Expo thanks and Rants

[FluffyDragon]

Every Expo needs one of these threads, and I haven't seen one around, so here we go.
Thank the people who made you're expo and rant about everything that went wrong!

I'll start it off.

Thanks

[Edit] ~ Biggest thanks goes to my parents, who, just before we set off, asked "You do have your cosplays don't you?" which reminded me that they were both perfectly packed, still hanging from my wardrobe in my room.
~ Everyone who asked for a photo.
~ Everyone who complimented my cosplay, it really made all the work worth it <3
~ Rachel, Megan, Holly and Richard, for being the Awesome people you are!
~ Hosagi (I'm sorry I have no idea what your real name is D= ) for looking after bags and sticking with us even though we kept getting stopped for photos and friends and being generally brill.
~ Cosplay organisers, awesome as usual, and for actually reading out the skit introductions!
~ The people in our skit, especially the guys in our skit that we dragged in at the last minute, you were all brilliant!
~ The litle shop that sold chicken wraps, I would live of them if I could, They were to die for!

Rants

~ My evil Arrancar shoes! D< I swear my feet will never be the same again.
~ The person that dented my poor Gaara Gourd, I'm still not sure how to fix it and I really need it for Ame con ><
~ The price of a little Kon plushi! £12! I got my proper sized Yondiame plushi for half that, including shipping!

[Blu Fox]

O i think i saw you there, your costume was fantastic
Is this you?


O and for Rants
you think £12 was bad, i got a Chocobo for £24! it was worth it though

[Kitty]

I'm so glad to see so many people happy with this Expo. Normally I see nothing but arguing and ranting when I lurk the boards after a con, but this time, it's all joy and praise, which is how it should be.

Glad you had a great time!

[sjbonnar]

Thanks:
- Thank you to Elsa, Matt, Reiss, Dan, Sam, Sarah, Dan, Rachelle, Ben, Rachel, Jake (figure out which one LOL), Laura, Carrie, Kit, Tori, Joe and James (have probably forgotten like millions of people!) for making the event so much more fun!
- Thank you to those who asked for photos!
- Thank you to those who complimented my costume!
- Thank you to those who had a close look at my guns and DIDN'T break them LOL
- Thank you to Joe and James again for the cospay organisation!
- An extra thank you to the mysterious organiser of the afterparty-which-shall-not-be-named LMAO
- Thank you to Tori's father for some excellent shots!
- Thank you to Carrie for what is sure to be another amazing Cosplay Snap photoshoot!
- Thank you to everyone who ACTUALLY knew who I was LOL And being called a legend was awesome!
- Thank you to people who gave me a pep talk as I almost quit cosplay recently. It was lovely having some people who I'd never even met in real life before tell me that I shouldn't quit.
- My fans LOL I got some messages sent to me afterwards that made me smile quite a bit LOL

Rants:
- Claustrophobia much? This event was RIDICULOUSLY crowded!
- Heat-Stroke much? The AC needed to be much more powerful to cope with the heat inside the event! I know people who almost passed out!
- Needed more seats for the masquerade as there were loads of people on the floor.
- Needed better organisation for stewards. I got sent to about four different places looking for the queue to watch the masquerade!
- The wind outside LOL But that's not expo's fault. Almost lost my fedora to the Thames!
- Dealers upping prices. Why would I buy from you at expo when things are cheaper on your website!?
- One of the masquerade judges running straight into Efia's wing and causing it to bend back upon itself. If anyone was going to do it, I wouldn't expect it to be a cosplay judge!

[picklesofdoom]

~ The price of a little Kon plushi! £12! I got my proper sized Yondiame plushi for half that, including shipping!

RANT:

YA! I agree. Some of the plushie stalls were a rip off. I want a tiny Mario Mushroom plushie on saturday and i asked how much it was and i was expecting around £12 for it. The man said £12 at first then as soon as he said it he changed and said it was £20!!!

Other than that. The Expo was fabulous! Thank ye to everyone who made those days so enjoyable.

[FluffyDragon]

I always end up looking around expo for things I want and them ordering them online when I get home. x3

@Blu Fox:Thanks <3 yup thats me, looking exceptionally tiered x3

[Kirst]

Rant: Stuffyness/over crowdedness
Also certain stewards when asking where I had to go to queue for the masquerade, and being told different places every time.
The really awful layout of the event generally.

