FanExpo 2007
Well the end of August has arrived; doing what I do best at work, namely working myself into a frenzy over what will ultimately result in a minor thing.
My brother and I attended the FanExpo 2007 convention this past weekend at the Metro Convention Center. For $25 (Cash or Debit… bastards), we were given the opportunity to mingle amongst all the other fans, people who probably did normal things by day, but when these conventions come around, all the kid gloves come off.
All sorts of strange and unusual jargon is thrown around, costumed crazies come out of the woodwork, and strange jokes punctuate the snorting laughter in the air. Yes folks, this truly was the biggest collection of wierdos in Canada.
We arrived at a nice, normal 11 am on the Saturday morning. I figured from my experiences at Wizard World that one, most of the people would have purchased advanced weekend tickets, leaving the lineup relatively empty, and two, the world of commerce would prevail, resulting in my ability to rack up some money back via credit card expenditures. As you can guess by now, the whole credit card thing didn’t quite work out the way I wanted it to. As for the crowds… well, I was pretty off about that too.
This was the crowd gathered here at 11 am. It took me 45 minutes to walk out with one of these. On a normal day, that would already be enough to piss me off, but today, I was surrounded by people making really, really bad jokes, and in general, were living up to the stereotypical tendencies of a Trekkie, which I guess was appropriate, considering that Commander Riker and Lt. Barkley were both there.
I did like seeing that there were many parents out in full force, both costumed and uncostumed, just sharing some nice quality time, and really understanding and bonding over their common hobby. What I DIDN’T care to see were really fat white chicks dressing up in skimpy Sailor Moon costumes. Yikes… unfortunately, being stuck in line meant there really was no way to avoid these sorts of things.
I have to say, as large as the crowds were, the place was rather a let down compared to Wizard World. Sure, there were a several neat exhibitors (Silver Snail had their T-100 endoskeleton on display, and Intel was doing on the fly versions of their dancing commercial of volunteers), but everything seemed so… dull. Typically at these sorts of things, you expect the camaraderie, people debating the finer points of their particular hobby, and most of all, vendors trying to make a buck by dragging your ass into the store.
There really wasn’t any of that, and the vendors were there to rip my nuts off, rather than to make me a deal. Hell, there was some guy there trying to sell Playstation games for their original MSRP, despite the fact those games are worth, well, nothing, these days. Fortunately, yours truly possess the ability of haggling. Also, a certain amount of free swag is expected; the closest thing we found was poster and buttons being given away by Starstruck Entertainment for product that was almost 3 years old.
Now the convention center is indeed smaller than the one in Chicago, but damn, while Wizard World did not have a dedicated anime section, and it still had more anime related vendors and distributors than FanExpo did, which was flaunting the fact it had several discrete sections. That was another thing… I had no idea what idiot did the organization, but they really should partition the place better next time. It was neat however, to see some of the people behind the magic; for example Udon had representatives there, as was the creator of Reboot.
It was an alright experience, though much different from the more sales oriented Wizard World. We had fun, a few laughs, and it was a nice way to spend about 5 hours. Who knows; if we’re bored enough we may return next year, though my eyes are on Anime North.
