City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

1 day ConnectiCon report

Cheetatron

By Cheetatron,
Posted on: 2011-07-10 12:32 in Comic and Hero-Villain Culture

 

Posted

Well I ended up going to ConnectiCon today in Hartford, CT. I haven't been to a decent sized con in nearly a decade and this con is geared to a wide range of fandom and not just anime. This makes it similar to A-Kon and I-Con with miniature, CCG and card gaming as well as anime and some SciFi fandom in evidence.

Got up at some awful predawn time so I could make the drive and still get in early before the registration line got long. Instead of having someone process daily registrations they first had a line to a series of netbooks where you would enter all your personal data yourself so when you got into the line to pick up your registration and pay there was no difference between the dailies and those who registered in advance. Very high tech.

I know I haven't been to one of these for a while but when did corsets become the in thing for cosplayers? Girls were bustin out all over at this con (sorry but if you're less than half my age you're still a girl, easier for the moral limiters to kick in if I think of them that way) and they weren't all steampunk or traditional ren fair themed either.

There were a noticeable number of Doctors and Doctor Who themed cosplayers. Several 10th and 11th Doctors of varying degree of believability. One girl in a TARDIS dress and another in a Dalek dress. One Weeping Angle, one proper old school Cyberman, a couple of women with Silence counts marked along their arms (cheapest costume if there every was one) and one small collapsible TARDIS that kept popping up in different locations all day. Also in the SciFi cosplayers were a bandage strip Leeloo with a Dallas, an OK Bumblebee with stilt legs and arm extenders, one Ghostbuster with realistic proton pack, a couple of slave girl Leias (one punk, multicolor mohawk) and a pack of Boba Fetts or maybe just gaggle of Mandalorians.

Several gamer oriented cosplayers, the usual suspects from varies fighting games, several Portal costumers with one with a very nice portal gun that lit up. You have your Marios, Luigis, Warios, Links, Pokemons (critters and human characters) and J-Horror (Silent Hill, Resident Evil, etc).

For anime we had the usual pile of Naruto, One Piece and Bleach cosplayers. Also a big Gurren Lagann presence with at least one good Yuko. One very good Celty from Durarara!!. A so-so Inuyasha, a too tall Ed from Full Metal Alchemist, a too tall, filled in Ed from Cowboy Bebop, at least one Vash and a couple of Wolfwoods from Trigun and a too round Gendo from Evangelion.

From western comics we had a number of DC and Marvel characters. Most of the ones that went the spandex route looked good in spandex. We did have a Batman Begins style Batman. Several Harleys, a Joker, a female Robin, Phoenix, a male and female Spiderman and possibly a Lady Deadpool. There seemed to be a lot of females dressing as male characters, what's up with that?

The rest of the cosplayers fell into the generic ren fair, steampunk or critter (cat girl, wolf boy) category. Surprisingly I didn't notice any Harry Potter or Twilight based cosplayers. With the movie next week I thought there should have been some Deatheaters, Hagrid or at least a Hermione or two.

Big area for miniature, CCG and general boardgaming. Separate areas for PnP RPGs. The video game area was divided by console and console gimmick. Most of the games on the 360 and PS3s were fighting games such as Naruto, Bleach and Marvel Vs Capcom 3. There was one Kinect system with that dancing game. One PS3 with the glowing lollypops for multiplayer sport games. The Wiis tend to have their unique multiplayer games. A DDR, a DDR clone and Taiko drums rhythm arcade machine rounded out that area.

Artist alley was OK. It was more minor webcomics and minor dealers than what you found in the dealer's room. Strangest booth in the dealer's room was Mensa looking for members. I think there were more booths selling costume and costume parts than any other item. Translated manga was the 2nd with J-snacks (Pocky, Lamune ) coming in 3rd.

The "big name" webcomics were found in the dealer's room as well such as Diesel Sweeties, It's Walky/Shortpack, Looking for Group. And yes Yuko Ota of Johnny Wander can be mistaken for a teenage girl waiting for her father. She is also extremely cute, adorable and pocket sized.

For anime viewings I watched Summer Wars (dub), RideBack, new Lupin origin movie (sub), old Dirty Pair (sub), Durarara!! (dub). Also saw some of Heitalia: Axis Powers (dub). I have the distinct feeling that the dub was highly adapted like Crayon Shin-chan was than a close translation.

The only down note was the lack of nearby food places around the con since being in a convention center meant $4 pizza slices and $2.50 bottles of water. Up note was Hartford held their fireworks this weekend right off the convention center.

One of the things that stood out was the improved gender ratio, especially couples as well as young families versus the last "big" con I went to in 2000. I'm surprised a puny state like Connecticut could have such a large con. All the previous large cons I've been to were in large metroplex areas like Chicago, Dallas, Balt/DC and the Research Triangle in NC. Yes ConnectiCon isn't a 25,000 sized con like AX and Otakon but they'll probably hit 7000+ which probably outstrips most shows held in that venue.

