In retrospect: Hoth-Con 2017

Hoth-Con 2015

Hoth-Con 2016

Third time's the charm?

Day of the event

Saturday and Sunday 2. -3. December 2017 Gloria, Helsinki

Guest of Honor's:

Femi Taylor - OOLA - Return Of The Jedi

Paul Blake - GREEDO - A New Hope 

The event included: discussion panels, vendors, themed food, cosplay competition, tattoos and of course, guest's Q&A.

I was there only on Saturday and I left really early, so I'm just sharing my experience for the short time I was there. I can't say that I was impressed by this year's event. Very much like the first year, this felt really lackluster. I don't know what it is but this convention is missing something! One of the missing things was definitely people. The place was half empty the entire time I was there. Last year when Jeremy Bulloch was there, there were lines you had stand in and wait for your turn. This time, I could have just walked straight to the guest's table without queuing (if I didn't need a half an hour to gather courage to do so) because there were no other people around. This makes me feel bad for the guests, I hope they didn't feel like they were wasting their time. I dislike crowds very much, so it feels weird saying that there were too little people.

My biggest gripe with this convention is how I don't feel I'm getting my money's worth. Sure, the one day ticket that costs me (about) 25€ grants me entrance to this nightclub like venue place I very much dislike, and what do I get in exchange? Hours upon hours of waiting for something to happen. The few panels there were during the day, none of them was about Star Wars! Therefore, I'm not tempted to spend time listening to a topic that doesn't interest me at all. In contrast, at every anime convention I've been to over the years, I've always had to plan ahead and pick out the panels that interest me the most. Sitting through panels are great ways to pass the time when you are waiting for any main events that usually happen later during the day.  In Hoth-con's case, as I was there only for Saturday, so the main thing I was waiting for was the Femi Taylor Q&A (Paul Blake Q&A was on Sunday).

Let's say the venue place opened it's doors at 11 AM and the Q&A starts at 6 PM, that leaves me 7 hours to linger around. I take a look around, I check out all the merchandise for sale, I play the pinball game, I get something to eat and drink, I go see the exhibition, I get the guest's autographs and photos taken with me, and I buy stuff.  Even if I go full slowpoke trying to stretch the time, that still leaves me 4 hours of waiting for the Guest's Q&A. I get fed up from the waiting and leave the venue place. I played some Pokemon Go, checked out some stores nearby and even after that, there were till hours left for me to wait. At this point, I decided to head home, because that alone was going to take me hours and it was wintertime, so it was already starting to get dark. I got what I came for, the autographs, so despite all the waiting I was happy, but also somewhat disappointed about missing the guest's discussion panels. I won't deny that I was also very frustrated, because I know this convention could be so much better!

Enough of the negative, here's my positive things about Hoth-con 2017:

I really liked the food that was named to fit the Star Wars theme! Usually I don't put much money into buying food and drinks, but for this occasion I treated myself. I bought a drink called the Nerf Herder, I don't remember what flavor it was, but it was good! Gotta love the mini lightsaber-glowstick! As for the cupcakes, I was unable to pick just one so I took both the chocolate Death Star and the mojito BB-8. The mojito was a little bit too strong for my taste and so, classic chocolate wins!

Aside from getting the autographs, the next best thing was to check out the very nice exhibitions by Veera Pirilä (cubistic Star Wars character paintings) and Janne Mällinen (stunning images created from photographs of SW action figures). Check them out!
Pirilä's homepage http://www.veerapirila.com/
Mällinen on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/truupperi/

There was also this laughably small artist alley.... I've never bought anything from an artist alley so I went ahead and bought this art print. I'm ashamed to admit I don't remember the artist name anymore, even though I did ask him to sign it. ^^;

***

I couldn't help it, I had to buy my first Jabba the Hutt figure, especially when it borderlines almost cute like this one! And the Lego-Oola (probably fake) just for the occasion.

Maul, for the sake of collecting more Maul. The plushie is from a vendor at the convention. The still in package one, I found it in a comic book shop that also sell tabletop game pieces, which I suppose this one also is. The two smaller ones I bought from a shop that sold used DVD and Blu-ray movies just a few blocks away from the convention. I was looking through the two small cabinets with various film figures they had in the shop and spotted these two!

