice division that day)
Aside from the cosplay, the panel interviews were also great. Really gives a lot of insight into the lives of these celebrities and makes them seem a whole lot more normal than their jobs would suggest.
I am looking forward to next year's Northern Fancon 2016 and hoping it will be more fun and exciting than this year's was. I am even considering putting together a costume for next year as well so Penny doesn't have to dress up alone (not that she cares if she's the only one in the family dressing up).
No comments:
Post a Comment