Anthrocon 2014

Just as I thought, Anthrocon turned out to be quite the adventure!

Bishop and I left our house at 8:00 am sharp, eager to be on the road and on vacation.  We’re good road-trippers; we listen to music and get lost and then laugh at our own map incompetence.  To start this drive, we listened to several hours of Jim Gaffigan stand-up, and even after a minor McDonalds-related bathroom break, we were still feeling pretty good.  This lasted approximately 6 hours until we got to Ohio, where construction spanning roughly the width of the entire state slowed us to a crawl. That, compounded by a trumped up speeding ticket from a very disagreeable state trooper, and we were just about dead by the time we rolled into Pittsburgh, almost 6 hours later. 

Thankfully Bone and our friend Kindle were already waiting for us, and life perked back up again after some good food and laughs. 

The next morning, the con began.

Anthrocon leads as one of the largest cons in the country, and it certainly wins as the largest anthropomorphic convention.  Thousands of people attend each day, and it brings millions of dollars into the Pittsburgh economy.  And walking into the convention center on Friday morning, there’s no doubting that fact.  We pre-registered to save time and still spent over an hour in line; the line to enter the Dealer’s Den wrapped around the entire floor of the center and kept growing even people headed through the door. 

Costumes are everywhere: fursuits, anime characters, someone wearing an actual TV on his head, anything I could imagine.  And no one blinked! I love this about Anthrocon, about cons in general, and I barely let Bishop look around the Den before I sprinted back to the hotel room to get suited up and debut Tali’Zorah vas Normandy. 

The finished product! 

Bishop’s costume, as beautiful as it turned out, takes less than 5 minutes to put on. He went as an Imperial Guardsman from Warhammar 40K: Space Marine, and the costume’s simplicity makes it perfect.  It’s mostly armor and a helmet; otherwise, he’s wearing cargo pants and a surplus Army BDU with some boots, and he looks exactly like the Guardsmen in the game. 

My costume is a little more complex, and sadly, not nearly as perfect as Bishop’s.  (However, mine took about 75+ hours, where his took about 8, so I’m still claiming mine as better J)

For the first time since I was a little kid, dressing was suddenly a two-person job.  I managed to slither into the jumpsuit, stretching the painted diamonds out as I went, and I could get the shrug over my arms and up onto my shoulders, but from there I was basically helpless. When I attempted to wiggle into my knee-high boots, I toppled backward onto the bed and lay there, defeated.  Bishop laughed himself silly. 

Once we finally managed to get the boots on and zipped (allow 30 minutes), Bishop set about pinning the leg wraps in place while I started Velcro-ing my armor to my torso and arms.  The forearm plating snapped within moments, the foam board I’d been using unable to tolerate actually being put on (of course, it worked perfectly in the comfort of my living room!).  And somewhere along the line, between making the belt and harness back in April to putting the costume fully on in July, I must have lost weight because the belt promptly slipped down my hips and off my butt.  The ‘gun’ in the holster was out – I’d never be able to keep it on. 

Finally I was dressed and ready to go, suited up and helmet in hand (too hot to walk outside with it on), and we set out. 

 The trek through the lobby earned some looks, the soldier and the god-knows-what (me), both wielding weapons that certainly appeared realistic and getting high-fives from the fursuiters.  There was a Pirates-Phillies series in town that weekend, and some of those fans may not be reappearing in Pittsburgh anytime soon – too much weird. 

The walk to the convention center let us get into character. Bishop’s Guardsman is very prejudiced against xenomorphs, that is, aliens, and as a quarian, Tali is obviously an alien.  We spent most of the walk ‘yelling’ at each other over the obvious conflict. Bishop actually got stopped by a Warhammar fan who said, “Be alert! There are xenomorphs everywhere!” And there certainly were. 

The Imperial Guardsman and the Tech Priest, both from Warhammer 40K. She lost her shit when she found Bishop in costume :) 

In my dreams, we walked into Anthrocon and got mobbed with people demanding pictures, people begging us to participate in parades or contests, all sorts of things.  This didn’t quite happen, but we did still get quite a lot of attention -- pictures, hugs, high-fives, salutes, questions, requests for cosplay advice, and my personal favorite, people wanting to commiserate over how their own games of Mass Effect ended.  After an hour or two of hiking around, taking pictures, and sweating profusely (remember Tali is in a head-to-toe suit and this is July – even indoors, it was hot), we headed back to change, declaring our first attempt at cosplay a success.  

Saturday, I went as Lady Bone, our friend Bone’s female alter ego.  This surprisingly easy cosplay – a black dress shirt with a hot pink tie, skinny jeans, and some pink lipstick and I was ready to go – turned out to be a blast.  Bone is a semi-celebrity in the furry community, so I definitely got some waves and looks from people who weren’t quite sure if I was Bone or just pretending.

