MOMOCON!
Back from Momocon. My room is a complete and utter mess and I've got a lot of stuff to catch up on. Also NashiCon is rapidly approaching and I've got two commissions, a bunch of stuff to make for Artist's Alley, the entire OTAKU game to put together and also the website to update and the maid cafe stuff to help plan.
Needless to say, I'm gonna be busy. xP So my Momocon con-report will be short and sweet.
This just about sums up my weekend:
I'm not sure how, but it does. XD
So zipchan, yugikitsune and I were still finishing costumes right up to the last minute. During the car trip down there I was finishing my (failtacular) boot covers and my awesome bag for Yolei/Miyako. We left a lot later than expected on Friday, but got to the hotel in a timely manner. The night was pretty chill, we just hung around talking and stuff. I helped my Ran-Fan finish her automail arm. :3
Saturday morning we were...supposed to get up at the crack of dawn. Somehow we got up a little later than expected. Most of us got into costume fairly quickly, though there were some stragglers. I'd gone down much earlier (at like 7:30) to steal the computer lab in the hotel for a little while to figure out when badge pickups opened, and it was really freaking cold in the hotel, so I figured (stupidly) it would also be cold outside. Plus I also thought we'd we walking over to MomoCon at about 9 or 9:30 in the morning. I seemed to forget the rule of conventions - if there are more than two cosplayers in a group (or if one of them happens to be zipchan - ilu roomie, but you take so long to put on costumes!) then you will always, always be either late or rushing. We'd wanted to get to MomoCon around 10 to start picking up badges. I'm not sure when we got there, but it wasn't that early. But it didn't matter, because as per usual at any convention the pre-registration line was hideously long and the at-the-door registration, which was limited, was a breeze. The badges were limited, but we still got our badges anyway. I wonder if MomoCon accounted for the people that saw the pre-registration line, went "yeah right" and hopped in the at-the-door registration line?
After getting our badges we hopped into the Artist's Alley (the first one, anyway). I proceeded to nerd about Kamen Rider for a while with shadowivy20x6 , then ran into a few other people I knew in the Artist's Alley. We wandered around for a while and went over to the area where the costume contest registration was being held, then waited outside (in the shade!) while zip and yugi got their costumes judged. I was wearing my (fail/stage 1/to be vastly improved on) Yolei/Miyako, zip was in her (awesome) Balalaika (from Black Lagoon), yugi was in her Pirate!England (from Hetalia), dealunae1630 was wearing her winter!Revy (also Black Lagoon) and another friend of our's was a spoiler character from Durararara! (I can't remember if she has an LJ account).
So my Yolei was really fun to wear! Having a functional bag that was actually part of the costume was wonderful. I got recognized by quite a few people, and got a lot of hugs or people wanting to know if I was wearing the costume to other cons. ^^ I ran into a Wizardmon cosplayer and SPAZFLAILED, especially since I knew the cosplayer and had no idea she was planning a Digimon costume! So Yolei was a fun costume to wear. Unfortunately I picked the wrong day to wear it - I was roasting. It was a beautiful, beautiful warm sunshiney day that would have been perfect for me to be wearing Ling or even Roberta at the time. But I wore Yolei, who wears a turtleneck and long pants and gloves. DX I was also wearing my glasses that I only usually wear to drive, a long and slightly heavy wig, and a helmet that wasn't heavy so much as it still smelled like spraypaint. So I was kind of miserable for a long time, but I got used to it. I stayed in Yolei for most of the day.
After costume contest judging we wandered over to a friend's car and took off our wigs and ate some snacks for a little while. Yugi changed into her last minute!Kotoha costume (from Shinkenger) and dealunae changed into her trap!Haku costume because it was cooler. I opted to stay in Yolei because my only other choice was Robert and, as much as I like the Roberta costume, I wanted this one to get some more wear before I took it off. We prowled around the outdoor Artist's Bazaar which was an excellent idea on the part of MomoCon. I met someone else that does what I'm calling "CharaGiri", which are plushie Onigiri with features that are distinctly that of an anime character, Pokemon, etc. He not only makes those, he makes them really, really well. I felt like someone who was meeting their rival for the first time and knew there was a lot of distance between them, but I also know that I have to step up my game. I must. It was really exciting! And he had some really cute onigiri, too, including a little SteinGiri that had a bolt that actually cranked.
