Geekfest ’10

I had such a bad morning today. I hate it when it starts early it throws off the whole rest of the day. Now I feel like I should have just stayed under the covers and pretended today doesn’t exist. Of course that is impossible since I am still on probation at work but that still would have been great.

I woke up with this massive headache. My head was just pounding and my eyes felt like they were on fire. I was far from impressed. But I still managed to move after pushing the snooze a couple of times. I moved slowly and grumpily but I managed to get ready and drive down to work. Getting off the highway was a total bitch. There were 2 cars in front of me driving incredibly slow for no reason. Just as I change lanes the car in front of me changes lanes and moves ahead. Which is just fine except they don’t move ahead far enough and boxes me in. I have to go back in the other lane and can’t because no one will let me back in. So at the intersection I pull into the gas station so I can make a left and not miss my turn. The traffic is piled up a bit and I wait there to make my turn. The light changes and I start to pull out and the guy behind me is honking and it just confuses me cuz I am already out of it. I turn and go on my way until I see the lights behind me. YAY! I got pulled over cuz apparently there is a sign that I am not supposed to turn there. I never saw the sign that there are apparently 2 of and are huge. So I got me a ticket. It wasn’t much, $18.75, but the officer said it was so low because I was cooperative and I have a clean record or else it would have been like $110. I think I would have just died if I got that one.

Well all this is due to the over stimulation from yesterday. There was just so much to see, the colours, toys, flashing lights, and people in costume. Yes, I went to FanExpo. I went on the Sunday this year to bypass all the excessive craziness. This was my third year going and I have learned from my previous experiences. The first year I went with my arms swinging and stood in line for about 3 hours to get a ticket to stand in another like for an hour to get in. Last year I was smart and pre-bought my ticket online and bypassed the first line to stand in another line to get in for about an hour and a half. Then I ended up staying for about an hour where got pushed around and frustrated. This year I bought my ticket online went on the “slow” day and waited in no lines at all. I did get heckled as I walked by the ticket purchasing line with a “How come you don’t have to stand in line?” Whatever.

Mind you it was a crazy long walk to get to the front of the line cuz of where they had the expo. The last few years they had it at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in the South Building but this year it was in the North Building and that made for an interesting line-up situation. The convention centre stretches for a long city block, from John St to Simcoe St along Front St. I passed by there on Saturday and the line up went along Front street and down Simcoe. It was crazy and I was glad I wasn’t there that day. I had to walk that block then go around the side of the building then back up to get to the front of the line. As I entered I was shocked at how many people were there but it still wasn’t as bad as being there on Saturday. I managed to keep my promise to take pictures.

There were a couple of vehicles at the show.

First there is the Tron Recognizer that loomed over the Tron: Legacy booth. It was a couple of stories high and pretty impressive. What they actually had at the booth wasn’t. There was some flashing lights, they had the tron “uniform” i guess is what you would call it and that had lights on it to. Then there were people wearing the tron “uniforms” but theirs didn’t light up and it looked really uncool. They were posing for pictures which unfortunately I didn’t get. There was also a light-cycle there but it was a cardboard stand version. And they were showing the same Tron: Legacy previews that I have seen a hundred times by now.

From Supernatural, Dean’s pride and joy, the 1967 Chevy Impala. They were hocking the release of the 5th season on DVD. The case of which can be seen on the dashboard. They weren’t letting a lot of people sit in it and take pics but they did let these 2 scantily girls with fake gun take pics but you will not see them here.

Then there was the da na na na na na na

The Batmobile! They were letting people take pics in this one but the line was long. I just shoved my way through to get this shot. The light on top was flashing and the Batman theme song would go off in the background every few minutes. I think it would have driven me crazy if I had to be in that area all day.

There was some cool Star Wars stuff.

There were the Storm Troopers marching around, taking prisoners, looking for droids, standing all cool and stuff.

