AGSMA's WorldCon trip - part I!

[Hoshikaji]

Hello everyone! I'm so sorry for my extensive absence--school and the commute chip away at my personal time. I promised I'd post pictures of our WorldCon trip, so here I go! (I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this--please feel free to move it, mods!)

(I tend to be wordy, so bear with me).

Firstly, y'all must know that we visited Never Forgotten a LOT. We needed detailed pictures of the friends we were making, and we were also required to submit a reference book to the judges, so Sparky's screencaps were vital. Thank you, Sparky!

Furtech (the maker of Eduardo and Blake Superior) is extraordinarly talented at making large costumes, and when my sister and I found out that he liked Fosters, that cinched it for our group's project. It was waynekaa's idea to compete at Worldcon because of its incredibly high-caliber costume Masquerade. Though we had some misgivings about taking a cartoon to a sci-fi convention, it worked out somehow. The people there were so supportive!


Here we are backstage, right before rehearsal.

I'll talk about the Masquerade itself in this post. We were locked into the green room 2 hours before the actual show started, so we got to look around at other people's amazing works. Many of the competitors were at Master level! There was a fantastic Mars Attacks! group, an AMAZING Monty Python Knights of the Round Table group, the "handmaiden of Sauron," and a dragon operated by 4 people, to name a few.


The handmaiden of Sauron! The "tower" on her head lights up.

I was extremely nervous after seeing all the other entries. We were a cartoon show at a sci-fi convention?!?!?!? But as we were being judged for craftsmanship, the MC of the Masquerade happened to walk by, and he suddenly saw Wilt. His face completely lit up. "Oh! Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends!" he exclaimed. You can imagine my relief--thank God people knew what we were!

The skit went well, except for the late lighting in the beginning. Right after we got offstage, we had to go to the photography section (20+ photographers take pictures to post up (and sell) the next day). This was probably the worst part of my night--the head of the photography session was an obnoxious jerk who presumed that everyone loved him, and he didn't know anything about Foster's. He demanded that we take certain types of pictures, and then individuals. I (Mac) was operating Wilt at the time, and I had taken so many pictures without my sister (Bloo) that when it came time for my "individual" shot, I asked if I could take the picture with Bloo. Mac and Bloo, right? Basic. The man gave me a simpering look, and said "Wait your turn, honey. You'll get your own picture."

I wanted to kill him. Uncultured swine.

For the record, he was also unbelievably dumb. When the other photographers began calling for "the tiger" (Blake Superior), he yelled "which one?!" But he managed to ruin my night for quite a while.


Here's an example of what they were doing. You could buy these the next day, if you wanted to.

After the pictures, we got waynekaa and Furtech out of their costumes so they could rest until the show was over. They had a live feed in the green room, so we could see some of the show. But for the most part, we just tried to rest and admire people's costumes.

Then the best part of the night happened, something that made me completely forget about the horrible photographer--during the half-time (where they show live-entertainment while the judges judge), the MC came backstage to find us. "I'm so sorry to ask this when you've already undressed," he told us. "But there's a little boy out there who was sick for most of the Masquerade. He really wanted to see you guys perform, but he missed it! If it isn't too much trouble, do you think you could put your costumes back on and go see him?"

Would we?! waynekaa and Furtech jumped back into Ed and Blake, my sister put on Bloo, liddo-chan got Cheese and I got Wilt. It took me a minute to get him upright again, so the others went on without me. When I got outside of the green room, I couldn't even see the kid--he was engulfed by AGSMA and a horde of people taking pictures of the event. I came up behind him, so he didn't see me, but a woman (his mother/sister?) asked if he wanted to stand next to "Mac." When the kid saw me, he stopped dead. "It's Mac!" he whispered. I almost cried. We gave him Wilt's hand to hold, and his smile was so big! It was too awesome. Unfortunately, we don't have any footage of this, since we were all in costume, but it was easily the best part of the night. It's thrilling to see the fandom hitting its target audience!

The second best part of the night was when we won an award! It was awesome to think that Fosters would be remembered at a sci-fi convention!


Wilt: I'm sorry, but this is amazing!
Cheese: I l1k3 chokl1t r1bbons!!1!


The lovely liddo-chan with our award!


Co cococo co coco (I'd like the thank the academy...)


Richie and Blake Superior gloat, much to Mac's dismay!


Bloo hamming it up, as usual

The night is a bit of a blur after that, but as we made our way back to the rooms to rest, we were approached by a man dressed as Gandalf. "I run the Adventurer's Club, which is a kid's club for children while their parents roam WorldCon," he told us. "I'm sure they'd love to see you guys! Would you please visit our club tomorrow in your costumes?"

Would we?! Of course! But that's for part II!

One of the other wonderful things were the comments we received. People would tell us that their children loved the show, or they loved the show, they would scream "ED!" when they saw us, or "COCO!" It was so wonderful to see fans of the show that loved it as much as we do!

Seeing as my post is insanely long already, I'll stop here and write/post more pictures in part II! Which will hopefully go up soon.

-Hoshikaji

[kageri]

Ahh, what great pictures -- and I love the costumes too, they're really.... cartoony, if that makes any sense? Like Frankie's clothes. Bright colors (a fundamental part of the show) and no funky patterned fabrics. The PPG shirt looks like it was sold that way -- just dead-on all-around. And I want Frankie's wig. And Richie's wig. And Frankie even has the earrings! And Blake Superior is AMAZING and I love you for not making the stripey parts furry. Realism need not apply here.

And it's so awesome how little kids recognized you. That would be way fun, like working at Disneyland. Now I'm sad. I need to go to more cons.