We continued prowling to the other Artist's Alley, then waited for a while for the only Saturday panel we were really planning on attending - the Sentai panel. Which from the description sounded like it would be a lot of fun! But the panel was a complete flop. =[ The girl running it was apparently a "Kamen Rider expert" and her "sentai expert" wasn't coming, so she instead of at least giving us an introduction to sentai, which I assume anyone at least familiar with Kamen Rider could do, she picked three random people from the audience to come up and do it themselves.
Bad idea. The panel turned into a fanboy pissing contest. A boring fanboy pissing contest. A lot of people bailed. Hell, even we bailed after only a few minutes. Complete waste of my time. If I ever go to another panel and see that that girl is running it, I will promptly leave. Our tokusatsu panel at Animazement is going to be freaking spectacular compared to that load of bullshit. I was really looking forward to the sentai panel, too! After the one at Katsucon I was expecting it to be at least decent. -_-
So after bailing on the panel we all pretty much split up. I can't remember much of the afternoon until it was time to wait for the costume contest to start. I got some pretty decent seats about 30 minutes early and waited. And waited. And waited. About the time the contest was supposed to start, I called zip - and apparently that hadn't even been lined up yet. So we went to an artist's alley and came back - still nothing. We attempted the Dealer's Room but the line was crazy. Still nothing. We went to the artist's bazaar. Still nothing. Finally, the contest started over an hour late. We could have been hitting up the dealer's room in that hour, or browsing artist's alley, or going to a panel or something instead of just waiting around like retards for the contest to start.
And once it did start - okay. Having the contest outside? Great idea, the weather was gorgeous. Using the fountain as a stage - also a great idea? You know what wasn't a great idea? Using bull horns to announce the contest. Not having the audience shut the hell up. Etc. Also not a great idea was writing "reserved for the contestants" in chalk on the seats they were going to be sitting on. Chalk. Where they were sitting. For a costume contest. Brilliant freaking idea, Momocon. After delaying the contest for over an hour for unknown reasons. It wasn't even like they were lining people up and that's why it took so long, they just sort of had everyone line up however they wanted and announced them in that order, so we had a novice right next to a walk-on right next to a master category... confusing and convoluted as all hell. But everybody walked and got cheers and looked cool. The winners deserved to win and all...but I don't think the contest was worth my time, especially not with the hour delay.
But after the contest we got the hell out of MomoCon and went to change into our Black Lagoon costumes. We decided to walk back to the con for some reason that we are now regretting and stop for food along the way. Our original plan was Varsity, but we stumbled across a Hardees before them that was cheaper and decided to go with them. Yeah, never again. I'm officially adding Hardees to the list of restaurants I'm actively boycotting - strange how MomoCon always seems to add these to my list, right? Last year it was Waffle House, this year it's Hardees.
Anyway, we got in line at the Hardees - the first two of our group were relatively normally dressed, then there was yugi, who was dressed like the male Demon Twin - short silver hair, shota shorts, long coat, etc. Then there was zip in her Balalaika - blonde hair, business suit, and scar makeup. Last was me in my Roberta - braided hair, glasses, maid outfit. So it's not like were the most abnormal bunch people and, really, we're perfectly nice people and hadn't said or done anything to the dickweed who was taking orders - apparently he was the manager, too, which makes his behavior even more unexcusable. So he takes orders until he gets to zip. Then he proceeds to fill every order up to and including yugi's, who was right before her. All while even so much as looking at zip or saying something like "sorry for the delay, it'll be a second". Once he's filled orders he proceeds to bullshit around for another couple of minutes. I remark, loudly enough that I know he can hear and everybody else in line behind us can as well, "Wow, he's completely avoiding taking your order!". He does nothing. I remark even louder "I don't think we should eat at Hardees any more." Still nothing. He eventually stops being a dick and takes her order and my order. Then he fills my order first and doesn't even try to fill zip's - one of the other employees does it instead.
