Con Review: Fandemonium 2013!

OK! I’m finally recuperated from con and am now ready to be part of the world again. 

So Fandemonium 2013 was.... FREAKING EPIC! Oh man, I had such a great time! They had new and interesting events and I entered contests (and won some stuffs), and best of all, I hung out with my friend a whole lot!

First off, I’d like to thank my super awesome dad for buying me my ticket!! I wouldn’t have gone at all if he hadn’t of bought it for me, so THANKS DAD!! He also attended the con with me, which is always fun!

Secondly, I’d like to thank the couple of people who approached me and said they like this blog. THANK YOU! That means so much to me!! I hope that I can continue to entertain you and that you’ll keep reading!!

On the first day, I wore Sailor Moon and entered the Costume Craftsmanship Contest. When I found out they did this contest I was really excited because most of the costume contests judge based on the outward appearance of your costume and they don’t really dig into it and see how you crafted it. So it was cool that they have a different kind of contest that judges based on the quality of your work. The judges are actually all friends of mine.(Two of them have been interviewed on here, Jen and Tangle, and the third is going to be very soon) I dunno if that helped me or hindered me (or made no difference), but either way, I won 3rd place! 3RD PLACE! I cried when I accepted my little plaque. You probably don’t understand what a big deal this is for me. I have seriously NEVER won anything EVER in my whole life! So winning 3rd place is super amazing!!! Especially for doing something that I’m really passionate about and that I’ve been working on for years. It means so much to me that other people, who I admire and respect, think my work is well done! I plan on improving my Sailor Moon costume even more, and maybe I’ll try again and shoot for 1st place!

By the way, the guy who did win 1st place is this guy:

He crafted this armor by hand and it’s historically accurate! He could seriously go into battle with this on and not die! He got a perfect score. It was completely deserved!

Also, second place went to my friend Samantha who I interviewed before (she did the AT-AT).

It’s her own voodoo witch doctor character! I think it’s really awesome and beautiful. Also, that little alligator head is real and all the animal pieces are from real animals! Very authentic!

This red and black furry character got “honorable mention” in the craftsmanship contest too. Which is nothing to shake a stick at! They did a super awesome job!

Let’s see, what else did I do on Friday... Oh! I also entered the Plushie Costume Contest with this guy:

If you don’t know, he is cosplaying the character Usagi Yojimbo from the comic of the same name. If you watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles you may recognize him, as he made an appearance in both the comics and the show. 

I really love this little guy. He turned out so well! I am so proud of him and plan to do a post all about him. Well, apparently others thought he was awesome too because I won fan favorite! (Oh my god, I won two things??) And with that I got a free admission to Fandemonium next year! Woo!! Some folks joked that I “stuffed the voting box” but I promise I didn’t! I just asked my friends if they voted for my plush, and it seems everyone did! And sometimes I’d ask if they voted for mine, and they’d ask which one I made and I’d tell them, and they’d say they already voted for him! So I think he legitimately won. And a lot of people recognized him, which made me very happy! I also won 2nd place with the judge! (Three wins??) Which is super awesome! I was a little sad to not win 1st, because the prize was a $25 gift card to Build-a-Bear Workshop, but free admission to next year is super amazing!! I plan to enter the plushie contest again! It was fun to see the super adorable plushes! 

1st place went to this super adorable “Dovashy”:

Which is totally deserved. I mean come on! Fluttershy is the best Davahkiin ever!

Here are all the plushies!

The "bear" metal alchemist. He's so cute! My friend Cher made him!

Samantha made this one. I love the bunny sticking out of his hat!

"Mountain" goat. Arr arr arr arr. XD

I also did a mini photo shoot for my Sailor Moon cosplay with my brother-in-law! We didn’t get a ton of pictures, but I think some of them will turn out cool. Once he is done editing them I’m going to to a cosplay showcase on it.

Also on Friday I entered the “Con Impressionist” contest. It was an audience vote and I tied for 2nd for doing my Bubbles impression! (Oh my Luna, I won 4 things in one weekend?! I can’t even believe it! ) It was fun, and some folks were really good! The girl who won first did the Wicked Witch of the West. It was awesome. The other second place person did Golem and the priest from Princess Bride. It was fun and I won this super funny hat:

Later that night I went to “It Came From the Bad Fanfic” with my friend. Sweet Serenity! Some of the stuff people write..... The first one we affectionately call “The Legend of Lunk and Zeldr.” I really hope it was written by a child, because it sounded like it was. It was littered with bad spelling and grammar and the occasion awful pun. Not to mention its terrible story line. It was pretty hilarious and Samantha and A.C. did a great job of reading it.

