Tuesday, May 29, 2012

ALL THE CONS


Wow, a bit behind aren't I? Sorry for the delayed con report, but we've been to pretty much a con a weekend for all of April and May! We've gotten to see a lot of cool new places, try regional fast foods and take lot of interesting new commissions. I shall break up the report with random cosplay photos in no particular order.

See, BOOM, Cloud in a dress

So where did I leave off? Katsucon, right? Well after that we headed to Genericon, which is a super friendly con over in Troy, NY. I know Troy can have kinda a bad rep, but the nerd community there is great and has some amazingly talented cosplayers, like our friend Jen. 

No, this is not a movie poster

After that was ConBust in Northampton, MA. Northampton is just a couple towns over from our home base in Deerfield, so it's a delightfully low-stress con. We were humbled by how much we sold at a con of only about MAYBE 300 people. The great things about small cons, however, is the fact that you can just hang out with people all day. We also took commissions for cons later in the year. Note: If you ever want a doll but don't want to pay shipping, feel free to check our con schedule and see if you're attending any of our shows. We'll have it ready for you when you show up!

Germany pets his mini-me

One of the commissions we took was for a Rainbow Dash. Usually this is the part of the post where I then show you the doll, but I'm not going to because, well, that commission was quite the learning experience. We realized that ponies do not translate well to our medium. If you were ever considering commissioning a MLP doll from us we highly advise against it, haha. 

Because I can't show you Rainbow Dash you'll have to settle for the equally fabulous Ruby Rhod

Oh God and then after that was Anime Boston. We went in quite understocked for how much demand we had. If anyone encountered us at AB and found we were out of a doll they wanted, please check out our Etsy Store and we'll gladly make you the design you wanted. One thing that made us feel really good about the track we're on design-wise were the commission requests for dolls we already make. “Can you make a Weavile?” We already do!

Note: This Black Mage was bought in 2009 and this photo was taken this year. This is why our dolls are $20. Dolls made with cheaper yarns won't even look this good 3 MONTHS later.

After that was ToraCon, and the staff put their AA in a much better spot than last year, but super over-booked the room! It was very sardine-y in there, but we still did well and finally (we think) perfected our new display setup. I have a friend who went to RIT, so I kept texting and asking for directions. “Chris, it's Sunday, what's open for food around here?” RIT has a large deaf student body, and I know basic ASL, but Jenn doesn't and the cosmos loves to take me out of the room any time I can possibly be useful, so of course any and all deaf browsers we had came while I was eating or in the bathroom. 

Though while in the bathroom I did get to experience this lovely sticker.

Then came the storm. After being wiped out by Anime Boston and barely being able to restock for ToraCon, we were working our butts off trying to be ready for ACen, which has even more people than AB. We packed our travel bags so that we could work every possible second, and we were ready to pull an all-nighter the night before the con to get as much done as we could.

Then Jenn had to go and get herself all hospitalized and crap. What a bother.

Jenn ended up with a large and painful cyst in her arm, and it developed while she was on the train from Springfield, MA to Chicago, so we couldn't just get off and go to a doctor. By the time we got off it was the size of a golfball, so we decided to hurry up and rent the car so Jenn could drop me and all our luggage at the hotel and then head to the nearest ER. The problem was Enterprise doesn't care if you have all the money in the universe unless it's on a major credit card. If you have an out-of-state license they can't take cash or debit as payment, so we had plenty of money to rent the car but we weren't allowed to. We then took all our luggage out to the street and got a cab and asked them to take us to the nearest hospital because we had no idea what was where in Chicago. We had to figure out how to get Jenn checked in with out-of-state health insurance and move our luggage and get me back to the hotel all while Jenn was getting cut open! 

This girl made it all better, however, by dressing up like Tomo from Fushigi Yuugi, who was my husbando when I was 15.

Jenn was eventually let out and the table was open at all the times it was supposed to be. After all that we then ran into the issue that is ACen's overly-huge AA and Dealer's room. Some 200-something artists and 300+ dealers all in one room is far too competitive and spreads out sales way too thin. I would have rather not gotten in than be in a seller room that large. Also ACen seems to be very well known for its rave, and post-con forum posts taught me that the high attendee numbers are partially inflated by people who just wanna attend the rave. Our hotel stay was really the only positive point in the trip. A glitch made all our room service free and we got to have authentic Chicago deep dish pizza. Alas, Hooked on Chibis will not be attending Anime Central again.

