A Fun Day at Wales Comic Con April 2018

Hi everyone, first off, this post was originally due to go up over about 2-3 weeks ago but I have just moved house this week and everything is chaos, so even though it's a little late, here's my post, hope you enjoy it!

A couple of weekends ago (on the 21^st of April) I went to Wales Comic Con, it was my fourth time going to this convention in the past three years, and it certainly won't be the last!  I can easily remember the very first convention I went to back in 2016, it was most definitely a 'new experience', there was so much to see and it was a very unique event to suddenly be involved in.  But now after 6 different conventions, 15 photo ops (not many I know compared to some but well, they ain't cheap you know!), 16 autographs and meeting over 20 celebrity guests - Walking past a cartoon character, a guy dressed as a Disney princess or spotting an exact look-alike of Negan from The Walking Dead and chatting to actors like you've known them for years, just feels completely normal really!

Going to conventions is honestly one of my absolute most favourite things to do.  It's definitely not a cheap hobby and I've found myself constantly saving all year round for one con then another.  I have another three planned at the moment that I'm currently saving for, it never really stops.  And that's just the ones I go to, there's so many others going on and some that I would so desperately love to go to, the Walker Stalker convention in Atlanta!!!  Oh my goodness, talk about a life-goal!  That one is so high on my bucket list but sadly I think a good sized lottory win is the only way I'm ever going to be able to afford to get there.  Oh well, one day!

At least I am lucky enough to have a great convention practically on my doorstep twice a year, where loads of cool guests come to my home town and so do many of my online friends too, this last comic con was no exception.  Sadly I was quite disappointed that 3 of the Walking Dead actors, that I was planning to meet cancelled but I did get to see several of my Walker Stalker friends which was so lovely.  We rarely get to meet up what with living all over the UK but of course that's just another added bonus to going to conventions!

And I did get to meet two other guests that I have been dying to talk to, 'Buffy' actress Juliet Landau who played slightly crazy vampire Drusilla, who was absolutely lovely and Rupert Giles himself, Anthony Stewart Head!!  I was in awe!

I also had a photo op with Juliet, I got there a little late and was told she had just finished doing the photos and had gone back to the autograph room, but one of the members of staff who was really helpful, told me to wait in the photo area.  He came back a couple of minutes later with Juliet for my photo, it made my day, it was SO lovely of her to agree to come back just to do one more photo! :-D  I thanked her many times when I got to meet her later in the afternoon, as well as give her a necklace that I had made especially for her.  Thankfully she loved it, so much so, she took a photo of us together while she held the necklace, for her 'fan book'.  Another awe-inspiring moment!!

The rest of my day was spent catching up with my lovely friends, seeing all the amazing cosplayers and having a good look at all the merch stalls.  And yes, I had a very naughty spend but I am so chuffed with everything I bought, especially my Daryl Dixon cushion, oh my!!!  I will most certainly enjoy keeping that on my bed and giving it a good squeeze every night.  If only it were the real thing!! ;-)  (And believe me when I say he is a very lovely hugger, I know, I've had the pleasure 5 times now!)

All in all, I had a really fun day and I'm already looking forward to the next one in December, just keeping my fingers crossed for more TWD guests!

I hope you liked this post.  If you would like to see what I got up to on the day, I've uploaded a little video of all the photos I took at the convention, which you can find here.  Please give it a thumbs up if you like it, it would make me happy :-)

Let me know in the comments if you've ever been to a convention, did you like it, who did you meet?  Are you a con-newbie and need some tips?  Let me know and I will do a post about it :-)  Until Next Time Stay Happy ♥

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Day Out to: Wales Comic Con 2016

Hi everyone, firstly so sorry for the lack of post last week, between being ill, having a horrible Fibro flare-up and having what seemed like the busiest 2 weeks possible, I've just had no time to work on this post, which I knew would be a long one!
*Just to warn you, this is a very picture-heavy post!

 So just over 2 weeks ago, me and one of my bestest friends took ourselves off to Wales Comic Con 2016.  Neither of us had ever been to a one of these conventions before and it was definitely a whole new experience!

I've been reading a lot about going to 'cons' over the past couple of months and finding out all the do's and don'ts, because there is a big one coming up next year in London which I am desperate to go to.  And so for a newbie con-goer, I thought it best to find out some tips, I've even made a few new friends online along the way which has been great!

I first heard about this comic con at the beginning of April on facebook and thought it looked fun.  I searched for tickets and was amazed to see they were only £10 each (because I now know some conventions can be really expensive).  Sadly my other besty couldn't go which was such a shame, so I just got tickets for me, my friend and her little boy.  We've already started making plans for next year so we can all go, can't wait!

