I went to Fan Expo 2010 here in Toronto during the weekend. It was my first time going; apparently, Fan Expo has been around for several years but I only discovered its existence last year. After attending it, I have to say that it was well worth the trip, although I missed some opportunities, like taking pics of Adam West, Michael Dorn, etc. Ah well, I was there mainly for the video games and anime, and on that front I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest.
I took a lot of pics, so I’ll post them now and add some text as I go along (sorry C. Lint, I didn’t find that random Asian dude you wanted me to capture!). Sorry for the quality of some pics. Let’s get this started!
Ghostbusters cosplay
[details=Spoiler]
This is the first pic I took on my way to the convention centre. I loved the costumes, but I wish they had someone to represent Winston for completeness.[/details]
Nintendo Booth
[details=Spoiler]
Nintendo had a booth where you could play some games. Pictured above is Sin & Punishment 2, which I have yet to play. They also had SSBB, Mario Galaxy 2, and NSMB Wii. Nintendo had a special DQ9 event where you could download a special map if you tagged a guest named NOA1. Not only did I tag that person, but I also upgraded my inn from tagging a bunch of other people, something I didn’t know would happen. If you have the means to do it, definitely go to a big gaming event and tag random people; I got a lot of sweet maps that way![/details]
Old-school Batmobile
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0045.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0048.jpg
Yep, it’s that Batmobile. You could spend money to have your pic taken while inside it. Apparently, Adam West and Burt Ward were on site at one point, but I was obviously elsewhere when that happened.
Voice Actor
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0046.jpg
This is Vic Mignogna of Fullmetal Alchemist fame (or, for the gamers, Persona 3 fame). He was in attendance for autograph sessions and Q&A. I went to the Q&A (more on that later). The lineup was huge for the autographs and, as was the case for certain people, you had to pay a fee to receive an autograph.
Zellers Tourney
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0047.jpg
Zellers (a local Canadian store) hosted a tournament for three games: Modern Warfare 2 for the 360, SSF4 for the PS3, and SSBB for the Wii. The grand prize for each tourney was 10 million rewards points. I’m not sure what you can get at Zellers with those kind of points these days, but it sounds like a lot.
Fullmetal Alchemist cosplay
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0050.jpg
The Winry cosplayer wasn’t paying attention, heh. I just walked up to them with my camera without saying anything, though.
Harley Quinn
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0051.jpg
I like this one. She had the body for it.
Indie Game
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0052.jpg
This game is called Guerilla Gardening. I like the art style; not sure why, but when I first saw the game, it reminded me of an old game called Syndicate (probably because of the isometric view). The game’s creator has a website, Spooky Squid Games.
Deadpool
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0053.jpg
Deadpool cosplay. Definitely needed some weapons.
Star Wars troops
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0054.jpg
I thought these costumes were well done, though the red guard was a bit short, but what can you do?
Convention lockdown
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0055.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0056.jpg
At one point, the convention centre had to be locked down because it was overcrowded. People were lined up outside for over an hour. Fortunately, that was the only low point in my two days at the convention.
Board game
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0057.jpg
This is a board game called Hordes. I’m not up to date on board games these days, but it’s good that people still play these kinds of games.
Board game 2
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0058.jpg
These guys are playing go, an old Japanese board game. I played it a long time ago and got destroyed. Definitely an interesting game, though.
R2D2
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0059.jpg
A perfect replica of R2D2. It was operated by remote control.
Blazblue cosplay
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0060.jpg
Carl and Rachel.
Assassin’s Creed cosplay
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0061.jpg
I’m not too familiar with Assassin’s Creed, but this was easily the best cosplay I’ve seen of Ezio at the show (or is it Altair?). He even had the various hidden weapons.
???
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0063.jpg
No idea what this is. It talked.
Sony booth
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0064.jpg
Sony’s booth. They had the Move and its games on display, and I played the ping-pong game. I got the hang of things pretty quickly; I beat the two opponents I played against.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0065.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0066.jpg
Yes, that is Gran Turismo 5.
