Oz Comic-Con Sydney

One of the many thoughtful *cough*th birthday presents I received from my wife was a pair of tickets to my first ever Comic-Con. This particular con brand of Comic-Com is the Oz variety, which means the accents are a bit cooler and the crowds slightly more laid back and less pushy. Otherwise, it looks about the same to the amateur.

Here's my photo tour of the day.

First I had to suit up.

 

Then I took the train to Central and caught the shuttle to the exhibition center a good hour and a half before opening time, and I paid for it, as you'll see later.

They divided the early crowd into lanes outside the entrance. I was at the front of one of the queues. Here's the crowd behind me with an hour to go until the doors open:

Not that many cosplayers (people in costume) in sight in this shot, which is probably why I was quickly singled out by a producer for Chanel 7 and asked to be in a group shot for their live morning show.

Here are a few of my cohorts:

Yes, that is Jessica Rabbit in the shot above. She was a hoot. Very outgoing and energetic. She happily taught the other glove wearers how to use their smart phones with gloves on - just lick the finger of your glove so the touch screen will respond to it. Everyone was pretty excited to learn this trick. Apparently not a lot of practical playtesting was done on their outfits. Of course, then Jessica realized she'd just told a group of strangers to lick their gloves and touch her phone (they were taking a picture for her at the time).

This Bane was great. He had a little remote in his pocket that made green lights flow through the tubes like venom. Nice touch.

We played nicely for the camera, even though we missed our turn to go inside. If we had been in the States, tempers would have flared at that point for sure. By the way, here's one small angle on the crowd right before the doors opened:

Here are a few shots of the dealer area:

This is the children's play area, complete with a sign telling people not to
drop their kids here and run off. Apparently that's been a problem in the past.

And here are a few of my favorite cosplayers. I know some of these are butt shots, but with the crowd and the juggling of bags and phone, sometimes I couldn't get the camera ready in time to catch them from the front. I wasn't big on stopping people and asking them to pose.

This one's for you, Michelle.

Leia getting a snack from her Yoda backpack.

Leia carrying Yoda around. So Episode V.

It wasn't all costumes and merchandise. There were also quite a few celebrities doing the requisite on-stage appearances, photo ops, and autograph signings. I ducked into one appearance by Colin Ferguson (Eureka, Maytag commercials, etc.)

Not all panels are created equal. A lot depends on the energy and sense of humor of the celeb. Colin was a lot of fun and managed to bring a hum-drum crowd to life. Based on the few other panels I passed and overheard while browsing, I made a great choice with Colin. Sorry, Bloom and Shatner.

Throughout the day I got stopped by at least half a dozen people to get my own picture taken, which was an interesting feeling, especially once I realized I actually liked it. I even got dragged to a Star Trek fan group booth by a very excited young Trekkie and put in front of a green screen so they could get a photo of me on the reboot Enterprise bridge.

Finally, I exchanged picture taking with a nice couple to get this shot with one of my sci-fi heroes:

Good day.