G&C Podcast - Episode 185: Connecticon XXI 2024: New Year Same Fun!

[00:00:00] Hey everyone! On this episode of Gaming and Collecting, me and Alex are going to talk about our recent trip to the 2024 edition of the Connecticon convention.

[00:00:08] We had some fun, we saw a bunch of things, bought some merch, it was a good time, and yeah, we're gonna give our rundown of the event. But anyways guys, on with the intro music. So, how's your popsicle? It's good! It's cherry flavored.

[00:00:46] I have a bunch of popsicles. Oh, there she is. This week has sucked. Aw, what happened? I just worked for a shitty company. Well, I knew that. Oh, hello! Guess who's here though? It's Miss Poo, Alex's cat, who takes giant poos.

[00:01:11] You hear her scratching the chair behind me? She's rubbing them like, hey, hello! We've been buddies today. I took a half day today, so... Oh yeah, you guys are in shutdown, right? Yep. That's fun. Yeah. It's weirdly, it's very quiet, which is scary. Yeah.

[00:01:38] Now I'm home the rest of the week. With Miss Dingles. Nice, I got two more days of hell, so... 18 double hockey sticks? Pretty much. Sorry. That's alright. I'm just tired. You know what makes you feel better? What? Poop cats.

[00:02:04] I feel like every podcast, we need to specify that my cat's name is Poo. Yeah. Are you trying to punt her off again? I'm not talking about Poo. No, I love her again. I love her. She's a little shit.

[00:02:17] She's been so cute and nice today, so she can stay. You know what's funny? My week, other than work, has been completely... nothing at this point, because literally yesterday I recorded a podcast. Yep.

[00:02:33] And then on Monday I was doing research for said podcast, I played a puzzle game that went on for two fucking hours, because I couldn't lose.

[00:02:44] I started at like 7 after I got done at the gym, and it was like 9 o'clock, just about time to go to bed, and I was like, it won't end. What time was it?

[00:02:57] So you can find out by going and checking out our episode that came out at the time of this episode, probably like weeks ago. But we played a game called Tripped. It is a puzzle game that is weird. Why don't we do shit like that?

[00:03:12] How do we do that? Because we talk about Muppets racing games. I want to talk about actually fun games. Maybe I want to make a game for... I can assure you, you probably would have more fun with Ruppet's Race Mania than Tripped.

[00:03:27] Can we play a bunch of Mahjong games and then play actual Mahjong? I feel like I would like that. Ironically, we did a Mahjong episode over on 3DO. How?

[00:03:41] Well, here's the thing. We weren't originally going to cover that game at all, but then our mutual podcaster and the founder of our network, Aaron, he really wanted to talk about that game for some reason. So that's why we ended up doing it.

[00:03:58] I'm very mad. I should have been invited. I'm the bigger Mahjong fan of everyone. Oh, God. Okay, we can talk about sexy Mahjong. No, I don't want to talk about that.

[00:04:11] I was laughing because I went on the Switch Store and like the first game I saw on the Switch Store front page. This was like a while back, so it's probably not there anymore. But it was just literally Hentai Golf. Nice. It was on sale for a dollar.

[00:04:26] And you bought it? Oh, yeah. I was supposed to say no, I didn't buy it. Oh, no. One dollar. One dollar, the morbid curiosity gets the better of you. Speaking of Hentai, Bill bought a lot this weekend. I did not.

[00:04:43] Yeah, he thought he did. I saw him go back for it. He said to find it, but I saw him. Especially the yaoi.

[00:04:51] You know how like, first off, the fact that that booth was like usually swarmed said a lot, but also the fact that you know how much effort it takes to like actually sift through that shit? I know, I saw you there for hours.

[00:05:05] Also, fun fact, most of that stuff is for free on the internet. Yeah, that's true. Let's be real here. Anyways, so yeah, I guess to jump into our topic. What are you drinking? One of these sparkling ice water things. Wow. Aren't you gonna ask me what I'm drinking?

[00:05:31] What are you drinking? Well, I'm eating a popsicle and I also have water. Let me read the nutritional facts. Let me mute you right now. Wait, wait, wait. Where are they? This gag doesn't work when you won't let me post the video. Bill, where are the facts?

[00:05:52] Where are the facts on my metal water bottle? This joke is stupid. Move on. Your face is stupid. Get out of my podcast. This is my show. First off, like, that made no sense because no one's gonna see this video. Second off, the joke is played.

[00:06:10] I don't fucking care. They can imagine it. They see my face from the last one. They can use their imagination. Be creative, people. Come on. I'm eating a popsicle. It looks like a grub. So. Oh wait, did you see what I replied?

[00:06:31] Someone asked me. I forget who it was. How could you forget Rick? Oh, it was Rick. Okay. How could you forget Rick? I'm sorry, Rick. I'm so sorry. But he was like, wow, I actually see Alex's face and then I comment it. I'm ugly and I'm from Spokane.

[00:06:47] Yeah, and he reacted with an angry Kirby. I don't know. Because nobody buys your bullshit. I'm hideous. I know it. I have to put on makeup to not be ugly. Well, not be as ugly. You know what I'm saying? Anyways. You're gonna be naturally beautiful as you, Bill.

[00:07:13] You're gorgeous. So we went to Kineticon. No, we didn't. No. We went to FurryCon. First off, you're afraid of them. So we definitely did not go. That's why I was scared the whole time. But yeah, no, we did not do that. We went to Kineticon. FurryCon is nuts.

[00:07:40] Why are you even making this joke when it's like very clear you're just, you would never go to one of those. I know, but I want to see you go to one. I'm not really interested.

[00:07:51] I have nothing against them personally, but I just have no interest in that. I know about your Garfield fursuit. Why Garfield? That's not even our thing. That's actually like Rick Servers thing. Know your Kermit fursuit. Wait, would that be a scale suit? Would that be scaly?

[00:08:10] Is that what they call the lizards? I don't even know where you're going with this anymore. Bill's cosplaying as Kermit at the next convention, right Bill? That would suck. I don't really like the cosplay because it's uncomfortable anyways, but that would just suck.

[00:08:29] Well, you haven't picked a comfortable costume yet. It's not even that. It's more I just don't like to take photos in general. You don't have to. Yeah, but I don't want to be rude. It could be really shitty Kermit guys. Like some of the people at conventions lately.

[00:08:47] That's a segue. She jumped on the couch on her own. Oh, she's not. She's back. Do you see her? What are you doing? No, no, no, don't eat that. Don't eat that. No, excuse me. Oh God. We've lost Alex.

[00:09:14] She's trying to eat something that wasn't food as per usual. What else is new? But anyways, we went to Kineticon this weekend and this is our third time going to Kineticon. We skipped a year. Did we? We went the last year of major COVID.

[00:09:33] And then we skipped the next year because of scheduling reasons, because we were in the process of trying to at the time remember. Hey, sorry. Please meet your mic next time you do that. Oh, I'm sorry. She keeps eating everything so I have to yell at her sometimes.

[00:09:56] But yeah, so that this was our third time going to Kineticon and it was fun. I will say this was probably the weakest year for Kineticon, I'd say. Sorry, I had to mute myself so I didn't scream. But yeah, it wasn't that it was bad.

[00:10:23] This is still above that one anime boss and that really was bad. But I'd say out of the three Kineticons we've been to, this was probably the weakest year. Yeah, I will say this was the year I probably enjoyed it the least. I won't lie.

[00:10:38] Last year was really fun. I remember last year being like a ton of fun. This year not so much. I don't know. I feel like we just unfortunately ran into a lot of really rude people. I think it was a really, really takes the experience.

[00:10:54] I think it was a combination of a few things. I feel like it was the vibe this year was definitely weird. It was definitely more... This has been the most popular year we've been period. Oh yeah. In terms of people present and just the amount of craziness there.

[00:11:16] We're also fully into the world being back to normal now. So we're just getting a lot of... Well, and there's just so anime and weeby stuff. It's more socially acceptable. More people are going to conventions. It's mainstream now. Yeah, more people are watching that.

