Sunday 19 July 2015

London Film and Comic Con 2015 = AWESOME!!!!

The weekend of 17-19/07/15 was the Summer London Film and Comic Con ( LFCC ). I will come out and say it straight off the bat. This was one of the BEST cons I've been to in a long time. I really enjoyed myself. It had it's problems but nothing that detracted form my enjoyment.


This year is the 30th anniversary of Back to the Future and they had a big presence there. Stars from the films there like Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd and a host of co-starts. They had props mock ups of the clock tower for photo's and a fan made Delorean time machine. And this brought a lot of people to the convention the tickets and photos with the actors sold out very quickly. Also Sigourney Weaver and Bill Paxton were there and this probably brought a lot more people to the convention. The turn out was massive i have never been to a LFCC this crowded before. 
This years LFCC was at London Olympia. This looks to be the new home for the con as Earls Court was taken down and turned in to flats or something. I am not sure how i feel about that. I have been going to Earls Court for a decade and a half now and i always looked forward to it. But i am sure i will get used to the new place. It felt bigger as the con was spread over multiple floors the ground floor was the main dealer area and prop photos were done there the first floor was a secondary dealer areas and the main stage and signing area. the Second floor was a gaming area and artist ally. Finally the third floor was the second stage and smaller signing area. It was also an area where you could find a space and sit on the floor and get a rest. And it was this that i think helped make this a more enjoyable con. normally i would walk round see a few things then get a bite to eat then walk round again then go home. But this time i was able to sit and rest for ten to twenty minutes before heading off to a talk or photo and so on. This really helps to brake up the day and before i knew it the con was closing. I have only been to two cons till closing before this. So i am taking that as a good sign for the future of this convention.

I meet up with a friend in the morning and made our way to the con. once there we got in to the queue and we became very surprised by the number of people in line. The line ran from the train station up the side of the Olympia building and went up to the high street.... We were not prepared for what we saw when the line started to move. Once we started to move round the corner and started to head to the main entrance we saw a second line just as long going from the station to the high street in the opposite direction. Normally there would be two lines one shorter for the VIP/Gold ticket holder and the other for everyone else. But this was two lines for normal ticket holders... SO that was a LOT of people attending. When we got in it was already crowded and we were meeting a friend of a friend who had come over from Japan for her first international convention. We came to the con at different times so we were in different queues and agreed to meet once she came in. So we knew we had a few minutes to kill so we decided to buy a program and find out where we had to go for a Jeremy Bulloch in his Boba Fett costume photo..... Problem was because it was so crowed and the con was split over three floors we got lost in the push of the crowd and the lay out was not very well thought out. But we eventually gave up trying to found where had to go for the photo and our friend had finally got in to the con. so we when to meet her on the third floor... We got lost again. we got stuck on the first floor and could not find the stairs or lift. These were not well sign posted. But we finally found our way to the third floor. meet up and came up with a game plan of what we need to do and when we need to do it. With at all sorted we started to enjoy ourselves. 

As i have said above it was very crowded a little too crowded maybe. Not as bad as the October 2013 London Expo, but bad enough. I hope the show runners learn from this con and improve the next one. spreading it over the three floors is great i really liked that. So high hopes and with the caliber of guest stars like Sigourney Weaver and Bill Paxton not to mention actors like Hayley Atwell attending our conventions it just shows that the UK conventions are becoming bigger and more important. So hopefully we get more guest of that caliber... Also There were a lot of wrestlers there such as Kurt Angle and Rey Misterio. I have not watched wrestling in years i mean the last time i watched it was the early 2000's but their big names and that is great that they came. 

I had mention above that i had a photo with Jeremy Bulloch in his Boba Fett Costume. This was great and the first Star Wars costumed photo i have got take. The others have all been Star Trek one taken at the big Star Trek cons held in London a few year ago.  



There was a lot of sellers and i had a great time walking round and seeing so many thing to buy or put on the list of things to pick up in the future. So of cause i spent a little money on a few thing.... 



Got two cushions and cool Transformers and a Voltron one. as soon as i saw Voltron i had to have it. My friend has said that i am starting a collection and i am now making it a thing to go to a con just to look at cushions.... 
He's not wrong... 
That can't be a good sign...
We were there till closing and i saw something that i was looking at on line last month. 
I was the companys banner as i was walking around and remembered they sold the Lightsaber form Star Wars Ep7 The Force Awakens. I had a look at the stall and saw it there. I thought the price was a little high so i left and carried on looking around. Then as the con was closing i decided to get it. 


