Last weekend I attended my second Comic Con event, this time at Port Solent. The event was fun, filled with cosplayers, toys and crowds.
The event was hosted by Go Geek Events and as such there was a number of awesome cosplay costumes on show, including: Deadpool, Captain America, Batman, Superman, Cinderella, Predator, Jack Sparrow and many more.
My favourite costumes were Ironman (complete with electronic helmet), the White Power Ranger and the Toothfairy. But seriously the Ironman costume was so good. In fact it was so good I don't have a photo, because the three times I saw him I just stood there staring.
There were a number of stalls with a variety of toys, masks, cakes and custom items like glasses, mats and bookmarks.
We walked past the stalls twice, but it was hard to really look at anything because it was so busy. The event started at 11am and I don't think you could really walk freely and look at the stalls until 2.30pm.
Some of the toys seemed like a junk box. This isn't appealing to me, but its cool that there was a range of more affordable toys particularly for those with families who may need to buy three, four or five toys or figures when they buy something.
Of course I kept my eye out for the pop vinyls again.
There was a meet the VIP area which was well set up on the boardwalk, giving space to the people in that zone. I had gone to this event mostly to take a few photos, so I didn't look before at who the VIPs were and it wasn't something I was interested in on the day. While I didn't, I do recommend checking out the line ups for events before hand, to make sure you are aware of the times and availability of talks and meet and greets.
There was a cosplay competition and the costumes, were a real mix. We had purchased, made, and some in between. Some looked like a 10 minute effort, others looked like 10 months. That said most were pretty cool. Here are some of the coolest:
Heres the winners...
Hearing Yondu reply to "and who are you?" with "I'm Mary Poppins Yo" was pretty funny. That said my most memorable moment of the competition was when asked if his dad helped with his costume (or something similar), a young teen replied "err, no, I don't know my dad". The way he said it totally got me, however he then returned to his positive vibe and answered another question before hitting his pose. But in that moment, eek.
This has since reminded me of the important role cosplay can and does play in allowing us to escape our everyday lives. Sometimes life can be too hard and too much to cope with. Having the option to dress and act as someone else can be a release from our internal cages. This is definitely something I would like to find out more about and potentially get some podcast discussions going.
There was a cool, over too quick, skit with Jack Sparrow and a red coat dude (I forget who they are in the film, the soldier people). At the end Jack shoots the red coat dude and everyone cheered. It was super funny to see everyone cheer a murder, and one by a pirate. It was a very surreal moment.
It was nice to mooch around Port Solent with Laura. We had food at two of the restaurants and enjoyed the bits of sun that were available.
I should also mention that I was invited to my first Pokemon Go raid, which resulted in me opening the app for the second or third time this year. I think I may actually give it a bit more of a go. I wish I could just have the 1st gen Pokemon only. I don't know any of the other generations and they look... silly to me. The way the 1st gen probably look to people that don't know Pokemon hahaha.
I enjoyed the free Comic Con event at Port Solent. It was very accessible in terms of cost. The event was free, the parking was free and there were a range of places to eat and drink.
The cosplay was awesome, there were so many people in costumes, Ironman was amazing!
Walking around was really hard, it was crowded and the walkways are quite narrow. This meant, I didn't want to walk and look as much as I could have.
Unfortunately I was struggling a bit with me knee (so yer, I couldn't have walked loads more haha) so I wasn't interested in the zombie experience, but it looked good. I would love to hear from someone that did get involved with that, was it as good as I think it was?
Massive thanks to Go Geek Events for putting on a great event, I think it shows how popular the event is that so many people turned up and got involved in the competitions. I'm looking forward to seeing Go Geek at whatever event is next up.
