Street Fighter: Sakura Kasugano Cosplay

I'll be honest - I was shootin for the "Dark Sakura" cosplay, appearance in the Marvel vs Capcom 2 game.  Yes, two layers of MAC tanning spray got me looking like so in the photo, and maybe i should have listened to my boyfriend and stuck with the original Sakura (white and pasty). It's ok.  The only difference is that the Dark Sakura (as if you could tell) is tanner and suppose to be sunburnt, and her outfit is a dark navy color instead of a royal blue, and her eyes are red. anyways. so. I think I did an ok job - I'll just .. not put on a spray tan next time.

my Street Fighter Sakura Kasugano cosplay!

Meanwhile, some other photos of me ...

Lord Mesa, an artist at SDCC, drew me :)

SEEEEEE RED EYYEESS

I'm pretty sure I lost this competition. <3!

SDCC 2012 Highlights!

San Diego Comic Con 2012!

Oh boy where do I start.
It was.. really fun this year. But also VERY crazy. Unlike last year, I didn't get to see as many panels as I'd like, due to the (amazing) line up of movies and tv shows they decided to schedule back to back in Hall H.. which meant more and more people camping out the night before = less chance for you to get in unless you camped out too or woke up at the butt crack of dawn.  But this year, unlike last year, we were more successful in buying SDCC 2012 exclusives to almost everything we desired to own, and some extras for resale or gifting.  

Overall, what was nice about this year's comic con was that they had reserved time blocks for panel playbacks, so that if you missed the panels, you could come to this and watch what you missed. Unfortunately these playbacks wouldn't be showing super secret footage or special screenings :(  But it was nice to have this addition. They also posted it up on their website for the public as well. THey also had more offsite events exclusive to comic con attendees! We didn't get to see all of them, but among them were the Walking Dead Escape, History Channel's BBQ, Rob Zombie's Dawn of the Dead, WB Extra, and so much more.  

The city also has lots of events going on comic con related in hotels, bars, etc. Lots of parties (rsvp in advance!), private events if you're lucky to get into one, roof top events... 

We got to stop by this cool lil heroes museum, with artwork of villains and superheroes, and even lego statues. My personal favorite is the baby Joker.

Exhibitor's Hall
Before I get to that, let's talk about the Exhibit Hall! There were several exclusives to SDCC 2012, and we managed to pick up a few at the convention! We picked up the three Tokidoki exclusive toys, Tokidoki exclusive hat, 2 Tokidoki shirts (not shown), 2 Kotobukiya x Marvel Bishoujo Figurines (X23 and Black Widow), Square Enix's exclusive Batman and Joker, and Mattel's Tiny Titans.

The one I couldn't get from the convention was the hottest item, Derpy Hooves from HasbroToyShop. Exclusive SDCC item, and it sold out like crazy.  However, I did manage to snag one from Hasbro online after the convention is over :) But I was pretty bummed when we finally showed up in line to purchase that it was sold out right when we got there. 

DERPY HOOVES!

Isn't she still cute?!?!! haha yes she has derp eyes.

Hasbro still had a pretty good thing of MLP anyway to look at, including another SDCC exclusive by HasbroToyShop x Toys R Us - the Zecora pony shown below in the bottom left corner.  It's mainly a preview for its nationwide release at Toys R Us this Fall 2012.  it was 10 dollars but didn't even knowt that TRU had a booth...But I will definitely grab on when it comes to stores! i mean come on, she's GLOW IN THE DARK...

Capcom x Toynami's exclusive Hello Kitty Chun Li was a must have as well, but of course, all sold out, with SO LIMITED QUANTITIES per day. :( 

omfg more lines...
What we didn't know was that some of these booths, including Hasbro's, required a ticket to be in the purchasing line. And these tickets are time tickets, meaning a posted time is on the ticket and you can only return to purchase Hasbro merchandise after that time.  But the earlier you can get that ticket, the earlier time slot you get to get in line.. so basically.. you stand in line.. to get a time ticket.. to stand in line again later to purchase. Sigh.. too many lines.  Among other Hasbro exclusives were GI Joes, Transformer's Bruticus, and the Avenger's Helicarrier. We did not pick those up, though the BRuticus did look pretty cool........