Bone and Lady Bone

Sunday started with a trip to the auction to place my bids on the art I wanted and oogle the art that I couldn’t afford or was stunned by, especially as I ventured into the “Mature” section of the gallery.  Some of what I found was absolutely amazing – my favorite piece was a painting of a dragon guarding a mountain done all in dark greens and grays and blacks that ended up going for about $700.  Some pieces I just didn’t understand; the most expensive piece at the auction, for a total above $5,000!, was a small blue bird statue, less than a foot square.  And some pieces were just plain freaky, even for someone at a furry convention, like the  fursuit genitalia available for purchase in the “Mature” area, if I had happened to be inclined.

I avoided the freakier stuff, and sadly some of the more expensive dragon paintings, but I did manage to get some pretty amazing stuff.  Pics and artist names below:

These Chucks have dinosaurs drawn on them!! They are so freaking cool, I may never even wear them so I don't ruin the design, just put them on display in my house! 

This gorgeous phoenix drawing went for only $40, and no one even fought me for it.  I couldn't believe it! Especially when a fox in the same style went for over $500! Artist: Makoto

As Bishop and I went to pick up my prizes, we ended up in line behind the guy who bought the dragon piece I’d had my eye on, and we chatted with him for a quite a long time.  He ended up being an Australian on his first trip to the US, as well as a fursuiter with a 7 ft tall blue and red dragon suit, and he regaled us with tales of his experiences with hot dogs, Walmart, and Budweiser, those distinctly American pastimes that he wasn’t quite sure what to do with.  By the end of the line, we had an invitation to a concert DJ’d by this man, who wears his suit while he DJ’s, if we were ever in Australia as well as a number of tricks for keeping that suit smelling fresh, should I ever decide to acquire one. 

The people are, by far, the best part of Anthrocon.

That afternoon, I suited up as Tali again, and for the last time for the weekend.  Bishop threw on his Guardsman costume too, and away we went. 

This time, we almost really did get mobbed.  Seriously.  Just as we entered the Dealer’s Den, someone stopped us to take a picture.  Then, as we were saying bye (a crucial element of the cosplay routine – gotta be in character!), a guy stopped me to discuss how I was his favorite character from Mass Effect ever and could he please oh please take a picture with me? Of course, and when I looked up again, about ten other people were standing in a semi-circle around Bishop and I, all with either cameras flashing or waving as they had finished taking a picture and wanted acknowledgement before they left.  This went on for several minutes. 

And then repeated itself about ten minutes later.  Sunday was a very popular day. 

It wasn't a perfect costume -- the helmet was a little too large, in my opinion. But it was one of the most awesome experiences of my life! 

When the picture frenzy died down a bit, we just walked around, enjoying the con and relaxing – Tali and the Guardsman, no big deal.  Then a skinny guy with a backpack came up to me and said, “Tali? I need you to come with me.”  Okay, so off I went, Bishop close behind. 

It turned out that this guy had been sent on a mission from two artists stuck at their table: Go find Tali and bring her back for pictures! They both practically lunged out from behind their table to hug me and ask for pictures, which I was happy to pose for.  Both guys were super enthusiastic about finding me, maybe more excited than I’d been for dressing up in the first place, which was totally awesome.  One guy, after we’d chatted for a while and were about to leave, went, “WAIT!” and ran back to his booth, where he produced a ‘doodle’ he’d been working on.  I say ‘doodle’ because the drawing was on a scrap piece of paper; there was nothing remotely doodle-like about the work itself, seen below.

The caption says, "Oh sure it looks delicious, but can my suit handle the mass effect on my hips?" The only artist name I could find on the table later was Mike Gibbons -- I'm not sure if that was the guy who drew this or his buddy at the table, but no matter: Thank you!!

I couldn’t believe it! This was the coolest drawing I’d ever seen, and an original, and he just gave it to me! He said he wanted me to have it, since I was Tali.  Blown away, I said thank you and promptly sprinted back to Bone’s booth to brag to him and Kindle about my adventure.  Bishop thought it was pretty cool too ;)

Eventually, Sunday afternoon wasted away into Sunday night, and Tali had to be packed up for the trip home. Anthrocon 2014 was over.

Bishop and I in the Dealer's Den

The cosplay experience was totally worth it – the hassle, the creation time, the money, and everything else.  I loved being Tali, even if the costume wasn’t perfect.  I loved getting to play as someone else for a little while, and I really loved bringing a character to life.  The look on someone’s face when they see a favorite character is priceless – I know from experience, having discovered cosplayers as Shepard from Mass Effect and Gandalf from LOTR before – and I’d never realized it was so fun.  I can’t wait to do it again!! I even think I’ll bring out Tali again in the future.  Next time, I know what changes I need to finalize to make the costume even better.  And now I can start on cosplay #2! I’m looking forward to the next con.