After a bit of cajoling from a friend, I decided to fork out some dollars and make the effort to go for a day our and visit the nerd-fest Supanova, which is the closest Perth gets to a comic-con/toy-con, anime-con of any type. For more info have a squizz at http://www.supanova.com.au/, and it was well worth the effort. Turns out the guests there were fairly interesting this year, so after some mad scrounging to find something for them to sign, Off I went.
To say this was last minute is a bit of an understatement. I bought my ticket online at about 10.30pm and was looking for things after I finished work. That was hitting the 1am mark…
It was worth it though. The guest list looked a bit like this.
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I was most pleased to see Neil Kaplan, the voice actor for one of my fave Optimus Primes. RID Op was the Prime that got me back into Transformers and I liked the gritty voice this one had, it was different and tough. Which suited nicely, as this Prime jumped up a canyon on falling boulders. You don’t see that from G1 Optimus!!
Dan Green was next on my list. the voice of Knuckles the Echidna? Hell Yes (although most of the games he voiced were the crap ones on the Wii, Secret Rings, Black Knight and Shadow the Hedgehog), so I had some trouble finding an appropriate game. The better half suggested I take along one of my many Knuckles Comics, but they were the wrong era. Luckily he did Knuckles in Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing. Ching Ching Ching, we have a winnah! I liked that Knuckles as well.
Finally, but not least was Yuko Miyamura. Voice of Astroboy. Probably from the 2000 series, which I watched in English, but she would have done the effects for the kick ass Gameboy Game . I also have an all-encompassing Astro book too, so hachaaaa!
That was enough to justify the lot for me. So off I trotted.
The Train station was rather dull… But at least the train was on time.
I arrived at opening time for the doors and was a bit shocked at the lines and people. There were 2 and lots respectively. Not a bad turnout I thought.
Glad I bought my ticket on line. One short wait and a snazzy stamp on the wrist later, I was in the doors.
Cosplayers aplenty!! A short walk and a telephone call later, I had managed to find my geek-pals. I joined them in the line for Yuko and my Astro goodies!!
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The better half had charged me with the task of getting a photo with Yuko, so I asked and I couldn’t. ‘It’s not in their contract.’ Eer, well that sucks somewhat, that was the main reason I brought my camera… So I snapped one sneakily later hur hur hur! Take that organisers!
After the short wait, I got the signing and they closed Yuko’s section for a bit, so pals and I milled for a bit and I convinced everyone to come with me while I finish my other signing stuffs.
Conveniently, Dan and Neil’s booths were next to each other.
Neil was first as at that time, there was no queue.
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A bit sad as there was one guy in front of me getting a bunch of Starcraft games signed. Anyhoo, it didn’t take long and it was my turn. I busted out my DVD box set season 1 of Robots In Disguise and he was surprised! We had a good chat, now I am glad there weren’t many people around, as we chatted for quite a while. It was funny and he signed my DVD, I was happy and we chatted a bit more. I have to say that Neil was a really great bloke. Easy to talk too, and funny as well. It put my day off to a good start and I was terribly terribly chuffed at the time, I think I may have looked like a bit of an idiot afterwards as I couldn’t stop smiling…
I would like to say Neil, if you ever visit my humble blog, Thanks man, that signing set the good tone for the rest of my day, I really appreciate it!
Sorry Cullen, you’re not my favourite Optimus voice anymore…
After that great experience, I jumped in the line for Dan. Man it took a while and as I got closer I realised why. He is the voice of The main dude from Yu-Gi-Oh as well, so people were busting out individual cards to sign.
Not much love for Knuckles it would seem.
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Again, I had a little chat to him and he signed my game for me. Before I got to him, he was taking a couple of photos with fans, this happened a couple of times, until a Supanova person said not to do it. Dan said he didn’t mind, but the Karma police put their foot down. Man that blows. Dan was a great guy too, I have to say. Thanks Dan, I enjoyed my chat with you too.
My goodies, all signed and delivered.
With my signing done for the day, time now to catch some cos-players and other assorted random snaps.
LOL Sonic Man! Or should that be Bat-Sonic? I am not too sure. Pretty funny effort though!!
Some local Ghostbusters. These guys were pretty popular and they should be too, their costumes were pretty damn good! The Proton Packs had all funky flashy lights and guages and stuff! They asked me to Faceboook thumbs up them or something, but I don't have facebook, so I can’t. Sorry guys. But I did find a link to a forum, with a bit of info. So for those WITH facebook, they go under the guise of “GBFans” and there is good forum and info site at http://www.gbfans.com/
Cheers guys!!
