Attending Comic con, I expected a more well planned professional convention as they are treated in the US. However having attended the expo I experienced an over crowded environment with no limit to how many people may enter at once. thousands of people were outside lining up to pay for their tickets and others were slowly shuffling in to shuffle some more around the stalls.
Each stall had its own merchandise laid out, for example "Art box" had their shop contents, "Manga" had their Manga books available in collection and so forth. Some stalls contained merchandise clothing ranging from £15-£25. Having already purchasing a ticket to London and back and two tickets to Comic con, this expo had already cost me £50. Even wallets were priced at £15 and bags £35-£50. Most of these stalls' content is all available on the internet for a lot less.
The exhibition also promises pre-released game demos to be played. These promises were made, however in a lesser quality than expected. The speakers for sound were poor, and the Television screens were far from modern, lowering resolution and quality. Only the Nintendo 3DS stands were high quality.
As for cosplay, I found it difficult to understand the point. A small competition stage was on the side with once again ear splitting sound coming out of the speakers from the presenters and competitors as you slowly walked past. Most cosplayers chose not to remain indoors but even spend all their time outside of the exhibition, where it was less crowded. To spend money on an expensive costume, (most lower quality ones costing over £100) on top of travel and a ticket seems too much for my understanding considering you are attending to a large market to spend even more money. These products not being low in price. If you live locally perhaps you can find meaning in the whole event and the prices reasonable. For people on the opposite end of Excel London, (that being in literal terms) I deem the event and money spending in order to spend even more money a huge waste on your allowance.
In terms of shuffling through, it took me and my partner two entire hours collecting our wrist bands and trying to leave the building soon after. The entire event was a struggle, perhaps I did not choose the best day considering it was the most popular and longest of the three, but I couldn't imagine it getting any less crowded the following or previous day. Groups of people were even staying in nearby hotels and attending all three days there, only adding more money to the mix.
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| The headache that awaited us before entering, the crowd didn't lessen but only seemed to get worse. |
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| One of the few impressive cosplayers, most decent cosplayers remained outside. |
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| Cosplayers from Mass Effect |
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| That guy from fifth element |
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| LuLu and some other dude from Final Fantasy, one of her summons if I recall correctly. |
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| The last image I took of the group of Twilight Princess Cosplayers. |
Over all this expo gave me a headache and has given me the strong decision never to spend my money on Comic con in England again. Rest assured, I have heard my current experience was a shock to previous attenders of the event.