[00:11:39] I joined the little fan group before. There was a Facebook group. I joined it to just hear some updates about what was going on, if things got moved around. Before the con started, people would post like, oh these are what I'm cosplaying as.

[00:11:55] There was a ton of people who were like, I'm cosplaying a different cosplay every day. I was like, Jesus, I can't do that. I can barely pull one together, let alone 50 in a whole week. I was just like, damn.

[00:12:09] You know what I also think might have affected this year a little bit too? What? The timing of the event this year happened to hit us both right in the middle of some really big bills and other things that kind of...

[00:12:22] Well, unfortunately, July is when we get our town bills from the town we live in. I'm not going to say it so people can't be creeps. I don't need to edit it out again. Yes, I didn't say it this time, I swear.

[00:12:38] It's when we get our town bills. Unfortunately, one of them is related to the amount of vehicles you have. Bill had two of them because he has two vehicles. That sucks for you. But still, it was a lot.

[00:12:52] I went to Texas this month, so I also had a ton of money. I spent way too much this month, and next month will be literally not buying anything besides groceries. Yeah, I'm going to be in full shape for a bit, unfortunately.

[00:13:10] But that's part of being an adult. Yay, bills. The bills got to be paid. Yeah, it was just really unfortunate timing this time of the year. We literally got biked by pretty much everything. So we were already kind of stretched.

[00:13:30] It's been kind of a shitty month, I'm not going to lie. Yeah, at least July has been stressful. Not only is personal life just been kind of meh, but also the world is just fucking mental right now. I'm not going to get into it,

[00:13:50] but if you've been watching the news, you know what's going on. There's a lot of chaos going on for sure. Yeah, and we'll leave it at that. So it's been kind of just a vibe. This was kind of our getting out into public,

[00:14:03] and unfortunately realize people kind of suck in public these days. Yeah. Not everybody. Most people are nice, but there are some particularly rude people these days. Unfortunately, yes. I think it's just kind of the world we live in now is people are crazy.

[00:14:26] They're kind of all just hot. I feel like they just like people wind themselves up and they explode out in public or something. I hate to use the term, but the term terminally online is really real these days. Oh yeah, you can see it.

[00:14:41] I mean, I think we saw it a lot at the con, just with some of the behaviors. Honestly, we ran into some... I guess we can start it out with... We'll start out with the day. We'll discuss day one. Day one, I went full cosplay.

[00:14:59] Bill did not cosplay. I made a Boma cosplay from her rider's outfit, which is where she has a pant short leg thing and a side ponytail. I don't think it was an outfit that ever actually appeared in the anime itself.

[00:15:16] No, I don't think it was in the anime. I think it was a promotional for a Japanese motorcycle, I believe. Yeah, it was pretty cool though. So I really liked the outfit. So I was like, no, I'm just going to do it. It's a well-known outfit of Boma's.

[00:15:31] So it's from her Dragon Ball era. So it's young Boma. But it's a really iconic outfit, like the cutoff pants and the white shirt. It was the coolest one. Because I looked at some of her other outfits, because I've been wanting to do Boma for a while,

[00:15:45] or just a Dragon Ball character for a while. And that was my favorite one of hers. Because I feel like a lot of her Dragon Ball super outfits tend to lean heavily towards mom. Well, she has... Actually, she's a mom.

[00:16:00] Her two outfits in Super are either the party dress or the mom jeans and white shirt with the scarf. That's really about it. I didn't want to do that, so I wanted to do something cooler. So that's what I did.

[00:16:12] Bill had to help me get it all together, because I couldn't do it by myself. It did break during out the day, but Bill helped me stitch it back together, tape it back together, which was funny. But we ended up leaving...

[00:16:27] It was definitely worth planning to get there for... 9.30. But I ended up just being ready earlier, so I was like, hey, do you want to leave earlier? So we ended up getting there for 9. And this ended up being a blessing in disguise. So the previous two years,

[00:16:44] we've been able to park on the ground floor and have the easiest in-and-out ever. This year, the parking garage... So unfortunately, day one, we had four events going on in the city. Yeah, so there was a jazz festival, a Pokemon event at the Museum of Science,

[00:17:03] and then a food truck festival, and then Connecticut. All the other three events besides Connecticut were all free events. So the city was packed. It was very, very packed, and unfortunately those garages were as well. And they were attempting to direct traffic around,

[00:17:25] but they were kind of making it worse in a lot of areas. I think on Saturday it was bad. On Sunday it was better. Well, Sunday it was just Connecticut, which made it a lot easier. Yeah, but the police directing traffic were doing a better job on Sunday.

[00:17:43] They probably got beaten down on fucking the internet. It was insane, what they were doing and stuff. People were driving like crazy. I was really grateful that Bill drove that day. Yeah, the worst was that fricking van that just parked right in the fucking traffic lane

[00:18:02] and fucked everything up. Yeah, that was just... Because they wouldn't let us in the normal entrance this time. We had to take the back entrance. On Saturday at least. It was kind of a shit show, but we ended up getting there. We got parking.

[00:18:21] Actually, we parked in the same spot both days. Yeah, that was pretty funny actually. But what I always find funny is you got the line of people waiting for the elevator and me and Alex were like, screw it, take it to the stairs, it's quicker.

[00:18:34] And then we couldn't figure out where to go because the stairs kind of popped you out in the middle of nowhere. We were like, where do we go? Where are we? But then we ended up following some random people and the line was full. Well, we were in...

[00:18:50] They have a queue through one of the parking lot sections. So they have one queue, then a second queue, and then they kind of just... It's a free-for-all after that. We were kind of in that second queue that wasn't in the gate roped off one,

[00:19:07] but kind of the line queue. But when we got there, it was literally right before gates opened and then gates started open, so we moved. I think we were there for like... How long do you think we waited? It was about 20 minutes to half an hour at most.

[00:19:24] I think it was a little more than 20. I think like 45 minutes. It wasn't bad. When I walked up and saw the line, I was terrified because I had to pee really bad. Oh yeah, we both had to pee. Because unfortunately those lines, they look incredibly intimidating and they...

[00:19:48] The biggest problem is they appear to move slowly, but that's mostly just because people in lines don't pay attention. Oh yeah, we had this couple in front of us that... I don't know. It didn't seem like they went out very often.

[00:20:02] And they just kept holding up the line and I was like, please move! Please move, you're pitching me. Not to judge, but this was a couple. This was the first time they've left the house ever. They did not know how to act in public. Yeah, it was very...

[00:20:17] There was a lot of PDA too. There was a lot of PDA and I was like, I don't want to see that. See, I didn't notice that, but I also wasn't really paying attention. I was more paying attention to them staring at cosplayers

[00:20:29] and the line would be moving and we'd be just kind of like... Move! Move! And then we'd try to get around them and they'd start rushing to get back into their spot because this wouldn't happen if you just pay attention. Yeah, I'm like, you can't get mad

[00:20:43] if people are just going to move around you because you're out moving. I'm sorry. But you can't. If you're holding up the line, fuck off. The funniest part about being in line though is that apparently Kineticon was sponsored by Kraft Mac and Cheese and they were just throwing

[00:20:59] mac and cheese into the lines at some point and no one wanted it. No. Uncooked mac and cheese at a fucking convention. And you can eat it later! Yeah, but you have to carry it around and most of these people do not want to carry this shit around.

[00:21:17] Most of these people don't have bags or backpacks. Yeah, like I brought my clear bag because I always bring them. And I put the mac and cheese in there. Yeah, until you got your own bag and like take your shit. I don't want this.

[00:21:29] Hold on, mac and cheese. I took two mac and cheeses because I already ate one. I didn't want that at all. What's wrong with you? Are you okay? But yeah, that was such a random... Is it like a... We had like ten pallets of mac and cheese.

