Cosplay and Conventions My Fan Expo 2008 Story (With Cosplay Pics)

I'm back from Fan Expo 2008 in Toronto, and boy are my feet in pain one day later. Fourteen hours of nonstop marching. Okay, so I'm not cut out to be a hiker or cross country runner...

In any case, this was the first con I have ever attended. I went in with an empty SD card and a full camera battery with the aim of seeing just how many cosplayers I could capture. You may begin Pokemon Catch-em-all cracks now.

I was hesitant at first - I wasn't sure how many people would be receptive to some random guy they've never met approaching them with a camera and asking if they would mind if he snapped a picture. I am glad to report that every single person I approached was more than happy to stop whatever they were doing and strike a pose, no matter how crowded the scenery got around us.

It was a long day and over a hundred flashes before my camera died a silent death after painfully warning me of its low reserves. Sadly, it didn't seem it had the juice to constantly flash for hours on end and died at about 3 or 4 in the afternoon.

There was a great turnout and I ended up with some really great shots - I can't even begin to imagine the work some of these people must put in to create some of these costumes.

Over the next week or so I'll be sharing the majority of the shots I ended up with. There are a ton of them so I'll be presenting in chronological order with a few bits of story. The story doesn't give a lot of substance, but I hope you enjoy the pics.

 

Ok, so I lied. I'm throwing chronology and cosplay out of the window for just one post.

Here's the picture of the scary guy that would have approached you if you were an attending cosplayer. It's a shot of myself I couldn't pass up in front of a great photo prop. I'm a limited edition, by the way.



This was in front of the 501st booth out in the main lobby. The 501st's presence was definitely felt as you couldn't walk hardly anywhere that day without running into a stormtrooper or any other Star Wars iconic character. They'll be a number of shots of those guys and gals later on.

 

The earlybirds

There was already a sizable gathering of people in the main lobby outside the actual show floor before they officially opened Saturday morning. Before taking up a position in line for myself, I made a quick round up and down the existing line and got my first photo ops.

1) My first shot of the day. I don't think the poor guy was even awake yet as he reluctantly pulled up his mask and picked himself off the floor (to some playful jeers from his friends nearby). Despite that, he struck a great pose to mark my first ever cosplay capture.



2) I would be little more than one step further before my eyes were immediately drawn to bright pink hair. It was a color that was easy to pick out this early in the morning, but to be honest would become commonplace as the afternoon began. To be honest, I can't place either character - if anyone can identify them, I would be grateful.



3) Final Fantasy had a heavy amount of the cosplay, fighting strongly for #1 market share against Bleach and Naruto. FFXII was nowhere near as popular at FanEx as VII, VIII, and X, though. I did find a Judge Master Gabranth and Larsa attending together.



4) The first of many Haruhis to come. We had a quick discussion following the picture regarding the cosplayers choice of "Director Haruhi". I was told that everyone always does the schoolgirl version. There was truth to that - I don't think I ran into any more than 2 other non-schoolgirl versions that day. This cosplayer mentioned there was also a "Commander Haruhi" somewhere down the line. Sadly, I didn't find her... until later.



5) The first of many super-heroes to come? Fan Expo is a combination convention consisting of Comics, Sci-Fi, Horror, Gaming, and Anime, so there were a wide variety of cosplaying categories. This costume looks very familiar, but I just can't put my finger on it...



6) Cap'n Jack Sparrow. Yarr!



7) Again, my lack of diversity falls short. I snapped a pick of this pair who were obviously dressed up, but I have no idea as who! D'oh!



8) Shot in the dark guess from not seeing the anime, but...Naruto characters? I figure I had a 50/50 chance of guessing Naruto or Bleach for anything asian-flavored that I couldn't place. The kid on the right originally protested when the guy on the left got to wear the hat, but seconds later all was well as he dived in with the face mask instead.



9) An odds and ends assortment I had line up because they were all together along the wall. I know the characters don't make sense mixed, but it was convenience factor here.



Coming up in my next post - I finally get my butt into the lineup and manage to get a few more shots as the show room floor opens up and we're herded in.

 

118 photos, actually. More pics are on the way - my story has only just begun. Rather than just unload all 100 photos at once, I've chosen to release them in batches alongside text describing my day.

My absolute favorites have yet to make an appearance. Some of the cosplayers there were downright amazing.

