FanExpo 2010!

Okay, so FanExpo is over. Three days of chaos at the end of the summer break. I met a lot of great people and saw a lot of neat stuff (pictures below). However, before I continue with this account of what I saw and did there, let me just say that Hobby Star Marketing (the company that runs FanExpo) really screwed up on this one. They're known for not giving a damn about what their fans think, but this time was really bad. If I've pre-ordered a Deluxe Pass, I shouldn't have to wait in a three hour line to get in. It was bad to begin with, but on the second day the building filled to capacity, and anyone who left (ie. to get lunch or something) was forced to wait in a massive line that could only move when a large group of people came out (so that's three people at a time with a wait of several minutes in between. You do the math!). The problem is, Hobby Star kept selling tickets! Now, I'm all for letting everyone have their turn, but if the building is full to capacity and you've got eight hundred people waiting to get back in, I think that's a pretty good sign to stop selling entry passes.


Anyway, now that I'm done ranting...

I apologize if any of the pictures are grainy/blurry/too bright etc. It's amazing that I got my camera too work at all.

I decided I should wear my Union costume again (that I wore to Anime North). It's really comfortable, and I love the colours (that's Canadian spelling for all you Americans out there). Not to mention that Canada is a member nation of the Union in Gundam 00, so it seemed befitting.

I took the train into Toronto every day, because it was simpler than driving, and cheaper than staying in a hotel.

Real men take the train.

Upon actually entering the convention, the first things made evident were the large booths in the middle of the showroom. For the sake of simplicity, let us call these the TRON booth and the ALIEN booth.

The Tron Booth, in all its glowy glory.

Stuff at the Tron Booth

Black Guard's Helmet

Just a side note, these suits and helmets are apparently what they actually what they wear onscreen. No CG involved here, folks!

The Alien Booth was in fact meant as a promotion for the new Alien Anthology BluRay. It featured four opening cryo pods, where you could "sleep", and be sufficiently terrified out of your wits.

Weyland-Yutani is bad people.

Some employees of "The Company".

Oh, and they had free cardboard facehuggers. What's not awesome about that?


Hasbro also had a booth, which included numerous dioramas dedicated to their products. Perhaps the best one was the battle of Hoth diorama.

It's no wonder the Empire won.

Trench Warfare

One of the caves

A view of one side of the hangar

The whole diorama was filled with interconnected tunnels, and even had Han and Chewbacca shooting at the Probe Droid.


The Gaming section had a Halo Reach booth, but I couldn't be bothered to stand in line.

All they had was Firefight... I want Forge!

Convention guests this year included Stan Lee, William Shatner, Peter Mayhew, David Cronenberg, Summer Glau, and Ogata Megumi. If you don't know who even a single one of those people is, shame on you (and go look them up). Unfortunately, due to the Con being overcrowded, I have no pictures of any of them. I do, however, have pictures of THE BATMOBILE!

Dadadadadadadada Dadadadadadadada BATMAN!

Of course, as with any convention, FanExpo is really about spending money. Of course, that means there's plenty of awesome merchandise to go around.

Perhaps the most interesting dealer's booth for me was this place that carried video games not released outside of Japan. Of course, most of it was extremely expensive (for my budget anyway).

Haruhi has a game? I didn't even know that.

Code Geass!

I was especially pleased to discover that they had this in stock.

A brand new copy of A.C.E.: R!

Properly called Another Century's Episode: R, this is a Mecha Fighting Game featuring machines from Gundam, Code Geass, Macross, Full Metal Panic, and Armored Core, to name a few.

Some Gundam Games

And that's just one vendor! They had everything else geek-y under the sun.

More stuff! More I say!

I think I'll talk about costumes next... Or maybe just show you.


But since I'm incredibly tired right now, I'll save the costumes and loot for part 2.