It was my first expo, and to be honest I was rather disappointed.

Good stuff:
Compliments on my cosplay, which made me smile - I always feel so shy when I'm in cosplay
Seeing all the wonderful cosplays
Just having a day away from where I live.

[Deviette]

Thanks:-

To all who let me glomp them ^_^
To everyone that was nice when I asked them stuff
To everyone who had a really nice costume that I could go "oooo look it's so and so"
To everyone who had a really nice costume that I could go "I don't know who that is, but it looks really cool"


Rants:-
Some of the prices were outrageous, especially on the mangas, £9 when I could get them for £7 in waterstones ... not a hard choice.
The heat
The crowding
The lack of space to sit and draw at. I didn't enter the contest because I didn't get a seat, or even a space, at any point.
The lack of space between stalls. I swares that the spaces had got smaller ....

[Lanowar]

The Internet has given a generation a voice, but we used this voice to just whine about things. So I think it's time I used this gift!

Thanks

- People, as always Expo's become a long list of people I need to talk to though most the time I don't get to see everyone I should, I try my darnest to! If you saw me over the weekend well done but I was a social ninja joining group conversations and vanishing as soon as I had arrived. As always anime fans like to talk to one another there's a nice ice breaker there given the common ground we all share.

-Comics, a vast improvement over last time Steve Niles was a great addition and the news Ben Templesmith's is apprentely going be there in October is good news all round.

Free Guests- Dann John Jules and Ernie Hudson rocked the place up big time.

-Tamed- Everything seemed knocked down a peg the Free Huggers were'nt as annoying the stall vendors were'nt trying to get your attention as much it was nice to move about. Well as much as one could given the size issue.

Rants

-Prices: Yea because I'm going to buy that manga that's almost double the price I'd get it for on Amazon. Couple of good deals but did'nt really seem to be anything that I wanted to buy per say. More the same old stuff really.

- Guests: So you advertise them and you tell us there here. Then you stick them in the far left hand side of the expo where the ques clash with the stalls and some of the comic book guests. Then throw in the people queing for the Masquerade and suddenly I'm not that intrested in seeing them out of a fear of being crushed.

Movie Companies: If your asking "But Fox was'nt here" the answer is exactly! You leave a giant movie screen in the middle of the expo showing trailers at random and don't have anyone to talk about the movies or anything. Takes up space that could have been used for somthing better. If you say your coming to the expo don't just dump a television screen some volunteers who don't really know much about the movies your advertising and some posters and leave it at that. Ghostbusters was'nt playable but hell if I cared because Sierra made an effort and got Ernie Hudson to appear.

Space- Finally back to space, this year everything seemed, smaller. The Yu-Gi-Oh! tourament thing seemed to consume a large portion of the place as well. As always the Wizkids Star Wars tutorial was loud and annoying to be near. Large sections were just impossible to navigate and more then one occassion I had to take a detour to get to where I wanted to.

However overall? Yea it was a good Expo there was stuff to do and I had a good time. I'm one of those people who does'nt need to buy stuff there becuause I can get it from the Internet and whenever I go to London but still I enjoyed it despite it's flaws, meeting friends both old and new catching up and getting some cool gear along the way all adds up to an amazing weekend!

[Jeshika]

Thanks

- My friend's mum, for inviting me, before they even knew me.
- My friend, for the whole going with her thing. xD
- My friend's uncle, cos he totally organised everything for us.
- The nice person in the Chi outfit who told me where the toilets were. xD
- People who let us get pictures of them.
- The Sora cosplayer I hugged. (With the "Hug me i'm adorable sign", Was the only person I hugged. xD)

Rants

- Too hot.
- I got a migraine and was ill the whole time.
- My new dress cost £121. Dx
- Too crowded.

[EksDee-Luna]

I'd like to thank ALL the HELLSING cosplayers I hung out with and had some photos done with, especially those whom i've got on MSNM and did the professional shoot with. That includes Leadmill, SJ and Kit.
Also special thanks to all the people WITHOUT free hugs signs who came and asked for hugs. I hate those signs, and a little bit of being sensible like that was appreciated.
Oh, and all of Selph's friends who I met. You all rocked. You should totally add me on MSN.