This was a pretty cool model of a battle scene from the Star Wars: Clone Wars series. They used all the action figures that are available in the series to set it up. Obi Wan, Count Dooku, Storm Troopers, a lot of vehicles, and different droids in the droid army can be seen.

There were also these, life size Lego Statues of Boba Fet and Darth Vader. They were actually part of a contest. You had to fill out a form and guess how many blocks were used to build each one and if you guessed correctly you would become the proud owner. As you can see I was having an issue just getting room to take a pic of the 2 statues cuz they were very popular. The guy in the striped shirt stood there in that exact position for like 10 minutes. I think he may have been actually trying to count the exact number. I didn’t even fill out a ballot cuz people were just annoying me. My guess would have been 4832. I remember that number just popping into my head. I believe I was way off.

Besides the Storm Troopers there were other people in costume. I hated asking to take a pic so I would just sneak in when other people asked and click away. So there are a couple of random faces in there.

From the top left going clockwise: I don’t know who they are supposed to be but I got a free comic from them. I haven’t read it yet but I think they have something to do with it. That is some guy with a gun posing with kids (there is nothing wrong with that statement). I don’t know who he is supposed to be but I think it has something to do with a gam cuz we were in the gaming section. Then the kinda sad Cyclops and Jean Gray Pheonix. I have nothing else to say about that. And then some random anime characters.

I think it is because it was Sunday there weren’t as many people in costume as I usually see. But there were a couple of good ones. They just happened to be worn by girls.

First there were these 2. Batwoman and Super Girl. They both look really sick of being asked to pose. Super Girl is still trying but Batwoman is giving the let’s-get-this-over-with face.

I have to say this girls Silk Spectre was the best thing I saw all day. She got everything done right. Her friend is some random anime character and her anime eyes are great. When I first saw her I was thinking what is wrong with her make-up but then I saw the pic and I thought it was pretty clever. She really does look like an anime character but her friends costume is still better.

So those are all my pics. As you can see there were no actual celebrities in there. I was sad about that because there was a whole list of people while I was there. There was Burt Ward, Julie Newmar, Adam West, Summer Gau, Falicia Day, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Peter Mayhew, William Shatner, and there is actually more. My favourite person that was there (besides the Shatner) was Michael Dorn. I don’t know why but I can’t get enough of Worf. Maybe it is his determination, tamed feral animalistic nature, his awesomely ridged forehead, or maybe it is that I feel sorry for him cuz Captain Picard always shoots him down. But I got way too excited when I saw him. I was all ready to go meet him and get an autograph when I notice a sign, “Autographs $30 ” and a sigh beside that, “No pictures”.

What the hell?

$30 for half a cent worth of ink? That is crazy. Especially after paying $30 to get into the expo, then buying memorabilia, and you want me to pay more on top of that? Plus I can’t even get a pic? The thing is you had to provide something for him to sign, you weren’t given anything. I was so upset, I would even go as far as to say I was distraught about the whole thing. It was very upsetting. I mean I guess I would have paid if it was a $5 or even $10 but $30 is just asking too much. I am not sure if anyone else was charging or anything but I was totally discouraged after seeing that and i didn’t bother checking. Sad Face.

Happy Face. I got some really cool stuff. 2 Mighty Muggs figures; one Princess Leah the other Optimus Prime. I really wanted a Han Solo but couldn’t find one, there was a Hoth Han Solo but that didn’t count. I also picked up a USB stick that looks like a little purple ninja. The thing is I have been meaning to get one for a while and this was a fun way to do so. I got a lot of art. It is some really awesome stuff that I will be getting framed and putting on the walls. The drawback to writing a post at work is that I don’t have the stuff to give you more info about it.

I also got the first 3 trades in the “Walking Dead” series. I am really looking forward to reading them. I didn’t know much about it before but after seeing the preview of the new TV series I am really intrigued by the whole thing.

Looks awesome, right? I haven’t started reading but after flipping through the books it looks awesome. and I can’t wait for the show.

Anyways, that was my day at FanExpo. Congratulations if you made it through my ridiculously long post.

Tra