I'm filing a complaint, needless to say. I was ready to jump over the counter and rip this guy's head off by the time he stopped dicking around and filled our orders. I was probably a little too in character, but that was seriously annoying. And while we were eating we watched him dick around and be a complete asshole to a bunch of other cosplayers that came in after us. Seriously, not cool. Especially not if you're a manager. I want his bitch ass fired.
But after we ate we walked over to the MomoCon campus and got some awesome night shots in our Black Lagoon costumes, eventually heading back at about 10 or so at night (I think).
Sunday we got up, in costume and out of the hotel pretty quickly, though of course not as early as we wanted to. Our plan was to drive over to MomoCon, park in the garage behind the student center, and then be able to just leave from MomoCon whenever we decided to. But then we ran into a marathon that had the entirety of the campus blocked off from traffic! Seriously fucking annoying. Eventually we just decided to park in the Varsity parking lot and walk - in the cold semi-rainy conditions. And I was wearing Ling. Ling consists of bindings, an open jacket, karate pants and Chinese shoes. I was freezing. I have a penchant for picking the wrong costumes for the weather, apparently. But we got over to the campus and got inside. We'd originally been planning on going to the J-Dramas panel, but it was almost time for it to start by the time we got there and we wanted to prowl the Dealer's Room and Artist's Alley again and get some pictures, so reluctantly we opted to skip it.
Instead we ran into an Ed cosplayer who actually knew who me and my Ran-Fan were and got pictures with us! =D We went down to the cafeteria and asked a bunch of people for their garbage and asked one of the checkout ladies for a long receipt paper, and got pictures of Ran-Fan and I after "eating" and Ed spazzing about the tab. ^^ Then we moved outside and I got to faceplant into some pine straw for a few pictures. It is now my goal to get a "passed out" picture at every con I take Ling to. ^^ After picture tiems were over we prowled the Dealer's Room some more and then my Ran-Fan and dealunae had to leave, so we bade farewell to them. We chilled for a while up on the third floor, then decided it was probably time to leave and went to go find kamenriderpretz , who had spent most of Saturday sick and most of Sunday playing children's card games. xD We got some more pictures, and then finally we left. After changing shoes and putting on a shirt we headed out in search of a bathroom so that yugi could take out her contacts and zip could become a girl again (I opted to stay a boy, since the bindings weren't uncomfortable). We stopped at no less than three gas stations before we found a bathroom that didn't look like we would catch some horrible disease from using it. =< We stopped to eat at a Huddle House, which is a cheap knockoff of Waffle House if nobody knows (two people in the car with us didn't). The food was bland, the tea sucked, and the waitress had a horrible attitude, but yugi and I now have epic cosplay plans for hopefully AWA. =DDD
So MomoCon had it's ups and downs. It was a much more relaxed convention than the others I've been to, and always has been. This one was sort of lackluster, but I can't actually figure out why. I never go to panels, I can't remember ever going to an organized photoshoot at MomoCon...it wasn't as crowded as last year, the Dealer's Room and Artist's Alleys were both expanded and had some cool swag in them, and the costume contest is always late and poorly run. I guess it's because it was the same as last year that it was lackluster? I'm not complaining for a free con that was ridiculously fun, though.
Here are some of my favorite pictures/cosplayers/moments from MomoCon:
Awesome Wizardmon and my fail!Yolei.
Botan and Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho. There was actually a big group of YYH cosplayers but I don't think I ever saw all of them in the same place at the same time...
tohma2004 was one of our con roomies. :D With our powers combined, we represent every color in the spectrum! MY EYESSSSSS
I believe my words when I finally saw this picture were "wow, I really look like Ling! oO"
Oh pine straw...
Philip gets a picture with a saint bernard Akamaru
RIDERRR DRIIIIIVING!
Edea from FF8
I didn't really take a ton of pictures at this con, but the rest (including video from the costume contest, though only of people I know) can be found on mah photobucket here: http://s239.photobucket.com/albums/ff239/artikgato/MomoCon%202010/
Entries that are sure to follow: spazflail about the end of the YamaNade j-drama, recent episodes of Double, flailing and lists about NashiCon, etc.
