20.7.14

The London Film and Comic Con 2014

FILM/COMIC CON VIRGINS NO MORE

Yes! London Film and Comic Con! Finally, after all these years, I have been to one for the first time ever. My nerdgasm rite of passage have been ticked on the checklist. Me and my friends Mario and Pat trooped to the Earl's Court Exhibition Centre at London hoping to see the coolest and biggest stars of tv, film and comic legends as well.



It was a weekend event from 11th to 13th July, and we attacked on Saturday. Slated to appear were stars from Game of Thrones, Star Wars, Doctor Who, TNA wrestling stars, comic book legends, book writers and even Stan Lee himself. It also featured the sleek display of Transformers' vehicles (not the actual robots sadly) and an exhibition of the tv series Sherlock. The event can let you take autographs, photoshoots and of course interact with fellow geeks and fans. Stalls and shops were also set up inside for cool merchandise.

We hoped to get day tickets for entrance as the online selling were already done. The same as goes for the autograph or photoshoot tickets, crossing our fingers to get close to THE Lena Headey, who plays the popular Cersei Lannister of GoT.



And then WHAM! BAM! OOF!

The number of people who showed up for the tickets were staggering. Even the organisers were telling us they can't promise the people of entry since it ends by 6PM, and that was as early as noon time! And by some chance and luck, probably through a break in the time-space continuum, we were able to get in after more than 4 hours of queueing in the line. And it was still worth it!



COSPLAY

It was crazy and to state it was a rare hot sunny day, but we tried to amuse and entertain ourselves by looking at the cosplayers. We did manage to take some of their photos and interact with them too. Some were superb being in-character of their chosen fictional character. Some cosplayers made their own costumes, now that's passion!

Here I rank my own Top 10 cosplayers of the day.

I based it on: uniqueness, effort, 'acting in character', over-all look and degree of difficulty (especially it was a very hot day hitting 25 deg C). Kudos to these cosplayers!




# 10. The Starks. 
Sansa does resemble the actress a little bit and I like her stone-cold look here. 
Jon Snow knows nothing for wearing winter clothes.


# 9. Gas masked Trio

I'm not entirely sure what character they're from. They wear plain clothes, and gas masks. 
But they did it so well under the heat. And their 'game': they randomly chase and corner strangers on the queue. Now that's horror in the summer done right.


# 8. Marshmallow Man.

There were some Ghostbuster cosplayers, but none like this Marshmallow Man. He/She was consistent and never took the costume off whilst in the long line. If only Slimer was around.


# 7. The Lord.

There may be some Thors, but none will be as powerful as the Son of God. 
He did effortlessly resemble the Lord. And he walked barefooted!


# 6. Archangel

Plus points for the old-school X-man look and the feathery wings. He gamely posed when he noticed we were pointing our cameras on him.



# 5. Buzz Lightyear

He was wearing carrying Buzz's suit inside the stadium and that you could hear his heavy steps. 
I think it was mostly made of plastic material, but nevertheless it does take a super-human effort to wear it with a smile.


# 4. deadmau5

I'm not a fan of the dj. But I'm giving this dude high props and ranking. He was behind us in the long queue, for 4+ hours, and NEVER took the head gear off. Plus points for the cool shirt.


# 3. The Penguin.

There were Batmans, Banes, Robins, Catwomans. There is another Penguin dude, but none better than this chap. He was in full character mode, gamely took photos with the people in the line.
He was speaking with Danny DeVito voice as well. Brilliant.


# 2. Mario Kart gang.

Mario. Luigi. Toadstool. Princess. On karts.
King Koopa won't be pleased.



And the top cosplayer I've found on the day:



#1. Emmet from The Lego Movie.

He was the lone Lego dude. Full gear with hands, plus he was walking on shoes made of cardboard boxes. Yes he did indeed take his headgear off from here, but it was the end of the day. He was also letting other fans take on his headgear for a photo-op. Now that's topnotch.





Here are some of the honourable mentions that my camera caught on that day. Do you agree on my list? I'll let you be the judge.






















 THE STARS

We might have failed to gain tickets for the autograph and photo shoot, but we were still persistent and managed to get some paparazzi-quality snaps of the stars.


Here's one of my favourite TV villains ever, Robert Knepper. I loved/hated him on Prison Break as 'T-Bag'. Note his shirt where he says his famous line as 'SALID.'

He did smile when I shouted 'TBAG!!!'

 Kristian Nairn was one of the popular actors in Game of Thrones. He does look very friendly and lovable as his character Hodor.

We asked him what his favourite thing to do with his nose was and he whispered:
'HO-DOR.'




Beside him was Bran Stark, played by Isaac Hempstead Wright.

No, he was not carried by Hodor, which was a letdown.





The Queen Regent Cersei Lannister was the most popular at the autograph line. Probably matching Stan Lee levels, which I can't confirm really. But security was too tight that I have to use my zoom lens for this rushed shot.

No weren't taken down by the Castle Guards.







WWF/WWE/TNA Wrestler Al Snow!

Love the WWE Attitude Era when his popularity was at its peak. Any wrestling fan will not forget his HEAD as shown here. A Hardcore champ does chill too!







Mickie James! Her crazy antics made her a favourite WWE Diva and now on TNA.


Lita was my favourite WWE Diva when she and Edge were the hated power couple during their time. Her tats were awesome too.











An epic ComicCon would not be complete without a Darth Vader. But when you see the man who played THE Darth Vader, Dave Prowse, you know you had a good day. Really awesome to see the man behind the arguably most popular movie villain of all time.



THE LOOT

If only I could be a millionaire for some strange reason, I would've bought the whole place full of cool merchandises. But who needs them if you've collected all the Dragon Balls?


I wish I did buy them but I passed on the Dragon Balls. I'll let the saiyans do their thing.

Here's my actual loot damage. Bought 3 Avengers hardcover graphic novels for 20£ in total. 
And sold into the Micro Drone 2.0 for a special sale of £60.


I'll post my review on this Micro Drone soon. 



That's it for now. Big applause to the organisers for a huge success. It was a thrill of an adventure. It was nice to see people of all ages, from infants to even elderly people on their costumes having fun and everyone sharing their hobbies and interests. It's never too old to feel young. Go for something you're passionate about and you could never go wrong. 

On to the next adventure and more comic cons to be conquered.

To be continued!!!




No comments

Post a Comment

© The GZT. | All rights reserved.
BLOG TEMPLATE HANDCRAFTED BY pipdig