Under Expo-sed

In a concerted effort to Do Stuff With My Weekends, I spoke to my old mate Paul during the week about tripping off today to the London Expo at the ExCeL Centre in London's sunny Docklands. Traditionally not my favourite of the fan conventions, but normally worth a look. The London Expo is supposedly organised by the same folks as Memorabilia... but it's not done half as well.

I'm not sure whether it's the location (ExCel and the NEX are similarly purpose-built convention centres) or the people (a much greater percentage of Londoners at this one, obviously), but the London Expo always seems more crowded and more prone to hugely long queues at the entrance. We spent approximately an hour and a half queuing for tickets before even getting into the hall (a second hall was used for the queues, but very badly sectioned off into channels, which had the be constantly adapted and extended while we were progressing in the queue), and then navigating the show itself was a nightmare.

It wasn't even that it was poorly laid out... it was just difficult to see where you were, if your tendency is to navigate by the stalls. I'm pretty sure that we saw everything, but two of my regular haunts - Genki Gear and Retro GT - only turned up on my second run-through. I really must get my arse in gear and draw some of the T-shirt designs I've had knocking about in my head for Genki Gear. It'd be cool if they were turned into products...

In the end, despite having plenty of cash on me when I walked in, I spent very little - about £30 on T-Shirts and a further £10 on a new travelcard holder for me, and a choice of two for someone else.

I was very disappointed in the show in general - even the guests they had in weren't exactly prominently placed - but also very glad I decided to go with Paul, rather than my usual companion, who would have been foaming at the mouth and murdering people left, right and centre before we'd even got our tickets.

Still, the Cosplayers were there in force and, broadly speaking, seemed to be enjoying themselves. Must say I'm still creeped out by some Crossplayers and the sheer number of people with "Free Hugs" signs and, annoying as they were, I'm forced to agree with the two kids who were behind me in the queue - why on earth would so many of the Cosplayers attend something like the Expo in costume and look so serious about it? No surprise that there were quite a few Na'vi at the show, some more successful that others but, other than them, there weren't a huge number that I recognised.

I'm kind of wondering if the majority of the retail stands ended up going to Collectormania instead... that runs over the whole Bank Holiday weekend... There was a decent amount of upcoming movie stuff on show, plenty of Manga and Anime, and an excellent selection of videogames (particularly on Wii)... but the crowding and the lack of stuff to buy really let the show down for me.