Finally after many years, a comic con is finally returning to Newcastle. Ran by Monopoly events and hosted at the utilita arena, we were given tickets as a Christmas present and I'm so excited to share the day with you.
The guests announced mostly consisted of older Doctor Who, Inbetweeners and Buffy stars. And let me tell you when I found out that Spike, Drusilla and Cordelia from Buffy The Vampire Slayer were going. I was filled with excitement. I had met James Marsters aka Spike in 2014 at my first Newcastle Comic Con but I hadn't met any of the other guests apart from the time I saw Amber Benson from afar at London Comic Con.
When it was announced that Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia) was going, I just knew I had to buy a photo op with her. She even liked my comment on Instagram about seeing her in Newcastle and I was so giddy. She was one of my favourite characters in BTVS/Angel aside from Faith and Buffy herself.
The arena in Newcastle is quite small itself since you are unable to move any of the seating but they make do when it comes to events like this. Of course there is also stalls to purchase nerdy items and artworks and an area for signing and a backstage area for the photo ops. We had tickets for the Saturday so made the most of it.
I'm usually too nervous and anxious to speak to these tv stars so I opt for quick photo ops. I don't even know what I would say aside from hello. I almost turned into a puddle meeting Tyler Hoechlin in Wales.
This time around Monopoly events made use of the lobby area by filling it with plenty of photo opportunities from various tv and movies from Toy Story, The Hobbit to even Stranger Things. I went around and snapped as many photo ops with the props as possible. My favourite was the Hobbit door.
When we got inside the main area, stalls packed every inch, at the far end were the signing tables for the guests and behind the doors were the photo shoot areas. We did a once around the place to see what there was and to make sure I knew where to go for my photo with Charisma. During this time I could hear Ross from The Walking Dead having his talk but I missed most of it and the seating area was already filled up. I wouldn't be here for Sundays Buffy panel, which I was a little sad about but there was a video posted on a Facebook group for me to watch.
We ended up getting some bubble tea as we perused the stalls. I eventually bought some postcards, took my chances at a tombola and bought a pair of mini disk earrings (how very cyberpunk of me), a mini crocodile game keyring, pokemon badges, a 3D printed Eevee and I won a mini Chucky Doll figure. Izzy had gotten a mystery box (which we told no one to actually buy but she won it from a stall) and I snagged one of the t-shirts from the box and we traded 2 Five Night's at Freddy's plushies for Sam's Cosplay Competition win which was a cosplaying pikachu card. We gave the kids some money to go off and spend whatever they wanted and my partner and I just walked around, played a game of tekken and perused the stalls once more until my photoshoot arrived.
I was nervous but not many people were in line for her second photoshoot of the day, so the line went down very fast. I awkwardly ran over to her and said hello! The photo was taken and I said thank you so much and off I popped to go grab the print out. She's so beautiful IRL. And that's another fave buffy star of mine to meet and take a photo with.I wont be posting the photo as I look awful ahahah.
From what I've seen of how this event was run, everything went smoothly. Even getting in and out of the arena was fine. Even the photo shoots and signings seem to be running smoothly. I hope next year they get more guests because I wouldn't definitely come back again now Newcastle's has a much better Comic Con this time round then when Show-masters originally ran the events.
Have you ever been to a comic con local to you?
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