Needless to say, I'm gonna be busy. xP So my Momocon con-report will be short and sweet.
This just about sums up my weekend:
I'm not sure how, but it does. XD
So zipchan, yugikitsune and I were still finishing costumes right up to the last minute. During the car trip down there I was finishing my (failtacular) boot covers and my awesome bag for Yolei/Miyako. We left a lot later than expected on Friday, but got to the hotel in a timely manner. The night was pretty chill, we just hung around talking and stuff. I helped my Ran-Fan finish her automail arm. :3
Saturday morning we were...supposed to get up at the crack of dawn. Somehow we got up a little later than expected. Most of us got into costume fairly quickly, though there were some stragglers. I'd gone down much earlier (at like 7:30) to steal the computer lab in the hotel for a little while to figure out when badge pickups opened, and it was really freaking cold in the hotel, so I figured (stupidly) it would also be cold outside. Plus I also thought we'd we walking over to MomoCon at about 9 or 9:30 in the morning. I seemed to forget the rule of conventions - if there are more than two cosplayers in a group (or if one of them happens to be zipchan - ilu roomie, but you take so long to put on costumes!) then you will always, always be either late or rushing. We'd wanted to get to MomoCon around 10 to start picking up badges. I'm not sure when we got there, but it wasn't that early. But it didn't matter, because as per usual at any convention the pre-registration line was hideously long and the at-the-door registration, which was limited, was a breeze. The badges were limited, but we still got our badges anyway. I wonder if MomoCon accounted for the people that saw the pre-registration line, went "yeah right" and hopped in the at-the-door registration line?
After getting our badges we hopped into the Artist's Alley (the first one, anyway). I proceeded to nerd about Kamen Rider for a while with shadowivy20x6 , then ran into a few other people I knew in the Artist's Alley. We wandered around for a while and went over to the area where the costume contest registration was being held, then waited outside (in the shade!) while zip and yugi got their costumes judged. I was wearing my (fail/stage 1/to be vastly improved on) Yolei/Miyako, zip was in her (awesome) Balalaika (from Black Lagoon), yugi was in her Pirate!England (from Hetalia), dealunae1630 was wearing her winter!Revy (also Black Lagoon) and another friend of our's was a spoiler character from Durararara! (I can't remember if she has an LJ account).
So my Yolei was really fun to wear! Having a functional bag that was actually part of the costume was wonderful. I got recognized by quite a few people, and got a lot of hugs or people wanting to know if I was wearing the costume to other cons. ^^ I ran into a Wizardmon cosplayer and SPAZFLAILED, especially since I knew the cosplayer and had no idea she was planning a Digimon costume! So Yolei was a fun costume to wear. Unfortunately I picked the wrong day to wear it - I was roasting. It was a beautiful, beautiful warm sunshiney day that would have been perfect for me to be wearing Ling or even Roberta at the time. But I wore Yolei, who wears a turtleneck and long pants and gloves. DX I was also wearing my glasses that I only usually wear to drive, a long and slightly heavy wig, and a helmet that wasn't heavy so much as it still smelled like spraypaint. So I was kind of miserable for a long time, but I got used to it. I stayed in Yolei for most of the day.
After costume contest judging we wandered over to a friend's car and took off our wigs and ate some snacks for a little while. Yugi changed into her last minute!Kotoha costume (from Shinkenger) and dealunae changed into her trap!Haku costume because it was cooler. I opted to stay in Yolei because my only other choice was Robert and, as much as I like the Roberta costume, I wanted this one to get some more wear before I took it off. We prowled around the outdoor Artist's Bazaar which was an excellent idea on the part of MomoCon. I met someone else that does what I'm calling "CharaGiri", which are plushie Onigiri with features that are distinctly that of an anime character, Pokemon, etc. He not only makes those, he makes them really, really well. I felt like someone who was meeting their rival for the first time and knew there was a lot of distance between them, but I also know that I have to step up my game. I must. It was really exciting! And he had some really cute onigiri, too, including a little SteinGiri that had a bolt that actually cranked.