My only rant is aimed at myself. What the hell was I thinking wearing clip on piercings for that many hours? OWWW.

[lalalucy]

Thanks.
Getting to see everyone's wicked costumes.
meeting up with the Dr Who crowd (even though it made me realise I was the least recognisable =( )
Storm troopers yeah!!
the convientely placed bar on the ay out.

Rants.
TOOOOO hot and crowded. First thing that struck me (being my first expo) was how small it was inside. I was expecting something bigger.
queueing or 1 and a half hours to get in!! my feet were already killing me before we even bought our tickets! next time fast track!
Random girls running up and hugging/kissing my boyfriend. pssshhhhhhhhh
Food being soo expencive. i was hungry most of the day.
my stupid idea to wear 3 inch heels all day and forget to bring a change of shoes.
That I couldn't get the proper coloured jacket to be Martha Jones so I dont think many people know who I was!

[BluePhoenix]

Thanks:
- To everyone who shouted out "Absol!" when they saw me in my cosplay walking past and to everyone who took photos. An extra special thanks go to the girl who gasped as I walked out of the Premier Inn in cosplay. Made me feel all special.
- To the nice and slightly harassed cosplay desk staff. Thanks for not getting upset when I didn't turn up to the Saturday masq due to illness.
- To the handful of cosplayers I worked up the courage to ask for photos.
- To my dad for being a very patient Absol wrangler and explaining to folks who wanted photos that I couldn't see very well.
- I loved the little secret corridor that was behind. . .something. . .and in the same corner where the Yu-Gi-Oh! thing was. Quiet, cool and a great place to chill out.

Rants:
- ARGH MILLIONS OF PEOPLE CAN'T MOVE ARGH HOT HOT HOT.
- Being ill on the Saturday afternoon and missing out on a ton of fun.
- The Yu-Gi-Oh! thing that took up a huge chunk of space.
- Being overcharged for just about everything, but most of the things I bought weren't really available anywhere else so I gritted my teeth and thanked myself for saving up for Expo.

I believe that this was a huge improvement on last May, but Expo can't continue to grow with the current space that it is allocated. If there was a fire early Saturday afternoon then there might have been a serious problem evacuating everyone.

[llanae]

Thanks
- Everyone who helped me on Saturday when Rachie (FluffyDragon) forgot I couldn't see and left me alone to flail in the crowds.
- James to cheering me up and keeping me amused in the wait for the judging. Hitting/teasing someone with no depth perception is bordering on evil, but I'll get you back eventually.
- Rachel (MrsChumphy) for being generally amazing and my second minder, as well as bringing the Masquerade queue water! Above and beyond. That last bit goes to all the cosplay staff, too.
- The cosplay desk staff. You always manage to keep me cheerful and calm during the day. I probably wouldn't be able to do the Masquerade without you guys.
- The cast of our Bleach Tango skit for mostly being enlisted randomly and not having much idea what was going on until the Sunday afternoon! Especially Hitsugaya and Ichigo, since neither of you had heard the track before we got onto the stage. You were all amazing, and picked up the choreography really quickly. Be proud that the skit was entirely group-made, instead of just being a performance to an existing song. <3 I'll buy everyone pocky next expo. Just remind me.
- Relish, Hollie, Richard, Megan, Squeaky, Darren, Hosagi (I echo what FluffyDragon said: you had the patience of a saint.), the Yojimbo cosplayer... so many people I've missed in my exile at university, and you were all brilliant.
- The tall Ulquiorra cosplayer on Sunday for good-naturedly posing with me whenever we ended up in the same area and someone wanted a photo of two espada, and for letting FluffyDragon fake-slap you. I still have no idea who you are. Get in touch!
- The Sunday Bleach cosplayers in general. That huge photoshoot in the middle of expo was hilarious, though I hope next time we can break out of it without an official 3-2-1-RUN countdown.
- Everyone who took a photograph or complimented my costume on either day - the comments kept me from curling up and whining about my feet or my spine. One young girl asked me for a photo and I nearly died of how cute she was.
- The savvy people who filmed our performance.