Oh, and for those who met me there and want my email, it's Jern_Gundam@hotmail.com

The Last Days of Summer Break

People seem to have this bizarre habit of holding events in the last few weeks of the summer break.

Especially in Toronto.

As you may or may not know, the Toronto FanExpo is one of the largest "fan conventions" in Canada. With that in mind, it's obvious why it was held in the Metro Convention Centre, a colossal building right next to the CN Tower.

FanExpo ran from August 28th-30th, a sort of "conclusion" to the month. Unlike most other conventions, which are only geared toward fans of one genre (i.e. comic books or Sci-Fi), FanExpo is designed to appeal to fans of Anime, Sci-Fi, Comics, Horror, and Gaming. Of course this means a wide variety of vendors, artists, and celebrities are present at each show.

But wait, you ask, what kind of celebrities would be present at such an event? Well, the list was too long to mention everyone, but it included Leonard Nimoy, Billy Dee Williams, Linda Hamilton, Mary McDonnell, Beau Bridges, Walter Koenig, and even Bruce Campbell (this is my BOOMSTICK!).

I had the great pleasure of meeting some of my favourite voice actors, namely: Brad Swaile (Setsuna F. Seiei, Light Yagami/Kira, Amuro Ray), Crispin Freeman (Alex Row, Jeremiah Gottwald), Steve Downes (The Master Chief), and of course, Scott McNeil (Ali Al-Saachez)! I have pictures somewhere, but sadly I haven't been able to "retrieve" them yet. Perhaps at a later date.

Before I continue, it must be made common knowledge that this was not only my first FanExpo, but also the first convention I've attended. Hopefully the first of many.

Now on to the main event!

Upon entering the main hall, visitors were greeted by this statue of the Master Chief. What better way to set the mood?

See those white boxes? That's all comic books.

Even with his head mounted on a wall, the Balrog is terrifying

There's just too much!

For me, walking into FanExpo was like a dream come true, except that everything cost money! The vendors section was full of long booths, brimming with collectables, action figures, posters, books, DVD's and comics. Then of course there were the stores that practically sold nothing but Gunpla.

Of course, the Toronto Garrison of the 501st Legion was present, dressed as various characters from the Star Wars Saga. The members of the 501st sport costumes of very high quality, right down to the mouthpiece, which gives them that cold, menacing "Stormtrooper-y" voice. To create the feeling that these were real troopers on patrol, certain people were given a "Droid Hunt" badge. If a trooper approached someone in possession of one of these badges, that person would have to turn it over.

On the first day the trooper patrols were crawling all over the place, but as Fan Expo progressed they became less frequent.

The Fighting 501st: Vader's Fist on patrol

Droids?

This guy was fun. I took a couple of snaps of him, then as I turned to leave, thinking "he didn't notice my Droid Hunt badge, I'm ninja", he said "I'm not finished with you yet." Curses!

Anyway, according to the rules of the Droid Hunt, he took my badge away. However, near the end of FanExpo it was possible to pick up another as a souvenir, with a donation to charity. By that time I only had spare change left over, but gave all I could.

After all, good cause, plus 501st keepsake? How could I refuse?

It goes without saying that people would be Cosplaying at an event such as this. I was very impressed with some of the designs, however, I only took pictures of the ones I recognized.

Mal from Joss Whedon's Firefly/Serenity

For Z.A.F.T.!

The MJOLNIR MK V & VI

I'm no expert, but I think these guys serve The God Emperor of Mankind

On the third day, I wore my homemade Z.A.F.T. officer's uniform (the white one). Not entirely finished to my liking, so no pictures of that yet, but I will get some taken once it's all done.

Fan Expo may be over, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to look forward to. After all, it'll be returning next year: 2010!

We'll be back next year! Rebel scum.

Somehow in between all my running around to get stuff signed, I still had some time to myself, and used it well.

Yay, loot!

As you can see, I did a bit of shopping. I got all this for about $140 (Canadian, of course).

