I was at the Toronto Fan Expo yesterday. It was an odd experience. I missed many of the events I was looking forward to. I spent hours in line ups. The guests were disappointments. And yet, I had one hell of a good time.
I waited about an hour in a line of maybe 80 people to meet Yasuhiro Nightow. But when I did, he was really nice. His signature is pretty fancy, and comes accompanied by a small sketch of a cat head. It is elaborate enough that he is not in a rush to get through the line, but is content to genuinely meet his fans. Overall, he was great. The only disappointment there was that I had to miss a Tricia Helfer I and I because I was still waiting to see him (though it probably filled up long before I even got in the line, so I didn't really miss out because of that).
Charisma Carpenter was a bit of a letdown. It cost $35 to get a signed photo, and when I did, it felt as though I was on an assembly line. It was not personalized, I said hi, got a brief smile, she signed, and I moved along. A line of about 400 people moved through in about 20 minutes. It's not so much that she was a bitch, as everyopne arounnd her, and everyone related to the process was an asshole. She looked a little confused at why everyone was sliding on past so quickly.
Besides that, I missed Tricia Helfer's signing times. I waited in line for both Jonathon Frakes and Adam West, but for Frakes I wanted something Gargoyles related signed, and he had nothing available, and West was just charginf $50 for a signature. Every year prior, I have brouhg books and dvds with me to get signed, but it has never yet been necessary. For comic related guests, they always have something for sale at the booth which I get signed, and for actors, the signature price has always included a photo.This year it was different though. I missed out on Paul Dini because I didnt bring anything and couldn't find anything to get singed in the booths. I could have gotten Charisma to sign a dvd or somthing for $10 less. And I had to buy some Trigun books I was behind on to get Nightow to sign them (he did have free Trigun postcards he signed as well).
Anyway, I think that the main reason I had so much fun this year, was the addition of the WSVG (world series of Videogames). I didn't even know that it was going to be there. The gaming section has previously been all D and D type of stuff, which I have no familiarity with. This year there were tons of consoles available. They had I big circle (a Q actually) around which, maybe 8 PCs were networked to play Quake 4 multiplayer. It was huge and fun. I sat and watched the world series match of Quake 4, and a little for WoW. I played some Quake, and watcvhed some frighteningly good people at Guitar Hero 2. It was just a really fun day, despite the disappointments.
I waited about an hour in a line of maybe 80 people to meet Yasuhiro Nightow. But when I did, he was really nice. His signature is pretty fancy, and comes accompanied by a small sketch of a cat head. It is elaborate enough that he is not in a rush to get through the line, but is content to genuinely meet his fans. Overall, he was great. The only disappointment there was that I had to miss a Tricia Helfer I and I because I was still waiting to see him (though it probably filled up long before I even got in the line, so I didn't really miss out because of that).
Charisma Carpenter was a bit of a letdown. It cost $35 to get a signed photo, and when I did, it felt as though I was on an assembly line. It was not personalized, I said hi, got a brief smile, she signed, and I moved along. A line of about 400 people moved through in about 20 minutes. It's not so much that she was a bitch, as everyopne arounnd her, and everyone related to the process was an asshole. She looked a little confused at why everyone was sliding on past so quickly.
Besides that, I missed Tricia Helfer's signing times. I waited in line for both Jonathon Frakes and Adam West, but for Frakes I wanted something Gargoyles related signed, and he had nothing available, and West was just charginf $50 for a signature. Every year prior, I have brouhg books and dvds with me to get signed, but it has never yet been necessary. For comic related guests, they always have something for sale at the booth which I get signed, and for actors, the signature price has always included a photo.This year it was different though. I missed out on Paul Dini because I didnt bring anything and couldn't find anything to get singed in the booths. I could have gotten Charisma to sign a dvd or somthing for $10 less. And I had to buy some Trigun books I was behind on to get Nightow to sign them (he did have free Trigun postcards he signed as well).
Anyway, I think that the main reason I had so much fun this year, was the addition of the WSVG (world series of Videogames). I didn't even know that it was going to be there. The gaming section has previously been all D and D type of stuff, which I have no familiarity with. This year there were tons of consoles available. They had I big circle (a Q actually) around which, maybe 8 PCs were networked to play Quake 4 multiplayer. It was huge and fun. I sat and watched the world series match of Quake 4, and a little for WoW. I played some Quake, and watcvhed some frighteningly good people at Guitar Hero 2. It was just a really fun day, despite the disappointments.
riz:
It's really amazing to be around.... even though it's not THAT old, it's impossible not to get a feel for age when around it.