Tag Archives: Merida

MCM Comic Con Birmingham 2019 – Part 1

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NEC Birmingham

16/17 November 2019

OK, look – I won’t write a blow by blow account of this years MCM Comic Con at Birmingham NEC.  I’ll just provide a little info; a flavour, if you will, of the attractions and atmosphere.

That way, we can cut to the chase and you can see the photos I took of the many and varied Cosplayers at the event.

Maybe you were there?  Maybe a photo I took of you is featured here?  If so, I’d like to thank you for your contribution.  Also, I’ll offer my apologies, if the pic isn’t that great.  Fingers crossed some of these images look alright.

The main goal of the day was to see as many of the stalls as we could, and spend a few quid here and there.  There were a great many treasures to be seen – oh, if only I had the money to buy them all…

I did buy the following:

  • A ReAction figure of Jerry Only from the Misfits (to go with my Misfits Fiend I’d purchased previously).
  • A ReAction figure of the classic Universal monster, the Mummy (bargain price).
  • Freddie Mercury Funko Pop – the yellow jacket version, the first I’d ever seen in the wild and a steal for only a tenner.
  • A Marvel comic book: Master Of Kung Fu – cos I felt I needed to add at least one comic to my collection.

Not a bad little haul, really.

Over all, though, the greatest success of the day were the amazing Cosplayers.  Thanks to all of your for posing for a photo.  Hope you all had a great day!

That’s it for Part 1 of the MCM Comic Con write-up: stay tuned for Part 2 very soon, with loads more photos to enjoy…

MCM Birmingham Comic Con – Part 1

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NEC Birmingham

19/20 November 2016 

It’s been a couple of years since the gang made a trip to Birmingham NEC for Comic Con.  Not that we didn’t want to, other stuff just got in the way, sadly.  November 2016 however would see us return to Comic Con for all the usual fun and games.

Right from the off, the number of cosplayers seemed to be even higher than previous.  There were all kinds of characters on view, and plenty of them, from every franchgise you could think of.

Boushh
Belle
Wicket
Bat gang
Monkey

The most popular costume this year was undoubtedly (and unsurprisingly) Harley Quinn.  Harley has always been a regular sight at conventions such as this whenever I’ve visited.  Following the success of the Suicide Squad movie, there were dozens of Harleys, of all types, everywhere.  Not to do any of the cosplayers a disservice – they all looked fantastic, whether they were original comic book or Margot Robbie inspired.

I tried to take as many photos as possible of the amazing costumes.  Everyone had obviously gone to great trouble to create outfits that were well made and accurate.

Unfortunately I couldn’t get photos of everyone, some people just slipped by and I missed them!

Double trouble
Always loved Black Canary
Ivy
Princesses
Scarlet Witch

Plus, as always, I appear to have had a slight technical issue – resulting in several photos that would have been very cool not turning out at all.  My apologies to Storm and Walking Dead Daryl (amongst many others) – both of whom had awesome costumes, but my poor skills resulted in terrible pics!

The stalls were full of incredible paraphernalia as always.  So tempting, but regrettably I’m not made of money.  I saw dozens of very cool items, picked up a couple of things, left loads more.  I’m still missing not buying the Elvira Funko Pop…

She-Ra
Pinhead
Canary and Arrow
Joker and Harleys
Deadpool

My Star Wars collecting has retired these days.  I’m now only picking up (affordable) figures from the Original Trilogy; as I’m up to date with all that stuff there wasn’t anything to concern me.

Still, I had a good look around and thoroughly enjoyed scavenging for groovy collectables!

All in all it was another great day at the NEC.  Always spectacular, a great atmosphere and loads to see.  Looking forward to returning in March for more of the same!

Daft Punk
Napoleon
Beast
Super family
Princesses
Merida
Group shot

Sci Fi Weekender 2016 – part 1

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IMG_20160318_114228066Sci Fi Weekender 17th – 20th March 2016

Hafan Y Mor Holiday Park, Pwllheli

Wow.  This year’s Sci Fi Weekender was a blur – it went faster than light speed.  All the usual geekery was in full swing, though I’ll be gosh darned if I can remember everything and what order it happened in.  Too much blue milk?

