Happy Birthday Deevius! - Part Two

So Deevius and I attended the SC Comicon together, along with Midori, and I knew she was looking at LEGO minifigs as well as vintage toys.  But I also caught her checking prices on sonic screwdriver replicas.

Well, caught off-guard as I was by her birthday, I went to my fall-back plan: the Panda's Amazon Prime membership, which promises free 2-day shipping on select merchandise from participating sellers.

I began my research!  I knew that I wanted a replica that not only lit up, but made the sonic noise, too.  I think I went through two or three listings before I came across the only one that made noise:

Courtesy of Barnes & Noble.com

I remembered seeing a Doctor Who display in the local Barnes & Noble, however, so I did a price comparison.  With tax, I would only be spending a dollar or so more at a brick-and-mortar location, and not have to worry about shipping mishaps.

And then!

And then...

I remembered that I had an old, ancient giftcard from some friends.  (Like, 2011, 2012 era.)

(Of course, there was a warning on the back of the card saying that after 12 months of inactivity, the company would deduct $1.50/month.  I sent the Panda to the store with it anyway.)

Success!  The full amount was there!  Boo-yah!

But it wasn't enough!  I am famous for handmade craftsies; Deevius is one of my main cohorts in crime!  I couldn't let her down...

So on Friday (we celebrated on the following Monday) I went through Ravelry in search of free Doctor Who related patterns.  

(I am fabulous at last-minute panics.)

I took the pattern I chose and appropriate yarn colors with me to Shadowmoor (since my character has a RP Skill - Weaving: Crochet tag, I can crochet while in play and have a good reason for doing so).

Yes, I did have to give Deevius a not-yet-finished project.

But the final result is totally worth the effort!

Pattern by Lucy Ravenscar here.

And of course I couldn't leave well enough alone:

Dalek:  EXTERMINATE!!

Etho:  ...?  Kurt...someone here to see you...

I tweeted a similar picture to Kurt and Etho, as well as put it up on Deviant Art.  If I'm lucky, I'll be able to get a picture of Deevius with the Dalek before she moves north.  ^_^

SC Comicon 2014 - Part 2

So now we come to the brief, post-picnic-lunch section, where Deevius was able to see again, and we tried to get pictures of any amazing costumes we had missed.

Spiderman

Gambit & Rogue

The Tallest Jawa Ever

Lucy Heartfilia (Fairytail)

Fun story: I went up to this gal as she was turning

to walk away, and I tapped her shoulder and said,

"Lucy!  Can I get a picture of you?"

This girls's smile was the most brilliant thing I've

ever seen, which is what encourages me to try doing

a complete cosplay at a con in the future.

(She even let me pick which key she held in the picture--I picked Loke.)

The other two remote-controlled R2-D2s.

(This one snuck up behind me when I was photographing the Jawa.)

Also, a huge shout-out to Midori, who toted plushie Etho around with her for most of the day (barring the fifteen minutes where I was holding him and not taking photos).  She was amazing; every person that inquired about him, she pulled out the small stack of business cards I'd given her, and managed to give away all but four.

(It's my dream, maybe in a couple years, to be able to have a booth of my very own at a con like that.  Cuz that would be awesome!)

And it was pretty legit; one little girl came right up to Midori and said, "I like your Etho."  (Major WIN right there!)

Most other people recognized Etho as 'Kakashi' from Naruto, even if they didn't understand the reference to Minecraft via the redstone torch he had pinned to his left hand.

Here he is with me, posing in front of the "official" SC Comicon badge:

The one other thing we had to do was get Deevius in the Batmobile.  There was no way she was leaving without photographic proof:

Everything inside was labeled "Bat_____".

So, my goodies from the con included:

Tile coasters featuring the TARDIS in other fandoms.

This is Narnia and Middle Earth.

(The artist was out of his Shire coasters.)

Deevius got Middle Earth and the bridge of the Enterprise, c. 1969.

