Armageddon Auckland 2014

Recently over Labour weekend, Auckland hosted the annual Armageddon Entertainment Expo. I thought rather longingly about attending, but wasn’t sure it would be manageable with two rather hectic under 5 year olds, even a couple of pop culture loving ones. Then just two days before, I managed to win tickets to the show, so WAHOO! It was obviously meant to be. Here are a just a few of my highlights from the Monday I attended.

The cosplay
Due to those pesky pre-schoolers (I love them really), it has been a good 5 or 6 years since I last went to Armageddon, and oh my goodness how the cosplay has grown! My significant other and I used to lament the fact that NZ didn’t really do it on the level of overseas conventions, but that has changed indeed and I absolutely loved it :) My sons were in seventh heaven posing with an array of characters, including Iron Man, a rather amazing Dalek, and Star Wars characters galore.
We have some fabulous books on cosplay in our catalogue (I’m getting started on planning my costume for next year) such as:

1000 incredible costume & cosplay ideas : a showcase of creative characters from anime, manga, video games, movies, comics, and more! / Yaya Han, Allison DeBlasio & Joey Marsocci a.k.a. Dr. Grymm.

Cosplay New Zealand / Sylvie Kirkman.

Cosplay world / Brian Ashcraft and Luke Plunkett.

And you really need to see this video of Eveychu, the overall winner of this year’s cosplay competition (not to mention the Trans-Tasman Champion 2014), with her stunning cosplay of Katniss from the Hunger Games; she really deserved her win!

The exhibitors 
Ahhhh, there was something for everyone. From the big stores such as Mighty Ape to smaller stall holders selling the most amazing pop culture goodies. I’m a steampunk fan, and picked up some stunning steampunk pretties, Achievement Christmas shopping was indeed unlocked!

Yet our favourite stand would have to have been the Auckland Libraries one. I may be a little biased, but my aforementioned significant other and small people were extremely happy to have somewhere to put their feet up and play games on the library iPads, while I checked out the cool Makerspace badge making going on.

I did manage to get in a little trouble though, as said SO perused the collection there for borrowing, and noticed that we loan out games…I CAN BORROW GAMES! How did I not know this? (said he) *cough cough* (said I).  Did you know you can borrow console games from the Library? We have Nintendo DS, Playstation 2 and 3, Xbox and Xbox 360, PSP and Wii games for hire….there, hopefully I'm sparing anyone else from getting into trouble :)

The celebrities
There was a huge range of awesome guests this year, none of whom I ACTUALLY got to see (blame those small people, not so good with queues). From a number of brilliant voice actors from shows such as Ben 10, Regular Show and Adventure Time, to cast members from great shows such as Stargate SG-1 and Supernatural. The big two this year were MacGyver and Stargate SG-1's Richard Dean Anderson, and Jenna Coleman, Dr Who’s current companion Clara. Who, according to the many friends that DID get to meet her,  is just super lovely in person. I'm trying to be happy for them, really I am :) Guess I’ll just have to settle for watching her fantastic Dr Who episodes through our collections, or perhaps a little Richard Dean Anderson in his earlier (and somewhat tastier) years ;)

Wondering if I cosplayed myself? Miao ;)

PS - would love to hear about your highlights too, please comment away!

Sci-fi Now: 101 Reasons Why Sc-fi Rocks!

Okay so maybe not a 101 reasons, but you get the picture.  Although I'm sure I could think of that many if a) I had the time and b) I was allowed to do a post that was 10,000 words long. 

Of course I blame it all entirely on my mother.  After all she was the one who let an impressionable 6 year old watch Doctor Who in the first place. 

Now I don't remember much about that first time except that I sat glued wide-eyed to the screen with a cushion on my lap ready to hide behind when things got scary and even then I would peep behind it, unable to resist finding out what was happening.  It was heady stuff. 

No wonder I became addicted.

From Doctor Who it was a quick leap to a multitude of other Sci-fi shows; some good and some not so good.  I watched them all and it's a love affair that has continued to grow.

If you're not a fan, you're probably reading this thinking I'm a complete wacko, which is okay, I'll leave you to watch your shows and I'll indulge in mine.

Personally I'm kind of keen on making my own Stargate out of a toaster (well they did it on the show) and landing on a world where the natives are friendly or even better, in the arms of a sexy space captain.  Unfortunately with my luck I'd probably end up with my molecules splattered across the inside of an asteroid instead.  Still there are worse ways to go. 

In the meantime I'll just have to contend with dreaming about traveling the universe and sexy space captains and re-watching my favourite shows which fortunately Auckland Libraries have got on DVD.