Sideshow Collectibles had some pretty amazing figurines, in the range of at least $2000 for these babies: 

Enough of the exhibitor's hall!

Thursday, July 11, 2012
The line up for Ballroom 20 was:

• Beauty and the Beast
• Sherlock Holmes and Watson
• Dexter 

We didn't see these, but it was on my schedule to see Beauty and the Beast, but i wasn't THAT eager either. 


Indigo Ballroom had our #1 panel we wanted to see which was Archer. Other than that, these were in included in the schedule (not all listed:

• Voltron
• Power Rangers 20th Anniversary
• Transylvania
• Wilfred
• Archer

The line up for Hall H was:

• Twilight
• Disney's Frankenweenie, Oz the Great and Powerful, and Wreck it Ralph
• Expendables 2

Thursday is not much to talk about, except we were all glad they got Twilight fans and their panels out of the way! Line wasn't even that long anyway...

Expendables 2 was the next biggest for that day, but we didn't go to that either. It was pretty laid back for us, there were panels but we weren't too interested in them.  So we spent most of our time in the Exhibit Hall buying and buying and buying...and demoing games.

Square Enix had several games out for demo - the new Tomb Raider, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dreamdrop Distance,  Sleeping Dogs, and Hitman Absolution. My bf demo-ed Tomb Raider, Sleeping Dogs, and Hitman, and I played the Kingdom Hearts 3D, and after doing so we received free square enix pins for each game :) I ended up demoing the Tomb Raider game at Nerd HQ on Sunday, and it was pretty good too.

We checked out the Batmobiles that WB had set up outside - all the batmobiles from the batman movies.  That was pretty neat :)

However, our main goal of this day was to make the Archer panel in the Indigo Ballroom at the Hilton since we missed it last year.  and so we DID!!! We entered in a couple hours before hand, and came in when Transylvania started, and the one after that was the Wilfred Panel.  We don't watch Wilfred, but it was actually pretty funny! They screened an episode of Wilfred that WONT be aired, and only as release on DVD and well, if you buy the DVD and watch it.. you'd know why ;) Let's just say... Jizz.  ;)

The Archer panel was GREAT, they screened an episode from the 4th season of Archer, and it was funny as hell.  The voice actors actually looked like their respective characters!!! Except for Archer's VA. Kind of funny, his voice is really HIS VOICE...everytime he spoke i could only imagine Archer.

Later that night was the Rob Zombie Dawn of the Con Welcome Party.  There were several offsite SDCC events that occurred through the whole SDCC event.  But we attended the Rob Zombie Welcome PArty and sure enough Rob Zombie showed up. There were exclusive T Shirts, but that line was so unbelievably long we decided to screw it. 

Friday, July 12, 2012
The line up for Ballroom 20 was popular for the following:

• Firefly's 10 year Reunion
• Bones
• Arrow
• Dark Horse: Joss Whedon
• Breaking Bad

We didn't attend any of these, though I would have been interested in the new Green Arrow show.. Firefly was by far a popular panel, a lot of people was happy to have this reunion.

Indigo Ballroom had ALL Adult Swim shows including Robot Chicken, Venture Bros, Black Dynamite, and many moer!! I would have really wanted to see Robot Chicken, or at least Seth Green. But we spent most of the time in line for Game of Thrones, which is part of the line up for..
Hall H:

• Big Bang Theory
• Walking Dead
• Game of Thrones.
• Resident Evil: Retribution
• Sony's Total Recall, Looper, and Elysium

We REALLY wanted to see Game of Thrones... but we didn't make it in after being in line for several hours :( So we ended up leaving the line and headed back to the Exhibitor's Hall. We coulda totally went to see the My Little Pony panel too! But didn't.. oh well.

That morning we spent more time in the Exhibit Hall, and after walking clear across the hall (10 min+ just to do that) and standing in line in front of some questionable bronies, I got my free Steam Punk Rainbow Dash bag! well, free with purchase :)

Afterwards, we walked around San Diego and came across this amazing mural of the 20th Anniversary of the Power Rangers painted by these two artists!

