Friday 7 November 2014

Return to MCM With Added Blades and Anime




I know this is a few weeks late, but due to university work I’ve only just got round to covering this.

If you’ve followed my exploits of the past year, you will know I attended MCM Expo at the Excel in London last year where I met a childhood hero and observed the glory of cross dressing in cosplayers.

Well, as I promised last year, I did indeed return. This time in full costume and accompanied by Caroline and fellow comic/film/TV nerd, Ricky Manson.

Firstly, the queues had to be the longest I’ve ever been in, but that certainly built up the ‘Delayed Gratification’ of the con. Something which we all look up to the mighty Tom Hiddleston for teaching us.



Anyhoo, back to the con.

As I mentioned last year, the con was full to the brim with people of all walks of life exhibiting their love for movies, comics, sci-fi, horror and costume roleplay. On this occasion, Caroline and I felt it would be appropriate to go as Sweeney Todd and Mrs Lovett, to show our love for the Tim Burton movie – and because it was Halloween the week after.




This was the first time I’d put any coloring in my hair for several years and the Sweeney Todd streak certainly went well with the pseudo-steampunk outfit I threw together. Caroline though looked immaculate as she always does and Ricky, while not in full cosplay, introduced us to several cosplay friends whom we got along with very well.

One thing Ricky did keep up throughout our time there was his game of ‘Spot the Deadpool.’ Because he wore a t-shirt with the anti-hero’s face on it. He came to a conclusion of 39 by the time we left.

And here are just a few shots Caroline snapped of all the amazing people we saw on our trip:


 Pink Lady Darth Vader




Khal & Daenerys awaiting their first Dragon hatchling






                                                           The Greendale Human Being!








                                                 Guardians of the Galaxy complete with mini-Groot




                                              Who says you can't have more than one Harley Quinn?




                                                                     Toy Story Soldiers




Now Rick slacked off Maleficent...



Who in all her power got him arrested by NYPD Blue....



But we saved him and brought him home to keep.



One thing that was different from last year, was my ability to recognise more of the anime characters people chose to dress as. 2014 has been the ‘Year of Anime’ for me. (That’s a little something I have planned for an end-of-the-year post). Seeing people dressed as characters from Bleach, Black Butler, Haruhi Suzumiya and Clannad was simply awesome. It brought back many good feelings of when I first started following Metal and how you would almost immediately become friends with someone if you saw them wearing a shirt bearing a band you love.

Most of all though, was how the con exhibited some knowledge of the few Animes I’ve falled head over heels in love with in the last year. Ricky, I must thank for introducing me to Angel Beats, my second favourite anime behind Claymore. Sadly I saw nobody dressed as Claymore characters but I did find this beautiful figurine of Angel Beats’s KannadeTachibanna – aka Angel.






I’m still banking on Ricky offering to buy Kannade off me at some point as Angel Beats is the one TV series he has become so emotionally drawn into in recent history. I think it’ll take a lot of persuasion if so, but I think a reasonable price will suffice my friend.

I’ll just mention as well, that plenty of cross dressing was exhibited at this con. My favourites were the male takes on Elsa of Frozen. Caroline recently showed me that movie and I praise it for having some strong willed female leads who do not fall into tropes typical of other Disney Princesses; ie: damsels in distress or women in refrigerators. 




And finally, I shall just throw in that we left said con carrying a number of replica swords Ricky purchased. One was Sting, which he’d bought for his LOTR obsessed sister, the sword carried by Michonne of TheWalking Dead, and a lovely blue steel number not endorsed by Derek Zoolander.








MCM never fails to amaze and delight. See you all again soon – I plan to go again in May and see if it’ll be as heavily attended as this time.


 

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