So, for Christmas, I got the experience gift of going to FanX 2016. All three days. And it was over Spring Break, so I didn’t miss any school. It was great. Get ready for a long explanation.
Day one opened up bright and sunny. Nathan and I needed to be on a 10-something train to meet up with my aunt and some cousins. I woke up and made my hat for Inspector Gadget. I had taken an old umbrella and cut the fabric off of it. I then fixed some of the technical issues that it had (some of the supports were bent and damaged so that the umbrella would cave in on one side), using the Go, Go, Gadget Duct Tape. Yay for Duct Tape! Anyway, I then taped random stuff onto the ends, including a baby embodied in paper.
Notice all of the random stuff I taped on. That turned out well. I got on the train with Nathan and had a couple people that conversed with us about FanX. We got to the station that we were to meet those we were meeting, and then rode the train down to Salt Lake. We got there and walked to the Salt Palace. Outside, there was a couple of still photo ops outside from the Hobbit. They were the Cave Trolls, Gandalf, and Gollum. I tried to put my Inspector Gadget hat on, but the wind blew it over. I opted to leave it off.
That was cool to be able to do. When we got into the lobby of the Salt Palace by the entrance to the Grand Ballroom and saw the full size TARDIS prop. I thought that that was cool, so Nathan and I went over and we got our picture taken by the TARDIS.
I would have stood inside by Nathan, but my hat couldn’t fit through the door. After that, I went my first ever panel. It was the Peter Davison panel. For those that don’t know, Peter Davison was the 5th Doctor in Doctor Who. He talked about his career and how Doctor Who has changed his life. He also shared how he is now the father-in-law to David Tenant, another Doctor. He also talked about his experiences on the set of Doctor Who. It was a good panel to go to. That was followed by my first experience with the Vendor Floor. Man, the vendor floor is nuts. Tons of vendors selling stuff to those that attended the Con. I will get into more detail of the vendor floor later.
After the time on the floor, we bought tickets for the Buzz Aldrin panel. We went into the grand ballroom and sat down for the panel. We didn’t sit very long before the panel started. They showed a video of Buzz Aldrin, then they brought him out. He was a great deal shorter than all of the pictures let him on to be. His panel was fantastic. He spoke about how the USA united to come together and put a man on the moon. He also told about some of the things that not many people know about the Apollo 11 mission. Such things were that it was tiny and cramped on the spacecraft. Also, they had a small problem on the moon inside of the Lunar Lander. While they were working on pressurizing the cabin, one of the breaker switches broke off of the console. That was something that they said was a thing to warrant a “Houston, we have a problem” from the Eagle, because the switch that broke off was the main engine start for the ascent stage off of the moon. They phoned in and Houston told them to go to sleep. Buzz said that that was very likely in a sarcastic way. In the morning they got up and went about their stuff and Houston basically said that they needed to use a pointed thing to push the breaker in to get power to the circuit. Buzz’s little finger was just small enough, but there was electricity arcing inside. The ballpoint pen was all metal, so zap there too. They ended up using a felt pen to activate it. After that, Buzz talked about how he continued his career in space by talking and working with NASA about going to Mars. That was the end of the panel, and I had really enjoyed it.
After the panel, we went and stood in line for the Buzz Aldrin photo op. I technically wasn’t supposed to be in this one, but Ben insisted that I go because he had other things and friends to meet with. I wasn’t opposed in the slightest. When I walked in, Buzz said to me, “Will you be telling us which way the wind will be blowing?” That was cool, and I replied with a “Sure.”
After that, we went and wandered the floor for a bit more. There were three photo ops that day and so I spent a ton of time in the photo ops area of the floor. I went and got the ops with Sylvester McCoy and Peter Davison, both Doctors from Doctor Who.
After the ops, I wandered the floor for a while and bought a couple of things. I got the War Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver and a couple of pho-Lego minifigures. While I wandered the floor, I had people come up to me and say, “You are Inspector Gadget! I like your cosplay!” or “Cool, you’re Inspector Gadget, right? Can I have a picture with you?” or even, “You are very creative. I think that you are Inspector Gadget, right?” It was all good and after I got home, I couldn’t count or remember all of the pictures I had taken of me or people with me. I would also just walk down the aisles and would hear Inspector Gadget eight or nine times. That was something to remember. My uncle explained why it was such a hit, “You are a character that the adults remember and love and one that kids will know and love. All parties satisfied.” There were even a couple of encounters that were rather awkward to be a part of. In my wanderings of the floor, I found a booth that was put on by an artist. This one caught my attention because the pictures that he had were all made of words. For example, the one I bought was a Star Trek Next Generation Enterprise made up of quotes from the TNG movie series. A picture of words. I wandered about after I saw it, but I kept being drawn to the booth, so I gave in and bought the Enterprise. I blew through about 75% of the money I had that night (the sonic and the print were quite expensive). I went home with a couple of lessons learned that night, one about being thrifty (I thought that I could have bought the sonic for less elsewhere than I paid at the con) and the other that Thursday was the best day to spend on the Vendor Floor because they had the most wares that they were selling on Thursday and Friday. We went home at about 8:00 and Nathan and I were both tired, but glad to have had such a good day.