 

The line shuffle

Having made my rounds, I found my friends were setting up at the end of the rapidly growing line up to get into the main show floor. I wisely decided to join them, keeping wary of the line wrapped to either side of us for more photo-ops. Being less mobile and constrained to the line made for less pics, but I did manage to slide to the left, right, and behind to add a few notches to this camera's belt.

10) I may be completely wrong, but this pair looks straight out of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland to me. My timing was impeccable (as usual) as I found "Alice" working to bend her dress back into shape. I think the dress bottom was fitted with wire or something similar to produce the "balloon" effect of an old victorian-ish dress.



11) All aboard the Sylar train! This mini-parade of guys made there rounds about the convention grounds proclaiming "darkness is coming" and handing out cardboard Sylar masks. The Heroes show had a mini-booth set up outside the show floor entrance where they were selling a con-exclusive "Future Hiro" action figure.



12) Misa and Ryuuk from Death Note. "Ryuuk" weaseled a second picture out of me after my first photo when "Misa" mentioned he brought along a copy of Death Note for Dummies. It was a neat little book and I just had to get a picture of it as well. I took a personal look at it afterward and mistook it for an actual publication. They both corrected me quickly, pointing out it was a custom job for the cosplay and all the pages are blank. "Oh, so you haven't written any names in it yet?" I quip. Oh man, am I ever a geek.





13) Chii from Chobits. Very basic headgear and me taking the photo from a bad angle. I noted the friend with her was anxious to jump out the way of the camera though, heh.

 

Inside at last

After the event coordinators played human tetris squeezing the lines into the available space, the Expo officially opened and the lines were directed inside one by one. Despite the fact we waited in line to get in, this would be the lightest traffic period of the day. Fans came and go, but there was ample walking space in the morning. The afternoon would bring the masses and make it difficult to walk among the stands, let alone find space to snap photos.

14) Right out of the gate I zeroed in on a stall with a Soi Fon from Bleach. She agreed to the photo and went into classic pose. I loved when the cosplayers got into character and posed for the photo - it made it that much more picturesque!



15) Like a brainwashed monkey, my friend was sucked in a straight line to the larger of the anime stall setups. I sorta followed him, but my progress was slowed down the aisle as I began to find cosplayers more and more common - like this trio here from Lucky Star, for instance.



16) I catch up with my pal in what is just off-center of the entire floor - A boxed off anime shop with enough racks to pass for a portable Blockbuster. I scan the titles and prices with semi-interest, but at this point I'm still in photographer mode. Suffice it to say, this little shop turned out to be the convention gold mine. First up, more Bleach.



17) And more Bl... oh wait, more Naruto, right? I wasn't kidding earlier when I said Bleach and Naruto stymied the competition.



18) Hitsugaya seemed to be a very popular character as far as costumes went for Bleach. I was truthfully reluctant to approach this guy as he had a very serious expression. However, I was happy I did ask from the moment he slid his stuff to the ground and pulled out his blade for posing. Suffice it to say, I didn't second guess asking anyone for a picture after that. Sometimes, the props make all the difference!



Coming up in my next post - I do a quick round of the outlying manga, anime, plushie, and comic stalls before taking a peek at the auograph lineups.

 

For the rest of the morning I did a bit of a loop sticking close to the anime, plushie, and manga stalls. The area seemed to be golden for the photo-ops.

19) A cute elf that for the life of me, I again cannot identify.



20) Okay, I think by this time I'm thinking to myself. "Self, it's time you diversified your anime viewing. You can only identify about half the characters here." Yeah, I can't identify this one either. -_-;;



21) King Dedede (Kirby) was an easy stick out from the crowd with his big hammer. It looked like a pain to lug around though - it had some weight to it!



22) This time it was the wings. I was surprised to see someone cosplaying as Mimic from the old school X-Men comics - I didn't think he was a character with a lot of exposure.



23) My identification streak would end there again. Little help?



24) Ooh wow, Asuka!



25) I think this was when I started calling out cosplayers by their cosplaying name. Now, they not only had a strange geek in a blue shirt asking permission for a photo, but he was mistaking them for their character!



26) One of my blurrier shots. Kinda sucks, because I thought she made a good Byakuya Kuchiki.

 

My buddy had his fill of stalls and wanted to go check out which guests had turned up at the signing stations. Fan Expo had a few big names in attendence: Kate Mulgrew, Sean Astin, Brent Spiner, Jeremy Bulloch, Renee O' Connor, and Henry Winkler to name a bunch. I think it was around 10ish now, and while the line ups were already sizeable, only Sean and Henry were actually there yet.

