Fan Expo - back again

Fan Expo Canada hasn't been one of my favourite cons in a very long time (a glance through some previous Fan Ex posts will reveal heavily mixed reviews), but I had been keeping an eye open for an opportunity to see The Cybertronic Spree live again, so when their annual Fan Expo weekend show came up and the timing worked out perfectly to go to Toronto with my boyfriend, I decided I should also spend a day at the con. But first, let's start with the concert.

If you couldn't tell from the poster, the show was leaning hard into Scott Pilgrim influences (why not, since it was at Lee's Palace, right?) and they were specifically requesting Scott Pilgrim cosplay from attendees. So I re-thrifted my Kim Pine cosplay (since nothing of the original was still around) and was psyched for the show! Clay, Dan, Tyler and I went out for dinner before the show on Harbord st,  and then took a nostalgic little walk through my old neighbourhood before hitting Lee's Palace. I sadly didn't get any "cosplay photos" at the venue - I kinda thought there would be a whole collection of SP cosplayers to take pics with, but I actually only saw a couple of tansformers cosplayers, so that was also a little disappointing. Otherwise the show was lots of fun; Wordburglar was great, I've never seen Dragon Sounds before but they were fun, and of course Cybertronic Spree killed it.

We went to Pizza Pizza after the show and then I was sad and nostalgic again since I haven't spent time at that intersection since Honest Ed's was demolished. What a loss.

Saturday I headed over to Fan Expo, geared up in my Helly R (Severance) cosplay - considering the majority of the convention centre is underground I thought it was appropriate LOL. I'll start with the good stuff: I got to watch both the Avatar VA panel and the cosplay contest, and both were very fun. Always love getting to cheer on my friends competing. It was also lovely to run into the friends who I ran into and got to have a chat with!
Just about everything else was disappointing; nobody recognized (or commented on) my cosplay, I didn't find any of the books I was hunting for from the dealers, didn't have time to browse the whole AA, I ran into relatively few friends, and the ones I did see were working/volunteering (or in the Cosplay lounge where photos aren't allowed) so they couldn't wander with me. And being on my own meant that I had little to no interest in waiting in line for any of the big corporate activation booths, since doing that solo is not how I wanted to spend my day. I almost forgot that social anxiety hit hard enough that I skipped the chance to meet a couple of guests that I follow. It was as cramped and crowded as I remember and I can say with confidence that I don't need to go back again next year. Might be difference if I was still living in Toronto, but now that it's an expensive trip? Ugh, no thanks.

​Anyways, here's a few photos (mostly from the contest)!