Supanova Preview Night - “For the Children” *snicker*
Preview Night at Supanova Melbourne is the opportunity for those who pre-purchased passes for the whole weekend to go and collect your tickets/passes without having to worry about the hassle of the craziness of the Saturday morning.
As we had to make an emergency trip to a local shopping centre and to wait for clarrisani’s sister, StalkerofShadows (SoS), to arrive we made to the Preview night fashionably late.
The leisurely trip to the Melbourne showgrounds was via the joy that is the Melbourne public transport system. Train and then tram was our preferred method. The Melbourne showgrounds does have it’s own train station, but the line to it only runs when the show is on for 2 weeks once a year. So the final part of our journey has to be made via Tram, which interestingly enough runs through the middle of a roundabout at one stage!
After witnessing the inspectors on the train ‘deal’ with two young lads having a mock fight in the next carriage, we turned up at the showgrounds to discover that the charity auction was in full swing. We collected our passes; SoS had a lovely fluoro green armband she has to wear for the full weekend and if she takes it off, it will be invalidated. It is waterproof, so you can wear if while you shower. There was some small amusement, as the lady putting on the band appeared to be surprised at how small SoS’ wrist was. clarrisani and myself had lanyards and a pass given to us to denote that we were VIP’s. Now I hate to wear lanyards around my neck, when I have had to at work, I tend to carry it in my hand instead. Another round of chuckles from us emanated when we viewed the picture they have chosen as the background. Ianto flying through the air and firing the gun :D But I shall get past my dislike and wear it around my neck, as it has it’s advantages of “express queuing” and front row seats.
Passes collected we headed into the main Exhibition hall and the Madman Anime Theatre. None of us had dinner by this stage, so we decided to go to the café that adjoins the pavilion instead of heading in to see where they were up to on the charity auction.
Once fed we wandered in and took seats up the back to watch the auction. We arrived during the anime section and the ‘auctioneers’ were a couple of the voice over guests, Yuri, Lowenthal Tara Platt and Liam O’Brian. They were most amusing and there was a lot of extolling of us to raise the bids “for the children” said in slightly sincerely mocking voices. The banter and patter was excellent and they chose well in their auctioneers.
Quotes of the night included the following two gems.
“In case of atom bomb, hold up cloth map”
“Implied necrophilia is $300... for the children…”
The last one, was for two valentines cards signed by Yuri and Liam with the characters that they play in the X-men series. Once bidding had started, Paul Jenkins who is the writer/artist for the Origin Wolverine series wandered out and informed us all that he had a number in his head and if the winning bid made it to that number then the person winning would have their name in the new x-men origin one he is drawing and he would have Wolverine eviscerate them too. The number was quickly reached and then a bidding war between two girls started that kept going until it was eventually won for over $300!
A few people turned up in costume already. There was excitement from Yuri and Liam when one bidder appeared to be a cyberman. It was revealed that he wasn’t fully a cyberman, just the head. The rest of him looked remarkably like Ten in his favourite brown suit, so I guess he was CyberTen. Most of the others were for characters I had no idea about but they looked good.
We then wandered around and checked out where everything was being set up. Watched a little bit of “Van Von Hunter” which is about on par with the Privateers (sorry Yuri) for story telling and acting abilities. :D I think we watched more of it than most people would be able to before slowly ambling away from the showgrounds and back home.
Home, where Star Trek on blu-ray and in surround sound awaited us. SoS had never seen the movie so clarrisani and I educated her in the lensflare and wonder that is Star Trek XI.
Oh and most importantly we got our tickets for the cocktail party Saturday night. I know where it is being held, but I can’t tell you the secret location as we were asked numerous times to not reveal it. :D *zips lips and throws away the key*
It is now Saturday morning as I type this. Time to get out of bed and get ready in costume for the day.
Laters!