27) There were cosplayers in lineups, so I started trying to sneak in to get more shots. Here's the first one I got - I think she's a character from one of those Sci-Fi TV series I don't follow - Babylon 5 or Battlestar Galactica?



28) Visas Marr from Knights of the Old Republic II. Like a few of the cosplayers, she had a friend with her to offload all of her stuff onto while I took the pic. Here comes my geek comment to her friend - "So you're here handmaiden, then?" (You may groan now). I actually got the answer, "'Handmaiden'? I like that. It's much better than 'pack animal'."



29) I caught this girl between lines. I think she was skirting the outside to get past everyone.



30) I'm a sucker for props. I think I already mentioned that. This was the one person all day that I addressed as "sir" ("Excuse me, sir, would you mind if I took a photo?". I'm still wondering why.



Coming up in my next post - A quick jaunt around the Horror and Comic stalls.

 

31) How to attract someone to your stall in three easy steps:
1. Bring in a car and paint it over in flames.
2. Add a pinch of skeleton props.
3. Add someone dressed up as an undertaker.
Of course, this stall would simplify the formula in the afternoon to the single step:
1. Get a booth babe.
This shot turned out extremely eerie. Check his eyes.



32) L and some Misas from Death Note. Caught them in the hallway and just couldn't coax their friend to slide into the picture, too. She took a huge stride to the side with a "Not me!" L is all bloody courtesy of a Horror make up stall that was at the con. Attendees could go to the stall to get a sort of "blood treatment". As a result, the longer the day went, the more bloodied people could be picked out of the crowd - it was like an epidemic.



33) I might not have snagged me a Pikachu (I saw one *after* my camera died), but I was luckily nearby when someone amongst the comic artist stalls positively id'ed Mudkip. He had the cosplaying Mudkip hold her Mudkip plushie, a photo op I was quick to capitalize on after as well.



34) Blizzard had a setup with World of Warcraft machines. I'm personally staving off that addiction again (just need to make sure I don't get WotLK when it releases and I should be free!). Avoiding the game doesn't mean I have to avoid the cosplay, though. Here is a warlock and Succubus.



35) Another Asuka from Eva, this time in schoolgirl outfit. Being prone to Haruhiism and blind to school girl uniforms, I misidentified her as Haruhi until corrected. Whoops. Yes, it's true. I see Haruhi everywhere I look. (help) :blush:



Coming up in my next post - plenty more pics and personal jibba jabba. There's still a lot of time before we broke for lunch!

 

It's now been two weeks and my memory is rescinding. Unfortunate, I guess, since I'd like to relay exactly what was going on between each picture. I guess for some of these, you'll have to be content with simply the picture.

36) Who you gonna call? Getting slightly off-topic, I was secretly a bit pumped about the new Ghostbusters game that was originally slated to release this year. The last word I saw was that Activision backed out of publishing, so it may be delayed to next year now.



37)



38) Caught this Anakin Skywalker adjusting his shoes.



39 & 40) A mother and daughter duo (at least I think it was, they were together) of Syaoran Li and Sora.





41)



42) Evidence that the Empire just can't design a practical uniform. It wasn't yet noon and this poor guy was already baking. He pleaded that I take the picture without his helmet on.



43) Yuko and Mokona!



44) Conceptualizing the bearded Batman.



45) Kairi.



46)



47) The Runners up of my unofficial no-prize In-Character Cosplay Award. After I asked for a photo op, Yachiru pokes Kenpachi telling him. As I'm picking up my camera she suddenly bounces up onto his back for the pose shown below.



48) Have I mentioned yet how much I like props? I did? Oh. Okay, so I wasn't expecting her to whip out the Tonfas after agreeing to strike a pose.



49) Unable to single this cosplayer out earlier for a picture, I finally got the chance opportunity now. Check out all the body paint. It was without a doubt one of the standout cosplayers. The contrast of black and white versus all the colors was surely an aid.



50) Completely devoid of emotion and silent, this cosplayer consented to a photo with merely a nod and pose. In the background you can see the food tables and stands.



51) This pair was actually the first cosplay I saw that day in passing. I didn't get a picture opportunity until I caught them sitting down to eat. Yup, that's right - I interrupted them the exact moment they sat down at the table for a picture. Ain't I a stinker?



That's a little under halfway.

Coming up in my next post - I tour the gaming and comic booths with more pictures, naturally.