I don't know if i am disappointed or not. It's a cool looking prop from afar but up close it looks very plasticly. I am happy that i got it after all its a Ep 7 lightsaber and it will do till i see the officially licensed one prop from a company like EFX. But it just feels very cheap in the hand. As long as it keep it on the top shelf then it looks ok for the time being. 

All in all a really good day we all had fun and saw some actors Like Tim Russ and Jason David Frank walking around. Reading the program it looks like there is a new con being added to next years line up. A LFCC Spring con in February 27-28/02/16 and from the ad it looks like it will be a Star Wars heavy con. So i will defiantly be going to that. And the dates for the LFCC Winter con has been set 07-08/11/15. I hope they do another costume photo shoot. I guess i will need to do work on Vader then for the next con.    
    
       
   

Sunday 12 July 2015

That was a waste of a good Saturday...

This weekend saw Hyper Japan take over the O2 arena in London. This is a new venue,  I have been to it when it was at Earls Court and London Olympia. I have always come away from this Convention/Festival with an empty feeling or out right disappointment. So Last year i decided to give it a miss after last summers one. i didn't go to the one held in the winter as I had given up on it, it was just as disappointing as ever. So i was ok with taking it off the Con Calendar for 2015. Then i heard it had change venue and so i had hoped this would of improved thing.  


The O2 is a big place and they had divided in to separate areas and in theory makes senses as it will make moving around easier. But alas it was not meant to be. When it was at Earls Court it was a big con with lots of sellers, stages with music and talks and the stalls with Japanese tours and learn Japanese type of things. No not all the sellers there last time were from the UK a lot of them were from Japan. This years the stages were smaller and Most of the sellers i saw were not from Japan. Unless they come over to the UK every few months as i have seen them at other conventions through out the year. Also there was a lot fewer of them here this time. The Nintendo had a decent present showing the new Mario Maker, the new Star Fox game as well as a few others. Namco was there and they have started to become a bigger part of the UK convention scene over the last Two years. So apart from the gaming everything felt like a Car Boot sale. With a poor lay out and it made the whole thing feel very small. And that is never a good thing.

I got there just as it opened so there was not a crazy amount of people there so i was able to get a good look around and....
How can i put this.... 
we saw everything and was back at the station to head home in less than an hour. 
So even waiting to go to one of the stages for a talk or something was not really an option as there was or is nothing to keep your interest while you wait. Also a lot of the restaurants at the O2 didn't open till 11 am and i was there from 9 am. When we got there the ques was small so moving around was nice a easy. But when we left the que stretched from the ticket booths at the entrance all the way to North Greenwich Station.

It wasn't a complete waste of time i know i sound very disappointed ( nothing new i know ) but i did pick up a few bits. I finally gave in and GOT a Japanese Kitkat.... £4.50 for a KitKat... really that was the cheapest i saw them at... i got three for £10 but still £4.50 other stalls had them at between £5-6.... Not good not good at all.  But i can finally cross that off my list of things to try at a con. 


The Raspberry KitKat was very nice as well as the Green tea one. The third one was also green and i have no idea what flavor it was but it was different not saying i liked it nor am i saying i hated it but it was very different. But if you don't try new things you will never learn.
I so got an LED Optimus Prime and Grimlock.


This could be a start of an SD transformer collection... I got the Nemesis Prime at the last MCM Expo so now i have three i guess i need to pick up some of the others and at around £7 each i can't complain to much. hopefully i will get a couple at the LFCC next weekend. If not i have booked my tickets to the October Expo.

So in all not a good day. I have decided to cross off the Hyper Japan event from my 2016/future calendar. I don't see a point in going if i am constantly disappointed with the event. And the money i save can be put to better things. 
Next weekend id the LFCC and i am looking forward to it. i know i will have a better time there. 
If you did go to Hyper Japan let me know your thoughts on it in the comments below. 




Sunday 5 July 2015

A sad time that puts everything on hold.

I feel like i must apologize for not doing anything in the month of June. No updates or posts but it had been a hard month for me and my family. My aunt passed way and we had the funeral ten days later. So very thing was put on hold and i did not attend Collectomaina in Milton Keynes. Most of my free time was spent at the hospital and so on. After all family must come first.

But That is now over so lets look to the future. I am going to Hyper Japan and the London Film and Comic Con in July and have a weeks holiday so i am hoping to get s fair bit done and i will keep you this blog updated.

Just a little edit to this post
I have just started the It's all down hill from here Facebook page.
Go to
https://www.facebook.com/geadun7

Not much on it yet soon i will be posting stuff as and when things come up.