So the biggest comic/anime/sci
fi/horror/gaming/whatever-you-like happened on Memorial Day Weekend, starting
Thursday, May 24th and continuing through till Sunday evening. This
year was big and bad with Jeff Goldblum representing the Jurassic Park
franchise. Also in sunny Florida for the big day at MegaCon were Lucy Lawless,
Jason Momoa, Charlie Cox, Elijah Woods, and many others. However, I was more
interested in meeting the two sexiest cosplayers in the world. For my money
that would be Jessica Nigri and Yaya Han.
Friday night, with a nice extended weekend and I went to
sleep so early. I vaguely remember watching the Spanish horror cult classic,
Tombs of the Blind Dead and nodding off often. Then sometime in the evening I
crashed hard for 5-hours Then I was up and ready.
After completing my usual pre-con ritual of getting gas, and
hitting the ATM, it was time to take the Crosstown and head for Brandon to meet
up with my good friend Esther. I exited the Crosstown and was driving on 60
towards Dover and it was nice with light traffic the whole way. Saturday
morning just after 7am, I wasn’t expecting much traffic
I made it to Esther’s place without getting lost this time.
We headed out early after briefly speaking with her brother who is a big Gold
Key comic fan. The logic being, from past MegaCon journeys, the later you go,
the worst the traffic and parking is. I love Orlando but I dread the Disney
traffic on I4. We avoided it this time.
We played it smart and avoided the long preregistration and
registration lines by paying the extra 15 bucks to have our wristbands mailed.
The only problem was getting to the parking area. Vehicles trying to cut you
off or worse, not moving because the drivers are lost made for a stressful
drive. Finally, we were parked and ready.
We waited briefly for the bus and were soon off to the main
building at the Orange County Convention Center. Actually our timely was
perfect as we got there at 9:47 and everything starts at 10am.
Right at 10am is the perfect time when there are few folks
around. I use that time to find the dealers I want to buy from and find the
booths for the cosplayers I like. I take it all in slowly at first and I call
it the Initial Scope.
For some weird reason, I was starving so we ate lunch at
10:30am. The tables were still clean and no lines. That would change just after
11 and there would be a long, long wait at 12.
We had chicken teriyaki at A Taste of Asia. For some reason I love
chicken teriyaki at cons because along with the smaller portion of protein, you
also get delicious steamed veggies. Being a diabetic I was worried about eating
the rice but Esther reminded me that we would be walking a lot. And we did. We
walked from 8:30am till 6pm, only standing in line for about 45 minutes. My
legs are still sore two days later.
After an early lunch it was time to mix and mingle. We still didn’t
see a lot of people and the occasional cosplayer. I did see a Godzilla
cosplayer and fan boyed out over that. My mission was to walk the dealers room
and take pictures and look for Godzilla toys.
At 12:20, we walked over to the cosplayer booths to see Jessica
Nigri, my favorite cosplayer. There was already a line so we walked around
confused looking for the end of the line. Then as we stood waiting the line got
longer and longer. Good timing again. Jessica was on a panel with other
cosplayers and we had to wait for that to finish. This gave me time to talk to
the guy from Miami behind me in line who was proud of building his own war hammer
and he let me lift it up. It was heavy.
Later he complained about how heavy it was and his arm hurting. The struggles
of cosplay.
Just after 1:15, Jessica arrived and the line moved fast. She
had a table of professionally shot cosplay photos for sell. I said hello and
had two pictures taken. I didn’t want to hold up the line so I said nice to
meet you and dashed off. I will catch her panel at the next con to hear her
talk.
Then we went to see my second favorite cosplayer, the lovely
Yaya Han, who was a cosplay judge on the reality show called King of the Nerds.
We noticed that after 1, the place was packed. Again, when I met Yaya I just
said hi, took a couple of pics, and
dashed off.
We were shopping at one dealer room and I saw a vintage
Voltron for $30 so I grabbed the box and went to pay for it. Anyway, the dealer
hurried over and pointed out $30 was the old Toys R Us sticker price and the
markup was $250, so he snatched it from me. Oh well off to find Godzilla toys.
I met some cool vendors that were selling Godzilla toys.
Godzilla toys get expensive. I calculated the average price at $260. The
highest I saw was $580 for a Godzilla 1954 in the box. However, I met a third
Godzilla dealer and he was rude. I was looking for something to get for a
college friend and this dealer wasn’t nice so I just strolled off.
I bought one Godzilla toy, from the nice dealer and a couple of
shirts but the big thing wasn’t shopping and spending money, it was interacting
and joking around with the regular fans while walking around the dealer’s room.
I had the most fun just doing that and seeing the costumes, it was like going
out at night on Halloween as a kid.
I love the 80’s and was happy to see so many representations
of 80’s pop culture from Jason from Friday the 13th to the
Ghostbusters and of course Star Wars movies, The Emperor Strikes Back and
Return of the Jedi with Emperor being my favorite. I was overjoyed to see a Ghostbusters booth
and took several pictures there.
Esther and I love Star Trek and were happy to see a recreational
of the Enterprise bridge. I ran to the captain’s chair because this will be my
only time in life to feel like Captain James T. Kirk. I have waited for this
moment for years.
Just after 5, the crowds died down and it was much easier to
get around. My favorite writer, growing up in the 80’s, is Stephen King and his
novel It meant so much to me when I read it when it first came out. I remember
the mini-series and there was a recent reboot movie. I was glad to see the It
photo op with kids in yellow raincoats and Pennywise holding a red balloon. I
had to get a picture of that.
Right at 6, we were both tired, especially from walking, and
headed to the bus area. There was a long line but there were multiple buses and
we zipped through that long line. Esther was smart by taking a cell pic of
where we parked so locating her van was easy.
It was time to end MegaCon for us by going out to dinner at
Benihana, the original Japanese Steakhouse.
On the commute, away from the convention center a car cut us
off close, followed by a post office semi-truck that nearly ran us off the
road. It was scary getting to International Drive.
However, Benihana was nice and elegant inside. We ordered
Hibachi Tuna Steak that was mouthwatering delicious and sat next to a friendly
and chatty Brazilian couple. The chef was very funny, and a good time was had
by all. I got up to use the men’s room and my legs were just starting to hurt. I
would really feel in Sunday morning.
Leaving
Benihana and back on I4 it was time to head back home. We both had a great time
and are already looking forward to MegaCon in 2019.
Here are all
my pics. Please click below.
