Mar 05 2009
Feedback and Coverage: MegaCon 2009
As I mentioned yesterday in the WonderCon 2009 feedback post, MegaCon 2009 was also held last weekend. When I lived in Florida, MegaCon was THE convention to attend. I went for a number of years, sometimes as press, sometimes just as a fan. I won’t lie, I was never thrilled with the con. But, it was decently priced and all my friends went, so I kept going back.
I’ve collected a some feedback from those who attended, and rounded up some MegaCon convention reports, photos, and videos for you all. The big talk of the con was the Dancing Pocky group, and there are plenty of videos of them below. Special thanks to Tom Croom, who wrote a review of the convention exclusively for Convention Fans. His review is at the end. Thanks Tom!
Articles and News Coverage:
Newsarama’s MegaCon 2009 Coverage: Friday, Saturday, Sunday, George Perez, GI Joe, and DC Universe Panel
The Orlando Sentinel’s Video Coverage
For the Love of Comics: Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3
BingeGamer.com’s MegaCon 2009 Convention Report
VGTribune.com’s Report (done “Live Blogging” style)
Photos and Image Galleries:
Photobucket Users: latin_rocker, gilmo, Megacon 2009 Group, nessadawnbutterfly, Orangy-Love, tsuoi_kaze, and orca_gallery
Flickr Users: MegaRed, Ms.SaturdayPhotography, Rebochan, MA photo, The Kruger, woggywoowoo, and EmilyElizabethM
Cosplay.com Members: Dragon Gurl
Black Lily Cosplay Gallery’s Pictures
The Orlando Sentinel’s Photo Gallery
Feedback:
“It just seemed more cramped outside the dealer room this year. Also, the choices for food were really horrible and it was my first time I actually left OCCC to get food. I didn’t do any of the panels/presentations this year since nothing really caught my interest. Overall, it had it’s pros and cons, but I’ll still be back next year!” - Cosplay.com member
“This was my third con, but my first MegaCon. I’ve been to JaCon and MetrocCon before. Truthfully, the only thing that bothered my truly was the parking and food options.” - Cosplay.com member
“The cosplay contest has never been on time. I don’t understand why after the past five years I’ve attended this con, that it is *always* at least an hour late, why there are so many technical issues (I and many others had their music screwed up and not playing or possibly just lost - not cool), and why after five years, the emcee can’t be bothered to learn how to pronounce the names of the characters and series he’s announcing.” - Cosplay.com member
“As expected, Saturday was packed. Luckily, I learned my lesson last year and showed up extra early. There was still considerable traffic, but nothing near what I dealt with last year. I suspect this was a combination of moving to a bigger hall, improved planning, and my showing up very early.” - Dustin Christian, For the Love of Comics
“There was hardly anything to do except just walk around the dealers room. No viewing rooms, no gaming room til 8 or 9pm on Saturday. I still had fun since it was me and my friends hanging out. However, I feel like I didn’t get my money’s worth.” - Cosplay.com member
“The con itself was incredible. I’d never been to a con before so it was an awesome experience. I met some awesome people that I’ll probably be hanging out with soon and I got my picture taken more times than I can remember. I’d never gotten that much attention. It was great.” - Cosplay.com member
“The administration of the tournament was A+ at least. No delays between rounds, everything was excellent.” - Wizard’s Community member
“I will say it was nice to have a venue that continues to allow the sale of Pocky and Japanese snacks. A lot of cons can’t sell that stuff anymore because of contracts with food vendors.” - Cosplay.com member
“Megacon is a commercial convention; the dealer’s room has always been the main focus, while the programming is more ‘tacked on.’ It’s also always been more of a comic convention, though the anime community there has grown substantially within the past three years. The most popular and really the only thing of any worth is the cosplay contest, and honestly, they let it get too large.” - Cosplay.com member
“I really liked the Ghostbusters panel. That was HILARIOUS and if you guys didn’t catch it, you missed the highlight of the con. It was the best thing I had seen.” - Cosplay.com member
“Saturday was pretty flippin’ awesome.” - GaiaOnline.com member
“Was far too crowded, could hardly move. As far as stuff there it was kind of boring, nothing really new and innovative. LARP’s performances were fairly good but overall imo the entire thing kind of failed this year. As far as costumes, however, people put a lot of time into them which was pretty neat (also the fact that every female anime character has next to no clothing was a boost) except when it really wasn’t (based on average anime fans this one is fairly obvious). Overall I’d give it a C as far as Cons go.” - Chris Shaw
“Megacon was so much fun! I loved the dancing pocky, the HUGE Bleach group, [and] the random R2D2 that kept walking around.” - GaiaOnline.com member
YouTube.com Videos:
The now infamous Dancing Pocky cosplayers (uploaded by tomorrowisover):
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And another video of them, posted by Nenagh24:
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And yet another one, this one uploaded by ElineTheFeralFeline:
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And now a perfect example of why I don’t miss MegaCon all that much - A Yuri/Yaoi “fight” (uploaded by rockmanzeroxexedash):
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Tom Croom’s MegaCon 2009 Review:
First off, I’m not a big fan of long reviews. The news world and blogosphere have evolved the sharing of information into sound bites and bullet points, so who am I to fight it? Hence I’ve established a personal goal of restricting reviews I write to not exceed four hundred and twenty words. (The reference is a British literary one – not a drug related one.)
Second, I’m not a fan of MegaCon – or at least the recent incarnations of MegaCon. The last “good” MegaCon I attended was in 2002. Kevin Smith was the headliner and MegaCon still felt like a comic show. Multi-genre shows like DragonCon, Florida SuperCon, FX and MegaCon should have guests and headliners that fans want to see. MegaCon has been fairly weak in this department for years…
That being said, this year’s convention was a cookie cutter of the past few years. The most shocking element (to me) was the attendance. I arrived at the event around 9:30 AM on Saturday with two friends of mine – and did not wait in line. This (I’m sure) frustrated any pre-registered attendees who most likely paid in advance to avoid any waiting.
The doors opened at 10:00 AM (on schedule) and the lobby was clear in just a few minutes. NORMALLY, you’d be waiting in a sea of people for at least ten to twenty minutes as the hoards of people filed into the exhibitor’s hall. I can only assume that this is yet another sign of the economy and fan conventions.
I’ve been quoted in the past for saying that “MegaCon is a mall.” The only things to do beyond shop are the gaming rooms and the satellite events run by Anime Sushi (the Orlando, Florida anime club.) I did not attend any of their events, but I’m confident that if Operator 7-G was spinning at the rave-style dance party then it definitely must have been a good time.
The most notable events at MegaCon were the ones NOT at the convention. The MegaCon website promoted a couple of off-site parties after the convention closed. I took time to stop by the one hosted by the Wolk Pack Elite. It was easily more entertainment in one evening than was offered by MegaCon all day. If MegaCon is to succeed in the future – they will need to evolve and host events with the caliber of the after parties DURING the convention.
Otherwise, I’d rather stay home and shop on eBay instead of spending money to peruse the “Mega-Mall”.
You can find a TON more videos from the convention on YouTube. If you took video, posted pictures, or have feedback about this convention, please post a comment!
