London Expo - This time I actually went inside!

May 25th, 2008 by Brack

Last October I made an aborted attempt at going to one of these MCM Expo things. I got there late, and the fast quantity of hyperactive teenage cosplayers made my blood run cold.

This time as a friend was coming down from Edinburgh I dragged myself along ~sorta~ on time, and thanks to judicious queue hopping, avoided the long wait for tickets.

The last time I described the show as having the impression of a grander version of the erstwhile Peterborough Sci-Fi and Fantasy Fair, the local comics/science-fiction/fantasy/horror/roleplaying/wargaming/hitting each other with pretend weapons/hitting each other with real weapons event in area I grew up in. The actual inside of an Expo holds up those comparisons (at least to the peak era of the Peterborough show in the early to mid-nineties).

It’s people selling things, people signing things and some panels. The layout’s somewhat disorientating, often I found myself turning round to places I’d just walked past and things I hadn’t seen would appear. Compared trade shows I’ve been too and some open exhibitions the layout was very poor. The sound for the panels and the “in-show” announcements was appalling throughout the morning, it was just a muddy overloud dirge. And we had no clue that we needed tickets to watch the cosplay event.

On the good side there were plenty of bargains to be had. Beez and Manga had very reasonably priced boxsets on sale. And Koei, unlike the other videogame exhibitors actually had product on sale as well on display.

I’m not in a hurry to come back to one of these things though. It’s not really aimed at me, as I am neither an anime/manga fan thats too young to go to a convention, nor a fan of genre film/tv (ugh I hate that term but it’s easier than typing sci-fi/fantasy/horror. What?) who wants an autograph or photo taken with their favourite basic cable tv star of choice.

Also: Whatever happened the fat Klingons that you always used to see at these sort of things? Has Star Trek fallen that out of favour nowadays? JJ Abrams, I want the Fat Klingons back where they belong! I find their absence disconcerting.

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EXPO NO GO

October 20th, 2007 by Brack

So I planned to go to this MCM Expo thingy today. I hear it’s a bit like the Peterborough Sci-Fi and Fantasy Fair, except without the great 15+ year-old poster of wizards and spacemen.

However, really I didn’t have much motivation for the shindig. The one earlier this year had Troma honcho Lloyd Kaufman attending and that one I’d have gone to had real life not interfered. Of this weekend’s guests only Dougie Braithwaite meant anything to me and he’d pulled out. So I was half heartedly dragging my ass to London. At least I’d get a change of scenery, some exercise and pick up a couple of manga volumes I thought.

Well I got to London and it hit me in the face this thing was on the wrong side of town for an easy trip. Especially as part of the Circle line was closed. I figured I’d get on the Central and go across town that way. Only Holborn had been evacuated, so I had to abandon that trip part way through. At this point I gave up on the whole Expo idea and got off at Oxford Circus and wandered along Oxford Street to Forbidden Planet and Gosh!

On the way I saw a man carrying a ferret. The ferret was wearing a high visibility lead. This suggests that the man has on occasion walked said ferret at night. Or it’s a professional ferret used for vermin control. I hope it was the latter, and it wasn’t an deliberately eccentric pet.

I picked up Monster Volume 10 but there wasn’t a Golgo 13 Volume 11 in sight. I grabbed a bite to eat, then figured I’d see about swinging by the Expo and seeing if I saw any faces I knew. So I got there mid afternoon, wandered around the ExCel centre for a bit, decided I wasn’t going to pay (especially as I was going to be charged to take money out) just to feel even more cynical and old than I was feeling already (the sight of Naruto headbands will do that to a man), took some photos of derelict riverside buildings and headed back.

So my Expo experience was all of 15 minutes!

So it was a lot like Peterborough Sci-Fi and Fantasy Fair, except without people I know dressed as vikings and hitting each other with real swords. And I bet there wasn’t LARPers trying to sell VHS copies of their own homemade Stargate film!

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