G4 booth
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0067.jpg
G4 had one of the larger booths. As you can see, you could relax here and watch some TV.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0076.jpg
Electric Playground’s Victor Lucas, looking pretty for the camera.
Venom cosplay
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0068.jpg
Eh, the only good thing about the costume was the mask. At least I got two girls in the pic.
Guess who?
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0069.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0070.jpg
Yeah, there was no way I was going to get an autograph. The line was* huge*, and there was a fee on top of that. Any special events (Q&A, etc.) with him required a special pass, which was sold out–presumably for months–by the time I got around to ordering my ticket.
Ubisoft booth
[details=Spoiler]
Just Dance for the Wii.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. You can’t tell from this screen, but there was so much chaos going on, I couldn’t see myself playing the game with so many players.[/details]
Dragon Quest
[details=Spoiler]
This thing is absolutely cool. Just so you know, it wasn’t a guy wearing a Mimic costume. It’s impressive how someone can make something so convincing from scratch.[/details]
N7
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0074.jpg
As an added bonus, I got some Borderlands cosplay.
Zellers tourney 2
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0077.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0078.jpg
Some S4 action. They had a little bit of trivia where if you answered correctly, you won a Playgrounds T-shirt. I won one of the shirts by answering the following question: “What is M. Bison’s favourite day of the week?” I was surprised nobody else got that question. One question that struck me as iffy was the one about Sakura’s first teacher. I think the answer came from one of the non-canon anime movies (I think it was Alpha). Apparently, Ken–not Dan–was Sak’s first trainer.
Vic Mignogna Q&A
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0079.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0080.jpg
I enjoyed the Q&A. The people there asked some interesting questions, and I got some insight into the world of voice acting. I actually recorded the session (sound only), and I plan to upload it so you guys can listen to it. At the end of session, we got to watch a short film made by Vic himself called Fullmetal Fantasy. Vic asked us not to record it, so the only way you can watch it is by attending a convention. The movie was hilarious…Vic seems to be a huge fan of Fullmetal Alchemist.
Yoshitaka Amano
[details=Spoiler]
Yep, that’s the man. Huge lineup to get his autograph, too.[/details]
Star Wars figures
[details=Spoiler]
Just some stuff on display.[/details]
Tron Legacy
[details=Spoiler]
There was a fairly large booth for Tron alone. They had the game available to play (I didn’t play it). I really need to watch the first movie again, because I remember almost nothing about it.[/details]
Boba Fett LEGO
[details=Spoiler]
Further proof that LEGOs kick ass. They had a contest where you could guess how many pieces it took to create the statue. My guess was 5000, but now that I think about it, that number is probably too low.[/details]
Zellers tourney 3
[details=Spoiler]
Some of you might recognize this guy (I didn’t). He goes by the name Buddah. He won the S4 tourney and won the 10 million HBC Rewards points. If you know this guy, ask him what he got with his points. Better yet, if he’s an SRKer, have him post in this thread. Buddah has a scary Seth.[/details]
DeLorean
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0096.jpg
You know what this is.
Micro Volts
[details=Spoiler]
This is a multiplayer PC game. It’s a 3rd-person team-based shooter which is in beta right now. It’s free to play; you just have to sign up at their site: MicroVolts - Online Multiplayer Toy Shooter. I played the game and rated the game based on my experience. I couldn’t give an accurate statement since I couldn’t try all the modes or the maps. I got a free flash drive, but I haven’t checked how much space it has (probably 2GB). There was this cute busty black girl who I think is a part of the dev team; I should’ve taken a pic of her.[/details]
T-Shirts
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0099.jpg
Just random shirts. One of many, many booths that had stuff for sale.
Marvel stuff
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0100.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0104.jpg
There was a lot of hype going on at Marvel’s booth, but I didn’t check to see what it was about.
