I apologize for not writing for two weeks.....I've been on a nerd spree.
I got to go to Tekko and Steel City Con these past two weekends, and I loved every minute of it.
This year was the very first time this otaku has been to Tekko in Pittsburgh.
I've never really gotten to experience a con before. The ones in Monroeville back when I was in high school (....back in the day...when flip phones were the in thing) were small and tended to be part of a larger more American comic base and not truly Anime.
I didn't even know about this until my mom saw on Facebook that Pittsburgh was hosting Tekko.
She called me to the living on Thursday night and pointed it out.
I went from being 28 years old to being 4 and with the ability to hop up and down that would put a kangaroo to shame.
Needless to say Friday the next day I raced over to the convention center during my lunch break and bought my glorious pass...and managed to spend $100 in under 1 hour. The ticket was $50 for the entire weekend and then as I did a quick hyper walk through the vendor's section I bought a Luna P plushy and a mini Totoro.
After work that day and all day Saturday after my class at the Carnegie Museum, it was a long spree of running around buying all the things 4 year old me demanded 28 year old me to buy, watching all the lovely cosplayers and chickening out from asking them for their pictures and for permission to put them on pittsburgh otaku....hopefully next year I'll get the guts, it's a curse sometimes to be introverted T_T
I got to go to 2 panels during the 2 days I was there.
1 was how to study Japanese which I really liked the suggestions I got from the nice Lady who is a translator and took the N1 of the JLPT exams (Japanese Language Proficiency Test).
2nd panel I got to go to was on Asian Horror movies and it was run by a Lady who actually does studies on horror and (trying to remember how she explained it) why we like it, especially women and why they enjoy horror. She said she did an experiment and that they hired men and women to be part of the test and they had the people who agreed to be part of the test watch a horror movie. The person they hired would sit with them and they would chose to either be brave through it, act scared or neutral. If a guy was taking the test a girl they hired would sit and watch it with him and vice versa.
She said that for men if the woman wasn't scared they would say the movie was horrible.
For women if the man acted scared she would say the movie was horrible.
I found that really fascinating and I did like her comments that all the women in the room that came for horror were an anomaly since stats said women hated horror movies. It's like we were part of a special little club of women who just love being scared it was great....I actually think we outnumbered the men in that panel.
I was rather tempted to go to the concert they had at Tekko but soon as I saw the crowd even though I'm not claustrophobic it freaked me out to think of being squished among people I didn't know bumping into me. The band playing was Back-On, a group from Japan. I was so tempted, even though it was a band I never heard of I checked YouTube for some of their songs and I've now added them to my list of j-bands that I like.
Now...you're wondering Caroline how much DID you spend at Tekko...well
The below is only PART of my nerdy haul my dears:
Now I just absolutely HAD to get this last plushy, I mean come on I have 3 american eskimo dogs and it looks like them!
...I also got....ya there's more but not pictures....^^;
fingerless gloves that look like kitty paws
X1999 the entire anime series...now if only I could get my hands on the movie (which I like better than the anime series)
Princess Jellyfish the entire anime series
a ton of Rilakkuma stationery
a Little Twin Star bag (so cute!!!)
Hatsune Miku Figure
...a body pillow...along with a Hakuouki pillow case with Okita Souji and Kazama Chikage on it....
NO JUDGING
And that was just my experience and monetary damage at TEKKO.
Let's not forget I also said I went to Steel City Con.
My experience there wasn't as pleasant but I did love going.
My main suggestion to everyone is BUY YOUR TICKET IN ADVANCE.
It will save you 2 hours of waiting in line, if you think I'm joking I did that the other year with my friend Karyn we stood out there in the hot sun baking for over an hour.
Plus it makes you feel oh so important just walking past everyone and getting your ticket in under 10 minutes.
Now Steel City Con for those who have never gotten to attend is not as well done as Tekko and vastly different because it is NOT based on having strictly Japanese themes like anime, J-drama, J-pop etc.
