London Expo

On Saturday I went to the London Expo and let my inner geek soar (it’s a bit hard not to when surrounded by comics and games and cosplay. Oh my!). The main thing that caught my attention was the Guinness Book of World Records attempt at most game related characters in costume. After seeing some of the fabulous outfits I really felt that the cosplay alone deserved a blog. The record did stand at a measly 80 people meaning the Expo were sure for a win, but last month some sneaky Germans managed to pull off 337 at their Connichi show. Suddenly the pressure was on.

As I wandered into the building to get my press pass I was absolutely amazed at the amount of characters wandering around and before I get to the press room I was accosted by Stormtroopers demanding I get on my knees!

After seeing the myriad of costumes I decided that rather than explore the Expo itself I would simply take the time before the record attempt to take in the many wonders of seeing store bought outfits, home made outfits, and just some really random outfits. There’s nothing like seeing three Dante’s (Devil May Cry) in a line to make you question the fact you are only drinking water! It was also nice to see a good range of people taking part. From the young (and oh so cute in their outfits!) to the middle aged, everyone had put in the effort and it made it all worthwhile when the total number of people appeared.

As time drew ever nearer to the record attempt, the stairs outside the Expo were an amazing sight. Everyone was so excitable with some people having mock battles or in the case of some skipping competitions. The sheer number of hours some people must have put in to their costumes is immense, but everyone played their part regardless of the quality or obscurity of their costumes. I was surprised to see only one Hitman as, let’s face it, it’s an easy outfit, but plenty of our old favourites were there.

The pressure was certainly on with the announcer at one point shouting, “Please go and grab your friends. We need 38 more!” and with people slowly filtering through it was certainly nail biting at one point. Although the final figure is still to be validated by Guinness, as I am writing this it looks pretty safe to say that Expo won with at least a dozen spare, but only time will tell. Hope you enjoy the pictures and look on the forum in a week of so to see the rest of my snaps from the cosplay. Also look out next week for my blog on what went on inside the Expo!


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6 responses to “London Expo”

  1. Tony avatar
    Tony

    Your first picture shows some police cars in the background. So, if the police where there, why didn’t they nick that knife-wielding hoodie in the fourth picture?

  2. Dan avatar

    When he spotted them he started walking kinda slow and put his hands together. They walked right past him.

  3. Nick avatar
    Nick

    That’s some intense cosplay.

    Looks like some great times had!!!

  4. Eleanor avatar
    Eleanor

    Ohhhh, a real life Dante for me to track down…

  5. Michael avatar

    You scare me, woman. And it’s like he’s heard you say that or seen you coming towards him… I saw a Dante lookalike way back only he wasn’t a cosplayer.

    It must take a lot of bottle to go out in some of those outfits… or maybe all of them!

  6. Uzi avatar
    Uzi

    Whoa, a black stormtrooper. You don’t see many of those! I think I remember at least one from the earlier movies.

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