Within a Flash of Lightning: First Fan Expo in Vancouver

Fan Expo has arrived in Vancouver! Though it is now come and gone when this is posted ^^; Fan Expo have always been one of the biggest combined geekery convention in Canada, but usually only in Toronto. This year it came to Vancouver. I'm hoping the title of my post become "The First Annual Fan Expo in Vancouver", but judging from how successful the turnout was it won't be a surprise if it doesn't happen again next year.

The lines were long! It goes on forever! However, the fire chief decided that it will become a fire hazard if they went over the capacity of the hall. So unfortunately a lot of people were turned away. The tweet from @ExpoVancouver mentioned that they had to cut off anymore admissions but may be available again after 3 pm on Saturday.

Tear/raindrop sculpture outside the Convention Centre

This took place in Vancouver Convention Centre. It was big, but the crowd was bigger! Though I think it was the right decision even though they had to disappoint a few people because it became really hot inside with all of these people and very hard to move in the aisles.

This was the first sight you would've seen once you enter. Huge amounts of shirts! I got one myself.

Comics and comics and more comics in long boxes! Gone are the days of me collecting them unfortunately. Though once in a while I'd look for graphic novels to read some of the more interesting crossovers or collected stories.

The Batmobile is a replica made locally. It's quite the centrepiece for this exhibition hall. You can take as many pictures as you want outside the railings, but pay $20 you can sit inside and do closeup photos for 5 minutes.

These two mechas were popular attraction inside the exhibit hall. The Terminator statue stuck around in one of the booth but it got quite a lot of attention. While R2-D2 was more mobile thanks to the folks from the 501st Legion. It chirped and whined and shrieked just like in the movies while traversing the crowd and waiting for people to take pictures with this lovable astromech.

Awesome looking Hulkbuster Iron Man statue. It was for sale at Fan Expo for $397 ^^;;;

Lots of dakimakura being sold too. Took this picture for Yakuri XD

Golden Age Colelctables is my usual comic book store... If I were still buying comics. This original art was drawn by Todd McFarlane when he just started his first work for DC Comics and lived in Vancouver area. This art is also used for the store's bag and became quite a popular item for tourists.

Some Tintin merchandise. Quite pricey, but they are hard to find items.

Wicked looking sign for Visions Found! Some of the artists found in the Artist Alley.

Anime Revolution was also advertising their convention which will take place in the Vancouver Convention Centre as well. I had quite a bit of talk with one of the staffs. I just remembered that I heard about them when they followed me on Twitter, but back then they didn't look as good as this since they just started. Quite a long ways since then and everything look quite good now.

I also met some friends here at Fan Expo, including Narmi and Chun (as seen above).

On Saturday night, I was able to get a ticket for the Canadian Videogame Awards (CVA. Apparently "videogame" is one word XD).

It was hosted by Canadian David Hayter, who most of you would probably know him best as Snake from Metal Gear Solid. Yes, he was talking to himself a lot during the show XD

An interesting segment during the show where David Hayter (Solid Snake), Elias Toufexis (Deus Ex: Human Revolution) and Eric Ladin (Infamous 2) show off their voice range quoting famous movie lines.

David Genn (54-40) were playing with The Odds to present the nominees for best music. Great music! I was very impressed with their rendition of Deus Ex's score.

Jennifer Hale replayed her role as Naomi for the show.

Billy Campbell, of Rocketeer fame was one of the presenters.

Jennifer Hale was also there to present an award.

The last thing I attended for Fan Expo was the ReBoot panel featuring Gavin Blair (creator), Sharon Alexander (voice of older AndrAIa), Shirley Millner (voice of Hexxadecimal) and Garry Chalk (voice of Slash).

The convention seem to be lacking panels with only two panel rooms for Q&A or events. I guess when you're used to other anime conventions it felt like this was lacking. Though since this is the first year they're doing this they might just start small. Hopefully this will become an annual event in Vancouver. Though I imagine there has to be some improvement that could be made. Like for lineups. It was unfortunate they had to turn away people. And then on the second day, everyone had to line up no matter if they have a 2-day badge or just buying their tickets today... Isn't it easier to let people with passes in first instead of getting them to lineup with everyone else?

Anyway... To end this post, here are the cosplay photos! Though this time around there aren't as many cosplay compared to an anime convention so I've put them together here.

Captain Haddock, Tintin and Snowy. They were actually running a survey on the recent Adventures of Tintin film for the Department of Theatre and Film at UBC and asked the Fan Expo attendees to help their research. But you can also take part and take the survey online to help them out ;)

Saw an unmasked Captain America and a very accurate looking Whiplash from Iron Man 2. And yes, that arc reactor do light up!

Felicia of Darkstalkers.

Rainbow Dash! She's 20% cooler because I know her XD

Collection of Batman characters!

Akira and Saki from Higashi no Eden. Akira looks familiar. Looks like I've seen her from somewhere in a different cosplay... Hmmm.....

A super cute Ayanami Rei! *doki doki*

Tali from Mass Effect series. Tali is misskatcakes who detailed a lot about her Tali costume on her Tumblr.

Fem Predator! One ugly motherf*****! XD

An unlikely pair... Harley Quinn (Arkham Asylum version) and Miranda Lawson from Mass Effect.

Misty as Supergirl from Golden Age Collectables, also a friend of mine, who actually brought me to light regarding the existence of Fan Expo in Vancouver.