FanimeCon 2010 Wrap up: Part 5 of 5 – John’s View

As Jon pointed out in part 1, I am doing my own post about my Fanime experience.

We arrived via our respective motorcycles and pulled into the Hilton parking garage around 2:30 PM and thankfully were able to checkin early. After sherpaing our bags to the room, we changed and headed down to check out the con. Before we had even gotten to the Dealers Hall, we heard a shrill cry break the relative silence, we both stopped and looked toward the sound, just as it glomped me at full speed and ran off. We both looked at each other and busted out laughing. Jon was disappointed that he didn’t get a picture. I was more surprised than anything by the small woman with a backpack who ran full tilt into me, glomped, and then ran off again. A fine way to start the con I decided.

Checking out the Dealers Hall and Artists Alley was fun and it was nice to be somewhere that was meant to handle a multitude of people between the aisles, rather than the sardine can that is standard at every gun show I’ve ever attended. Jon assured me that it would get much more packed the following day, and it did, but it was never as bad as a gun show in Reno. To be fair though, there are rarely any cosplayers at a gun show (the occasional “Wild West” getup is about it).

Over the course of the weekend I saw 3 other Vashes. I talked to one of the other Vashes and he said he had gotten his costume from Hot Topic a few years back which I thought was pretty darn nifty; he (like myself) was Vash all weekend. The last Vash I saw (and only saw him one day) was this guy who had a pretty incredible leather costume.
I also saw 2 Wolfwoods (both with crosses), and managed to get a couple pictures with one. He had made his cross and it was indeed functional (and heavy!), in that it popped out as a huge gun. He pointed out something that I had been sort of noticing all weekend: half the props you see people walking around violate the con policies. The policies are mostly there so that they can get rid of the people/props who are creating problems, and if they say your prop isn’t allowed, then you just take it back to your room and leave it there. Next time, I’ll bring the gun that was beautifully painted for me by my good friend, Ashley (who will eventually get her costume shop open to the public so everyone else can partake in her excellent work).

The con graciously provided WiFi at the con, and you would generally see a small crowd near the router throughout the day. It was a bit disappointing to not have it in the room, and neither Jon nor I were going to pay $6 per day for it when we could easily get it elsewhere for free (me downstairs, he via his Nexus One). On the topic of our room, it was nice, and provided a good respite for when we needed to decompress (read: take the costume off for a few minutes) in the middle of the day (I know this is an anime related post, but please stop thinking yaoi thoughts – and if you don’t know what that is, for the sake of your job, don’t google it at work). At one point, Jon seriously managed to lose his shoes in the room (complete with swearing), much to my own amusement.

One of my favorite activities at Fanime was the Swap Meet on Friday. It was a blast going through the gaming hall and seeing what everyone had to offer, as Jon pointed out, we made a couple circuits, much fun had by all. I was disappointed that they only do it on Thursday and Friday night; it would have been great if they also did it Saturday night or perhaps Saturday night instead of Thursday night.

As Jon pointed out, staying for Monday was not worth it. There weren’t any deals that I noticed and I had already bought what I wanted the previous night. Next time, I would definitely leave Sunday. I also think that bringing a car rather than motorcycle would have been a better idea, as Jon and I were both getting kind of crazy with our packing strategies as we left the hotel.

Last but not least, here is a picture of me in costume.