Going to London Comicon 2019, in Cosplay!

Comicons are pop-cultured conventions where people gather to share their interest in anything related to film, movies, anime or games. They're held all around the world on various scales, typically with a bunch of exhibitors, shops, performances and meet-and-greets.

The most iconic thing about these events are that they are a gathering ground for people to cosplay as their favourite characters, to openly share their love of whoever/whatever they wanted to be!

There may be common stereotypes that these events are usually frequented by geeks, anti-socials, basement-dwelling video gamers and the like, but the truth is far from that. There are so many normal, fun and friendly people all around, hanging out and having a nice time.

I believe that I've traveled a decent amount and have seen a reasonable amount of things. But seriously, it is very amusing and eye-opening to be there in the flesh. Literally everywhere, you can have a pick at all your favourite anime/gaming/movie characters - casually walking around. Whats more, you can tell that quite a number of people do put in the effort to look good. I can't emphasise this enough - it's really quite mind-blowing for me to be there, its almost as if I'm in a 'different world', which makes me just want to scream!

MCM London Comicon 2019

The comicon I went to was at the ExCel centre in London. It was a 3 day event from the 23rd - 25th of May. I was only there for day 2 and 3 though.

Prep Work

I was initial considering to go normal plain clothes, just to check it out as I did not have the faintest idea on how cosplaying worked, other than it took ALOT of effort. 

In the end, I made the plunge and decided to cosplay for both days, just to make the most of the experience. I've chosen to cosplay Hatake Kakashi from Naruto and the iconic PUBG poster-boy character.

Hatake Kakashi / PUBG character

Finding everything I needed took some time. In fact, some people can take months to prep for these thing. Eventually, I've managed to get my hands on everything I needed from all kinds of random shops/online.

Props for Hatake Kakashi

Getting the wig, cutting it and getting it styled was a huge pain in the ass as it was not exactly my forte. I literally had to walk into a barber to see if he could help me with it. It was quite an awkward conversation, but he was eventually up for the task. :S

Putting on sharingan contacts also felt a little iffy, but it worked out somehow.

I even had to learn how to colour my eyebrows and put eye-liner lol.

Props for PUBG character

Fun fact: The PUBG level 3 helmet is actually called a Russian K6-3 helmet. The one is I got is a replica though.

I've got mad respect to cosplayers who do this often. Its seriously requires artistic talent and lots of meticulous preparation to get all these things right. I had to slowly trudge and figure out whats what to even get a semi-decent looking costume going.

Convention

Looking back, Saturday would probably be the most crowded day. There are throngs of people all around, from visitors, cosplayers to families and kids alike. I'd advise that if your going to any of future cons, opt for the priority access if you have the option. It'd save you so much trouble and time.

Saturday crowd

Inside the convention

The coverage is huge, there are 2 gigantic halls filled with tons of exhibitors, shops, games, panels, shows, comics, anime, etc - basically whatever you can think of out of a convention like that, its likely that you'll be able to find it somewhere.

 Realistic artworks

Manga

Cute pins

Sick artwork

Adorable bags

Props

Body pillows lol!

Live drawings

Gaming booths

Trading card games

Meet and greets

Some of the exhibitors are orginal creators that put their own work out there for the world to see. For these, you can look to get very high quality stuff at quite reasonable prices - as they try to establish themselves I guess?

My day 2 cosplay - Kakashi

 Unmasked!

I have no regrets putting in all the effort to go in full cosplay. I almost didn't do it at first and am happy that I took the plunge. 

There were many people asking me if they could get a picture with/of me. It seriously feels so flattering, especially when its kids (or their parents asking for them). It puts a huge smile on my face and warms my heart. :)

I'd just be walking around and people/kids would be hollering 'Kakashi-sensei!', 'nice costume', 'good job on that' and having friendly chats with me. I remember this guy approaching me, getting a photo and telling me on how I was going to inspire him to cosplay as Kakashi in the future. It really gives me a lot of perspective on why people do this. It feels amazing. This must be what a hot girl feels when she walks into a party or something. 

There was even this guy, saying that hes working for a particular juice company's instagram page and asked if I could hold their product and provide some photos for them. Knarly.

Not even that, people were actually hugging me as well, telling me they love me (more like my character unfortunately). Girls! What?! Is this the secret? LOL.

My day 3 cosplay - PUBG character

'Sipping' my 'energy drink'

Day 3 seemed to be a lot less busier. The demograph of the people approaching me in my PUBG outfit were mostly kids and dudes. I even remembered on my way back, an older guy in his 30s(?) hollered at me as he was really into the game - after chatting up and taking some photos, he walked away, telling his mate that I made his day. Stuff like that really sticks and makes me feel so content.


It's kinda funny when you go to nearby shops, restaurants and supermarkets nearby and everyone around you is in costume. It must be quite amusing for the people working there.

