This day follows the adventures of Tank Girl and her friend Jet Girl! Sarah and I met up early in the morning and experienced Saturday at the con together. I decided to dress up as Jet Girl as Sarah will be moving in a few weeks and will miss the next couple of cons. Figured it'd be fun to do a combo cosplay...though Sarah's Tank Girl game is way better than my Jet Girl.
We arrived and not long after we were told to check Sarah's prop (i.e. rocket launcher) at the weapons and prop check. We're like, okay that's no issue. Well we were wrong. The girl at the counter gave Sarah a really rough time about her rocket launcher asking if it was made out of metal. 1) If it were metal, it would be about 20 more pounds (or more) than the plastic pipes its made of. 2) If it were metal, she would not have been able to lift it with one hand, which she was doing while busy telling us that she couldn't tell if it was metal or not. Finally after thorough inspection, she gave it back and started asking Sarah if she was wearing anything under the rockets and warning us that she might be asked to leave later in the day because of indecency. Note that she has gone to the con, over three times in the past with this costume and had absolutely no problems or wardrobe malfunctions. We were never bothered once about it, by anyone. In fact, all the con workers, security and volunteers were among the ones complementing her and taking her photo. Then when we think we're done, Sarah turns to leave and she spots her fake grenades on her belt. They were confiscated immediately to be returned at the end of the day. They were metal and too real for the con, because apparently these were too real and would scare people. Because people actually think they are REAL GRENADES AND ROCKET LAUNCHERS AT A COMIC CONVENTION. BECAUSE THESE THINGS ARE TOTALLY LEGAL IN CANADA.
So after that borderline harassment (seriously, I get you were doing your job and you HAVE to follow the guidelines for people's safety, but she was extremely catty about the entire process), we enter the con and headed over to one of the leather vendors to have Sarah's bag fixed. A day in the life of Tank Girl!
Afterwards we spot Barf (who I'm fairly sure I saw last year) and got his picture. We also spotted Dark Helmet, but he escaped before I could capture him. This got creepy really fast.
I swear the cosplay gets better every year. This toothless had wings folded up on her back. She released them for the photo. I don't even know how you'd go about making something like that. Seriously impressed.
We wandered the exhibition halls, taking in the con and searching for an illusive pair of feather earrings. We took pictures of the cosplayers we met along the way (and were able to snag for photos).
Meeting the Punisher was especially fun as I ended up watching the awful 2004 movie later that evening. So much brooding.
Was super excited to meet this cosplayer. Yay Elizabeth!
Sarah was particularly impressed with this cosplay. They could have come from the same universe...if I didn't know better.
This is likely my favourite picture from the con. We happened upon all the power rangers and we decided this was a golden opportunity that could not be passed up.
After wandering the exhibition halls for a few hours, Tank Girl was ready for some pizza. We picked up our food...
...and had a random encounter with a friend! I got a picture of the happy occasion (once we stopped holding up the pizza line) and took our precious pizza outside for a break. We enjoyed our food while watching a group of Once Upon a Time cosplayers get a million requests for pictures. Poor Evil Queen was just trying to have a smoke and kept getting press-ganged into photo ops. Apparently they were all a group of strangers that met on Facebook and decided to do a group cosplay together. A cool idea and a great way to meet new people...unless you want any kind of break.
We wandered the Big 4 building next and met many fantastic cosplayers in there as well. We also found the Spock look-alike (who is not featured in a photo unfortunately...also he was super tall...it's 2am and I feel like this is important information). There were also a horde of steampunk and Victorian cosplayers, which was interesting to see.
We dropped by a time machine and a group of gentlemen running a contest for a bit-role in a local movie they will be creating. We got a photo in front of the time machine, but we were unsure of where and when the scientist in the background escaped to.
Shortly we encountered one of Sarah's cosplayer friends, who incidentally won the costume contest a few years back. Sarah exchanged some fake blood for a photo and we were on our way once more.
Outside I took full advantage of some guy wanting out photo by getting our own. So much easier to get photos when you are also cosplaying. Everything is just so much less awkward...unless you are Sarah's comic con stalker. Then it's just weird.
