Marion-Con2 Fall 2016

                     Marion-Con Fall 2016

Alright everyone, this isn't going to as happy as the first review.
The reasons for this one being a little sad have very little to do with the actual convention so no worries.
What will make this post sad is.........................

No pictures!

As many of you know if you have been following the blog/FB pages (I am also on Tumblr now) I had some technical difficulties on the day of the con. The camera I was using decided to go and get all gritty and wouldn't zoom.. all kinds of things were messed up. Thankfully I had a few friends at the con with me, that's right you hear me. I have friends.. Okay you caught me, it was Baka and my cousin.
So Baka took pictures and some really cute videos but she hasn't even sent them to me yet and I couldn't postpone the blog post any more. Its already been 2 and 1/2 weeks and those vendors and the hosts deserve better so here we go!

I am going to explain a little more of my reviewing process in this review so my reasoning may be a little more in depth than usual.

                      {Prepare yourself for a wall-o-words}

People attending: 5 (only 3 went in)
Time of attendance: 1 hour after opening so about 11 AM
Costumes featured: Little Red (Baka), (Wolf: Me), Child Naruto( My cousin), Anko from Naruto (Heiwa)

        The first thing I look for in a convention is an excited community. If you find a group on facebook that is buzzing with people discussing costumes, meet up times, vendors, etc. then you just know that this will be a lively event.

Did Marion-Con have that? Yes-ish.

They had a group and it was fairly active. A lot of the activity came from vendors but there is anything particularly wrong with that. This group helped me out, turns out a friend from filming was going to the convention and I had no idea. Thankfully him and I got to meet up. That is exactly the type of thing those groups are good for.
Note to self: Next time take a selfie so I can prove that I have friends.

        Signage! Oh my gosh this is just such a big one for me. Is there clear and direct signage? It's hard to have fun when you don't know where the fun's at. There is also an underlying importance in signage, a lot of conventions are family friendly and in the event that a child get separated from their parent it is nice for them to be able to send a text that says "I am by Panel 1-A" or something of that sort.

Did Marion-Con 2 have Signage? Yeah... not really.

When we first got there we weren't quite sure which parking lot to park in, then we weren't sure which door to go in. Once we were in it was pretty clear where the dealers room was; however, I was never able to find out where the panels were. It didn't matter all that much though because Heiwa had to be at work soon and I was dead tired because of school so we wouldn't have been able to see them anyways.

         Interactive features. I like my conventions to be interactive, be it panels, dancing, game room, DeadPool conga lines (I'm talking about you Yama-Con) or whatever form of fan to host interactions you have.

So did Marion-Con 2 have Interactive Features? Yes-ish again.

They had panels.  I cannot say if they were good or bad or anything like that because I didn't get the chance to attend one, much less find one. I am going to give them full credit for this though because they still had them. Interactive features are the difference between a convention and an oversized dealers room.

       Costumes!! You knew this was coming. Every convention should have costumers galore! Why? Because a convention is the 1 day out of the week that we get to strut our stuff and show off our favorite characters or costumes in a way that has been deemed socially unacceptable.

Did Marion-Con 2 Have Costumes Galore?! There were costumes.

There was definitely costumes there. We wont talk about quality of costumes because as always it ranged  from "Woo!!!" To "Who??" and that's a really touchy subject. I try not to talk about peoples costumes unless they ask me to or give me consent to write about them. Consent matters!

        Vendors: A good vendors room has at least 5 of the top sellers from the last convention and at least 5 new ones. That's my own little criteria. Overall when I judge vendors I judge them on quality, organization, relevant merchandise, people skills and prices.

Did Marion-Con2 have good vendors? Sure.

I picked 3 favorites that I had never met before and saw one of my reoccurring favorites so it was satisfactory.

The quality of merch at the convention was mostly good, I did see some things that I felt a little iffy about but nothing to the point of being a whistle blower.

The organizations of the vendors was good but some of the vendors organizational skills were questionable. I like to look at tables and be able to identify things I want to look at and things I don't. Example: Belt buckles on the left, bracelets on the right. I don't wear belts that often so no point in look to the left where as I am rather fond of character bracelets so I will be all in the right.
Some vendors had belt buckles in their bracelets and T-shirts in the necklaces and it.. was an OCD nightmare. 

Relevant merchandise.. It's no secret that I am there for the anime and SuperNatural stuff. Despite the fact that this is a comic convention it still appealed to my nerdy needs with a few vendors having that type of thing. (I almost came home with a Misha lightswitch cover x3)

People skills- Very few vendors can control a crowd.
There is one guy that is a really good crown controller and artist but I can't remember his official name at the moment.

Prices: I haven't really called people out before but I am not afraid to do that now. Thankfully there isn't anyone to call out from this con. I have seen vendors change prices of hot items as the day goes on or as the stock dwindles. I rarely buy things from people if there isn't a set price listed in ink on the table or display. There were listed prices on almost all the tables except one which I have been watching at a few cons and we will talk about that later.

        Location!! A beautiful location certainly helps any convention. I have seen industrial locations (sort of like Shelby-con) outdoorsy/vacation-y feeling locations (Like Yama-con) that have both provided unique photo-ops, pleasurable sitting room, and some eye fetching scenery. A bonus is when there are friendly eating and shopping establishments in the surrounding areas. As an example, one of the best parts about Hickory-con is the costumed Mall Crawl that almost always happens.