[00:21:45] Oh yeah, but by the end of day two when we left, there were still about seven of them. And also, I'm pretty certain it rains. It rains Saturday night. Those things were sitting outside, I'm pretty certain. So if you took mac and cheese on the second day

[00:21:59] it might have been a little soggy. It was probably sealed in plastic Yeah, you'd be surprised. But yeah, so that was a thing. That was so fucking random. I get spots or shit. You know what the sad part is? Half that shit probably got thrown away.

[00:22:15] No, yeah, half of it probably did. Not even just because they didn't get rid of it. I think half of it got thrown away by convention goers who were like, I don't fucking want this.

[00:22:23] Or just kind of like, I don't want to keep holding onto this mac and cheese. I guarantee you that... It was a nice thought, but like not the most... It was a funny thing, just a weird demographia. I think it would have made more sense if like...

[00:22:35] If it was just like there was a booth outside the room and then they just had it all there and people could just grab it and as they wanted, also just having plastic bags people probably would have taken it.

[00:22:45] But in the line, when people are trying to fish out their ID all their other stuff, it's probably not the best. Yeah. That whole thing just made me laugh. I was like, this is so funny. I'm like, I'm going to go get some more of this.

[00:22:57] I'm going to go get some more of this. I'm going to go get some more of this. That whole thing just made me laugh. I was like, this is so random. It was very silly. But it wasn't that bad. But we did get behind...

[00:23:11] But they did do something really stupid at the end where they were like, four lines! Oh yeah, the freaking four lines that queued back into one. Into one big pile. So it made no difference. All it did was it fucked a bunch of people

[00:23:23] out of their spot in line because a bunch of people cut the line because of that and it was like ugh. I ended up behind this bitch. I'm just going to say it, she was a bitch. I was wearing gloves

[00:23:39] and I had taken one of the gloves off so that I could fish. Because when you have gloves on, it's harder to grab a tiny thing. So I took it off so I could pull out my ID. My glove brushed against her leg and she flipped out

[00:23:53] and freaked out. I was like, people are touching me! People are touching me! Oh my god! And I was like, have you ever been to a fucking convention? Because guess what? People are going to run into you and touch you. It's a mob of people.

[00:24:07] If you don't want to deal with that, go home. Why the fuck are you here? I was just like, she flipped out because her glove brushed her leg. I was like, calm down. She probably had a miserable day. If you don't want people in your

[00:24:21] personal space, you shouldn't come to a convention let alone an anime convention. It was just ridiculous. I was like, girl, stop flipping out. I'm not touching you. Yeah. People suck. But you know what the funniest thing is that I just thought about? What?

[00:24:45] That convention center must be still finding mac and cheese in the most random fucking places. I bet. I bet people threw it in bushes and stuff. Or left it in random spots around the convention center. I'm sure there's mac and cheese everywhere. I'm sure they loved that.

[00:25:05] Getting through the line, the end was dumb, but it was quick enough. I've never been a big fan of how Kineticon does their queuing. It's still not great. It never works how they do it. The way they do it is it's a big line of a table.

[00:25:23] They'll be like, you can go to the blue sign third from the right. They have their paddle hung up. I'm not going to be mean to them, but they were not even trying to lift those things up. I was like, great.

[00:25:41] We just went to the first person we saw available. Yeah. We just whatever. It's a mob of people. No one is cutting you a break. You just have to force your way through. The thing about the Kineticon badge is for some badges, like at Anime Boston,

[00:26:01] it's pre-printed with your name on it. They have to go grab your name and give you your badge. Kineticon, they have you write your name and your phone number on your badge. The only problem with that is that ends up making the queue go even

[00:26:15] longer because now people are waiting at those tables just to sign it. I feel like it would make more sense if they put like in those other queues over there, like where they have other stuff, they should have tables with markers on them where it's like, okay,

[00:26:29] get out of the way, sign your stuff here and then move. That would make more sense. But I'm looking at it from a process improvement person. I could see many ways to improve their process. It's very shitty. Not great process.

[00:26:45] Or like they could just give you, they could just have markers on hand and just give you one and be like, go sign this. Yeah, or just like they'd give you no, that too. Just because people were stealing the Sharpies. No, we weren't taking them anyways.

[00:26:57] Our girl didn't have her Sharpie and she's like, yeah, I don't have my Sharpie. So she's like looking for one and I'm like, well, this is just great. Well, I had the other one so I had to give it to you after. So I did find out you

[00:27:09] could get your badges mailed to you. But how like, so when I like, because for Anime Boston, I had the badges mailed to me, which was a godsend for Anime Boston because like we were able to just go right into the event. After getting through security

[00:27:23] it was super easy. Kinectcon, you could do that, but I found out that the shipping was like ridiculous, like it was like $30 per badge. So if you got like two badges, add on like any extra like shipping cost additionally for them to actually ship it. It was like $80

[00:27:43] to ship two badges. So no one did it because it was ridiculously expensive. Yep. Meanwhile, I'll still always continue to praise Retro World for you literally just walk into a window, they scan your thing and they give you an armband. They're like go upstairs and you go

[00:28:01] here to get your stuff. I'm just like cool. It's also a much smaller scale convention. You do need to remember that. I need to try my best to get the stuff. What did you do for the, tell me after the podcast what you find?

[00:28:17] What's funny is though the only year that we ever had to queue at Retro World was the COVID year. Yeah. Well the year after COVID but it was still. And that wasn't even that bad. No it was like this tiny little queue

[00:28:31] that we just kind of, it took us maybe like 10 minutes to get through and then it was basic. I love the fact that they queued us all. They were like six feet and then the second week we were like yeah it's all verdicts. But that's the past.

[00:28:45] COVID's basically done at this point so. No, no it is done. They flat out said it's done. Which I'm not going there anyways. But well we did finally get to the convention and we did run to the nearest bathroom. While I was in the bathroom I ran into

[00:29:03] Barbie. I ran into Barbie as Swan Lake Princess and it was the greatest cosplay I've ever seen. It's because you know Bill I love my Barbie movies which we still need to do our Barbie movie marathon. You still need to get the rest of the movies. I will.

[00:29:17] I will get them or I'll buy them on like Imp Prime. But yes we're gonna do that and we're gonna do a Barbie movie retrospective. It'll be multiple parts cause there's many to go over. Like the fairy topia. But I saw Swan Lake Barbie and it was wonderful.

[00:29:33] She was wonderful. Barbie's wonderful. The worst part though is like you get the one thing I say about Kineticon that's kinda meh is their event floor doesn't open until 11 and we got there at 9. Well the vendor's room doesn't open until 11. We got there at 9 and then but they

[00:29:55] do have like an arcade game room slash the signing room slash wrestling room that was open. And like I believe the Marriott across the street. The Marriott's connected to it but that was all like board games and stuff and that was open as

[00:30:11] well. But like if you're there for the shopping there wasn't that much for you to do if you weren't into any of the other activities. I did look up some of the panels beforehand this year cause I was curious and I just looked

[00:30:25] nothing against the people I just none of them really caught my eye. I will say yeah like some of the ones like one of the things that's cool about like Anime Boston and stuff like that is that they like partner with like Crunchyroll and like Funimation

[00:30:41] and put mirror stuff at those. So and that's like kind of a cool appeal or they just have animes playing throughout the day so if you just want a break to sit down and watch something you can just go in and maybe discover something new.

[00:30:55] Kineticon doesn't really offer that. I think they're more catered to like doing the small panels and stuff which like if you're interested in one it's great but if you want to learn about Furries 101 maybe not as much. The big problem with Kineticon, this isn't a dig at the

[00:31:11] convention itself this is just kind of an unfortunate fact of what it is it is such a broad convention that the subject matter in a lot of these panels is all over the place and it's like you'll kind of agree. Oh no I was just

[00:31:27] going to say I completely agree. It's really I feel like it's very much lost direction like the conventions like I don't know what the convention is about it's just kind of pop culture and that's kind of it. It's pop culture but it's heavily anime dominated.