By the way, you may notice some signatures on the Gundam 00 DVD. In blue, Brad Swaile, the voice of Setsuna. The other signature is Scott McNeil's, the voice of (yep, you guessed it) Ali Al-Saachez!

I was exhausted after FanExpo, but just a few days later, I was at it again. This time at the Rotary Brantford Charity Airshow. Brantford, for all those of you who don't know, was once the home of Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone. But that has nothing to do with aircraft.

And aircraft is why I was there in the first place.

The Snowbirds: Canada's aerial acrobatics team

Some consider them a Canadian symbol. The Snowbirds, 431 squadron, is a group comprised of active members of our armed forces. They perform all kinds of tricks and maneuvers, including some lethal looking loops.

This, of course, is our Avro Lancaster bomber. One of only two (2!) left in the world that can still fly. This one is usually kept in the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, less than thirty minutes from where I'm sitting as I type this. The other airworthy Lancaster belongs to the Queen of England, and she doesn't let the public take flights in hers. That's right, it's possible to take flights in our Lancaster, although I think there's a waiting list (don't quote me on that).

Yes, that is an F-18. We do have those.

I'm sure there are some people who believe that our Air Force consists of Biplanes and lumberjacks with wings tied to their arms. I reject your blatant stereotyping with the power of the fighter jet.

Accelerate!

It's hard to tell from this picture, but that jet is going wicked fast. Ironically the clearest picture I took all day, with less blurring than the planes moving one third that speed.

In Soviet Russia, trainer plane pilots you!

Do a Barrel Roll!

It's been a great summer, but for once I'm actually exited about going back to school (blasphemy!), mostly because I finally get to choose all my classes. That means I'm going to be spending most of the year on a stage or around video cameras, which should prove to be awesome. Next stop, Hollywood (or Vancouver, if I can't get Stateside)!

Just one last thing. I took so many pictures at FanExpo and the airshow, that I don't have the upload space to put them all in my Flickr photostream. So, unfortunately I won't be able to upload the others for about a month, but if anyone thinks they'll still want to see those photo's around that time, just say so in a comment sometime between now and then.

Thus concludes my last post for the summer.

I'm In Hiding: part 2

Well, I'm back.  Arrived home late last night, much to the chagrin of the neighbours.

I was a tad (is that a word, I think so) vague in my last post, so I'll explain. For the past three days (give or take) my family took a trip to Port Stanley, a town on the shores of Lake Erie. While it was warm enough to swim at the beach, I did not. Instead I occupied myself with Gunpla and seeing the sights.

Anyway, I'm back now, so expect to be hearing from me again soon.

For the complete photo gallery, click here.

Canada Day - 2 Days Late!

I meant to post this on the first of July, which was Canada Day, but the internet on my computer has been stupid lately.  Anyway, this (now past) July 1st marks Canada's 142nd Birthday.  143 years.  That's more than five!

Usually it's hot, humid, and sunny on Canada Day, but this year the weather was cool and, even more bizarrely, rainy!  This is  a very unusual year.

On a slightly less "Canada Day" note, I'm currently working on a ZAFT officer's uniform from Gundam SEED.  This was originally for the final project of my Drama Course, a monologue as the character Rau Le Creuset.  If you're not familiar with the name, he's one of my favourite gundam villains (although he's portrayed more as a tragic figure, who just happens to be a psycho).

Once I get the uniform done, I'll try to get some pictures up, and maybe even a recording of the performance.

That's it for today.  For those of you living in the US, I wish you a good day tomorrow.

Photography Trip: Toronto

Yesterday's Toronto trip was, on the whole, a success. As you may or may not know, Toronto is the capital city of the province of Ontario. It's also the home of the CN Tower, one of the tallest free-standing structures in the world. I couldn't actually see the tower from where I was, so I don't have any pictures of it at the moment, but there's always next time....