This woman looked like she had a pipe sticking right through her, though you can't see the back. Blow off some steam Bennett!
Yay Isaac cosplay! Was talking to some friends later about this costume and apparently each of those little bits is metal. And very sharp. So he has to be careful not to cut anyone by walking in their general vicinity. Also surprised he wasn't confiscated at the door. Yes. His entire self. Confiscated. Did I mention I'm tired?
Found two Tank Girls in a row! First in front of a booth...
...next around the corner in a vehicle display for the airsoft gentlemen (who might I add were allowed to bring in their VERY REAL AIRSOFT GUNS and wander around the con...but remember, fake rocket launchers aren't allowed; too real and dangerous). I will also add that the Tank Girl in this above photo reported that she had her own rocket launcher confiscated, even though it was made out of the exact same materials as Sarah's. Consistency. What's that?
Who you ganna call?
We met up with some more of Sarah's friends before we headed over to the Stephen Amell panel (Sarah was super excited to see him). These lovely ladies were the first to report on a vendor that was kicked out of the con...more on that later.
Line-up for the panel was naturally quite long. We arrived in good time and found some seats.
And we waited for the show to start!
Stephen Amell seemed like a down-to-earth guy and was good to the fans and people that came to ask him questions. I'll admit, I don't know much about the guy, so it was kind of fun to watch the panel and see what he was about. He had funny stories about other actors and their farting habits...
Not too many awkward questions for him aside from some guy asking if he'd take off his shirt for the audience. Apparently he had finished filming season three of Arrow the night before (apparently at 4am) and flew to Calgary right after. So kudos to him. Also we learned that we shouldn't have dairy products.
Sarah and I took a quick break afterwards and returned for the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. panel with Ming Na-Wen and Brett Dalton. Quite a large crowd turned out for this one!
Ming was way more positive, upbeat and smiley than Agent May. Took me by surprise to be honest, but it was a pleasant surprise none-the-less. She also kept teasing Brett relentlessly. He took it really well.
The two of them also finished filming the evening before the con and reported that they had had very little sleep. This was probably the reason for Ming thinking the Spiderman kid asked who would win in a pee fight rather than a regular fight. Essentially he had asked whether the characters ever needed to pee (that or the actors, I can't remember) and then Brett asked him how he went in his Spiderman suit. The kid replied with a "uh...question 2" and asked who would win in a fight between Coulson and May. Ming misunderstood and hence the pee battle. Then some dude asked who WOULD win in a pee battle and it was assumed that this would be who could hold it the longest. We also learned Brett has a small bladder and likes to keep hydrated.
Almost ready to head home, we walked outside and met the Silver Surfer and Wolverine.
Before we could collect Sarah's things, she got stopped for an interview where she was asked a lot of...interesting questions about superheroes. We retrieved her grenades and out of curiosity I asked the fellow at the counter why they were not appropriate (I was nice about it I swear!). He said that they were metal and looked too real, which really wasn't much of an answer as we got it before from the other girl. Next time she needs to make sure they are more "cartoony." I think Sarah should just paint smiley faces on them. That's cartoony right?
Anyhow, another awesome day at the con. I am extremely exhausted now and will go to sleep. One more day! Hayley Atwell! Yay!
So cool story. As I mentioned earlier. we were talking to Sarah's friends and heard from them that some vendor got kicked out of the con without a refund for offending people and promoting hatred. I wondered what they could have possibly done to have this happen. Well, turns out they were Gamergate asshats. I couldn't be more pleased. Despite my irritation with the costume and prop policy, Calgary Expo has done something right.
Also apparently I don't exist. Excellent. They won't be expecting me. Mua ha. Ha. Sleep time.
I am always for gamergate because making SJW's and feminists butthurt is always a good thing. But I don't know what they were expecting other than to get trolled there. Canada is PC land and everyone has to be conservative. Would have been better off just running around naked screaming. Then when you get kicked out you actually have a censorship claim.
ReplyDeleteThe fact any of these "organizations" "exist" is already a telltale sign the apocalypse is upon us.