[00:31:47] Yeah it has been recently. It's heavily anime dominated but it's weird how because like the vendor floor I guess we can get into the vendor floor now. Yeah well it's just so it opened at 11 so we kind of had to meander I mean

[00:32:07] it took us like 45 minutes an hour to get through the line so we only had like an hour to kill beforehand but it was a long hour. We did eat pizza. I ate pizza and Bill got chili because why did you get chili Bill? Explain yourself.

[00:32:23] It looked more appealing than the pizza. Also I wanted to have pizza later that day which we did. We did. I ate double pizza that day. It was only one slice I ate before. So I thought basically my reasoning was I wasn't feeling pizza. The ramen

[00:32:37] looked like it would have been a pain in the ass. The chili was small. I wasn't super hungry. The chili was small and it was I really didn't want super meat. Something super meaty and it was like vegetarian chili so I was like that'll work.

[00:32:54] Anyways, yeah so we bought food and we ate that. We sat on like this really creepy hidey-ho corner. Was it Gojo Cosplayer? He was just vibing. He didn't even acknowledge us which was fine. I feel like we were both in the mood

[00:33:10] of like we're just going to sit here until we can actually do something. It was a mutual acknowledgement of we're not going to acknowledge each other and that's for a very fine reason. We're just going to vibe. It also was funny though

[00:33:24] because where we were sitting was by a door that was exit only. So we just kind of got the people watch, all the people coming in to try and go through that door only to be told no you have to go all the way

[00:33:34] back around. The fun fact was the doors didn't open from the outside so once you went out you were just stuck. Well yeah but there was also people who were just trying to come in that way and were just like they pulled

[00:33:48] the door and it wouldn't open then they'd be like Yeah they'd be like Why no open? Why no open? The best thing I saw was before the floor opened I literally watched someone walk up to the closed door trying to open and I'm just like buddy.

[00:34:06] Also look around you and notice that every single person is waiting to go in there. What the fuck are you doing? They just stared at it and tried to open it. I feel like that's the thing about conventions all common sense just leaves people. All of

[00:34:26] the knowledge of being a human being it's just gone. It leaves. I don't know if we... Oh it was on the second day I'll wait to talk about it on the second day never mind. Before we talk about the vendor floor we should mention the arcade area

[00:34:44] so every year there was a Jaguar so I gave it the okay but there was way too many N64s I tried to flip one off and Bill yelled at me because he was like oh there they go. No Alex you tried to flip one off

[00:34:56] and there was people right behind you. I wasn't looking at it. I was looking at only the N64 I can't help it though. I can't help it. I see the N64 and I hate it even after replaying a bunch of

[00:35:10] the games I still hate it. It's a shitty ass console. Fuck the N64. Yeah I get it. I get it. I'm sure you guys you're not going to convince me. That was your common sense going away and you just straight up

[00:35:22] flipped off some random people and I'm like Alex no. I didn't. I was flipping the N64. They could hear me. They could hear me go I hate you N64. I don't think... Jaguar. Jaguar forever. Jaguar forever. Only Jaguar. No N64. I'm just saying optically that looked really

[00:35:40] bad. That's all I'm saying. Fuck yourself. So there's a I think it's the same people do this every year. They're called like gaming underground or games underground. Sometimes they bring crusty consoles. No they always bring crusty consoles. I've met

[00:36:00] the owner of that place and he's a nice guy. Oh yeah no no no. It's funny when you see like the classic Nintendo and it's like that very yellowy color. I don't think they bring their best consoles. That's all I'm going to say. I don't believe it.

[00:36:18] I'm dying. Yeah but I believe that they're the same people that do the retro consoles at Retro World as well. What? No way! Retro? Retro World? Yeah but we went through there. We also went through they had a little arcade setup which was kind of cool.

[00:36:39] He's looking he put out applications for a new co-host. I'm so sorry guys. Bill's going to replace me. You make this joke every time it's not funny let's move on. No! I no. I made the quitting joke. You make the quitting joke every

[00:36:57] episode it's not funny we'll move on. I didn't make the quitting joke this time. I made the Bill's going to fire me joke. I didn't say quit. I said Bill's going to he's trying to replace me. That's different. It's not the same joke. The other parts

[00:37:13] of that area there was also the so there was the signings which I just I can't wait. The only person I wanted to get a signing from was Bluey. So it's for you Johnny. I would have got that form.

[00:37:27] It was a combination of the line for that was ridiculous but also like it was just it was one of those things where I was kind of like so this is this isn't even really their fault. Their line was long

[00:37:39] but they also had the poor decision of putting the Bluey actors right next to Bryce Crappenbrook. Who for those who don't know is the voice of Aaron Yeager from Attack on Titan. Aaron Yeager! And his line was fucking mental. Like the amount of

[00:37:55] people and it kind of caused kind of a shit show clusterfuck. Oh god! Oh my god she almost choked herself. She just tried to choke herself with my my iPhone cord. Like she wrapped her neck in it and just tried to choke herself. Your cat's kind of psycho.

[00:38:13] She's dumb. It's not that she's psycho. She's just an idiot. Like she's so stupid. I love her but she's the dumbest cat I've ever seen. Come here dummy. Don't show she's broke this time. But yeah the uh I'm all four people getting autographs and stuff. I've just never

[00:38:33] seen the appeal personally. I feel like it's just like it's more of like so I feel like our parents like we're never really celebrity crazed and like we never really were either. Like I mean like truthfully like if I saw a celebrity

[00:38:47] in public I probably wouldn't give a shit. Like oh for example at Nationals uh do you know the guy Magic Mike guy? What's his name? He played Magic Mike. Crip. It's like Channing Tatum. So Channing Tatum was at the Nationals for Irish Dance because his daughter

[00:39:07] dances. I was like cool. And then there was people like following him and chasing him like to the point he had to go hide like in a security area at times. I was like people suck. Like I'm like just like I don't know. I

[00:39:21] just like I like did not care at all. Like I didn't give a shit at all that he was there. And I had friends who were like oh my god oh my god. I was like cool it's a person. Celebrity membership is a thing and it's weird.

[00:39:33] I feel like it's just that's the thing. We just aren't about that. We just don't really care. Well it's that and it's also like the way I see it is you're waiting in line to essentially get a piece of paper. Yeah. I also. Personal personal preference

[00:39:51] I have nothing against people who are into that. The only person I would want to meet is Conan O'Brien but I wouldn't like go to try and find him. It would just be if I saw him in passing I would probably do a little

[00:40:03] oh my god it's Conan O'Brien but other than that there's no other celebrity that I think I'd want to meet. Yeah. I did I did find it kind of interesting though that the the bluey actor and actresses their line was as packed as it was.

[00:40:17] It was epic. And there were two people in bluey cosplays too which was also really amazing. There's nothing wrong with that. No I thought it was awesome. I thought they were so cute all of them were. I get I get why Josh likes that show.

[00:40:31] It's not something I'd watch personally but How dare you? We're going to do a bluey retrospective. Bring Josh's or you have You haven't watched an episode. I'm gonna start watching it actually. Wait how many animes have you watched so far? This year.

[00:40:49] I'd have to count. I don't have that on hand at the moment. But yeah so we went through that area. I mean there was some fun voice actors and actresses. There was some fun voice actors and actresses. The only one I would have wanted to meet was

[00:41:08] John St. John was there who is the voice of Duke Nukem. And and Big the Cat which I find it interesting that he actually puts Big the Cat on his resume because he hated that role. Yes good covering though I screamed at my cat to get down.

[00:41:30] But I guess now we can move on to the actual vendor floor which is where we spent the majority of the con. It's where most people spend the majority of cons. Honestly. Honestly some of the best people watching as well. There was that one experience

[00:41:48] I don't know if that was day one or day two but it was so uncomfortable. That was day two. We'll get to that later. So the convention shuffle was in full force because for those who know when you go to a convention and you go through the

[00:42:02] artist like vendor galleries you learn a very phenomenon known as the convention shuffle where like you essentially have to do this kind of Also call it the convention waddle. Waddle slash shuffle basically you have to do this kind of dance to get through people because let's face it.