Never mind, I have numerous photos of the weekend to share; to help report on this cosmic adventure.  Except that didn’t go to plan this year.   My trusty Canon was on the blink, so I resorted to a little digital snapper and my phone.

Not ideal, but sometimes you have to compromise.

Thor and Loki
Merida
Freddy
Scream
Harley and Zatanna
Cool outfit!
General Zod

So what is Sci Fi Weekender?  For the unititiated, it’s a weekend of events and special guests, all held on site at the Hafan Y Mor holiday park in Pwllheli, North Wales.  Think Comic Con but at a holiday camp and with a party atmosphere.  All manner of interview panels, Q&As, games, and musical entertainment are part of the festivities.

Plus a prog rock festival – HRH Prog – was also being held on the same weekend.  Not a massive tie in with science fiction you may think (at least not without Hawkwind playing).  However it gave additional entertainment for those with musical interests.

Our weekend began with four of us – Adam, Greeny, Kurt and myself – driving from our corner of north east Wales to the north west.  On the way we popped into Cob records in Porthmadog to feed our vinyl addition.  Then we settled into our caravan home from home – complete with haul of supplies from the local ASDA – and planned our DVD watching schedule for the night.

Belle and Prince
Double trouble
Ant Man and She Hulk
Group pic
Amazing!

Unfortunately the DVD player wasn’t working, and without tickets for the Thursday evening SFW party, we were stuck.  Rather than watch TV, we went for a pint in the onsite pub.  We then popped in to see what the prog rock was all about.  We didn’t think we would get in, but it was no problem.  As a result we were able to see Third Quadrant (quite good) and the excellent Crazy World of Arthur Brown.  Arthur is over seventy years old and jumps around on stage like a nutter.  Highly entertaining and some great tunes.

Friday began with the bad news that Kurt was ill.  He’s only 16 so booze wasn’t the issue.  As a result, Kurt and his dad Greeny were pretty much out of the running for the day.  They watched TV and chilled.  Plus Ste, our remaining member, had burst the inflatable camp bed by leaving it too close to the fire.  He suffered a bad night’s sleep on the sofa as a result.

The rest of us headed over to the arena and started checking things out.  I took a few photos and looked round the stalls.  We caught a Cosplay panel with Tabitha from Artyfakes that was very interesting, with extremely impressive Space Marine costumes and hints and tips about the hobby.  I bottled asking my question though, which was “How do you go for a wee?”.

Star Trek
She Hulk
This pic should be gloomier
Belle
Doctor

I also watched an interview panel of comic book artists.  The panel consisted of 2000AD greats such as Glenn Fabry, William Simpson, Clint Langley and Simon Davis.  Hosted by Dez Skinn, the panel was informative and also amusing; it seems some of the assembled masters had been on the pop?  Either way, these guys were like rock stars to me when I was a young 2000AD fan, so it was pretty cool.

The vibe around the arena was good natured as always.  I took some cool photos (thanks everyone) and despite our numbers being depleted, we had a good afternoon.

After a delightful pizza from the onsite Papa John’s (it was great!); we were ready for the evening’s entertainment.  I’m afraid to say that the Imaginarium and magicians weren’t really my thing this year.  It’s difficult to dig the magic when you can’t see it up close.

Orc
Morticia and Gomez
Mario and pals
Jedi and Ewok
Welcome!

The highlight was the one and only Professor Elemental, steam punk hip hop pioneer.  His smooth raps mixed with groovy beats like a well tuned gin and tonic.   A pleasure to witness, as always.

At the end of the night, I teleported across the site to see the end of the set by Caravan.  Not only a very apt band to be playing, they were actually pretty good.  The Soft Machine were on last with a more jazz orientated approach.  All very impressive and I’m glad I got to see something different.

I’m ashamed to say that we all ended up crashing out early on Friday night.  Illness and lack of sleep took it’s toll.  I was last man standing, going to bed at 11.30pm.  Pathetic, I know.

In Part 2: Brian Blessed, the Cosplay final, more Prog Rock…

PLUS: will we be able to stay up late?

Stay tuned to this frequency…

The Sci Fi Weekender site is here.

You really should check out Professor Elemental.  His website is here, plus he’s on that Twitter and stuff too.