The doors opened at 11 and finally after queuing in the longest queue ever for about an hour, we got in, got our wristbands and started looking around, camera constantly in hand!  There was so much to see and I don't honestly think we even saw everything there, as I now know there was a tent outside with owls and reptiles which we didn't spot.  There were various marquee's, with merch for sale and a large gaming area too.  In this one was also an amazing selection of replica swords from loads of different shows, including Highlander, Game of Thrones and Michonne's beautiful Samurai from The Walking Dead :-D  This of course was my favourite, and I was more than excited to get a piccy of me holding it too!!  I absolutely love swords, so this was a real treat for me :-)

We were desperate to go and meet James Marsters and Amber Benson, but my friend was also very much looking forward to meeting Michael Socha, who has starred in shows like The Aliens, Once Upon a Time and Being Human, among others.  I can honestly say he was really sweet and a pleasure to meet, and my friend walked away beaming and very happy :-)

We eventually found the room where James and Amber were but the que was huge.  Everyone was given a raffle ticket and basically told to come back much later or even the next day, and for a while we were worried we wouldn't get to meet them at all.

We went off to look around again and found a small tent where you could have a go at shooting different guns, I've always wanted to have a go at something like that and it was quite cheap depending on what type of gun you chose.  Sadly the que took forever to go down but it was worth it in the end.  I choose a semi-automatic handgun, which I think was £3 for 15 rounds.  It was only shooting little pellets not real bullets of course but you still had to wear big safety goggles and shoot at a target at the far end of the tent.  I didn't do too bad, had a good laugh and got some unexpected zombie apocalypse training in for 10 minutes lol :-D

How cute is he!! :-)

There were loads of great stalls in the main 'meet & greet' room, selling lots of fandom themed items, which I could have easily spent too much money on!

I only ended up buying one thing, this Walking Dead keyring for £5, but I couldn't be happier with it :-D

One other thing that I really enjoyed, was seeing all the amazing cosplay costumes, they were so well done, so elaborate and looked so good.  We even saw a guy, quite a butch guy dressed in a big pink frilly princess dress with a headdress!  It really was a case of 'anything goes'.  I walked past so many brilliant ones that I would love to have photographed but there was just so many people and sometimes you just caught a glimpse of someone and then they were gone.  I saw several Willow's (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and a Buffy, several Negan's (from The Walking Dead) and so many more, but the Starwars ones were probably my favourite, they were really amazing!

Find Cosplay Clement (Negan) on - Twitter.  Facebook.  YouTube. Thank you for the pic :-) 

At about 5.30pm, we finally got to the front of the que to meet James Marsters, I was feeling pretty nervous by then and as expected, my mind went blank and I couldn't think of a thing to say!  He shook my hand and signed a picture for me, it was one I had from home but I wish I'd have gotten one of the photo's that he had at the table now as they were a lot nicer, I wish I'd have had him sign it with my name on to, but I didn't so oh well :-/

Next I move over to Amber Benson's table and honestly, I just liked her straight away.  She was immediately welcoming, friendly and chatty, and really genuinely lovely!  She even told my friend it was ok to take a few pictures of us meeting, even though we weren't really allowed to!  She gave me a lovely hug and I told her how much I still love listening to the Buffy Musical cd that she sings on.  She was a real pleasure to meet and I thoroughly enjoy the experience, it was definitely the biggest highlight of the day :-)

All in all, it was a really great fun day.  I can't wait to go to another con and I'm saving like crazy for the one in London next March.  It's called Walker Stalker, is mostly for all us zombie / Walking Dead fans and it's my one and probably only chance to meet my all-time crush Norman Reedus (aka the sexy crossbow wielding, zombie-killing biker Daryl Dixon) ***

So watch this space for updates and I will most certainly tell you all about it.  I will leave you today with some more general pics from Wales Comic Con 2016, a very fun day and I can't wait to go again :-)  I hope you liked this post, please let me know in the comments if you've ever been to a con before, who did you meet and where did you go, were you brave enough to go in cosplay?!  Let's chat about it below :-)

me & my besty

the Transformers truck

Gareth David-Lloyd - Ianto Jones from Torchwood

"are you my mummy"!!

Hugo Myatt from 90's kids TV show Nightmare, I used to love that!

so many lovely cakes

I found a little dog :-D  I think he looks like Chewbacca!

my official Buffy necklace, I've had this for so many years and finally had a good reason to wear it :-)

and finally, my autograph from James Marsters :-)

Until Next Time Stay Happy ♥

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