ComicCon Stockholm 2018

ComicCon Stockholm took place the weekend 14th to 16th of September. It bills itself as the largest popculture event in the Nordic Countries, and that is probably true. It has grown out of an earlier game convenction (Gamex) and it has had problems finding a balance between games and general popculture. It's still not perfect, but I felt that it was better than some years, unfortunately it's also now sponsored by one specific store, which has lead to other stores selling popculture stuff not being invited. The merchandise is limited to the one sponsor (and now special con prizes) and smaller independent traders.

Anyway this year I wasn't motivated at all for the convention. If I hadn't booked my hotel in May I would probably not have gone. I felt that I only had my old costumes, nothing new to bring. The dye for my Melisandre coat and hood didn't show up in time so I would not be able to bring the full costume. I stressed to get TLJ Leia done, got it into a wearable but not finished state, only to forget the undergown at home.

In the end it turned out to be one of my best conventions in a long time, and a big part of that was that I had people around that could take a lot of funny photos during the weekend.

Cosplay Dalarna had it's biggest group photo so far on a convention.

 On Friday I wore my X-wing pilot first, and I couldn't resist climbing on the the big airplane wing that was in the main hall. Ingeli, who took the photo, said she was a really good friend since she didn't film what it looked like when I tried to get onto the wing. (I basically needed to be pushed over it by two people)

Looking S-foils in attack position

 AFter my stint in X-wing I quickly changed to Mon Mothma, and of course I had to take my photo on the Iron throne that HBO had in its area. If I can't rule the galaxy I guess Westeros will do.

The real reason I switched was because Mads Mikkelsen was there and got inducted as an honorary member of the 501st legion, and I wanted to wear a costume that was a bit connected with Rogue One.

The day after I also made sure to have him sign my "A Royal Affaire" DVD.

The three days of ComicCon all have very different atmospheres. On Friday it's quite easy going and you have time to check out all the stands, and if you are interested in games that's the day you have time to test play them without any lines. Saturday was really crowded though. The Nordic Legions had their stand outside the main hall, and after I had gotten my autograph I didn't go in to the main hall for the rest of the day. I did my shifts in the stand and walked the parades, but there was too much people to do anything else.

The R2 builders had invited Simon Wilkie as C3P-0 and I got my photo with him, as you can see the stitches on my white over poncho had unraveled so I need to fix that before the next time I wear it.

Sunday is a family day, with less people, but a lot of kids everywhere. I had brought my Melisandre costume and I used the time to take photos in the HBO area.

As a child I dreamt of a red motorcycle, here I could at least mount a motorcycle in a big red gown.

I finished the con in my X-wing pilot costume again, and finally we managed to be three orange pilots in costume at the same time, thanks to Aiwei from Norway. It was really fun to be in a group and goof around.

So it was a really fun convention, and it shows that you don't need new costumes to have fun, the important thing is to hang around with fun people.