This definitely explains the gigantic red ranger in the exhibit hall........

Saturday, July 13, 2012

Line up for Ballroom 20 includes these panels:

• Once Upon A Time
• Futurama
• Simpsons
• Family Guy
• American Dad
• Vampire Diaries
• True Blood

I would have really wanted to see Once Upon a Time, at least a sneak peek at the next season!!!!! 

Saturday was REALLY NUTS. Not only did we still not get the HAsbro pony this day, the line into Hall H was insane. 

The line up in Hall H:

• Quentin Tarantino's Django
• Silent Hill Revelations in 3D
• WB's Pacific Rim, Man of Steel, and HOBBIT!
• Iron Man 3

People camped out the night before! And mainly because of Hobbit, that was HUGE, and then I just found out tonight that Robert Downy Jr. made a really cool surprise entrance through Hall H, down the aisles and high fiving everyone in the Iron Man 3 panel.  :( I wish I could see that!!!!  But point is, everyone camped out, and NOBODY LEFT ANY OF THESE PANELS. maybe a little here and there, but NOTHING like the exit right after Iron Man 3, when the majority of us in line was for Kevin Smith's annual Comic Con Q&A.  like the entire hall left.  We were in line around 2, when WB's 2.5 hour panel started, and we didn't move.. at all, and Kevin Smith's panel was at 7pm.  

Another panel of interested would have been Grimm, in a smaller room (6A), but of course, these damn lines.. we miss everything don't we? I should consider less popular TV shows and then my panel experience would be worth any wait in line huh? 

Anyways Kevin Smith's panel was HA-lirious. Jason Mews appeared as well, promoting their funny game online and Jason kept rambling on the game and showed us how it worked and what you could do with their characters, and finally showing how you basically launch Kevin Smith in the game and watch him bounce of various things, getting more points for hitting certain things and what not.. it was pretty funny.  Again Kevin Smith's panel was no disappointment, and the last person who asked the question certainly ended the night with a finale, having Kevin Smith tell us a story about Bruce Willus.  ;)

After this panel, the Comic Con Masquerade Party had already started, and apparently is extremely popular - we may want to check it out next year, and see how great people's cosplay turn out and what kind of awards they all win!

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Line up for Hall H:

• Fringe
• Supernatural
• Doctor Who
• Cleveland Show
• Sons of Anarchy

Now Sunday was very slow - I did initially stand in line for Supernatural for Hall H - but lost hope.  People again had camped out the night before, and the line was so long, I ended up leaving my group and meeting up with my bf in the exhibit hall.  But of course, I leave, and the line moves, and in the end they did end up getting into Supernatural!! boo sack. :( It's ok... Other than that, we ended up leaving the hall early afternoon to Nerd HQ and I demo-ed the new Tomb Raider game by Square Enix.  Sunday was pretty relaxing.. considering we already bought all we could, and everything we did want was sold out anyway :( 

Last but not least, I've compiled a collage of some really notable cosplay from all through out the weekend!!!!! 

SDCC 2012 Cosplay

Wish I took more photos... 

Until next year!!!!! SDCC 2013 whoo!

Sakura Con 2012!

A little late for my posting for Sakura Con! But this year it was definitely fun if not more fun than last year! Didn't take as many photos as I hoped, but between my brother and I, we got a lot of photos anyway.


This year, on Day 1 Friday, I cosplayed as Ciel Phantomhive in his pink dress from Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji:

Ciel Phantomhive

And then on Day 2 Saturday, I cosplayed as Shiemi Moriyama from Blue Exorcist/Ao No Exorcist:

Shiemi Moriyama

My boyfriend and I were a pair on Day 1 (Friday), or well, i mean, I don't know if you could technically call it a pair.. considering I was cosplaying a male character who was.. dressed as a girl.  and my boyfriend cosplayed as my character's butler, Sebastian.  The most memorable of this convention was that my boyfriend and I were both interviewed by CosplayNation, who's making a cosplay documentary!! It was really fun, and i've never been interviewed before and it was quite fun!! 