Archer didn't even show up
Returning to the local con scene, we then went to BAMcon, which was a first-year con in Pitsfield, MA. They have a good start, and if they can advertise better I think they could grow into a great con. Huge Hetalia showing, and while the fandom can be known for immaturity an overall spazzy-ness, these girls were history nerds that Jenn played teacher to all weekend. Our friend Aimee at AA&A Artistries makes the cutest hats based on the flags and icons of various nations, so she had a bag of flags, some of which she couldn't identify. Cue the entire Hetalia crew swarming Jenn to use her iPhone and learn more about the lesser-known flags of various countries.

Hooked on Chibis is here for all your Geography lesson needs...
We also had a very proper business discussion over dinner with fellow artists Coventry Decor, Hey Look, A Sign! and Team Rocket's Pokemon Emporium. As proper as you can get with mojitos at Applebees.

For Mother's Day weekend we went to Oaks, PA for Zenkaikon with Jenn's husband and two kids. That way we could table for the weekend and then Sunday afternoon/evening we could visit Valley Forge and Jenn could frolic through history like she does. Zenkaikon is con with a rather young crowd, so while great for the kids it wasn't good sales-wise and we won't be returning unless it's a trip with the boys or a Sonic run (which we tried for the first time that weekend!). We did do an art trade with our friends at No Title Productions though. Also Valley Forge is badass. 

About 9 men slept in a cabin this size so that we could be America today. You best respect.
 Right after family-friendly con we had Nauticon, which is a 21+ con right on the beach in Provincetown, MA. Nauticon is an amazing experience, but not the best con. I think it they focus more on making it a nerd retreat with activities instead of a convention with panels they'll pretty much be the highlight of my year. 

I took this picture from my hotel room door. I'll just sit here for a moment while you recover from your immense jealousy.

The thing with such a social con is the buying mood is pretty non-existant, and I actually got more sales from hanging out at the bar and talking up the business than I did sitting at the table. And yeah, not gonna lie, I did spend a ton of time at the bar. It was hard not too! With a wise-cracking bartender and two really cute guys who wanted to play cribbage with me, it was a great time. Everyone starts of with fandom and nerdiness to unite them, but once you GET TO BE OUR AGE (I'm almost 25, Jenn is 35) you have a lot to talk about. Nauticon was Eat, Drink, Chat and Be Merry Con. 

Also bond-over-mutual-love-of-hats con
I got home from Nauticon to find our 10th Doctor doll had gotten a DD on deviantArt, so I had a ton of stuff to respond to as soon as I sat my butt down. Still, it was a huge compliment and I'm grateful our fan Adreas suggested us. That was incredibly thoughtful.

In honor of our Doctor DD, have some SuperWhoLock cosplay
And now we're caught up to Animzement, which is in Raleigh, NC. What a lovely con. Great area, well run, great cosplays, great venue and great location and hours for the artists. Animazement became Commission Con, with everything from comics to anime to video games to requests that we make chibis of actual people. We also got to try Steak and Shake, which was great. 

Though I also ended up with a craving for Captain Crunch... dunno why
Getting there, however, was a nightmare. The train from Massachusetts to North Carolina doesn't allow you to have baggage until New York for some reason, so we had to take a bus to NYC, take a cab from the bus terminal to the train station at 1am (and the rolling suitcase's wheel broke!) then sleep in the train station until we could board at 6am. We're probably not gonna go by train when we go next year, but we'll be sure to make tons of spare parts so we can be ready for whatever commissions they throw at us! 

Taking a plane means no Amish people though :(
So what's next? We have ONE weekend off and then four more cons in a row! I'll be turning 25 in New Jersey while attending Anime Next. Then we'll be flying down to Florida and teaming up with AA&A to take on MetroCon in Tampa, FL. The weekend after that is PortCon in Maine, and then the biggie: AnimeExpo in LA. Again, if there are any dolls you'd like to pick up from us at one of these cons don't hesitate to e-mail us!

Thank you again for all your continued support. I hope we can keep putting out designs that you like!

-Casey 

PS The full album of all the pictures we've taken at cons is on our Facebook Page.