[00:42:22] People have no sense of personal space or direction in these areas. I think it's also like a bit of people get into like sensory overload. They focus on something and then they kind of lose all awareness of like oh I'm in the

[00:42:36] middle of a walkway. I should probably move out of the way and just stand in the middle of the walkway where everyone is trying to walk around me. Yeah. And just all awareness just leaves people. Also like cosplay photo takers like

[00:42:52] I don't have a problem with that. I just wish they would pick better spots. I feel like it's not as like I feel like people don't ask for pictures as much anymore because I feel like that used to be so much worse and now people

[00:43:06] don't as much. It still happens but I feel like I remember like anime Boston when like fursona was super big like fursona 5 had just come out. People would and that was pre covid people would take photos all the time. You would see people stop. I feel you don't

[00:43:24] see as many stops now. Yeah. People also just don't want to interact with people. I've noticed I mean I get it. I also don't want to interact with people. I had to interact with Bill all day. That was enough. But yeah so we went Ehh

[00:43:42] Is that all you're going to say? Anyways so we went through the we kind of did like a lap around just to scope it out before we actually started making purchases. I noticed this year it seemed to be just completely fucking random. Yeah there was no sense

[00:44:02] of anything and there was a lot of weird random booths too. But they also had this upstairs market that they had so some of the booths downstairs would move upstairs to come back downstairs which was kind of confusing.

[00:44:18] Because we kept seeing a bunch of empty booths and we were like oh that's weird. And then they'd appear the next day and you'd be like oh they were upstairs. Which was like I guess like kind of cool and showcase some of them differently but also like

[00:44:32] confusing. Yeah I will say I get it's they're trying to like they're trying to make a sale but some of them they're a little aggressive when you walk by. Yeah like there was one lady who I don't remember if this is day one or day two but

[00:44:48] she was like I was just like oh good morning. Like I was just being pleasant. She's like what do you want? And I was like I was just saying good morning I was just trying to be pleasant. Yeah they're like how can I help you? I got

[00:45:02] bit by a cat sorry. Yeah it was it was just so weird the way it was laid out like you had like they kind of kept a lot of the art in one area but then there was also art just randomly around.

[00:45:14] Like most of the artists had like smaller booths on like the left side and then the right side is more of the merchandise booths is what I was seeing. Yeah left right yeah. That's the general layer I thought but like some were just kind of random. Like

[00:45:32] there was a lot of figure booths like there was a ton of figure booths. Oh yeah and we saw the first time figure buyers. Oh yeah that's always a great well it's always funny when you see one and go oh how much

[00:45:44] is that figure? It's small it shouldn't be that expensive and then the person goes oh yeah that's like a limited edition only like a few were made it's three hundred dollars like and then they see the eyes go You see the face drop and then you're just like

[00:46:00] yep first time owner. They had a cool booth which was actually really cool because it there was a Bulma figure of it in the outfit I was cosplaying as which was really cool. That was just short. It was just short of a grant and all

[00:46:16] the other booths like all the other figurines they had that it was like these very custom build like super cool figures but all of them were like a thousand a thousand plus it was crazy but someone did buy that Bulma figure it was gone

[00:46:30] the second day so someone bought it. Yep. Another great interaction not that we had but see one of my favorite parts about going through a vendor area at a convention is you hear the funniest shit. Oh yeah. But one

[00:46:46] of my favorites was that we were looking through some figures and there was a group of younger girls I want to say and I overheard them basically saying like I can't wait till I'm old enough and I have my own house so I could just have figures

[00:47:00] everywhere and I was like oh you sweet summer child. Oh no. You don't have money for figures anymore when you own a house or rent them like oh. Especially if it's like an apartment or something it's like oh you're gonna get screwed on like rent and

[00:47:14] you're not gonna have space as that you think you are. Yeah I just love like hearing stuff like that because it's like when you're an old jaded almost 30 year old. We were all there at one point you know we were all those young kids

[00:47:30] at one point being like yeah living on my own. And I've my figure collection is relegated to behind me in my set so My favorite figure Jeff Gordon my favorite anime waifu Bill's waifu collection which one's your most expensive again? Is it still Sword

[00:47:50] Bitch? It's the Bylus figure that was like 300. A little under 300. You've spent just as much so I don't want to do the math of my collection at this point. I'm a little scared. Did you buy the figures? Yes I bought the eye figure from Oshinoko

[00:48:11] and then I bought a Chi Chi figure like teen Chi Chi from like OG Dragon Ball. That's like the coolest that's like one of the only Chi Chi figures Don't do it! Sorry. That's like one of the only ones where she's not like in her weird

[00:48:31] It's one of the only Chi Chi figures that's not of her child design child underwear design which I'm not a fan of. Bikini armor with the spike helmet Yes. Not a fan of that one. Yeah because there isn't many Chi Chi figures

[00:48:45] in general and it was just kind of cool they actually made one. We found there's a lot of Bulma ones though. Well yeah. Bulma gets many figures. Yes. So it was funny like you'd have like figure booths there was an occasional Wait! You didn't ask me

[00:49:03] what figures I got. What figures did you buy Alex? Thank you for asking. I got a Mihawk figure from One Piece because I had to get something One Piece. And then I got a figure from Undead Unlock a new series that I watched but my favorite character

[00:49:23] Shen there was a figure for him so I got him one because he's hot. He's my favorite. Well actually I would have really loved the Undead character. But there was not one of him. So the worst part was like the eye figure I bought was at this

[00:49:45] one booth and they were doing a whole like you buy one get one half off deal thing. Something like that and they were like would you like to see any others? And I looked at it and like all of them are like either half naked or like really

[00:49:55] skippy and I'm just like I'm good. I just wanted this eye figure. And then I got Medleymen. Pretty much it was like half and half. Yeah we went through there a lot of figure booths there was one booth that sold manga and this booth very nice

[00:50:17] had a lot of boys love. A lot of lots of boys. It was mostly BL manga. No that was only one small section of it on the end. That was a huge section bill. That was like half the table was that. It wasn't really half.

[00:50:33] It was like it was the third at most. It was most of it Bill. It was the majority because the rest of that table also had other stuff on it too. The majority of it was not regular manga. You're in denial. You're in denial.

[00:50:51] I just think you're misremembering it was not that big. It was a lot. It was a lot more regular manga. I think you're misremembering. There's a lot of it. There was the two tables on the end that were all that and then it was like

[00:51:07] the rest of it. It was a little bit the other way too. But anyways regardless we can agree to disagree. But there was a lot of that. But they didn't have any great manga selection. They had a lot of old manga. I didn't want so I didn't care.

[00:51:27] If I was just getting into collecting manga there would have been some cool stuff because they had like the old fruit baskets like the first 11 volumes of the original like Tokyo Pop Run. Which was neat but I already have the Yen Press

[00:51:43] special edition so there was really no reason for it. Some stuff like that. The problem with that booth was it kind of was a wraparound booth. And you would get trapped back there and it just kind of was not the easiest thing to do.

[00:51:59] They also sold a bunch of like they sold figures and they sold snacks. Because that was the Boba tea booth. Oh yeah. What flavor is the milk tea? That was the one for the milk tea booth. So I always remember that booth. Because they're always there every year.

[00:52:17] Yeah. Then of course there was the hentai booth which I always laugh because like They're also there every year. With the same hentai banner the same body pillows along the wall and the same yaoi flag on the wall. The hentai booth is always funny

[00:52:35] because it's they line their booth with nothing but body pillows and then a yaoi sign. It's so funny because it's all like female body pillow and then you just see yaoi next to it and you're like things are not connecting here. They're just covering both bases.

[00:52:51] They are but it's just very funny every time. I always laugh though because whenever I say I'm going to a convention I mentioned it on the co-op server that I was going to a convention and our friend Liv had asked what kind of convention

[00:53:05] it was and then Slade jokingly posted hentai and I was like there usually is one booth yes. But yeah like it's just there's always that booth and I love the fact that that booth is always packed. People have no shame. It's always pretty funny. Well people are curious.

