Also it would be easier to blog if something interesting was on TV. Boring trials full of lawyers acting like jerks. The judge should throw everyone out. Borings.
In the name of the Moon...time to spend money!
But lets focus on getting AWA all blogged and such. So we can move on to the terribleness that is Blood-C and maybe get to awesome shows or this season? Spoilers for…spending tons of money!! XD
Checking out is always X___X stressful. Why are we never prepared and left scrambling at the last minute? I did pack some the night before so I guess it would have been worse. We just had so much food/drinks leftover. My husband said I was a goober for bringing all these snacks when AWA allows vendors to bring noms. Silly silly me.
The check-out process didn’t take that long. But the guy behind the front desk seemed annoyed that we were not given the bill on our door. Like really annoyed. Sorry dude? The elevators were packed but since we decided to carry everything in one trip we weren’t making things any better. But the wait wasn’t that long so I am not sure why people were complaining. XD
Aw so cute!!!
The only event we attended today was the Pokemon Panel. Still kicking myself for not going to that panel when the ENGAGEMENT happened. I am glad we made it time despite trying to check out and all. I think during the trivia thing would have gone better had the panelist repeated the correct answer for all of us to hear. Plus it might have fun to have the person doing the battling sitting with their opponent. XD But I have never seen so many people in the Union Room before (in the Pokemon game) so that was fun. Learned some new things and was traumatized by the Jigglypuff American Idol song.
I managed to eat half the food and 1/4 the drink before I almost exploded.
After the Pokemon panel it was time for one last walk through of the Artist Alley and Dealers Room. Also we got some noms at the Chinese place downstairs. Portion sizes so big I almost exploded. What the heck is up with this drink?!
The Artist Alley was pretty disappointing this year. Sorry. It was. That is putting aside that the cake contest never took off. I am not blaming the director on that as people SAID they were doing so on the boards. Just I think ALL the tables in the back should have been dedicated to the cake contest and not have some random people on the walls.
No pics of the Artist Alley since that frowned upon.
But I don’t think we needed any more artists. Because some of the ones we had were really lacking in talent and skill. I stopped at every single booth because I don’t want to skip anyone and have them say WAI traffic was bad. But dirty table clothes, two prints, and a huge sign that says I take commissions does not scream serious artist to me. It screams lazy, lazy, lazy.
Maybe the rules on fanart have gone too far and people have to find different things to do in the alley. Which translates to poorly done jewelry and plastic….soda bottle holders? There were some truly tacky things in the alley and I had second hand embarrassment walking by some booths.
Pokemons do not approve of rudeness!
It was also these people who were rude to customers. They basically had junk at their table and their awkward sales pitches would lead to customers saying AW cute maybe I will come back later. It is better than just walking away right? But after the customer would leave the “artists” would complain about how people would say that and never come back. Which might be true. But gossip about that later in your own room/car/home. Not in front of me, another customer. Sometimes we say nice things to not hurt your delicate little feelings and you blaming US for your poor sales is just denial.
That being said I did buy some items from professional looking booths. People who took time to develop an overall theme and take pride in their work. The jewelry pieces that I bought were cute little critters that still had an anime type look and I bought two prints that were fanart pieces. I have way too many stickers already so I only bought a few sheets. But despite the fact that there were tons of booths there was not a lot of high quality work to choose from. Hopefully the professional people did well.
Prices keep on increasing making me a sad panda.
Onward to the Dealer’s Room. XO Where was my favorite T-shirt booth this year? They actually have woman style shirts! I would have bought the shirts I loved at Otakon had I know they were not coming to Otakon. So sad for me.
Putting that aside the Dealer’s Room felt more spread out this year. One aisle felt incredibly wide. But I guess that was a good thing as one could take pictures and not block the entire flow of traffic. XD Because hunting people down never works.
Vendors really hiked up the prices this year. It is hard for me to spend 60 dollars on nendoroids that are only 3000 yen and brand new AKA not hard to get. I really wanted the Madoka nendoroid but that is way too much to spend after being in Japan. :( So I only got one nendoroid that was priced at 45 dollars which I thought was reasonable.
Finding deals and cosplayers at the same time.
Deals were not to be had on the last day. I know one booth gave me at least 40 percent off mangas when I bought a ton last year. I actually think it was closer to 50 percent off. So I did not buy 483297 million mangas like I usually do. Which is probably good since I need to catch up on purchases that I made last year. But yay for Codename Sailor V.
That all being said I spent most of my money in the Dealer’s Room. Got quite a few Japanese snacks and drinks. Love the mint Pocky. LOVE IT! I also bought a few big stuffed animals which I thought were quite reasonable in price. Picked up a few petite nendoroids in the “discount” section of a booth. One booth had cute artist alley type stuffs (cute animal jewelry and shirts) and I hope they did well. Seems like the should have been in the artist alley as it would have been cheaper for them. Hope that didn’t affect their sales.
But where were my posters?! I don’t have wall scroll space. :( Such sadness. Also the vendors who had Tokidoki items last year seemed to leave them all home this year. There was also a lot more…no anime related booths this year. A lot of Steampunk booths (which my husband loved) and that random movie poster booth? More booths with pins, posters, and newer items please.
Snap Snap goes the camera!
So after a few more pictures and one last look around it was time to leave the convention. :( Always a bitter sweet feeling but my husband goes…why be sad didn’t you have a good time? Of course I did. XD I guess if AWA lasted longer or happened more often you wouldn’t be as excited when it came around right? When we left there were quite a few people still hanging around despite it being almost 5 0 clock.
After a quick trip to a nearby mall that has a Sanrio store (and tons of other cool stores we never get to see!) it was time to take the long drive back home. Despite the craziness that was the back roads we decided to take them again. Because we really want to be eaten in a Sci-Fi movie. We passed a sign that said “Incident Base”. Like um….what does that mean? An outbreak of crazy zombie people? DO NOT WANT!
Driving home in that might be fun....
And then we arrived home and it was time for sleeps. Another AWA come and gone. Despite anything non HAPPY that I said about this weekend we had a blast. There were tiny snafus (like inconsiderate attendees) that we tried to let roll off our backs and focused on the fun. I would like more sleep though as I am an old person who gets cranky when people are on her lawn.
Attendance seemed down this year but it did help with overcrowding. I got to attend almost everything I wanted with only a few things being overlapped. I managed to avoid My Little Ponies AND getting sick. Spent all my cash and had a great weekend with my husband. I would rate this a successful weekend. Always room to grow but I walked away happy. Thanks for reading! Up next is my Swag post!
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