Hickory-Con 2015: My First Convention and Blog Post!

Hello there! I am pleased to report my findings from Hickory-con!!!

Lets start off with what Heiwa and I learned at our first convention.

1. Show up on time! If you are late the lines get long. Heiwa and I had to stand in line behind a brilliant person who thought to eat lunch while they were waiting. By the time we made it inside I was starving.

2. Bring Cash! Nothing feels worse than standing there and staring at an AOT sling bag for a reasonable price and realizing your with out cash. ( They also had a flawless Free! bag that I wanted. Darn first time fails :P)

3. Don't Be Afraid Of People! There is going to be a lot of them at any given time so you better not be afraid. Personally, I am terrified of large crowds so today was a huge step for me.  Also, be agile. I cannot tell you how many times I ducked under over sized props or dodged fangirls running towards their favorite characters merchandise.

4. Get A Good Nights Sleep! Our dear Heiwa didn't get her full 8 hours so about an hour, hour and a half, into the convention she got a little (lot) tired.

Last but not least....

5. Have Fun! Heiwa and I (mostly me) spent the night before hand stressing the convention the next day. The biggest thing to remember was that everyone going to the con wanted to have fun.


Lets start off  our picture segment with anime related cosplay!
This here is Juvia! (FairyTail) Just kidding of course. This was a vendor at one of the stands, She was really into the lighthearted feel of the event and great to talk to. Her stand was really unique actually, She was doing green screen pictures where you pose in your costume and they edit in your choice of preset back rounds. Such as but not limited to: Japanese back round, Flower garden, outer space, ancient ruins, under water, ect.
They were very reasonably priced and good quality. Heiwa and I were gonna get pictures, but we didn't have any cash... Big mistake!

Next we have Evans and Crona from Soul Eater (Can be found on Netflix) These two girls were really awesome to watch them with their friends, they had another friend who cosplayed as an AOT character. They totally knew how to go to a con. I look forward to cosplaying with friends like that someday :P
Hope that doesn't sound creepy.

Non anime related cosplays!!

This girl was really nice to talk to. She was very crafty when it came to making her costume and was more than willing to share the wisdom.

I have been told that these are "HomeStuck" Trolls. The costumes were great and there was more than the 4 in the picture but I caught them at a bad time :P The guys face is a little blurry but I promise you his costume was on point.

Heiwa and I knew we needed a picture when we saw these two coming. It was awesome to see the knight walking up the side walk, Heiwa decided he must have been her knight in shining armor. I told her it didn't count if he was cosplaying. Army boy was mine :P

Still hoping that wasn't creepy...

Heiwa and I caught The Queen of Hearts on her way into the con. She actually has her own facebook page which I will link here. I still think that DingBat Cosplay is a great name. I checked out her page and she really has some cosplay skills and a great personality! Go check her out!

The vendors!!!! I only have a picture of one booth however its worth looking at.

This vendors had glass blown HP wands and it was so cool. They had a sorting hat and invited people to sit down and see what class they got. It had a great personal touch which made it even better. This is a link to the wonderful woman seen at the booths page. Lindee and Chris wands, the magic with in you Go check them out :)

Next up the always fascinating Cars!! (not what you were expecting? ^-^)

We are going to start with the impressive De Lorean from Back To The Future! It is a classic by any means and I was really impressed that the small-ish town of Hickory was able to get it. Apparently on days that are rainy they open up the doors and show the inside of the car off as well as the outside.

Next we have a new addition this year, Anyone remember the awesome movie(s)
Men In Black? How about their car?

Well here it is! The car from the movies. It is a 1986 Ford LTD Crown Victoria.
The owner conveniently placed all of the information in the paper in windshield (as shown above in the bottom left corner of the windshield).  The owner also had the sound track(s) of all of the Men In Black movies playing on repeat. I could almost see Will Smith in the drivers seat, it was that perfect.

They also had the one and only (just kidding, there are probably a thousand of them.) Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo Inc. The van itself was very impressive however we didn't take pictures because they asked for donations to their Great Dane Rescue operation for a picture. I so would have done that, except my outfit didn't have pockets so I didn't have cash.

Thank you so much for reading my first blog post :)

~Aki Ame Okami