Over the last weekend I attended the Oz Comic Con event at Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre – I don’t generally buy specialty tickets to these types of events but this time I decided to buy a Marvel Mega Fan Ticket which included weekend entry as well as some other Marvel goodies such as Pins, T-Shirt, Comic and special print by Wayne Nichols. I probably wouldn’t buy a specialty ticket for this type of event again either as I am not convinced that it was actually worth it.
On Saturday I attended with my good friend Jodie who also had a Marvel ticket. We had also both decided to go in costume this year and we both chose to wear costumes from Shows/Movies that came out in the ’60s. Jodie was dressed in an original Trek outfit and I was dressed as a Herbie Driver. Not my best costume, but it was kinda fun to do something different and it was interesting seeing peoples reactions especially if they weren’t too sure about what the costume was.
We started off our time at the event by picking up our additions that went with the purchase of the Marvel ticket. We got our included shirts I picked out a Red Agent Carter shirt when “I Stand with Her” on it and Jodie picked out a black shirt with Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy on it. We each got a blind pin pack and mine were Peter Quill and Drax, Jodie got Peter and Gamora. We also received a Punisher comic book.
In general Saturday was a great day, there were only a few issues encountered one being volunteers not knowing the answers to questions, the queues being a little disorganised and some rude volunteers. It was also a little bit overcrowded with it being hard to navigate the floor to see the different Exhibitor Stands. There was also an issue with the photos being printed on Saturday and some people were there until almost 7pm getting their photo.
Jodie and I had a good chance to have a look around at all the Exhibitor Stands, visiting our friends in the process such as the boys from Gifts for the Geek, Jeff at Go Figure! and even a chat and hug from Stewart McKenny which is rare since he’s always so busy. Whilst visiting our mate Jeff, Jodie brought herself a nice collection of Pop Figures and I brought myself one, this amazing Diana Prince figure – I love Wonder Woman.
As always with these types of events we had a great time especially seeing and catching up with friends. For a lot of us these events are the only times we really get to see each other and have a good catch up – That’s why they are always like a huge family reunion. As much as queuing up at these types of events is a hassle and can be so time consuming we queued up with friends and got to have a great catch up at the same time… in fact we were all chatting about how so many of the friendships created at these events have happened from queuing up together and chatting, getting to know each other and bonding over similarities.
At one point during the day a friend decided to scare me by walking up to me in costume and giving me a hug – although that doesn’t sound scary it was for a minute when a big guy dressed as Batman came towards me and I had no idea who it was… until he spoke. Thanks MPS… it’s all good we had a laugh about it later but next time I will be more wary of people changing into costume throughout the day when previously they weren’t. I was being good this year and went without purchasing any photos or autographs, I just did my job of being Jodie’s bag bitch and looking after her stuff – and other friends stuff whilst they went in for photos and got things out for autographs. It’s a good job title because it means I still get to walk up and meet the guests even though I’m not necessarily after anything myself. I have to admit the huge Mighty Ducks fan in me loved that Elden Henson was there, so much time of my childhood was spent watching those films and wishing I could ice skate and play hockey.
Some stand out funny moments of the day were mostly during queues for autographs, when Jodie was in Elden’s queue the Volunteer asked her “Do you have a name?” I couldn’t help but respond with “No she doesn’t!” I know that they were asking for personalisation reasons but the way they said it was just leading into a response like that. Another funny moment was when queuing up with another friend Siobhan the volunteer asked her for names for the personalisation and she said one’s for me and one’s for me and my friend… I was like “You spell that M.E.” probably not that funny, but it was at the time.
Also whilst queuing for Alyson Hannigan we saw a guest manager who we hadn’t seen in a few years, it was funny because she walked past we both looked at each other then called out her name, Julie! Julie came over and spoke to us commenting on how good our costumes looked and we chatted for a moment about how it’s been 12 years since the first con Jodie and I met her at – also our first Convention ever attended (Puddle Jumper One). It was really great being able to see Julie, it led us into reminiscing about that first convention and what it did for us, how it changed our lives.
Finishing the event sore and exhausted Jodie and I made our leave. I was sore and didn’t think I would go the next day but I decided to head in in the afternoon to catch up with some friends I hadn’t seen the day before, it was nice as well little more of a lazy day. Though I did queue up with one friend for Aly Michalka’s autograph and we had a little laugh over her hat choice… she was wearing a Summer hat and I commented that although it looked great it was the wrong weather so she said next time she’ll come back in Summer and wear a Beanie.
All up it was a pretty good weekend, although even though it’s almost a week later my feet are a bit sore but it’s been a busy week… I look forward to seeing my Con Family at the next event and making more memories.
Additional Information: Since this event I have now received my special print of the sketch by Wayne Nichols and it is amazing. Gotta love a bit Spiderman – this has made me decide that perhaps after all the ticket was worth it…
Complete Guest List: Alyson Hannigan, Elden Henson, Aly Michalka, Zach McGowan, Bill Farmer, Shannon Purser, DJ Qualls, Joe Flanigan, Tom Lenk, Sylvester McCoy, Rhiannon Fish, Jason Momoa, Queenie Chan, Christoper Lambert, Daniel Gillies, Clive Standen, Zach McGowan, Eugene Simon, Sherilyn Fenn, Rahul Kohli, Robert Buckley, Keegan Allen and Shannon Purser.
