Well a year on since my first expo and now I've been to a total of 3. This time I decided to attend both days meaning 2 costumes! Also meant poor bank balance...>_<
I updated Rinoa from last year and made some slight improvements. New shorts, wig, arm-warmers no longer slipping down arms ect I even had a Squall plushie to be my companion for the day haha he actually was useful when posing for photos. Selphie was a new costume. The dress I ordered from Dream Angels who made my Rinoa duster. I was however slighty dissapointed the zip didn't reach the bottom of the dress boo. I made her shell-type zipper from sculpy clay and altered a pair of boots by painting the soles and sticking on straps & buckles. The wig I commissioned from SephNoir who I found on numerous cosplay forums I belong to. She did an amazing job and I highly reccomend her for anyone wanting wig commissions. She works to your needs and budget so there's something to suit everyone. You can even send her your own wig to alter if you like.
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Saturday 25th October

Rinoa today. Travelled up on my own as Tanya left really early to meet some other friends and get fast track tickets. First cosplayers I bump into on the DLR funnily enough were Hannah's mates from the UEA anime society that she told me to look out for lol so I travelled with them part of the way. Half of them were Guitar Hero characters XD
Once at ExCel I first went off to dump my coat as I like to que with my cosplay on show haha but they were making us que outside 0_0 in the freezing cold! And the que was soo fucking long! All the way round the outside of the building. I saw Silver on my way to the end of the que. She organised the Final Fantasy shoot on the expo forums & is on Cosplay Island also ect. This was the first time I met her in person but she's so friendly! Told me I was mad to get in the que now haha but no-one else I knew was about so might as well wait for a ticket.

While waiting guess who wandered past me in the que- Luke! We were both pointing and like "It's you!" lol He didn't tell me was going, last minute thing apparently. Didn't chat long as he went to join the back. Sam & James came to see me, they already had their tickets. Got hugs and chatted for a bit then a lady walked past with a sign about the World Record attempt I was gonna be a part of that day (most people gathered dressed as characters from a game). I was expecting it to happen at 12.30 but her sign said registration was at 11.30. Bollocks! I had to leave the que -_-

Walked back with the guys then they went inside while I went to register. Had to be photographed holding a sign saying my name, my character's name and the game the character's from. I was number 80 (the amount of people who set the last London record). We had to beat the German record of 337. A record they only set the previous weekend damn them.
Once that was done I hovered about until the group photo's were taken. Silver came and grabbed me for the FF shoot. I got some pics taken alone and with a Leon cosplayer (a very cute one I might add). The pics are on her photo account and in my gallery also.
As we were finishing up my shots we could hear cheering not far from us. We had broken the record! By 5 people! 342 is the new world record for the most people gathered dressed as character's from a game. I ran over and joined in with the cheering and we had loads of photos taken and was even filmed. I'm on youtube!
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I even got my pic taken holding the certificate


So yeah that was definately a bonus added to the day. While still outside I spotted an AMAZING Billy the puppet cosplayer from Saw. Being a Saw fanatic I just had to get a picture.Should of had one taken with him really. Oh well. I saw him many more times over the weekend and since coming across him on the forums seems he found me cute and became my personal expo stalker XD (although he didn't recognise me as Selphie on Sunday). Actually he's on here also I have 2 out of 3 pics he took of me that day in my favourites and they're in his gallery also. The noodle one being my personal favourite as he caught me just as I raised my eyebrows at him for staring at me whilst I was eating haha.

Met up with Sam, James and Jess after I ate briefly. Tanya & Jakie I saw in passing. Luke I saw briefly again inside.
Finally went to get a ticket so I could actually get inside the expo hall and by this time the que had gone. Excellent. Spent quite a bit of time wandering around all the stalls. There was one place selling Sailor Moon cards and the man running the stall gave me 5 packs for free bless him so I brought a box of stickers so I didn't feel bad lol Revelation films stall had buy one get one free on all dvd boxsets. I hovered there for ages before deciding to wait another day and ponder if it's worth it. The "Eyes on Me" by Faye Wong mini disc was tempting also... I wanted a Irvine figure but Silver brought the last one *sniffles*
Passed some more forum members while wandering including