I loved both my cosplay. I think both of them were well made, quality wise, and I can't wait to wear them again!! Not many cosplays I wear again, but the last couple years i've been loving what Ive been choosing as cosplays and what I got to wear.  The Ciel Phantomhive cosplay is like a southern belle type dress and it's SOOO pretty.

Aside from that, here are some other photos of my boyfriend and I and our friends in our cosplays for Blue Exorcist and Black Butler! I would like to thank Pro Bono Photography and John C Hieber for some of these photos! (Pro Bono: 1st row, 2nd photo; 3rd row, 3rd and 4th photo) (John C Hieber: 1st row, 1st photo; 2nd row, 2nd photo)

And here are a few wonderful cosplays from that weekend! 

The rest of this album can be located here: Sakura Con 2012

Next convention: SAN DIEGO COMIC CON 2012!!!

Aki Con 2011

My boyfriend and I met up with a couple friends to check out this Aki Con over in Bellevue.  We dressed up on Saturday, and did the rest of the shopping on Sunday. It was pretty neat -very small, especially compared to Sakura con.  I feel like more people here are friendlier, and more likely to socialize with others.  Anyways, it was pretty hilarious because my bf and our friend decided to do a LARPing competition hahah it was GREAT.  pretty funny.  We dressed up from Soul Eater, and yes I dragged my death scythe around in this small place.. 

Anyways here are some photos of our time there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
On Sunday, the majority of that time was watching my bf and our friend LARP and it was just kind of hilarious.. but not a whole lot of photos from that -  just videos! 


Anyways that was our first Aki Con!

San Diego Comic Con 2011

WOW! SDCC 2011 was absolutely fun. It was way more fun than I have ever imagined, just completely exceeded my expectations.  Obviously, this was our (Justin, Lauren, and Sergei) first time.  A large population of comic con attendees actually did not dress up like at the anime conventions (Sakura Con).  Also, SDCC isn't all about comics either, contrary to popular belief. They have large movie motion picture making whatever companies there, such as WB, FOX, SONY, Paramount, and so much more.


Getting the sneak peak and never before seen footages of upcoming movies and shows was one of the main things of this convention.  The only two I didn't get into, unfortunately, was the Archer panel and Big Bang Theory :(.  True Blood was right after Big Bang Theory, which is probably why we also didn't get in. 


Another thing about the lines here are that you get in line to really get INTO THE ROOM where your panel of interest will be held, no matter how many shows/panels there are between now and when your panel of interest is, you get in line to just get into the room.  So for example, we were in line for Big Bang Theory 3 hours ahead of us. There were 2 other panels prior to this panel, but also True Blood following.  Obviously there were TONS of True Blood fans (grrrr) because when 11am rolled around and we didn't get into the Big Bang Theory Panel, and also being most likely 2 hours behind, the line was still extremely long, which explains the large True Blood fan craziness. Vampires.. pssh. So overrated. Trust me people, you get bit you get bit, it's probably not as truly orgasmic as they detail it to be in the books.  


Anyways, we flew in Wednesday and Abby and her bf, Micah, took us out to Phil's BBQ.  It was truly amazing, the first line of many that we stood in that whole week lol. So it was great to be able to finally see her down there! Just as she recommended that BBQ place, I highly recommend this to everyone to go try out. 


DAY 1 (Thursday)
So this day the plan was to see the Mortal Kombat: Legacy panel and the Archer panel.  Stupid, Batman Arkham (game) was right after Archer so they had a line mostly for Batman but we left the MK panel and thought, "wow it was so easy to get into this panel we can just come back later!" and the Archer panel was an hour after MK was over... boy we should have stayed, but since this was Day 1 we didn't know... I dunno, this makes me so mad. All those people in line were for MK, and we never got into Archer because of them. Hella dumb ghey.


Anyways enough of the rant!  We ended up seeing the following panels that day: Stan Lee, MK: Legacy, and well that's it.  And then shopping afterwards!


Some photos!