We continued prowling to the other Artist's Alley, then waited for a while for the only Saturday panel we were really planning on attending - the Sentai panel. Which from the description sounded like it would be a lot of fun! But the panel was a complete flop. =[ The girl running it was apparently a "Kamen Rider expert" and her "sentai expert" wasn't coming, so she instead of at least giving us an introduction to sentai, which I assume anyone at least familiar with Kamen Rider could do, she picked three random people from the audience to come up and do it themselves.
Bad idea. The panel turned into a fanboy pissing contest. A boring fanboy pissing contest. A lot of people bailed. Hell, even we bailed after only a few minutes. Complete waste of my time. If I ever go to another panel and see that that girl is running it, I will promptly leave. Our tokusatsu panel at Animazement is going to be freaking spectacular compared to that load of bullshit. I was really looking forward to the sentai panel, too! After the one at Katsucon I was expecting it to be at least decent. -_-
So after bailing on the panel we all pretty much split up. I can't remember much of the afternoon until it was time to wait for the costume contest to start. I got some pretty decent seats about 30 minutes early and waited. And waited. And waited. About the time the contest was supposed to start, I called zip - and apparently that hadn't even been lined up yet. So we went to an artist's alley and came back - still nothing. We attempted the Dealer's Room but the line was crazy. Still nothing. We went to the artist's bazaar. Still nothing. Finally, the contest started over an hour late. We could have been hitting up the dealer's room in that hour, or browsing artist's alley, or going to a panel or something instead of just waiting around like retards for the contest to start.
And once it did start - okay. Having the contest outside? Great idea, the weather was gorgeous. Using the fountain as a stage - also a great idea? You know what wasn't a great idea? Using bull horns to announce the contest. Not having the audience shut the hell up. Etc. Also not a great idea was writing "reserved for the contestants" in chalk on the seats they were going to be sitting on. Chalk. Where they were sitting. For a costume contest. Brilliant freaking idea, Momocon. After delaying the contest for over an hour for unknown reasons. It wasn't even like they were lining people up and that's why it took so long, they just sort of had everyone line up however they wanted and announced them in that order, so we had a novice right next to a walk-on right next to a master category... confusing and convoluted as all hell. But everybody walked and got cheers and looked cool. The winners deserved to win and all...but I don't think the contest was worth my time, especially not with the hour delay.
But after the contest we got the hell out of MomoCon and went to change into our Black Lagoon costumes. We decided to walk back to the con for some reason that we are now regretting and stop for food along the way. Our original plan was Varsity, but we stumbled across a Hardees before them that was cheaper and decided to go with them. Yeah, never again. I'm officially adding Hardees to the list of restaurants I'm actively boycotting - strange how MomoCon always seems to add these to my list, right? Last year it was Waffle House, this year it's Hardees.
Anyway, we got in line at the Hardees - the first two of our group were relatively normally dressed, then there was yugi, who was dressed like the male Demon Twin - short silver hair, shota shorts, long coat, etc. Then there was zip in her Balalaika - blonde hair, business suit, and scar makeup. Last was me in my Roberta - braided hair, glasses, maid outfit. So it's not like were the most abnormal bunch people and, really, we're perfectly nice people and hadn't said or done anything to the dickweed who was taking orders - apparently he was the manager, too, which makes his behavior even more unexcusable. So he takes orders until he gets to zip. Then he proceeds to fill every order up to and including yugi's, who was right before her. All while even so much as looking at zip or saying something like "sorry for the delay, it'll be a second". Once he's filled orders he proceeds to bullshit around for another couple of minutes. I remark, loudly enough that I know he can hear and everybody else in line behind us can as well, "Wow, he's completely avoiding taking your order!". He does nothing. I remark even louder "I don't think we should eat at Hardees any more." Still nothing. He eventually stops being a dick and takes her order and my order. Then he fills my order first and doesn't even try to fill zip's - one of the other employees does it instead.