I was happy to see this one vendor having some other of my favorite series in his selection. The bookmarks, postcards, pins and coasters were too cheap to resist, so I bought a whole bunch of them.

***

yay! <3

Hoth-Con 2016

Last Saturday, 26th of November, Helsinki's own Star Wars convention returned! I visited the second ever Hoth-Con and while I was a little disappointed at the event last year, this time, they stepped up their game! It was bigger and better! The venue place was still the Gloria Cultural Arena, which still is a bit too nightclubby for my taste, but it didn't bother me as much like it did last year.

This time, I had company! After I told my brother that the guest of honor would be Jeremy Bulloch, the man who played Boba Fett in the original trilogy, he willingly joined me at the convention. We both got Mr. Bulloch's  autograph, which is freaking amazing! :DDD Four or five years ago, I hadn't even watched the original trilogy and now I have an autograph from someone in the film! Feels so crazy! XD I'd say Hoth-con sure found "that something special" it was missing last year.

People in line for autographs

First time for everything! Even though I have seen my fair share of anime conventions, I'm a little ashamed to admit I've never seen a cosplay competition before, but now I have. Star Wars style! And it was amazing! They were 20 minutes behind schedule and at parts it felt a little rushed, but overall it was a very good show for a first time viewer. 

Strike a pose!

Darth Revan!

Queen Amidala: 2nd place

Boba Fett look a like

Competition winner: Ahsoka Tano

Jeremy Bulloch Q & A panel

"Never go home empty handed." 

The original Boba Fett's signature that shall be treasured. 

In honor of the occasion, I just had to find a Boba Fett figure to bring home, and this chill looking mini Boba melted my heart. It was affordable, and the vendor said it was their last one. Just a sale tactic? Well, it worked, this bounty hunter is now mine! Of course, before we left the place, I wanted to find something Darth Maul to bring home and the only thing I found was this all blue "hologram" one that comes with a bonus miniature figure (all red!). I can't say, it's one of my favorites, but it will look interesting among all the red&black figures.

Popcult Helsinki 2016

9.-10.4.2016

Picture heavy post coming up!
It's been a few weeks since the convention, but I haven't found the time to write about it until now. I probably would have more to tell you about the event itself, if I'd written this right after the convention weekend, but instead here's all the wonderful stuff I found and brought home from there. <3

The very first panel I went to see was held by Mari Kasurinen, who is known for her sweet My Little Pony sculptures. It was really interesting to see some work-in-progress photos of her sculptures and there were a few actual ponies on display. I didn't realize before that they came in various sizes, from really tiny ones to big ones. Now I regret that I didn't go to her workshop, but there were so many other interesting panels held at the same time! Curses!

The main thing that attracted me to come to the convention in the first place was of course the Pokémon Musical - I Choose You! It was quite spectacular, I especially loved the costume design for the Pokémons! I want one of them Zubat/Golbat hoodies so much!! Unfortunately, during the first half my view of the stage was blocked, because I just so happened to sit behind the tallest guy in the audience who also had big frizzy hair. Lucky for me, there was a half time and I was able to move to another seat and enjoy the rest of  the musical.

I couldn't leave the place without something Pokémon in my hands and that's when I found these super cute sleeping starter Pokes at a vendor table. I originally only wanted to buy one, because these tiny figures were too expensive for my taste. I was torn apart between Bulbasaur and Charmander, I couldn't pick just one! So I decided to take them both, but then I got a touch of OCD and couldn't leave Squirtle behind and now my wallet is crying.

Then I also found this chibi Mewtwo that came with a display background (or whatever you wanna call it), which I think is a bit unnecessary, but that might just be because I don't recognize place it's supposed to be. Good thing there wasn't any more of these for sale, otherwise I might have ended up getting the equally cute Mew, Eevee, Jesse & James and Meowth as described on the backside of Mewtwo's box.

....... and now we get to the part where I really lost control of all my money. For once, there were some Dragon Ball stuff up for sale and I bought it all, well, not all but most of it anyway. I got a cute Baby Goku, Super Saiyan Goku, Piccolo, Freeza.... oh sorry, I mean THE Freeza, like it says on the box. Also, I got close to 50  Dragonball Heroes game cards with awesome artwork. <3<3<3

Last but not least, the only Star Wars thingy I found worth taking home was this mini Shaak Ti. Do I even need to mention I think it's cute?

Truly a great weekend! :D