On a partly cloudy Saturday in April the Maxi Geek crew headed into the throws of pop culture madness and spent a day walking around the Melbourne Showgrounds enjoying the Supernova Pop Culture Expo. We joined the throng of fans looking for a small brush with fame, a few items of pop culture kitsch, meeting their equals on the playing field of fandom or dress as only their imagination allows. And of course we bought some way over priced food...seriously it was cheaper to buy a statue from Weta then get a burger...WTF.

I love convention season where else can you get an action figure of Sloth from Goonies, meet a dozen stars from film to TV. And of course see tons of people dressed as their favourite characters and yours (and some I still do not know who they were).


Placed strategically in the largest building is the main floor covered with stalls of merchandise as far as the eye can see. Peppered with stall from clubs, artists, writers, magazines all showing off their skills and wares as it ties into the whole pop culture theme. You could gather yourself into the line for an autograph from your favourite celebrity guest down one aisle. Join the 501st in another.  Play some pinball and even watch wrestling all under one roof. There was a sea of toys, posters, books, comics to buy amongst the stalls in the large pavilion. I was most impressed with Popcultcha's stall as I truly believe they figured out how to get at least one of everything out if their Geelong store.  And the sheer number of Funko Pop Vinyl figures they had was staggering as those doe eyed little figurines stared back at us all you could not help but smile even at the prick of a king Prince Joffrey from the Game of Thrones line. I took up their weekend offer of 3 for $40 and got a Wreck It Ralph for my little boy, He-Man for me and a special one even for the little lady. Amongst the finds by our crew in the bowels of the market floor were the Shakespeare editions of Star Wars, Verily A New Hope and The Empire Striketh Back. A show bag from FilmInk including a nice poster and a replica Mockingjay pin from the Hunger Games was a great find.  And we even took part in the stamp hunt and received an Adventure Time keychain from Madman (wish I was a little kid they also got Princess Bubblegum bubblegum pack and I was hungry...again food was expensive).  And of course Weta made an incredible appearance with so much beautiful stuff from the entire Hobbit and Lord of the Rings series. I only wish I had the money to buy even a replica map (they are a bit expensive but the quality is astounding).


We were then graced with the presence of hundreds of thousands cosplayers. Dressed in a wide range of costumed flair from the truly spectacular to the what were they thinking (and a couple that we can not mention here for this is a family blog and we are also still not sure what the heck they were dressed as). I sat with our photographer for awhile watching the Madman Nation Cosplay Championship and was awed by the time and effort so many people put in to not only their incredible costumes but their skits.  I wished I stayed through the entire thing but I wanted to explore convention.  And I quickly realised my anime knowledge stopped at Dragonball Z.  Had no idea any of the characters were dressed as. But that being said I was blown away by the detail people put into their outfits. Seeing people dressed as characters from TV, Film, Anime, Games, Comics and just for fun like Princess Batman who in my opinion was the best cosplay mash-up ever (and the BMX Bikers with the cardboard box Bikes were just hilarious). I only wish I had a drop of the imagination and skill it takes to not only come up with these costumes but create them for all to see. Good on you all you cosplayers. (Also check some of the many we saw for the day under our pictures section)

I took a little stroll on my own to see the sites and checked out a few folks sitting around outside enjoying the sun that had poked its head out (glad it did not rain after all even though looked like it would at any time) sharing with one another their many finds from the show floor and enjoying some way over priced food (come on Supernova a snack or drink machine even a water fountain would be great). It is always nice how conventions and shows like this bring people together and everyone just seems to be having a great time chatting and relaxing. Plus the amount of varying walks of life at the show, parents, kids, grandparents, young, old and the infirmed all just having a peek and a smile at all the fun around them. At this walk I also thought to myself lets have another little peek at the show floor and it was then that I was more than happy to have gone in that place first for a look around as now the place was shoulder to shoulder people trying to push in for a grab of some piece of the day. Remind me next time to enjoy the power of the press pass and go in quick and early and get anything I want then I can just walk around and enjoy the atmosphere.

And of course lastly there was the multitude of stars that had come down to say hi to the multitude that help their careers.  I wish I had taken the time to sit in on more Q&As and panels. But we only had a short time and wanted to get in only 1 or 2.  Our chosen brush with fame was the Adventure Time panel with John DiMaggio (Jake the Dog), Jeremy Shada (Finn the Human) and Hynden Walch (Princess Bubblegum). And it was worth the wait in line as all three had everyone laughing in the aisles from Hynden asking people to "Get in my Dungeon", to John having a beat box off with an audience member and Jeremy singing "Tough Tootin Baby" (for reference watch the episode Jake Suit). This was a fun session but my only gripe was no pictures (WHAT THE BJORK!!). I just wanted a quick snap to say "hey look who I saw" but sadly even the press were denied.



If the time had allowed I would have enjoyed going to see Peter Mayhew (WOOHOO Chewbacca), Lindsay Wagner (the original Bionic Woman) and probably Michael Rooker (Merle from The Walking Dead and Mallrat's Mr Svenning,,,did we really need to see his butt). But sadly time was limited and so were the funds (freakin food). So soon after the Adventure Time panel the Maxi Geek crew bid farewell to the expo. Watching as the people and the sites slowly slipped into the sunset. Knowing full well we would return next year. Prepared for much more.