Amazing wooden charms for all fandoms.

Clearly, I went with Legend of Zelda.

Deevius went with Captain America, and chose the necklace option.

The artist also had everything from Marvel to DC, Naruto, and many more.

But there were all kinds of toys, models, shirts--and of course, boxes and boxes of comics.  I wish I had had the presence of mind to ask about some of my retired/vintage/internationally-published collections that I'm trying to finish (namely 'ElfQuest' and 'Asterix and Obelix').

There's always next year! 

So my next con...hmm...I've been invited to MineCon 2014, to speak as a member of the Broken Buttons if they are able to host a custom map-making panel.

But, as the Panda would say:  "There are 3,249 things that have to happen in order.  We are on 8.  You're talking about number 2,796."

Still, he was kind enough to photograph my arms before I became a normal person instead of a crazy fangirl:

Silence will fall.

(But only because I tripped Deevius.)

Until next time, where we'll get back to Minecraft crochet discussions.  ^_~

SC Comicon 2014 - Part 1

Because there's just too many pictures and information for one post!

This past weekend in South Carolina (Greenville, to be precise) I attended my first ever convention!

My friend Deevius and I had been modifying her previously-gray mask into something a little more Silence-y, and I had intended on going as a 'victim' of the Silence so that people would have a better idea of what she was.

(I was also her handler, chief photographer, and Mouth of Silence (yes, it's a lame Mouth of Sauron reference)).

The con opened at 10:00 a.m., and we actually arrived around 11:00.  Since Deevius was our driver, we suited her up in the parking lot and then joined the long queue outside the door (it went down the hill from the doors, and wrapped halfway along the building on the sidewalk).

Thankfully, a helpful staff member came along the line and told those of us that had pre-ordered our tickets (Midori had one of those) or had Will Call reservations (that would be Deevius and I) we could step out of line and go up to the right.

Thus, instead of waiting out in the hot sun with our black-suited Silence in what I'm sure was a very warm mask, we were able to jump ahead and spend only ten minutes or so waiting to pick up our wristbands.

Disclaimer: yes, it was a "comic" con.  No, I don't know anything about comics.  I was there primarily to see how things work at one of these events.

No sooner had we gotten inside and plotted our route through the many aisles, then Deevius had her first request for a photo.  (And then I saw what Mike the Coworker meant about people stopping for photos.)

I was very glad that I hadn't worn a more obvious outfit for my first con.  Since I'm an introvert, that kind of attention from strangers would have severely unnerved me.  Deevius (although she had her mask on) played it all off as natural, and just rocked every photo request she had. (Even though a fair few asked if she was a Slenderman.)

Here are the ones I managed to catch:

Amy Pond cosplay; every time she saw Deevius after

that, she drew another tally mark on her arms.

The Riddler

The 11th Doctor and Sherlock

Miss Captain America

And then, every so often in her Silent, lurky way, Deevius would tap us on the shoulders, or gesture madly with her three fingers per hand and indicate that she wanted photos with some of the other cosplayers:

Captain Jean-Luc Picard

Random stranger with the name "Pond" on the back

of her sweatshirt; she wasn't cosplaying, but she

said her friends would refer to her as Amy Pond.

Wonder Woman

Stormtrooper

(We had to hunt for him.)

Grumpy R2-D2

(He kept chasing people.)

I think we spent more time messing around with photographs than actually stopping at all of the booths/stalls, but none of us knew that much about comics, so the majority of the stalls didn't have that much appeal to us.

However, the vendors with artsy stuff, toys, and other goods for sale warranted a lengthier look.  Tomorrow I'll share the lootz I got away with (and all for less than $20!) as well as the pictures from the 1960s Batmobile.

At about 1:00 we headed back to the car, where we had left our cooler with our packed lunches, and Deevius took off her mask and was able to see the con in it's beautiful entirety.  ^_^

Part 2 tomorrow!