Overall, I'd say that if you haven't actually been to a comicon before, I'd strongly you go to one - just for the experience, irregardless of whether your cosplaying or not - it'll really blow your mind.

Update: Professional Photos by Eugene Artjomenko

Since I've already gone through the trouble to get all dressed up, I've gotten the help of Eugene, who is a very cool and skilled photographer to get some nice, edited shots. What he sent over after completely blew my mind.

Kakashi - Sharingan portrait

Kakashi - Raikiri pose

Kakashi - Casual pose

 Kakashi - Without mask

 PUBG - Carpark shot

PUBG - Crouching pose

PUBG - Standing pose

PUBG - Helmet up

If you'd like to see the many other stunning photos Eugene has, you can check out his various online pages here.

Monster Jam: Cardiff 2019

I vaguely re-call seeing on TV at some point in time, humongous trucks with immense wheels, rolling around, jumping over crushed cars and even getting wrecked. I thought to myself then, 'people watch this?'. Fast forward to today - yep, I do now.

Monster Jam is a pretty famous live motorsport event that features a whole variety of monster trucks that are typically 12 feet tall, approximately 12 feet wide and weigh around 6 tonnes (that's 6000kg!). It's predominantly held in various locations around the US, but has made its way to Europe as well and is broadcasted all over the world.

I went to the one in Cardiff on 18/5/19 at the Principality Stadium, with additional access to the pre-show pit party.

To be honest, I expected the crowd to be filled with drunk red-necks, rowdy hill-billies and the likes, but in reality, it was a super family-friendly event, with a very pleasant atmosphere of excited kids and friendly enthusiasts from all walks of life. Welsh people are actually very warm, humble and down-to-earth, even though they do look like they could crush you to bits.

Pit Party

The pit party is an event before the show which gives fans the opportunity to meet, take photos and get autographs of their favourite drivers and trucks. It was pretty cool to be so close to these massive vehicles, that were all decorated to the nines to give each and everyone one them of their 'unique personalities'. They had pretty nifty names too.

I was in quite a cheerful mood, running around trying to get a glimpse of all the vehicles and being in absolute awe at these majestic pieces of machinery.

Monster Energy

 Me with Monster Energy

Earthshaker

 Me with Earthshaker

Zombie

 Megalodon

Me with Megalodon

 Scooby-doo

Wonderwoman

 Maximum Destruction

Grave Digger

Pirate's Curse

My personal favourite vehicle was monster energy, not only cause it represented such a bad-ass drink, it was simple and to the point as well, which was really more my style. Gravedigger, Megalodon, Maximum Destruction and El Toro Loco seemed to be very popular.

Wasn't really too inclined to join the long queue lines to meet the drivers, simply cause I didn't really follow the scene and am just here for the experience. Hopefully I don't regret not getting their authographs sometime in the future.

Main Show

How the show works is that all trucks are competing amongst each other across 3 different events. They include a 1-on-1 race, 2 wheel stunt and a freestyle show (with the audience rating the latter two in real-time through some online web-app). The higher you rank on each event, the more points you accumulate.

As the trucks all entered the arena, I must say - these things are LOUD. I was quite taken aback at first, but you eventually get used to it. Alternatively, its pretty common as well for people to wear some ear plugs/headphones to deal with it. You could also smell the fuel burning all the way from the stands.


Race

It's one lap race around 2 seperate loops each of the vehicles had in front of them. I was really rooting for monster energy on this one. There were also a couple of crashes where the frames literally started to peel off and I got a little worried for the driver(s) at first, but everything turned out fine in the end.

Monster Energy vs Gravedigger

Wipeout!

Monster Energy vs El Toro Loco (finals)

In hindsight, I probably spent more time filming than actually enjoying the show itself, which was a slight regret for me. Looking at the video, it's also probably a lot harder than it looks for the drivers to speed on such a big chunk of machinery - kudos to them for that really.

2 Wheeled Challenge

I believe that that the second challenges of monster jam shows are quite random and could be anything from spinning, jumping the highest or in this case, performing feats on 2 wheels.

 Pirate's Curse stylin'

Max D balancing

It was quite amusing to watch as it seemed to take a lot of precision from the drivers to even get into a wheelie position, even though you expect these machines to be rather scrappy.

Freestyle

Definitely the flashiest part of the show, as drivers now have full reign to do whatever they want to impress the crowds. Some of them seemed to be playing it safe with a couple of simple jumps here and there, but for those who absolutely took it to the limits -  it was responded accordingly with huge roars from the crowd.

Scooby-doo flyin'

Wonderwoman side-spinning

Gravedigger's winning performance!

Seeing some airtime from the trucks and even back-flips just goes to show that there are no limits to what people and machine are capable of. In fact, the more we cheered, the flashier the moves got.

Overall, it was a very fun and pleasant event. It's gave me some perspective as well when I see kids decked out in all their merch, looking so happy. It goes to remind me that we shouldn't try to grow-up too fast and should find the time to relish in moments a little more.