My friend’s booth
[details=Spoiler]
This is my friend Crystal, who I met in high school. I bumped into her completely by chance, which is crazy considering the thousands of people at the event. She’s an artist. Check out her stuff at Tomgeeks and Earthsong ~ An Online Graphic Novel by Crystal Yates. I bought two buttons that she designed: the Tetris and Pac-Man buttons (both are pictured above). [/details]
Team Fortress 2 cosplay
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0105.jpg
You know, I own TF2 but I never really played it. It’s one of those games in my backlog.
FF13 cosplay
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0106.jpg
What do you think? Cute?
Japanese 101
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0109.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0110.jpg
I learned some random Japanese phrases at this session. The woman in the pics was the host. Her name is Yoko, and she’s beautiful.
Darth Vader cosplay
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0112.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0111.jpg
This might have been the only Darth Vader cosplay I’ve seen. Luckily it’s damn good.
DC Superheroes
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0113.jpg
A bunch of cool artwork, all framed.
G4 peeps
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0114.jpg
Isn’t that Morgan Webb?
Zellers tourney 4
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0115.jpg
Brawl tourney.
Q&A with Hitoshi Ariga
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0116.jpg
The man (on the right…the person on the left is his translator, and she’s a female). I recorded this session too. I’ll have to listen to the recording to see if it’s good enough to upload.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0119.jpg
Random doodles. Apparently, Auto is Hitoshi’s least favourite character. He also doesn’t like X5 as a game too much. The boxes in the image above was Hitoshi describing how much space he leaves in between panels. There’s no standard; it’s all artist preference.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0120.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0121.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0122.jpg
Quick sketch of Dynamo Man. Hitoshi is the original creator of Dynamo Man and Burner Man. He also worked on various Mega Man games as an artist, so he’s not just a mangaka.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0123.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0124.jpg
Hitoshi completed the Burner Man sketch, but he took it away before I could take a shot of the final form. 
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0125.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0126.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0127.jpg
Sketches of Ice Man, Proto Man, and Bass in their civilian forms. Bass was never made into a civilian in the Megamix comics, but one of the attendees asked Hitoshi to draw Bass as one. He had to think about that one!
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0128.jpg
At the end of the session, there was a random draw where the prizes were the sketches. There were some surprises in there, like the above. The first prize was the next image…
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0129.jpg
…and I won it! :woot: I’m definitely gonna frame this. Cut Man is Hitoshi’s favourite character.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0131.jpg
Me with Hitoshi.
Udon booth
[details=Spoiler]
Udon was a part of the Hitoshi Ariga Q&A, and Udon boss Erik Ko was present. It was at the Q&A where I learned that Megaman Megamix was available to buy, translated. Volume 1 has been out for a while, but Volume 2 hasn’t been released yet in stores. But it was available to buy at Udon’s booth, so I picked up both volumes ($15 each).
Erik holding up Volume 2.
Here’s another sketch that was one of the prizes at the Q&A. Dr. Wily is Hitoshi’s favourite character to draw. I managed to take a shot of this at the booth.[/details]
Black Cat cosplay
Microsoft booth
[details=Spoiler]
Kinect was on display. I’m not too sure about this, but I can see its potential for exercising/training.
They also had Halo: Reach. I never played the series…[/details]
Random
[details=Spoiler]
Just some plushies.[/details]
Tron again
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0139.jpg
Still a way to go before it hits theatres…
R2D2 again
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0141.jpg
I wonder how much this thing cost.
Storm troops
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0142.jpg
I’ve seen some really good Star Wars cosplay overall at this event.
Fan Expo
Spoiler
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d146/King9999/Fan%20Expo%202010/IMG_0143.jpg
This represents what Fan Expo is all about.
Those are all the pics I took. For next year, I’ll make an effort to take more full-body shots of the cosplayers so you can see every detail. There were definitely some pics I wanted to take (such as a big-titted, bikini-top FFX-2 Riku cosplayer), but didn’t for whatever reason. I’d also like to go with other people so they can cover the things that I didn’t. I will also participate in whatever tournament they have next year, now that I know that they have them. I will also try to attend all three days so I don’t miss out on anything. I had a total blast at Fan Expo, and I highly recommend anyone (in Canada or otherwise) to attend.