Rants (Not many!)
- The announcement that interrupted our skit in the Sunday Masquerade! It managed to really confuse me. I don't think it was even that necessary. Another happened during my Saturday entry, but that sounded more necessary. I thought they'd just got the wrong track for my entry at first.
- Going around bare-foot is beyond disturbing. I had no idea the expo floor was that dirty. But it was nothing a good shower couldn't fix.

[megacosplayer]

thanks: thanks to everyone really! i had an awesome time and cant wait for next expo
thanks to my Lopmon for being so uber awshum!
thanks to namine' for whoring it out with me XD i kid. thanks for being awshum and stuffs
and a big thanks to joe for skipping for us and for being supportive. your pure awesome joe!

rants: ive recently found out that the winners for the masquerade are made before it even starts. this is related to pre-judging. i personally think that this is unfair......cant be like the good old days no?

[sjbonnar]

thanks: thanks to everyone really! i had an awesome time and cant wait for next expo
thanks to my Lopmon for being so uber awshum!
thanks to namine' for whoring it out with me XD i kid. thanks for being awshum and stuffs
and a big thanks to joe for skipping for us and for being supportive. your pure awesome joe!

rants: ive recently found out that the winners for the masquerade are made before it even starts. this is related to pre-judging. i personally think that this is unfair......cant be like the good old days no?

Where did you "find that out" because it's bull. The pre-judging defines the "construction" portion of the masquerade. They check your costume for it's construction in pre-judging and the actual masquerade you're judged on stage presence and performance.

Careful before you go making stupid accusations like that ok?

[valdora]

Thanks:

Everyone who spoke, hugged, glomped and generally were great to me. I had lost my group earlier in the day and was alone for the day but being stopped so many times and talking to loads of cool people made up for it.

Everyone who stopped me and complimented me, trust me I was not tired of posing. I must have been hundreds of photos but it was great to be treated like a celeb. What I get for choosing a 70 year old icon with so many fans! hehe

To all the Joker and Harley Quinns I posed with. Some awesome shots that have yet to surface were taken, one has so far.

Everyone who loves the character and treated me as he.

ALL THE NICE FOLKS!

Rants:

Everyone who sung the old 60's Batman theme! I know I was asking for it but in the way some did it I felt like I was being made fun of and that should not happen at these kinda things. It was 50 years ago for gods sake! You wanna sing a theme then sing Elfmans (albeit hard)

Heat! For anyone who saw me my eye makeup ran and was gone by midday (I arrived at 11!). And if anyone spoke to me or saw me when I removed the mask they saw how dripping with sweat I was. AC anyone?


My bag breaking, I know it was plastic but carrying back my suit in a bundle wasa nightmare. I was always checking to see if a glove had fallen out! And the logo is all screwed up now.

Where were the shows? The guest? It was hard to navigate the place or find out where anything was.

The event staff had no clue about where to go either! I was told a million times to go to the media desk when i already had my ticket. I asked where to go to get in! You could have just taken it dam you!

Things to blame on me:

Choosing the Begins belt as opposed to the pocket one, man I will have frank millers one next time. Carrying stuff around with no bag and no pockets sucks.

All in all fun fun fun lol

[Manga Girl]

Thanks:
- To everybody who came and said how much they loved my Lillymon costume (I was very self-consious about wearing the dress all day )
- To jacko360 and wetnoodle for recording parts of the masquerade for me while I had to dissapear for the pre-judging
- Again to jacko360 for getting Mike McFarland's signature for me
- To Nessie-chan for organising a great rave
- To the Jessie and James who danced with me in the Rave, Digimon and Pokemon mixture ftw!
- To Adziu and Pillsbury for joining in the Digimon group on stage
- To seraphim_cry for the photoshoot on both days, you rock!
- To picklesofdoom for making a neko badge for me!
- To everyone who fixed my wings especially RanmaSyaoranSaotome who fixed them a lot ^^;
- To everybody on the forums who I met, thank you for best weekend in a long time and forgetting my worries and troubles
- To everyone who let me take pictures of their costumes.
- To Ilpala, Granny Gertrude and the rest of the gang the cosplay desk especially for the water while waiting to go on stage

Rants:
- I know everyone has said this but too crowded and boiling!!
- Someone putting an empty bottle of coke in my Lillymon hat and running off. I was not amused ¬_¬
- After coming of the stage during the masquerade (on Saturday) we weren't allowed to watch the rest of the entrants and being told by a steward to move down the corridor away from the stage every 10 minutes ¬_¬