[00:53:25] They want to go look. They want to go see. Or they don't know and then they start looking through and they go oh my. Because I think that happened the first few times. The first time that booth

[00:53:35] was there and we didn't look up and we just went oh manga. And then we went wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. It was like porn. You start sifting through and you're like oh I've seen that one. You're like oh my hero academia?

[00:53:53] What are they doing? No. No. There was also a few gaming booths. Unfortunately the biggest issue I have with gaming booths at a non-gaming convention is like I'll go through the booth and then my yeah my thought process will literally be have it. Have it. Have it.

[00:54:15] Too expensive. Have it. Have it. Too expensive. Like just like unfortunate because when you've been collecting for half your life it just you get to points like this. Also gaming booths kind of annoy me at some conventions like this because

[00:54:31] you get a lot of people who just kind of will stand there and like in the way. I feel like they end up making I don't know why but always end up being the chatting spot. So if you're looking at

[00:54:43] the stuff that it's annoying but I get it. I'm not going to throw a fit about that. When you're just chatting there not even to like the vendor owner just in the way I'm always like can you move? Get out of the way! I want my mangoes!

[00:54:55] I just want to see the stuff that I'm probably not going to buy because I probably already have it. But I want to look! I did buy one game though from our local chain State Line because they always have a booth and they always

[00:55:11] well they always bring their best stuff to a KinetiCon every year so they I tried to go to them the first day but they were just always packed so I ended up waiting until the second day and the one I went over my budget because I had a $300

[00:55:25] budget this year. I went over budget just for this game but it was a copy of Stella Glow which is about a 3DS game I've been looking for for a while now so I finally found a copy of it for decently priced and I scored that one.

[00:55:43] And other than that though the majority I mean there was clothes booths and a lot of sword booths but the rest of the majority was art. Yeah and the art it's funny because you see some like you recognize from years before and then

[00:55:59] there was one that I actually I bought a couple pieces from the year before and then I was like oh I really loved your art last year like I'll take a look around and then they tried to sell me I'm like oh

[00:56:09] you get this free art if you go buy art from all these other booths so I'm like ehh I don't want to feel like forced to buy stuff so no thanks like I don't want to feel roped in. But we both ended up getting some art

[00:56:23] What did you get Bill for art? And then ask me after you explain what you got don't forget about me you did the last time with your fingers Well art wise so the thing with the art is like I'll look through and a lot of the times

[00:56:41] like you'll see like one piece of art that you kind of like but it's usually One piece art? It's usually like either the line is ridiculous and you just don't want to wait or it's kind of like you kind of like it but then you're like

[00:56:57] do I really want to pay $20 for something that I only kind of like? For me, to get me to buy a piece of art it's got to be something that I really enjoy and that unfortunately tends to always be stuff that's just they never have art

[00:57:13] so I was kind of perousing through some booths were like returning booths like there's this one that like no offense to the guy but he draws these really sexual like art pieces I've never seen themself I won't lie like I've never seen themself and they're I don't know

[00:57:31] I don't want to judge this art but I feel like they're not very proportional so they're very like disproportionate I shouldn't say he because I don't know the gender of the person because I've never actually I've never actually looked because they have the same art every year

[00:57:47] and it's always like I look at them like it's not that good I don't want to be mean but it's just too sexual for my taste personally and it's just not my style there were quite a bit of ones where I was like

[00:57:59] that's a little much for me like I wouldn't want to hang that up in my house yeah that's the thing at least some of them are well drawn these ones I'm just kind of like but um it's not the greatest quality we'll go with that

[00:58:11] but they're there like every commission yeah I know someone must be buying it if he keeps going but or they keep going trying to sell it I went through around a couple like I'm always looking for Inuyasha art which unfortunately is rare these days I'm also like

[00:58:27] I look for like persona for art which is also not as common like there was a Yukiko painting I bought last year and it was also this year but I was browsing through and I saw they had this one artist had this really awesome like picture of

[00:58:43] Kusina from Fire Emblem Awakening and I really liked it so I waited on this booth in particular and I chatted with the owner and well the artist and like he they were doing a buy buy to get one free deal

[00:58:59] so I was kind of like yeah sure I'll look around and they had a really nice Yor figure which I've gotten so many comments online people are like who who's that like who's the sexy one in the middle and I'm like that's Yor

[00:59:11] from Spy Family they're like ooh she looks like a Dami Mami and I'm like Mami yes not so Dami she's actually surprisingly unless you cross paths with her well no she just that she's murdery like if anything she's like incredibly awkward and wholesome more than anything but

[00:59:31] yeah I always joke about that because there's so much sexy Yor art but like Yor is like such a wholesome character that I always think the clash is always really funny yeah very like not Yor but I bought that and then they had

[00:59:45] a picture of the main characters from the manga The Dangers in My Heart which I've been reading recently and I really liked his art so I grabbed those three I'm a really nice guy I got two from that one as well you did

[00:59:57] because I was like super excited that they had there's never any Welcome to Demon School or Ruma art and they had like he had a nice drawing of Ameri from Welcome to Demon School there's no Ameri figure so I ended up getting that poster which I really liked

[01:00:11] I loved his reasoning behind his art as well because he flat out said like he doesn't follow trends he literally said like I just watch a lot of anime and if I see a character I like I draw it and I was like I respect that

[01:00:25] and honestly he'll probably like sells more because of that too because people are like wow his art is really nice and he had some pretty unique characters up there like you rarely ever see like Fire Emblem Awakening art anymore if you see

[01:00:39] Fire Emblem art at all it's usually three houses and even that's rare these days isn't that I'm completely brain farting on the second one that I got from him because I got two posters from him but I cannot oh Teddy I got a Teddy poster

[01:00:53] I got Teddy with his human and then his bear form that's why I was brain farting because he's a persona and I think it like exited my mind after that but yes I got a Teddy poster too which I love Teddy I just love chatting

[01:01:07] with the artist though about stuff like that because like I love learning their story and like keep in mind I only do this when there's not a huge line I hate being the asshole who like holds up the line to chat like if

[01:01:21] there's no line though and the artist is like totally down like I'll chat for a few minutes and then move on also I will note that we did not because they enforced this so much better now I didn't we did not see any photography

[01:01:35] of the art which was good like at least none blatantly I saw a couple actually I saw more people taking photos of the figures like people would take photos of the figures which was weird that's not illegal though like that's not scummy that's just weird

[01:01:53] I didn't see as much of the don't take photos of art thankfully they were being much subtler which is still shitty but at least they weren't being fucking assholes I think I might have saw it once or twice but it was like

[01:02:05] a very quick snipe and then walk away but yeah yeah thankful for that but yeah I like doing that I also went to so there's a another booth this wasn't a painting but it was a they're at the convention every year they make these little like

[01:02:23] pixel art pixel art like 3D pixel art figurines of like SNES era characters the previous year I had gotten Kefka from FF6 and then this year I got a Terra one so I have both of those in my game game room now and then the last

[01:02:39] one ones I got was we were basically browsing on the last day like really I didn't have much money left and I was kind of just like doing one final pass through to see if I missed anything that I really would have liked

[01:02:53] and I saw this one artist like I was browsing and I noticed Final Fantasy 8 art which incredibly rare like if you're gonna get Final Fantasy art it's usually either 7 or maybe the most current game at the time but I saw this really awesome like 8 painting and

[01:03:13] I had to pick it up and then they also had these little mini like coast guard size paintings as well and they had another 8 one in there which I really like so I bought both of those and yeah honestly that was about all I got for art

[01:03:27] not a ton this year I got two other pieces of art which I thought were really cool there's this guy who's his whole booth was like it was all like food like almost like food branded stuff so I ended up getting like so from from the

[01:03:45] Disaster Slave from Psyche K it was like a Psyche K poster but he was advertising his coffee jelly which like if you watch the show like that's kind of it was super perfect and then they had a Haikyuu one where it was like a Wheaties