Samantha and A.C. reading "Lunk and Zeldr."

Then there was the Optimus Prime and Princess Leia one.... I won’t go into all the graphic details..... But let me say it was rated XXX and was hilariously disturbing. My mind was officially blown. 

I had a lot of fun at the bad fanfic reading and I hope they do more panels like that. It was great—even if I was scarred for life.

On Saturday I entered the Original Character Fashion Show. I wore my OC Peacebow, which I’ve talked about before. I didn’t win anything, but I loved seeing all the original characters! People are so creative! Here are the pics I took!

She won! So awesome! With authentic battle damage!

On Sunday my brother in law and I did another photo shoot but with my OC. It was fun and we used someones yard as an awesome forest background. Haha. I’ll do a showcase on that one too once I get the pictures back.

Also on Saturday I attended that “Costume Contest” and the “Cosplay Contest”. It was fun and I enjoyed seeing the costumes and skits. I really liked the Weeping Angel that did this cool robotic type dance. She won a prize, though I can’t remember for which category. She was also the one who entered the “Dovahshy” into the plushie contest.

Here are the pics I took of some of the cosplays I saw:

Several of my friends in a Madoka Magica group.

An awesome Videl!

An adorable Alice!

A cute lolita!

So awesome!!

I love this one!

This Cinderella fought with me in the battle cosplay!

A little turtle!

I found another Briar Rose!!

A sweet Edward.

Jen being freaking EPIC as Abbey Bominable!

A bunch of ponies!

Kitty as Queen Frostine.

My friend James as his steampunk OC.

Bug version of King Candy! She also one fan favorite in the costume contest!

A super awesome dragon furry!!! I love this one so much!!

A female Link. I love the design so much!!

Some Civil War reenactors.

A humanized Tardis.

Briar Rose!

The other Cinderella that joined us in battle.

It's-a me--Mario!

Furries!! 

And a real live Dalek that rolled around and talked and even sang!

I also attended my friends panel “Mental Disorders in Popular Media” which was really interesting! There was lots of great discussion!

And later on Saturday I entered the “Cosplay Fight Tournament” as Briar Rose and my battle companions were two different Cinderellas, one in her ball gown and one in her peasant outfit. It’s a fun contest and the rules are that instead of winning by who wins the match, you are judged on how entertaining you are. It was fun and silly! I liked watching people act out their characters. The Power Rangers team won, which was good, because they were really funny and really into it. It was great!

So Sunday I helped Samantha do the Convention Support Group. It was pretty much how it sounds: a support group for people who have been bullied at cons or for their nerdiness. I was really flattered that she asked me to help her, because I really like helping people. And I hope that we did help people feel better about their experiences. I think we had a lot of good discussion and I hope to do this panel at all the cons because some people don’t have anyone to talk to about their bad experiences and they need to get it off their chest. So if you came to the panel, thank you! And I hope we were helpful!

I also peeked in at the “Scrap Cosplay” contest. Man, that was really awesome! Basically you formed a team of three people, and you are provided with a bunch of random crafting supplies which you have an hour to create a cosplay with. You also HAVE to use the secret ingredient, which in this case was packing peanuts. There were some really great cosplays people came up with! Recognizable too!! It blows my mind how creative people are. Here are the pictures I took!

He won the judging. He was a fabulous pimp!

This one was my favorite!!

And then I went to closing ceremonies and found out all the things I won and was totally flabbergasted. I had already been having a great time and all my wins were just icing on the cake! 

And here are the couple of things I bought!

These magnets are made by Cosplay Scramble and are super awesome! Their heads and bodies are separate so you can mix and match them in funny ways. I got some last year and loved them so much, I knew I had to get more this time! This time I got the Princess Mononoke ones and Sailor Moon. She doesn’t know if she’s going to be at Fandemonium again next year, but she does sell them online here. She has a TON of different ones. Go check out her catalog!

I also got this Trunks chibi by my favorite artist Mika! I wouldn’t have been able to get it because I didn’t have enough money but my awesome friend Jen helped me out!! So thanks Jen!! I’ll get you back at the next con!!

I also bought some ElfQuest comics to fill out my collection. Someday I’ll have all the ones I want. 

So in closing, I had a super awesome, amazing, fantastic time and I can’t wait until next year!! This is Fandemonium’s 10th year and it finally hit 1000 attendees! The perfect present! So I hope that if you were unsure about going this time that will attend next year! I’ll definitely be there!!

~Edward

Oh my Luna, this post was sooooo long! I’m so sorry! Thanks for reading all the way to the end!