The manga cosplay photoshoot competition was running again, Hosted by NEO magazine I think. The photographer was Paul Jaques (same guy who took my Sailor Jupiter pics in May) and I have his shots of me credited again in my cosplay album.
I stopped by the Ubisoft stand as the rep who comes into my shop mentioned he would be at expo and I should come over and say hi. James recognised me straight away which was quite nice as I know he has to visit most GAME stores in the region. We chatted for ages about the expo & recent game releases. He showed me pics he'd taken that day and I had to pose for one for him also lol Said I'ld visit him again on the Sunday.
Errr I can't remember anything else worth mentioning (prob due to the lateness of writing this!) Oh but I did meet Jess' friend who is working with her on the Grand International Cosplay Ball so that was nice.
Travelled back with Sam & James, stopped by in Witham for a few hours as it was an OMM gig that night then went home to prepare for day 2!

Sunday 26th October

Selphie today. Again travelled up on my own. A lot of rail works meant I had to get a replacement bus between Witham & Romford, then a train between Romford & Stratford (which was slow as stopped at every mini-station) before continuing my usual journey. Quite proud I didn't get lost actually! This foreign couple kept staring at me on the bus. Oh I know my wig is bound to get some looks but after the first curious glance everyone else on the bus left me alone but they wouldn't stop staring! I wanted to tell them to stop being rude haha.
Once at the expo I grabbed a fast track ticket and went inside straight away as no-one else I knew was about. It wasn't until sitting with Silver and some of her mates later on that I realised the reason there was fast track tickets still available and the expo felt dead was because I forgot the clocks went back and so I was actually early! Doh! Because of this and due to a random cosplayer telling me the time had been changed I got confused as to when the Final Fantasy shoot was that day so ended up missing it. But Silver's a gem and did a personal shoot for me later in the afternoon bless her. Thanks hun! Again photos are in my gallery and in hers

I brought a Rinoa & Squall poster. It's got an image both sides so like 2 posters in one lol I know it's not an official one but it looks pretty on my wall. While browsing the ribbon around my wrist came undone and it's rather tricky to do up yourself. While fiddling with it a Sora cosplayer asked for a pic so I was like "Sure if you do my ribbon up for me please". She was sweet.
Got photos taken at the cosplay competition area again. Stopped by Ubisoft stand for another chat with James. He gave me a Farcry 2 t-shirt to give to Sam.
I spent a lot of time with Jess today. It was nice to catch up even if was mainly me going on & moaning about my love life half the time lol sorry Jessie! I was going to help her advertise the GICB but the ExCel staff told us to stop flyering. Boo. Genki Gear are one of the ball sponsers so she stopped to chat to them and I noticed them selling the t-shirts designed by Hel and I sooo wanted the pink and black chibi girl one >_< I need to save more money to buy stuff at expo! In the end after much pondering I asked the Revelations stall if they accepted credit cards and brought the starter boxsets for Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle & Peach Girl. Naughty me.


Things that annoyed me:
* The extreme free huggers with signs like "free rape" & "free snogs" held by like a 13 year old girl. Are you asking to be attacked by pedos?
* The Yaoi guy. There are children about stop shouting "ANAL STRETCHING" "INCEST" "BOY LOVE" ect. It's a family friendly event not the Erotica show (which would have more class I'm sure). Certainly put me off looking at your stall.
* The major clash of events with the Islam event being held the same weekend. I was sneered at and felt like I should go put some clothes on. Some people were nice and asked what we were doing though. ExCel have said they wont put them on the same dates again.

I didn't take many photos. I'm a bit pants at it tbh. I pose for loads then forget to ask other people for pics oopsie. I tend to copy my favourite cosplays from other peoples collections and save them on folder on my comp for personal reference. Only the ones of me I post on the net with credit to the photographer of course.

I think this was my favourite expo so far and I'm glad I decided to go both days. I got some great photos of my cosplays and had a lot of positive feedback for them. It was really nice to meet and recognise so many forum members also! Just a shame I missed SephNoir who made my Selphie wig but I shall be seeing her at the GICB. I'll be going as an elf ^-^ So till then, cosplayer out!