[01:03:57] box and they were like the Wheaties players which I got that one too but there was quite a few of like he had a ton of them because he was setting up his booth when we first got there the poor guy was struggling to get his like

[01:04:09] curtain up and I was just like I felt really bad and I was like dude take your time it's fine I don't mind waiting because he actually printed out the poster that I wanted which was pretty nice yeah he printed out one of them

[01:04:21] because I guess it wasn't a huge seller yeah I think it was the Haikyuu one or maybe he just didn't have time or maybe it sold out the day before it could actually could have been more of that because the Haikyuu movie did only come out recently so

[01:04:37] that's true and then other than that like besides like oh yeah did you get any other I got some other trinkets like yeah I was getting into trinkets next two like fluffy pins of like Zoro and Sanji which were both really

[01:04:55] funny and they were like a two for one deal and then I also got like a little Luffy pin as well but I think that was all the art I don't think I got any other art besides that yeah I bought it and then I got the hand

[01:05:07] the crocheted Bulbasaur oh yeah I remember because he was like he was a good seller because he's like that's the last one and you're like I need it I need it I need a Bulbasaur and it's very very cute and I love it so

[01:05:21] and that is the only one I loved I loved the little booths like that like the crocheted stuff like the stuff that's very handmade and like they clearly put effort into it yeah that's some of my favorite well because that's why I like the

[01:05:35] pins that I got too honestly everything that I got I really enjoyed because it was either really unique like those food posters were just really fun and they looked cool like on the wall and stuff but like all the other trinkety stuff that I got

[01:05:49] was just like really cool I really liked everything I got no objects I bought the only Inuyasha merch in the entire building of course you did there was I found it so there was this one booth that was doing these custom water bottles

[01:06:07] which kind of stole an art but I'm gonna just let that go because yeah the Haikyuu I was interested in the Haikyuu one but then I recognized the art and I was like wait a minute that's stolen well I shouldn't say stolen as in

[01:06:21] it was like stolen from other artists it was just like well the Haikyuu was stolen from a small yeah that's why I didn't buy it because I recognized that like it was art of like the main characters from the school Karasuno and he was

[01:06:37] wearing a different uniform and then I was like wait a minute I've seen this art before and then I was like oh this is stolen okay yeah I see the one I bought the Inuyasha one and I kind of liked it just because it was like legit

[01:06:51] all just like stock like images because like yeah there was definitely ones with more stock images I was just laughing because I'm like I know where that's from I know where this is from I've seen that one before that's from a video game cover

[01:07:05] you have to pick and choose I think that's the one that comes to Inuyasha stuff and that was about it yeah they were cool cups they were cool I also got some keychains I found a Kagome keychain which I had on my lanyard

[01:07:19] for the rest of the convention and then yes it's funny there's so many keychains around and it's like a lot of them are like characters that you just don't remember or like you're like oh that's I know that one kind of yeah or just random things too

[01:07:35] I still loved going through the art gallery though and like you just look and be like oh holy boobs yeah oh yeah there was a lot of mouse pads there was a lot of mouse pads and there was a lot of censored art too

[01:07:49] but then there was a lot of like whoa alright there's also like there's I will say like there's definitely some really talented arts but then there was there was a couple boofs like that one boof we were talking about too where I was like sometimes like

[01:08:07] you just can't get into an artist's style like you're just like like you're like because there was some art that I saw that like had one piece characters but I'm like it just didn't even look like the characters like they were wearing the

[01:08:19] outfits but it was not Luffy and it was not the straw hats like oh yeah they're like the style is just so different that it doesn't work like they just drew them in like it didn't look like the one of these characters so I didn't really like that

[01:08:33] I don't know that's personal preference though yeah like it was weird because you'd see a couple boofs where you're like I really like that art but I don't care for any of the things they drew yeah that too or you'd see something you're like oh I like that

[01:08:53] character but that art's not for me it was kind of a flip flip or flop kind of thing yeah yeah it was just the typical convention stuff it was about it for day one do you want to talk about day two briefly because day two was very truncated

[01:09:13] I guess anything else really happened on day one or not really we left about around like three and then we went and got pizza yes well we went got pizza and then we went grocery shopping and we bought picture frames that too yeah day two we showed up

[01:09:35] we came a little bit later because we already had our lanyard so it wasn't a huge deal parking though was still shit show parking was a shit show in the line holy mother of sunday yeah like we were walking like when we walked to the

[01:09:49] convention the line was packed and when we had left the line was still packed it was crazy we saw some ragers who were like yeah I'm not fucking waiting three hours to just have to leave once I get in yeah but I mean

[01:10:03] I've never like I mean when we went we went on Sunday it was probably not as crowded but still really crowded so last year so it was a little crazy we did also have the most awkward interaction I think I've ever seen

[01:10:19] I felt so but we went back to that booth with manga to kind of do like a last walkthrough and this kid like came up and it was so uncomfortable he basically he clearly was a very awkward man yeah might have had some sort of

[01:10:39] social yeah I'm not gonna look too deep into it no yeah he basically just flat out asked the literal just a couple other con goers across thinking they were clearly just teen girl cosplayers they did not look like they worked there like they

[01:10:55] were just two girls cosplaying and looking at the stuff it was so the worst the worst thing was though like the guy just flat out asked he's like do you have certain manga and like there's just a dead silence and everyone

[01:11:07] just like it was one of those moments where like the entire world just goes silent oh my god everyone like it got so quiet and like everyone just kind of is like pausing and like the the two girls were like we don't

[01:11:19] work here um and he was like oh and then he didn't know what to say so it got even more awkward and then this this poor guy like was trying to defuse the awkward situation he was like oh the people work they work there ask them

[01:11:33] yeah he's like the the the owners are over there and he was like oh thank you and then just walked away um and I was like that's like that was the most awkward thing I've seen in a while oh it was just like just silence

[01:11:47] is so painful sometimes like and it was just one of those moments where the silence like it physically felt like pain was in that situation I was like oh well we were also right next to the dude when it happened so we got front row seats

[01:12:01] well we were right there like I was literally standing right next to him I was just like who's he talking to and then I look at the girls and they're just like what the fuck like yeah it also just got a social

[01:12:11] cues where he didn't even say excuse me he just flat out was like do you have whatever manga it was I don't remember do you have Wii Games? yeah pretty much that only maybe it was him maybe he was looking for manga

[01:12:23] Wii Games guy was funny this was awkward yeah no it was it was so uncomfy oh I like haven't felt that uncomfy in so long it was legit like nobody was comfortable in that situation it was oh it was bad like it was really bad also I

[01:12:41] love like the people who stand in line in lines that lead to nowhere oh yeah that's always fun too my favorite was in that same booth there was a line forming inside the booth and the guy I looked

[01:12:53] over the guy at the end of the line wasn't even in line he was just staring at something on the shelf so then I was like oh this isn't a line so I ducked out and I realized that the owner of the booth was literally standing over there

[01:13:05] and he was just selling like taking money and I was like oh I'm like that's yeah I'm like okay I'm not going to wait for this time I'll buy these please thank you and I look over and the people are still waiting in line

[01:13:15] and the guy has said I don't feel bad because the guy literally yelled to them hi I'm over here like three times and they just didn't notice so at that point it's just like meh yeah we didn't really hear that many like funny moments like

[01:13:33] there was no Wii games this time no Wii games unfortunately we also didn't get any like pretentious assholes like the I only do digital person yeah there wasn't really any of that I did like hear like oh there was the guy who was like well I might

[01:13:49] leave in the country in four months I was like yeah I don't like to get political but I'm sitting here thinking like yeah you didn't leave the last time you're not going to leave this time buddy yeah and I'm like who knows what's going to you have no

[01:14:01] idea what's going to happen yeah like why do you have to even go there yeah that was weird they didn't even bring it up it was just very like out of pocket out of nowhere like it was just like oh yeah the artist literally

