London Film and Comic Con 2014

I attended LFCC and YALC yesterday (12th July). I overall had a very good day but I did have some issues that I felt left a taint on the event. 

First of all, the organisation to actually get into the convention was dire. No one seemed to know where to queue and I ended up in about 5 different queues before I finally got put into the right place this took over two hours. To be honest I only found the right queue because I found other people walking around looking confused with the same tickets as myself.  

Secondly, and probably the most rubbish thing that happened yesterday was, I was at the front of the queue for the standard tickets and so I was let in at exactly 11 AM, so I rushed over to Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones) only to be told that all of her tickets for autograph signings had been sold?? This completely ridiculous, I came all the way from Cardiff to see her and was told that I couldn't, even though there was nothing I could have done. Surely with someone as big as her there should have been some tickets reserved for the standard entry tickets rather than giving them all to the Early Bird tickets, or maybe you should be able to buy the autographs online before the event to ensure that this disappointment doesn't happen to people who may have travelled even further than myself. It sucked because I was really looking forward to meeting her.

Third, the hall itself was so incredibly warm, there was so many people fainting it was ridiculous, I understand this is not anything directly wrong with the company in charge but it also didn't help that the hall was so ridiculously over-crowded, I've been to many comic cons before but I could hardly even look at the stalls because of the amount of people, which was very disappointing. 

However, the YALC part of comic con was fantastic (there will be a separate blog post later in the week about YALC) and should be commended and the stalls that I did get to see were very good quality, its just a shame I couldn't really look. I am not saying that I will not be going again because I most probably will and to be honest I did have a really good day but the organisation was just a little poor and it didn't help that it was so warm. I will hasten to add though that this is my only bad experience with Showmasters and so I wouldn't want to put anyone off going to a comic con, because usually I have had amazing experiences with them in the past and hold them in high esteem. 

Cardiff Comic Con and Meeting Alex Vlahos

Today I went with my friend Molly to Cardiff Comic Con. Truth be told I was only going because of Alex Vlahos and wasn't holding out much hope for the actual convention. However, the convention itself was absolutely incredible and so much fun. There were loads of stalls selling postcards, badges, posters, wrist bands, you name it they sold it with Doctor Who to The Hunger Games to Game of Thrones to The Avengers to Harry Potter and so much more. My self and Molly spent ridiculous amounts of money but it was totally worth it.

We queued to get Alex Vlahos' autograph and we had a small conversation: I was so shocked by how nice he is and was a little bit speechless for a while so thank God for Molly, however, after I got some courage I spoke to him and gave him a letter with some sweets in it, he got quite excited about the sweets, haha.

We shopped around for a while more until we literally had about £1 between us and queued to get our photos with Alex, it was pretty quick and so I am really glad we queued up to meet him before so at least we got a conversation with him. He was so lovely and funny and I honestly cant believe how brilliant he is. So I'm going to stop now before I gush too much but overall I had an amazing day and my room is looking even more fandomy than before, which I didn't even think was possible, but there we go.

*Sadly I am going back to school tomorrow and that means summer is obviously over and so I will be posting less frequently.*

London and MCM Comic Con!

Yesterday I went to MCM Comic Con in London. It was amazing and an incredible experience to see all of the different Cosplay costumes. I went with my friend Molly and met a girl called Emma, that Molly is friends with at Kings Cross Station.

We started the day by waking up at 5:30 AM (cry) to get the half past 6 train. Unfortunately that train got cancelled because of a fatality on the tracks so we got the later train at ten past 7. The train ride was pretty uneventful except for the fact myself and Molly were duelling on the train and getting funny looks, until we realised we were in the quiet carriage. Woops, sorry passengers! 

When we arrived at Paddington Station we got our tube tickets and made our way to Kings Cross. This was ridiculously exciting for me as I haven't been to London since I was about 4 and had never ridden on the tube, by the end of the day however, the novelty had somewhat worn off! 

When we arrived at Kings Cross we found Emma, Molly's friend, and got in the queue to go on Platform 9 and 3/4. The man who was taking the professional photos was very impressed at how prepared we were with our scarves and wands. 

After we had had our pictures taken we took a trip inside the Harry Potter shop on the platform. It literally took every single ounce of self restrain I had not to buy the whole shop! I did however, buy the photo of myself and Molly on the platform (she brought the one with us doing the spell) and a Ravenclaw scarf! We also got our purchases inside a Platform 9 and 3/4 plastic bag... which may not seem exciting to you but seeing as we have to pay for our plastic bags in Wales, this was great getting one (which was also very cool) for free! ...The simple things in life.

After Kings Cross we made our way on several tubes to London Comic Con. I forgot to take any pictures here, but as I say it was incredible with all the Cosplays. My particular favourite was someone who dressed up as Jack Sparrow, I had to do a double take because he looked so much like him! We saw several YouTubers like Jack and Dean and Crabsticks but I didn't get any photos because I didn't want to stand in the line. We also saw Tom Baker who was the fourth Doctor which was pretty cool but I didn't want to pay £15 for an autograph and a photo so I just watched from afar. 

My overall impression of Comic Con was very positive and I shall be going back next year however, I think my experience would have been ever better if there had been celebrities there that I knew well rather than people who I just vaguely knew in passing. All in all, I would definitely recommend you go if you even vaguely like anything to do with Sci-Fi or especially Anime and Manga.

After Comic Con we went to pizza hut because we hadn't eaten all day and and then Molly and I walked around London. We visited Hamley's because of the massive Harry Potter section they have, M&M World which was amazing and then Buckingham Palace to have tea with the queen and Trafalgar Square to cry that the Harry Potter preimere was held there.

Then at about quarter to eight we went back to Paddington to go back on the train only to find that our carriage was the entertainment carriage and we had a TV in the back of our chairs with four episodes of Doctor Who and five episodes of Miranda along with other things, so that was us sorted!