Sorry about the jerky photographer, though. But these are the coolest pictures with the coolest convention report ever.

EVAH!

[Sparky]

Well you guys got a better respose than I did with my Wilt at the Comic-Con (but I only had him out for a short while).

You guys and all your props looked *great*. (*furtive glance around*) But you looked the cutest, Hoshikagi. No, you were just adorable as Mac.

[waynekaa]

Originally Posted by Sparky

Well you guys got a better respose than I did with my Wilt at the Comic-Con (but I only had him out for a short while).

Since I'm new to the board, I want to see a picture of your Wilt from Comic-Con! Did you at least take him to the Foster's booth at Comic Con? (None of us went this year and none of the Foster's stuff was ready at that time anyway but maybe next year!)

[Sparky]

Originally Posted by waynekaa

Since I'm new to the board, I want to see a picture of your Wilt from Comic-Con! Did you at least take him to the Foster's booth at Comic Con? (None of us went this year and none of the Foster's stuff was ready at that time anyway but maybe next year!)

Yes there's some pics of him here:

http://www.fosters-home.com/comiccon2006/photos.htm

And yeah, the booth was the one place I had him out, briefly, while I was searching for ORD right before the panel. The CN PR people saw him and let Craig know I was there (because my friend at CN, to whom I'd emailed a photo of the doll, had told Craig I would be there with a Wilt doll). And then after the panel I met Craig, Lauren, Keith, and Tom, and Craig and Lauren signed Wilt's shoe, and then we took this picture:




And when I got home I mailed the doll to pitbulllady for her birthday.

[waynekaa]

That report (and your Wilt) is so awesome! Yeah I did some searches on the forum but couldn't find it, so thanks for linking it! So sweet of you (but pricey I bet) to mail that plushy Wilt over to your friend. CMC looks just like his animated self!

Originally Posted by Hoshikaji

I wanted to kill him. Uncultured swine.

For the record, he was also unbelievably dumb. When the other photographers began calling for "the tiger" (Blake Superior), he yelled "which one?!" But he managed to ruin my night for quite a while.

Don't forget how he was trying to be an expert on our characters and he managed to get Eduardo's name right but when he called for Coco, he called her.... "CUCKOO"

[Sparky]

Originally Posted by waynekaa

That report (and your Wilt) is so awesome! Yeah I did some searches on the forum but couldn't find it, so thanks for linking it! So sweet of you (but pricey I bet) to mail that plushy Wilt over to your friend.

Eh, it was maybe just over half of what he cost to *make*, lol.

I already have schemes for what I'm gonna make for next year.

Originally Posted by waynekaa

CMC looks just like his animated self!

He uses the screengrab I took of him for my site on his myspace page as his personal image.

[scary_dream]

Oh my, those photos are amazing! I watched the video and have since wondered what everything looks like close-up, so thank you!

Congratulations on the awards, BTW. Your apparent hard work clearly deserved it!

I know about the jerky "after-performance" photographers. I've not done masquerades, but I have been on stage and had to deal with them afterwards. I seriously think they're required to be under a certain IQ. It's especially irritating because after a performance, you just want to change clothes, get a drink of water, and cool off. Unfortunately, mullet-man with a camera and a loud voice wants to make sure everything gets done his way. (I refer to them having a mullet because my meeting with one photographer with a HORRID ponytail mullet particularly sticks out in my memory!)

That's a really cool story, also, about the kid seeing you as Mac. I've only done one production that children would recognise, but seeing the kids after that one was one of the best feelings ever. I can only IMAGINE what it would feel like to have a child recognise me as a cartoon character! I can see why you'd almost cry.

[One Radical Dude]

Originally Posted by Hoshikaji

I was extremely nervous after seeing all the other entries. We were a cartoon show at a sci-fi convention?!?!?!?

I was nervous, when I brought my Bloo to Anime Expo 2006. I know that people over did costumes not related to Anime or even Video Games, but this was the first really nice costume I wore to any convention (this was my fifth year at AX). So, yeah, you never know, but most people will show some support.

Then the best part of the night happened, something that made me completely forget about the horrible photographer--during the half-time (where they show live-entertainment while the judges judge), the MC came backstage to find us. "I'm so sorry to ask this when you've already undressed," he told us. "But there's a little boy out there who was sick for most of the Masquerade. He really wanted to see you guys perform, but he missed it! If it isn't too much trouble, do you think you could put your costumes back on and go see him?"

Would we?! waynekaa and Furtech jumped back into Ed and Blake, my sister put on Bloo, liddo-chan got Cheese and I got Wilt. It took me a minute to get him upright again, so the others went on without me. When I got outside of the green room, I couldn't even see the kid--he was engulfed by AGSMA and a horde of people taking pictures of the event. I came up behind him, so he didn't see me, but a woman (his mother/sister?) asked if he wanted to stand next to "Mac." When the kid saw me, he stopped dead. "It's Mac!" he whispered. I almost cried. We gave him Wilt's hand to hold, and his smile was so big! It was too awesome. Unfortunately, we don't have any footage of this, since we were all in costume, but it was easily the best part of the night. It's thrilling to see the fandom hitting its target audience!

That is just awesome -- being able to brighten someone's evening by doing what you guys did. I'm glad you guys won, but what you did afterwards is even more significant.

I'm glad you guys had a great time. Thanks for your story and the photos. You should really consider doing a masquerade for Comic-Con, or something. Please, don't be a strange to NF. I hope to see you visit more in the future. If not, that's okay.

[Kzinistzerg]

These are GREAT! Where was the world-con? (I'm a bit clueless about these thigns, lol)