Incidentally, I had some kid comment on my shirt. He said “love your shirt, It’s my favourite band, I love their music.” Well that’s what I think he said, it was pretty loud, so I will give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he said ‘game’ and not ‘band.’ Still, the music isn’t all THAT great. But Streetfighter does rock majorly, so there might be hope for him yet.
Moving on.
Lots of Naruto characters. Apparently. Great, never seen any Naruto, so I couldn't tell. Lots of characters I recognised and heaps that I didn't as well. Saw some nerds I knew from my first years of uni. True, slightly creepy Otaku... Glad they didn't seem to notice/remember me.
Left: Some guy with civi Wolverine. Kudos to him for making those claws and he actually had is own facial hair. He just needs to muscle up a bit more and he will be pretty good. Right: The faceless monster from Spirited Away/ Sen to Chihiro.
Mario and Luigi with my little Mario and Luigi.
Speaking of which!
Hello! Mario Sisters! Woot! XD
L - Some white dude, who I thought had gone to good length for his costume (that’s a lot of white body paint he’s sporting there) and the only Black Rock Shooter Cos-play in the whole place! TRAVESTY! But another good effort!
R- A somewhat dodgy looking Nightcrawler. I guess he was short enough though…
Oh and these guys were there too.
REEOOW!
A really good Shiek cos-play. Complete with Ninja-y pose. First cos-play photo of the day and one of the better costumes if you ask me. Should have been out there kicking those Links asses for them.
DEADPOOL! Quite a few Deadpools kicking around, so I decided to collect them all.
This was the first Deadpool I saw. And my fave! Nice BBQ accessories with the apron and spatula. Domino was just an added bonus. Thinking about it later and a chef’s hat would have been the cherry on the proverbial cake. Made me laugh this one, nice couple to talk too as well.
This was the best ‘ready for action’ Deadpool Guns galore and he struck good poses too.
Femme-pool (?) I think I saw some reference on the front of a Deadpool cover somewhere. Meh. Like the hair out the bottom of the mask!
Great thing about Deadpool is you can accessorise with pretty much anything and it will fit. Aprons, guns, grenades, comic books, energy bars. They all work!
This guy was busy chatting up the bird behind the counter, and doing fairly well too I might add. Then I butted in. Sorry dude.
At first I thought he was Son Goku from the SMAP version of Saiyuki (Monkey Magic/Journey to the West), but today I thought about it some more and now I know he is Killik from Soul Calibur.
There was a guy dressed as the monkey king, but he was fast and would pose and then leave. I couldn’t be bothered chasing him by then. Sorry.
This was the hall where it was held. Behind me (I’m taking the photo) was the section where Spike from Buffy, Draco Malfoy and Sam’s Mum from Transformers were signing. Big lines for them too. Busy, busy, busy.
Oh and I bumped into these guys.
Hello Ladies.
Hmm, I think I like them too much….
So a good time was had by all. My pals were still lining up for other autographs and such and so I was left largely to my own devices, which seemed to be hugging Pandas and other “Free Hug” People and walking around.
I milled about until 3/4pmish and moseyed on home after that, as I needed to sit down and when I found a chair, I got kicked off because everyone had to re-line up because the cos-play competition was about to start. Screw that! I would’ve liked to have stayed to watch, but sheesh, lining up just after I had FINALLY sat down was asking too much.
I think some improvements could be done, the venue needs to be a bit bigger, as there wasn’t much room to move. A couple more places for food were required (there were only 2, one at either end) as they always had a loooong line. And perhaps a little bit more leeway with the photo-ops from the staff. I think that if a guest wants to let people have their photo taken with them they should. Dan was doing a sterling job but got cut down by The Man, which I think was really strange, especially since the website advertised free signings with some of the the guests. I mean how bad can it be letting a few geeks have a happy snap? More places to sit as well. I didn’t have anything to eat there, due to the food situation (or lack of).
Found it very fun overall and wouldn’t mind geeking it up bit myself next time, I think a lot has to do with my signing with Neil, he really set the tone for my day. If you see the man somewhere, have a chat and shake his hand, great bloke. Hmmm, I have a couple of ideas. Gonna have to find me some clothes but I don’t think it will be too hard.
All pictures marked * and that look like they are official and have been stolen off the Supanova website have actually been shamelessly stolen off the Supanova website. the rest of the pics are all mine.
Thanks for looking!
nice with the mario girls on here three times lol
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