How was Marion-con2's location? ...Not favorable.

I will give them the fact that they had a hard time with locations this time around. They had to keep moving due to unforeseen circumstances and it just wasn't easy to work with. They ended up being in a highschool, which reminds a lot of people of their acne-filled days of homework and flip-phones. So no, it wasn't a heart warming location and it wasn't very pretty. There was plenty of seating though so that was nice.

     Top 3 vendors!
First, "Itty Bitty Beasts" Her "artwork and offbeat toys" were simply adorable and fairly unique. What really sold me on her vending abilities was her willingness to stop and chat with us.

Second, "DeZoo Arts" Now, I would link this but after checking out his websites I noticed that nothing has been updated this year and I didn't feel comfortable using deadlinks. He was very dedicated while working on his art at the show and had some fairly decent pieces on his table. You know it has to be alright when I take time to notice an artist.

Finally, "Max Dowdle; Artagem" He won the "most aesthetically pleasing business card" award. I love the unique design that feels like it crawled out of a story book. After viewing his website I am even more intrigued.

Please check out these vendors!

      Quick overview of my experience at the con:

Overslept due to exhaustion, managed to wake up and get in costume, picked up cousin and got to the con about an hour late. Much to my surprise we still got one of the grab bags which suggests that we were one of the first 100 people through the door.  Walked around the vendors table to get a good look at availability and prices then introduced ourselves to some of the vendors, picked my favorites and went to film some videos. After the con we went to McDonalds where the people were less than pleased to see costumed maniacs enjoying their food. Ah, the smell of judgment in the morning -_-

      Highlight of this convention? It was my little cousins first and he had a blast. He has been asking me ever since about when we can go back. In the end, all that really matters is that people had a good time and he clearly did.

Marion-con 2 was a successful con for the most part. That being said, they have released the fact that they will be sticking to a 1 con a year schedule and I can't blame them. I respect and support their choice and cannot wait for the next Marion-con.

Idea's for improvement: You guys got this, the only thing I could suggest is maybe add some music. It was awfully quiet in the high school.

~Aki Ame Okami

Upcoming articles

                        Upcoming Articles

Hello again everyone!!

So I have 3 good articles in the works.

A review for Marion-con which is currently held up because Baka hasn't sent me the pictures and videos yet.

A review for Hickory-Con (Fall) which is going to be pretty good and emotional and it might call out a few vendors for good and bad reasons.

A book review!! Now this one is going to be different.

This book wasn't written by Seth and Casey, it was written by E.B. Hood and it was another book that I found at Hickory-con. I read a few parts of it and I have to be honest right up front, it is not my cup of tea. There are some strong themes and a few other things that will require a lot of talking about so I will be doing those reviews in two parts. It will not  be a part of the "Chapter a day" segments because there are 30 chapters and at this point in the semester I don't think I can commit to 30 days straight.

I have some prop/costuming work to get done before........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!YAMA-CON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's right my friends, we are heading back to Yama-con for the first weekend of December!!! I am really excited and working hard to make it through the semester so I can enjoy it.

College and Con Prep

                             College and Con Prep


Hello again everyone and welcome to another post from Aki!

Lately I haven't done such a good job of keeping up with my quotes or my posts and I do apologize for that. This semester hit me pretty hard with homework, sickness and the feels.
However, my writing has also improved along with my social skills
and coping abilities so not everything has been a bad experience so far.
So this is going to be a fast paced post because I am supposed to be writing a paper right now. Shhh O.o

Some where in the middle of all this college mess Heiwa came up to me and said, "Lets do new Naruto characters for Marion-con!" and I agreed without really thinking about it. I had been wanting to take my AoT cosplay but I said yes to her and it isn't perfect just yet so it was whatever.
Then I went and put my foot in my mouth, maybe even both feet!

Baka came up to me and told me about her Dart photo shoot as Little Red Riding Hood and I casually mentioned to Mikata that I could throw a wolf together for the shoot. Baka heard and thought it was a great idea, so suddenly I was a wolf! Then Baka asked me to go as a wolf for Marion-con since she will be taking her Little Red. Once again I was not paying attention and said sure.
So now I am committed to two characters for one con...
I plan on switching costumes at some point in the day so I can still take both.

Now here is the fun part, I had to make the new Naruto character (Yugao) that Heiwa wanted me to go as. So I just finished up my anbu mask, I am reusing my Kurikara and altering the fine details a smidgen.*
*I wont be dying my hair purple nor buying a purple wig before tomorrow.
*Don't think I will be wearing a sleeveless turtle neck because I don't like my arms that much.
*I wont be cutting the toes off of a pair of boots.
*The vest wont be 100% accurate but I do have plans and materials to make the vest again at a later date.

It was a lot of work but somehow I managed to finish everything and it will all be worth it for MARION-CON!!!!!
Also, I think at this point almost all the team is planning on attending Marion-con. (Heiwa, Oinari, Baka, Heiwa's cousin, and I)
so that is going to be awesome.

I look forward to potentially seeing you tomorrow at the con!

Cya!
~Aki Ame Okami