The crazyness in the exhibitor's hall

Stan Lee and Yoshiki

Bridgette Wilson for MK:Legacy on Skype

The MK:Legacy panel with the cast

The reason why we missed the Archer panel :(

Tokidoki booth!!! Honey got me a SDCC 2011 exclusive tokidoki shirt :)

You can demo games too that havn't come out!

Leia's from Star Wars

So as you can see, not just comics, but premieres of shows and movies (you'll see later) and GAMES! Demo the new DS games, PS3, XBox, PC, anything. On to Day 2.


DAY 2 (Friday)
The plan was this day was Big Bang Theory. Which we missed... :( Stupid True Blood!
Other than that, we ran into Sandeep Parikh from The Guild (The Guild cast), got into the Sony panel (Fright Night, Ghostrider 2, 30 Minutes or Less, and finally the Amazing Spider Man movie).  The spider man panel was the biggest of this the Sony panel, because not only did Andrew Garfield get to show up (lol), we got to see raw footage of the movie. After all this, we went to stand in line for the world premiere of Batman: Year One, an animated film.  This was surprisingly a good movie; at first i was like wtf CARTOOOOON lol, because I didn't realize it was going to be an animated movie at first, but we watched it and it was definitely NOT for children. I mean, it's violent, themes of adultery... great movie about how Batman started to become Batman.  


Anyways, photos:

The line for Big Bang Theory, or should I say, True Blood.

Justin and Lauren down the stairs from us

We left the line after realizing our chances of getting into BBT, the line not only looped outside but lined up and down the whole upstairs...

haha the things from Star Wars, I think.. but I got a neat shot of it, looks like he's going fast!

Sergei demo-ing the game to win a T shirt (he won one)

Sandeep Parikh and Justin

haha "sexy" disney princesses

Anton Yelchin in Fright Night

haha YES.... McLovin.  In Fright Night

Ghostrider 2 panel, with Nicolas Cage. Hope the movie is actually better as they say it will be..

Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield

Batman: Year One panel

Busy night life of San Diego :)

DAY 3 (Saturday)
Saturday's plan was: Shopping in the exhibitor's hall in the morning, The Immortals panel, Knights of Badassdom panel, Snow White and the Huntsmen panel, Dorothy of Oz panel, and finally An Evening with Kevin Smith!  We stayed in one room (Hall H baby) ALLLL DAYYY after shopping.  And  basically I had us moved up and up closer and closer as we got closer to Kevin Smith.  This was a nice relaxing day really, just watching panels and seeing famous people and finally ending it with Kevin Smith, who is just truly a great story teller and a hilarious person anyway.


Following the end of our comic con day, we got to spend time with Abby and meet some of her friends at her place playing a game of Loaded Questions. I have to say with this crowd it was very funny, one of the funniest sessions of Loaded Questions I've played. PLAY IT!


Anyways comic con photos:

I screamed in a box to get this hat

Futurama

Some people from Lost

The Immortals panel

Knights of Badassdom panel

Summer Glau in Knights of Badassdom

Peter Dinklage in Knights of Badassdom

Charlize Theron in the Snow White and the Huntsmen panel

Kristen Stewart in Snow White and the Huntsmen

THOR GUY!!! 

Woot Patrick Stewart! Voice actor in Dorothy of Oz

KEVIN SMITH :)

DAY 4 (Sunday, LAST DAY) :(
Not a whole lot this day, except the Supernatural panel! which was extremely packed.... 
and then ending the day right before our flight with some food with Abby and Micah, some good mexican carne asada fries (highly recommend, and I don't even eat fries)


Right before the Supernatural panel was Glee, oh man even THAT was a long line, but i actually ended up getting into the Glee panel anyway w/o meaning to.


photos:

Glee panel

JENSEN ACKLES OMG

Supernatural panel

Jared Padelecki

Misha Collins!

The producer of the show, Sera Gamble

And that was it! 


We will definitely try to attend next year. Unfortunately prices went up... real good. a good 70 dollars.  why??? Whatever the case, we're gonna make it worth it and i'm gonna make sure our flight is later on Sunday.  Whew.


Until next year!!!