Anyway, my photography teacher organized a field trip to the newly renovated Art Gallery of Ontario. I was one of the only people who had been there before, so I gave a couple of friends my own little "Guided Tour". Some of the stuff in there is pretty weird (like golf bag totem-poles), and I think most of us enjoyed it (I know I did).

The AGO, with a new look designed by Frank Gehry.

But the best was yet to come, because on our lunch break, we split up to take photos in the city.  Just a few blocks away is Toronto's Chinatown district, a "city within the city".  Chinatown is a bustling marketplace, filled with shops, restaurants, and houses.

The Heart of Chinatown

At the centre of all this is Spadina Avenue, a busy street that cuts right through the city.  Streetcar cables and tracks crisscross at the intersections, adding to the air of confusion that makes Chinatown so interesting.

A shopping centre on Spadina Avenue.  Note the overhead Streetcar cables.

Just up the street from one of the shopping centres is a small store called AnimeXtreme, my primary source for Gunpla and other Anime products.  Since I don't get out to Toronto very often, I made sure to stop in and do a bit of shopping.  Once again, I now have no money.  Oh well, looks like I'll have to get a summer job, so that I can come back and buy more Gundam stuff that I don't really need.  XD

The storefront of AnimeXtreme.  The sign out front has been enhanced to make it easier to read.

But wait, you say, what did I buy when I was there?  Take a wild guess.  Yes, that's right, it was Gunpla.  How did you know!?  You're not a mind-reader, are you?  Can you guess what number I'm thinking of?

The Long Haul

Sorry, I haven't got any pictures or reviews or anything today, just some personal news. It's a long weekend here, due to Victoria day, so I've got Monday off. Without my Xbox it's probably going to be insanely dull, but I can try to enjoy myself.

This week looks more promising, however, as I'm going to Toronto on a field trip. If I can, I'm going use my lunch break to swing by Anime Xtreme, a little store in the Chinatown district, and pick up some stuff. Hopefully, that is. I'll try to get some pictures down there, but I probably won't have much time.

I'll post more on Toronto and Anime Xtreme later.

Up and Running!

Welcome to The Gundam Spartan: A Canadian Otaku! This is my first attempt at writing an Anime, Halo, and General Sci-Fi blog, so here's hoping I don't screw it up....

Let me start this blog off with the simple question, what is an Otaku?

For those of you who don't know (and I'll assume that most of you do), an Otaku is a fan of Japanese anime, manga, or culture. It's a great hobby for people in Japan or the United States, where there is a large market for Gunpla (Gundam Model Kits) and such products.

However, I happen to live in Canada. And not even in a major city, I might add. Not a city like Toronto or Vancouver, or even a moderately well known place like Montreal or Sudbury, but a small city named Burlington, that most people just drive through and never even notice.

Desolate, isn't it?

Seriously, it's a nice place to live (especially now that the blisteringly cold winter is over), but there's just no market for anime related products around here, mainly because it's such a small city (and because Canada has, like, a quarter of the number of people the U.S. has).

Some "skyscrapers" downtown.

The nearest store that sells Gunpla is a good twenty minute drive away (and that's assuming the highway traffic is under control), which means that, even when I'm ready to buy a new kit, I may have to wait weeks, even months, just to get to the store.

So, the point is, this isn't a news blog. I'm relatively cut off from most of the world where I am, and it doesn't help that I make very little money. I'm not from Japan, and I can't speak (or read) a word of Japanese. So it stands to reason that it's at least a year before I see most new anime series. To tell the truth I've only been able to watch a few Gundam series and a smattering of others, like Appleseed and Last Exile (can't really call myself an Otaku, can I?). At least the situation is improving, slowly....

What can you expect to find here, in that case? To tell the truth, even I don't know yet. But you can expect to see plenty of model kit reviews, action figure reviews, reviews in general, Star Wars, Halo, Gundam, and other Sci-Fi, because that's what interests me the most.

Pretty long first post, isn't it?