Not airsoft day.... Basingstoke Comic-con

[Spartan09]

Also dressed up as SG1 on Saturday,  but then because the Atlantis costume i ordered got stuck in customs, on the sunday i did an alt universe "what if?" Cosplay to represent what it could look like if the stargate was never sent to the US, and SG1 were British Commandos instead.

 

Both outfits were complimented by some of my airsoft RIFs....   and before anyone makes a fuss,  they were all disarmed and unloaded, I checked with the head of security and 2 of the con supervisors on the Friday, who all gave the OK after i explained exactly what i wanted to do and use them for, then checked in with security saturday and sunday to demonstrate they were safe and unloaded, and then made a concious effort to stay inside the venue and away from any window or door that faced outside of the hotel where the con was held.

 

Unfortunately the same could not be said of a couple of other cosplayers, who aparrantly decided to leave the lobby of the hotel with their cosplay weapons on them and walk up the entrance road to a little compound containing a bunch of vendors in marquees...   and got spotted by Joe public who phoned police and resulted in an armed unit arriving at the con, and said cosplayers being asked to leave by security after the armed response was stood down....   but as I stayed well out of sight I only heard about this through second-hand information and did not witness it directly.  Also got complimented by head of security at the end of Sunday for being concious enough to check in with them each day, and thanked for being sensible where others had not been.

 

 

But back to the con itself...   Friday was pretty quiet, with not much going on, so I was able to mooch around the vendors in all areas (dressed in t-shirt and jeans) to get my spending out the way early.  I bought a few screen used props, including a "one line schedule" for the very first episode that was signed by the late Don S Davies (General Hammond).

 

Saturday turned into quite a shitshow in the autograph area. Queues were initially separated into day pass holders, who had to line up through a barrier maze like at airport security, while accessibility and VIP pass holders (like myself) lined up around the outside of them to get priority access...   but then more day pass holders were let through ahead of VIP passes, people opened up barriers in the zig-zag to jump the line, and then there was a traffic jam where no one moved for almost an hour...  byvwhichbtime some of the stars had to leave for other scheduled events such as photo ops and meet-and-greets, so many, many people were getting very angry at missing out..  and even some of the stars were getting pretty annoyed (in particular, i overheard David Hewlett aka Rodney McKay getting rather annoyed).  Somehow I managed to get all but 4 autographs on my stargate posters on Saturday, but missed out on one of the stargate stage panel Q&A sessions.  Have to take my hat off to Richard Dean Anderson though,  he was signing late in the day, and made it clear to staff he was not leaving until everyone in the line waiting had got his autograph....   I heard he was still signing at 10pm...   and then he did the same again on Sunday as they were beginning to dismantle the convention around him (other stars did similar things,  but RDA went above and beyond in my view)

 

At the end of the evening I hung around the after party, which included a set DJ'ed by Kristian Nairn who was also one of thebguests for "Our Flag Maens Death", another group that was being hosted by the convention.

 

Other bonus points from Saturday.. 

1. I sat down for the "ultimate stargate photo" with all the stars,  sat between RDA and Jason Momoa...  and both complimented me on my costume.  And when I pointed out it was a last minute purchase as the original I had ordered got stained when I spilled bleach on it by accident, RDA said he still loved it.

 

2. I got a hug off Amanda Tapping (Samantha Carter)....  a brief one, but a hug none the less

 

3. Due to the traffic jam in the autograph line, I got to have a brief and nerdy chat with Joe Flanigan (Col. John Sheppard) about WW2 fighter aircraft.  He had initially mis-spoke and called the P90 I was carrying a P40, but then corrected and wondered aloud why he was thinking of the P40...   and so our little chat began, but only for a couple of minutes before the line moved on

 

4. Brad wright (The shows creator) saw my TM P90 and joked how intimidating I looked,  and how realistic it looked.  After I told him it was an airsoft replica, I passed it to him to look at, and he fiddled with it for a moment and held it in the aim before handing it back to me and saying "very nice".  By that point my brain was too fried from the heat, and I seriously regret not asking for a pic of him holding it...  but such is life

 

 

Sunday ran a whole lot better, as the staff had Rearranged the queuing barriers in the signing area so people had to line up for each table, split into two lines for day pass and VIPs at each table, and a staff member on each line controlling the flow, rather than Saturdays effort of "everyone starts with one star and then moves down the row of tables one by one..." but with onlyvone person trying to manage all the crowd at once.  Managed to get the last few autographs, and also a photo op with Joe Flanigan and a meet-and-greet with David Nykl (Doctor Zelenka), before catching the massive stargate panel tonwrap up the day.

 

Over the course of the event, I had many people asking me about the costume, particularly my airsoft weapons, and so I was happy to answer their questions and talk about airsoft, and I even had 3 people say they had never heard of airsoft before, but would be looking into trying it out if they had a local field.

 

i also had several people ask for a picture and I even had one person doing a university PHD study want to interview me for part of his thesis about how roleplay in Cosplay and LARP can be "commodified or assist in exercising political awareness in fan spaces" and they had not considered airsoft, so would like to get my take on it from an airsoft, rather than a cosplay perspective.

 

All in all, the positives outweighed the negatives,  but I will be cautious about attending the basingstoke comic-con next year, especially if they get as many huge stars in one place at the same time, as it made for an extremely busy and sometimes chaotic event.