Saturday marked my first ever convention, a spectacular affair known as LFCC at Earls Court in London, which means that I can do my first ever convention blog post. Having enjoyed Jen's blog posts of American cons over at the fabulous EPBOT I thought I'd put a few photos up here.
As this was the first con I'd been to, I decided to observe this year and maybe attempt dressing up next year. In general the standard was really high so I'd definitely need plenty of time to design and make something. About 10% of the visitors were in costume and it was such a huge place that we didn't even see all of them. Also I only plucked up the courage to ask for photos towards the end so most of my pics are from the 'Cos-Play Masquerade' where the cosplayers had to go on stage and do a little 'bit' to go with their costume. These were very entertaining, especially the Disney cosplayers who took it all very seriously, singing along to carefully timed music and acting out key scenes. Here's Ariel, Prince Eric, Belle, Mulan, Lilo, and Rapunzel.
And another Rapunzel with Flynn
There were also lots of Star Wars cosplayers, including a very scary Darth Vader and a gang of Stormtroopers patrolling the queue outside. I wasn't brave enough to take their photo but here are two of many Jedis.
And a very believable Tusken Raider, who made appropriate noises, and threatened members of the audience.
Also, lots of anime/manga people, which I'm not as familiar with, but they looked really good. I especially liked this guy's hair:
But my favourite costume of the day was this guy, dressed as Ezio from Assassin's Creed 2. Look at the detail - and his concealed wrist-blades properly retracted and everything. Honestly, it took every ounce of restraint not to ignore all personal boundaries and inspect his costume more closely. I figured as long as I got a photo I could just study that!
We got to see various celebrity guests too, including these lovely Harry Potter actors:
Left to right that's Georgina Leonidas (Katie Bell), Stanislav Ianevski (Viktor Krum), Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley), Devon Murray (Seamus Finnigan) and Alfie Enoch (Dean Thomas). Natalia Tena, who plays Tonks, turned up later but I didn't get a photo, which is a shame as she was wearing a rather outlandish outfit (as Tonks would, I think you'll agree). They were all lovely and very enthusiastic, Alfie Enoch in particular was incredibly excited, and Devon Murray did his 'water to rum' spell from the first film, which charmed pretty much everyone in the audience. We almost didn't recognise Harry Melling when he came in, having slimmed down from playing Dudley, but he also got a very good response. They all had interesting responses to the questions and seemed excited about the future now that they're finished with the franchise. It was great to see them all in person so close to seeing the final film too!
We also saw Brent Spiner (Data) talk. Here he is:
We mostly went to see him out of curiosity but I think all four of us ended that half hour a little bit in love with him. He's obviously a veteran of the con circuit but he was genuinely engaging and entertaining, really responsive to the crowd, and did a very funny impression of Patrick Stewart's Shakespearean tones when telling Trek anecdotes. Go Brent!
I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing, and managed to restrain myself round the merchandise stalls. I got a True Blood mug and some American chocolate bars (including a Butterfinger for very geeky personal reasons - I'm a big fan of The Chase). I definitely plan to go again next year and would like to go in costume. I'm thinking either steampunk or LOTR, but we'll see.
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