[01:14:17] said okay well maybe next year you can pick it up and he's like oh I don't know if I'll be in the country next year and I'll just be like he's like I don't know I might have to flee the country and I was like

[01:14:27] why would you even say that like that is so random like they don't I'm sorry but the art group does not care about your fucking life it's your buy something or go the fuck away like seriously the poor artist didn't know what to

[01:14:41] say she was just like oh okay who just said that out of nowhere like unprovoked just suddenly it's like that maybe it wasn't in political maybe he like murdered someone and he's gonna I don't know maybe he's like serial killer who knows they haven't found the body

[01:14:59] yet they haven't found it yet but they're going to it's in the mac and cheese the mac and cheese palates that was literally though that um that you know that family guy joke where it's like they're sitting at the bar and like I

[01:15:15] forget who it is just drops all this fucking like this drama bomb off and Peter's like we just fucking sat down he's like what the fuck I barely know you I barely know yeah that was such a weird thing like

[01:15:31] other than that though we didn't get any real funny interactions it was mostly just like sometimes you hear stuff it's like is this really the place to like share this yeah it's conventions really bring out the awkward in people um it really lets them shine or like

[01:15:47] the lack of social awareness it really brings all of that out I will say I think conventions are starting not to be rude but this is a problem at conventions I think they're starting to crack down on the odors a little bit yeah

[01:16:05] I did know I mean there was a few occasions but I did notice uh not a lot of stink this time around yeah there was a couple pockets of like but uh I mean I didn't see that many minor architamia cosplayers sorry sorry I couldn't

[01:16:21] I couldn't help it I couldn't help it oh oh speaking of another thing I couldn't help Jogi there was this booth that was selling like figures in little jars oh yeah and I was sitting there and I made the joke of like oh no

[01:16:35] don't put that in the jar no you were like you were no no you said oh they're already in the jars pre-made I was just like Alex this is my joke I'm sorry I'm sorry but like they must have known they must have somewhat known about that like

[01:16:55] come on I don't know I couldn't help it did you have a cosplay that you saw that you thought was really cool? Barbie obviously no because it was I'm telling people look up Barbie Swan Lake her princess dress they made a full on perfect replica

[01:17:17] of it it was gorgeous that one was my favorite uh I also loved Master Roshi Yoshi who is usually there and we didn't see them in person but I saw a whole family as the cabbage guy and like the cabbage guy's wife from Avatar and then their babies

[01:17:33] were the cabbage everyone's so freaking cute oh I almost died when I saw a photo of that I wish I saw them in person um but those are probably my favorite we also saw Waldoception because there's always a Waldo at one of these things and there was two

[01:17:49] of them and they happened to meet and they were like they're like this is Waldoception we can never we can't meet again we unite and we become one Waldo and it was funny because there's just two random guys and it was just Waldoception

[01:18:03] I wish they like started doing like the mirror thing where they're like yeah I forgot this is a podcast yeah the only other cosplay I saw that I thought was really funny was well there was also the uh the the Mario Brothers but they were um uh

[01:18:25] uh go go Power Rangers oh yeah they were they were Power Rangers but they were the Mario Brothers I saw that one that one was cool I love people do like the different fun like unique ones like those are always really sick like I saw

[01:18:41] a Sailor Moon Princess and the Frog so from that one was really cool that one was really cool did you see a Dead Moon no I didn't it was Deadpool as Sailor Moon oh fuck yeah and then the next day we saw um Bob Ross Deadpool

[01:18:59] Bob Ross Deadpool Deadpools are always funny because you can really just there was many a little wizard oh yeah I love the middle wizard meme where he just goes around with his little butterfly net and just causes chaos in a mall

[01:19:17] I love the um there was also a really awesome bandit Keith from Yu-Gi-Oh just chilling outside with his fucking duel disc that was cool I said I wish I had my cards I would have challenged him to a duel there was that my favorite just because the

[01:19:35] creativity was it was a gonk droid from Star Wars but the guy literally his costume was he had tin foil pants and then he just took two like storage totes and just come together and he was in the storage totes and I'm like he's like there every

[01:19:49] year too it's great it's like it's so like cheap but the cheapness actually makes it awesome like honestly I wish like he entered a contest because he would win in my heart I just I love it because that has to be like the most inconvenient cosplay

[01:20:05] ever and he's just straight up like chilling with he's literally wearing two fucking storage totes it's like your waifu trash guy that guy was great I mean nothing beats the guy at retro world who was cosplaying as a speed stick handing out deodorant that was

[01:20:21] still the funniest thing I've ever seen what was another oh yeah my other favorite too was like I was trying to find all the sailor scouts which I did I think we did find all of them other than other than Uranus we never found Uranus

[01:20:33] yeah we did find everyone else though or Saturn we didn't see Saturn either even the demoted one Pluto even though Pluto was the coolest one Pluto is one of my favorite she was the coolest yeah I did also oh there was also a pyramid head

[01:20:51] that we saw coming in that guy was on stilts the entire convention and it was like and then there was a rule there was a rule so I made a joke to Bill and Dilo was died there was a rule at the convention that regardless of gender

[01:21:07] you had to cover your your nipples and I go Bill I'm like oh Bill you better go tell him he's got to cover up well no because we saw him later in the pyramid actually covered it covered everything up but I was like oh no he's fine

[01:21:21] I'm like I'm like Alec you can go tell him if you want to there's definitely you definitely see some things at cons that you're like whoa that's a lot of you right now that I would not be comfortable wearing but more power to you people are very

[01:21:37] free at conventions that's all I'll say yeah I'm like whoa not to judge just it's an observation no yeah I mean more power to them I would not be comfortable wearing that but you know if you want to be half naked you go for it girl or boy

[01:21:53] whatever more boy than girl whatever many misty male misties I did not see a single female misty no I did not either it made me remember I was like oh good times good times I always loved them too because they're so into it and like

[01:22:13] it's just funny also a lot of male Anyas from uh yeah and the male Anyas especially when they're very buff men are my favorite love my favorite is it's like when they turn around it's just a dude with a beard and you're like that's just funny yes

[01:22:27] but yeah other than that not a whole lot it was I mean it was a fun convention overall yeah we had a good time but it was very crowded and uh but I think that's kind of just going to be the nature of cons for now on

[01:22:43] yeah I also love the apathetic staff members yeah they I did definitely felt like they had more staff this year than last year it did feel like more but there's only so much they can do yeah some of the some of the messages like chains

[01:23:01] I saw on the fan page were hilarious I was like god damn people are salt are salty this year well people were like complaining oh like there were some people complaining of like they stayed at the hotel on site of the convention and there was obviously

[01:23:17] people who were rowdy and party I'm sorry but if you wanted a good night's sleep at a restful you shouldn't have stayed at the hotel right there it's convenient but it's also party central that's just kind of how conventions work like I didn't feel bad for them

[01:23:31] I was like I'm sorry but like you kind of should have known this it's a convention this is probably like the one time of the year where some of these people get out of the house too they're going to go have fun

[01:23:43] yep but uh yeah other than that though good time another one done yep next one retro world and then Bill's going to furrycon in his garf I mean his karmic fur suit it's on the way I ordered it for you don't worry it's your

[01:24:08] birthday present this is where I removed Alex from the call no you won't oh are you firing me did I did I predict the future I just got fired guys she's still muted but anyways so I don't want to fire you you deserved it no I don't

[01:24:45] you're fired I'm firing you I'm firing you I'm taking over it's my podcast now get the fuck out of here guys thanks so much for listening in to the gaming and collecting podcast the gaming and collecting podcast is made up of all your favorite podcasting writers specifically Spotify

[01:25:05] Apple sometimes YouTube Bill likes good pods I haven't been on good pods in a long time alright and many more but I listen on Spotify so that's where I listen to it you can follow us on the gaming and collecting discord we're also part of

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[01:26:01] we have a web we're on a website you can look in my bottle I've ranked my favorite water bottles there it's a great time Bill has his other shows his other shows this one is the best before you continue on let me just give the rundown of the

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