Steel City Con is dead center in the nerd kingdom. You have your otakus mixing in with your sci-fi nerds, with your comic book guys, your old school tv lovers it's just a wonderful melting pot of nerdness and it's really great.
There's so many artist booths, I was so tempted to buy one artists clock he made from a vinyl record and he carved out of the top of it a scene that made it look like a shadow picture of Godzilla terrorizing Tokyo.
I also got to see Tony Todd, the actor who played the villain in one of my fav american horror movies, The Candy Man. I got to show my respect to a man who puts live bees in his mouth to up the scare factor in a movie.
I got to take his picture ^__^
I also got to see Barbara Eden, now SHE was like one of my favorite ladies when I was little and would stay up to watch Nick at Nite. I'm so shocked to learn she's 84 I am so impressed with how she looks. Yes I am aware she has money and was able to do all the fancy things like plastic surgery and awesome beauty supplies to make her look this way but I don't care she looks amazing for her age!
I also took a picture of a Star Wars model. One of the guys that did Darth Vader's voice was there as well but I missed taking his picture, there were too many people.
Plus total applause to the dad I saw at Steel City Con who dressed up as Dark Helmet from Spaceballs walking around with his wife and pushing his baby's stroller. BESTEST cosplay of Steel City Con I don't care what anyone else says.
Now what damage did I do there well hehe I bought a ginormous Link from Legend of Zelda.
I was excited to say when I brought it home my mom started yelling at me to stop buying but as I tried explaining what I bought and was slowly taking him out of the bag, my mom the Zelda nerd just goes "I LOVE HIM!" and my family wonders where I inherited my nerdness from, when you take two nerds and marry them off you get a baby nerd...why don't they explain this to people.
Plus as I was telling my mom where I was going to put him on my desk....I get yelled at saying it was to REMAIN UNOPENED IN THE BOX.....hardest thing to listen to...but he's sadly still in the box T__T
I also bought a Grelle Sutcliff figure, I'll be showing his picture later next week.
I haven't removed him from the box yet and I bought him a friend. Ebay was kind enough to have Undertaker....and I bought that sucker up as fast as I could. So you'll get to see them together.
I also bought a little Aladdin figure from Magi, he was the ONLY Magi item there, which was very sad. I bought him....so he wouldn't be lonely and could hang out with my Sinbad and Kouen figures...ya that's it it was so he wouldn't be lonely....(avoids all reader's gazes of judgement).
After that I bought some $10 posters. Got my dad two of the classic Godzilla movie posters from Japan, my Katakana and Kanji reading skills are terrible but one is Godzilla VS. Mothra.
Mothra was my favorite monster when I was growing up...and yet I fear all creepy crawly bugs...go figure.
The other posters were for the Princess Bride, The Dark Crystal and Legend
All major favs of mine, 1980's were great for fantasy films.
Last but not least I got a My Little Demon Plush from Shaman Soul Studios.
I got a Voodoo Vixen, she's adorable.
Link below to see what she looks like and if you want one please order one from Shaman Soul Studios. There's a ton more to choose from why stop at just one?...I had to only because I was at my money damaging limits for the weekend after I bought Link and Grelle.
Now my only complaint about Steel City Con is this.....
THE LADY'S ROOM NEEDS TO HAVE A CONSTANT SUPPLY OF TOILET PAPER!!!
I'm not quite sure if they just think only men go to this thing or that we just don't pee but on a hot day after guzzling tons of liquids we lady's need to go and there was no paper except for 2 bathroom stalls. And there were over 10 stalls. Plus there were no paper towels, why because the other women got desperate and took some for TP.
Maybe I should just open up my own booth next year for Steel Con sell some nerdy crochet like legend of zelda blankets and on the side sell the lady's toilet paper for $3 a roll because that was some serious desperation for a lot of girls.
Now apologies for not writing for 2 weeks then bombarding you with a super long post.
But I hope you liked seeing my plushy haul and what I got to experience at the cons.
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