I'll try and remember more if I can

[Ogiplexwolf]

Thanks so much to:

My parents- for driving us there!
All the nice people who gave me a smile and complimented my clothes
All those who ASKED for hugs and didn't just jump on me and half strangle me from behind!
TokyoToys- for my cute chibi kakashi keyring
The Astral Gypsy- For my Naruto Fanbook
Neo-For my death Note issue
Everyone who organised the day and made it truly the best day of my life!
All of the cosplayers who agreed to take photos
All of those who liked my outfit!

Rants (sorry...)

This wierd 'Naruto' cosplayer who jumped on my friend and gave her a hug (scared her to death!)
The wierdo mask guys (what were they doing?)
The plushie prices! The small L plushie was £25-00 and a death note notebook for £20-00!!!!! :0 The ones on ebay are £8-00 inc. P&P!

Everything else went perfectly- thank you so much again!!!

[Granny Gertrude]

ive recently found out that the winners for the masquerade are made before it even starts. this is related to pre-judging. i personally think that this is unfair......cant be like the good old days no?

We changed how judging worked based on the results of the cosplayer survey. We will be starting a formal discussion thread on the cosplay forum for how people felt it went shortly.

We know not everyone will like it, but popular opinion was that we should at least try it.

[picklesofdoom]

The plushie prices! The small L plushie was £25-00 and a death note notebook for £20-00!!!!! :0 The ones on ebay are £8-00 inc. P&P!

Is it fair to say that everyone was peeved by the Plushie prices then. There didn't seem to be any set price like last year and everytime I asked about something it kept going up? The small L at £25 is rediculous! More so than the tiddly mushroom that I wanted....

EBAY it is LoL =^__^=

That really annoyed me acctually- the thing with plushies is that I make it tradition to buy one (or two) at each Expo. The first one I went too I brought a Moogle, last one Axel and Roxas.... *cries* I DIDN'T GET ONE THIS YEAR!!!!!!

LoL

Thanks:
- To picklesofdoom for making a neko badge for me!

Your very Welcome Glad you like it! Meow! =^__^=


As for the Masq. I really liked how it was organised this year. Having the tickets and those going to watch were kept in a seperate space while queuing up. It was good because as a popular event it gets very crowded and it meant that all of us were kept out of the hall LOL! And stopped us from getting told off by staff for getting in the way and clogging up the space. LOL

[KellyJane]

THANKS
- The free photoshoot for cosplayers was an awesome idea. We needed more things like this, and less commercialism.
- Letting people collapse in the outer hallway without telling them to move on was nice.
- Free water brought to us in the queue backstage on the Sunday Masquarade

RANTS
- I was personally very upset with the pre-judging. I know several other people who were not too happy with it either. It almost felt like we were being cheated, as we were never even TOLD that winners would be decided at the pre-judging. We assumed it was just so you could get a closer look at our cosplays before we performed. Performance is part of the cosplay experience. Having an awesome costume is one thing, but getting into character and making that cosplay come alive is the real talent. The Sweeney Todd cosplayer was proof of that. I honestly thought I was watching Johnny Depp at work.
- Having everyone have to run from one side of the expo hall to the Masq. hall at the other side. Very impractical... not to mention perhaps difficult for people who may have had disabilities or walking problems.
- Much too busy on the Saturday. Could barely move.

Uhm, that's all I can think of.

[sjbonnar]

Pre-Judging wasn't the final decision in it...

GG I think how the masquerade is judged needs to be posted again...

But basically people, there are three kinds of points awarded. A good 40% is based on construction I believe, which is what the pre-judging decided. There is a section for performance, which is what the judges for the masquerade were doing. They were judging on performance.

[Kitty]

And there was a specific performance prize.

I'm kind of impressed with how the Masquerade flowed so smoothly this year, though I suppose if I was participating it'd feel... odd. But generally, I'd say that it was an improvement.

[KellyJane]

If the Audience Choice and Best Performance were chosen on the day, then why were some of the AC and BP groups told to "wait to go back on stage" the second they stepped off, despite having a LOT of other contenders still to go?