Thank you for letting me bore you all. TTFN.

Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components

Tempus unum hominem manet

 

Posted

Please tell us you took lots of pictures.
And that you will post said pictures.
Or at link to a site where you have posted said pictures.

 

Posted

You just reminded me of how long it has been since I got myself to one of those. My last one was Worldcon #50 in Orlando in 1992. Jeeze, I'm old.

I didn't realize that Connecticut has a Convention now-a-days. I have some family near Hartford.

LOCAL MAN! The most famous hero of all. There are more newspaper stories about me than anyone else. "Local Man wins Medal of Honor." "Local Man opens Animal Shelter." "Local Man Charged with..." (Um, forget about that one.)
Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control

 

Posted

Sorry, no pictures but if you want to look at a few from Friday the local paper, The Hartford Courant, has a few.

Forgot about the Sailor Moonies, the classic comic Mystique and Emma Frost, a few Poison Ivys, a couple of Capt Americas, a Power Girl manning a booth, I glimpsed a SuperGirl and Wonder Women as I was rushing to a viewing and I did see a Toph. Also an Arthur Dent and a couple of Ramona Flowers.

I did sit through a little of the fan music videos. What ever happen to using music with lyrics instead of all this techno/remix/mashup dance music?

Also if anybody knows this, what's up with the surgical masks with safety pins and chains? Just faux piercing or was there some manga or anime series that went with this? There was a noticeable number of cosplayers with this.

And the cosplay population was over 40% in my estimation. Some may have just been cat ears and a tail but quite a few went all out. The Cyberman was definitely not a rush paper mache plus carboard box job. One Celty had a professionally modified motorcycle helmet, wore a black form fitting leather riding suit and her scythe was made of sturdier stuff than corrugated cardboard taped to a broom handle.

And the funniest anime related poster I saw was a Code Geass t-shirt with a stylized Lelouch portrait, the geass in one eye with the word OBEY under it. For game related I liked the Minecraft "Punching Trees Gives Me Wood" shirt. I understand they don't allow that anymore in Minecraft.

Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components

Tempus unum hominem manet

 

Posted

I went to Connecticon a few years ago back in 2008, I liked it, but only for the video games. I think that if I had friends to go with, I would've had more fun there. :/

My Lego Models http://www.flickr.com/photos/30369639@N07/ lemur lad: God you can't be that stupid... I'm on at the same time as you for once, and not 20 minutes into it you give me something worth petitioning?
Lady-Dee: Hey my fat keeps me warm in the winter and shady in the summer.

 

Posted

Just to clarify one thing, I like Anime too, but like I've said, I would've had more fun if I had friends to go with.

My Lego Models http://www.flickr.com/photos/30369639@N07/ lemur lad: God you can't be that stupid... I'm on at the same time as you for once, and not 20 minutes into it you give me something worth petitioning?
Lady-Dee: Hey my fat keeps me warm in the winter and shady in the summer.

 

Posted

Most conventions will have fans from medias other than just the target audience, generally most of the panels will target the con's main theme though. Anime Boston has cosplayers doing marvel, dc, Dr. Who, and video game characters along with Anime, and Manga, I only did one cosplay all 3 days and that was Louis from L4D.

 

Posted

Let's see...

Girl Choji was cute.
The one of Payne (and Rikku)...my word, does that Payne look like a female version of one of my cousins (in the facial area).
Female Deadpool w/ the caption thing above her head...hilarious.
There's a decent X-23 in there too.
Boomer Zombie...*shudder*
Kanamae from Bleach looks pretty decent.
Pimp Vader and Dinobot. I would watch a buddy-movie staring those two.
Baroness...aw ya...


 

Posted

There was a lot of costumes in those pictures I didn't see myself but liked. The Pikmin group for instance was a unique idea. Same with the twins doing MAD's Spy Vs Spy. The Darth Vader in the flower shirt with the little twins dressed as Luke and Leia was cute. I wished I saw the Mr. T because it looked spot on.

One picture I didn't see was the women with the amputated arm at the elbow dressed as a zombie. Actually I think there was two seconds of her in the video link sword fighting.

Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components

Tempus unum hominem manet

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Father Xmas View Post
One picture I didn't see was the women with the amputated arm at the elbow dressed as a zombie. Actually I think there was two seconds of her in the video link sword fighting.
Ha! That's ingenious!

Teams are the number one killer of soloists.

 

Posted

That is one of the better if not the best Yokos there. She joined in on the ANN discussion thread about her picture and talked about the problems with a top that wouldn't stay in place.

Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components

Tempus unum hominem manet