I'm filing a complaint, needless to say. I was ready to jump over the counter and rip this guy's head off by the time he stopped dicking around and filled our orders. I was probably a little too in character, but that was seriously annoying. And while we were eating we watched him dick around and be a complete asshole to a bunch of other cosplayers that came in after us. Seriously, not cool. Especially not if you're a manager. I want his bitch ass fired.
But after we ate we walked over to the MomoCon campus and got some awesome night shots in our Black Lagoon costumes, eventually heading back at about 10 or so at night (I think).
Sunday we got up, in costume and out of the hotel pretty quickly, though of course not as early as we wanted to. Our plan was to drive over to MomoCon, park in the garage behind the student center, and then be able to just leave from MomoCon whenever we decided to. But then we ran into a marathon that had the entirety of the campus blocked off from traffic! Seriously fucking annoying. Eventually we just decided to park in the Varsity parking lot and walk - in the cold semi-rainy conditions. And I was wearing Ling. Ling consists of bindings, an open jacket, karate pants and Chinese shoes. I was freezing. I have a penchant for picking the wrong costumes for the weather, apparently. But we got over to the campus and got inside. We'd originally been planning on going to the J-Dramas panel, but it was almost time for it to start by the time we got there and we wanted to prowl the Dealer's Room and Artist's Alley again and get some pictures, so reluctantly we opted to skip it.
Instead we ran into an Ed cosplayer who actually knew who me and my Ran-Fan were and got pictures with us! =D We went down to the cafeteria and asked a bunch of people for their garbage and asked one of the checkout ladies for a long receipt paper, and got pictures of Ran-Fan and I after "eating" and Ed spazzing about the tab. ^^ Then we moved outside and I got to faceplant into some pine straw for a few pictures. It is now my goal to get a "passed out" picture at every con I take Ling to. ^^ After picture tiems were over we prowled the Dealer's Room some more and then my Ran-Fan and dealunae had to leave, so we bade farewell to them. We chilled for a while up on the third floor, then decided it was probably time to leave and went to go find kamenriderpretz , who had spent most of Saturday sick and most of Sunday playing children's card games. xD We got some more pictures, and then finally we left. After changing shoes and putting on a shirt we headed out in search of a bathroom so that yugi could take out her contacts and zip could become a girl again (I opted to stay a boy, since the bindings weren't uncomfortable). We stopped at no less than three gas stations before we found a bathroom that didn't look like we would catch some horrible disease from using it. =< We stopped to eat at a Huddle House, which is a cheap knockoff of Waffle House if nobody knows (two people in the car with us didn't). The food was bland, the tea sucked, and the waitress had a horrible attitude, but yugi and I now have epic cosplay plans for hopefully AWA. =DDD
So MomoCon had it's ups and downs. It was a much more relaxed convention than the others I've been to, and always has been. This one was sort of lackluster, but I can't actually figure out why. I never go to panels, I can't remember ever going to an organized photoshoot at MomoCon...it wasn't as crowded as last year, the Dealer's Room and Artist's Alleys were both expanded and had some cool swag in them, and the costume contest is always late and poorly run. I guess it's because it was the same as last year that it was lackluster? I'm not complaining for a free con that was ridiculously fun, though.
Here are some of my favorite pictures/cosplayers/moments from MomoCon:
Awesome Wizardmon and my fail!Yolei.
Botan and Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho. There was actually a big group of YYH cosplayers but I don't think I ever saw all of them in the same place at the same time...
tohma2004 was one of our con roomies. :D With our powers combined, we represent every color in the spectrum! MY EYESSSSSS
I believe my words when I finally saw this picture were "wow, I really look like Ling! oO"
Oh pine straw...
Philip gets a picture with a saint bernard Akamaru
RIDERRR DRIIIIIVING!
Edea from FF8
I didn't really take a ton of pictures at this con, but the rest (including video from the costume contest, though only of people I know) can be found on mah photobucket here: http://s239.photobucket.com/albums/ff239/artikgato/MomoCon%202010/
Entries that are sure to follow: spazflail about the end of the YamaNade j-drama, recent episodes of Double, flailing and lists about NashiCon, etc.