Day two opened up cold and cloudy. I was sick and tired of the umbrella that kept falling off of my head. So, I planned out a 10th Doctor Cosplay. I loved that decision. Not a single “Oh you are this!” told to me all day. That was great. I had to be on an 8-something train to meet with my cousins again. When we got downtown, my aunt issued a challenge. “I’ll buy something small for the person to sight the most Deadpools.” I kept my eyes open from there on out. I spent some time on the floor, then went to my first panel of the day. It was the Alan Tudyk panel. And it was fantastic, being one of my favorite panels. Alan Tudyk talked about his career and a couple of experiences that he had on sets for various movies. He talked about his weirdest and most gross experiences that he had on set. He is a really cool and hilarious guy. To his panel, he brought a bag full of random… Stuff. And to all of those that asked him a question, he pulled out something random, signed it, and gave it to the person who asked him a question. The most random thing was a contact from his left eye. One he gave away was what he called an “Almost good gift” because it was a Firefly action figure, minus the action figure. It was just the cardboard backing. Overall, his panel was great.
After his panel was done, I wandered the floor until I was called to the grand ballroom for the George Takei panel. We got there early enough that we saw the end of the Summer Glau panel. She is another actress from Firefly, for those who don’t know. The end of that panel was good, as she talked about how she had to learn martial arts for the Firefly/Serenity series. The panel afterward, George Takei, was much better though. He opened up with his signature “Oh my.” That was very cool to hear. He spent about 20 minutes at the beginning of the panel explaining how Star Trek was such a big deal when it first aired in 1966. He explained the cultural implications that the leads had. He spoke about the ethnicity of each of the bridge crew, such as Lt. Uhura being African American and Pavel Chekov being Russian. This was explained to be right in the middle of the civil rights movement and the Cold War. It was a utopian society that struck people. He also spoke about that Star Trek was canceled and how they thought that that was the end of Star Trek. Yet, Star Trek has reached its 50th aniversery in 2016. Why? George Takei said that he thought that it was the social implications of such at Utopic society and that fact that the Enterprise is like the Earth, in that if we band together, then the world can do great things. After that very serious and meaningful speech, he opened the floor to questions. The questions were about his career and Star Trek. Someone asked about his “Oh my” origins. He said that he was advertising for his biography at a radio station that wasn’t so good. He walked into the recording room, and explained the dialogue that followed like this:
(Standard Greetings)
Announcer: “You have a deep voice. I would expect a deep voiced man like you to have a big dog.”
George Takei: (Exasperated) “Are we on air?”
Announcer: “Yes.”
George Takei: “Oh my.”
That was the origin. Not only were they on air, but they were being recorded, too. Every time something like that happened on the radio show, the announcer would push a button that activated the “Oh my” sound effect in George Takei’s voice. That was fun to learn about. Overall, the rest of his panel was great.
After his panel, we went and wandered the floor some more. Then we began to mill by the Photo Op area for the Jason Isaacs Photo Op. Jason Isaacs did Lucius Malfoy in Harry Potter.
After that, one of my cousins and my aunt went over to mill by the Photo op area again, this time for the Alex Kingston photo op (River Song from Doctor Who). It would just be me and my cousin in it, so we began to plan something. When we got there, we were pretty well told, “No Touchie!” So we planned that we would stand at a distance and stare at her adoringly. When we got in there and we stood, Alex pulled us in and said, “Come on, get close!” We left with this photo:
(Shauna here, adding my two cents-Patti sent me a picture of Daniel and his cousin Josh just after their photo op with Alex Kingston. I love that Daniel is totally grinning and obviously a little starstruck in this photo. :-) )
We all laughed because it was a ton of fun to do. After the photo op, we went over and spent 5 minutes debating about whether or not to buy a George Takei autograph. We finally decided to go and buy one. When we got up there, we talked with him about how my grandparents watched Star Trek as a child and how he now watches it consistently on blue ray. He also taught us some words in the English language that were derived from French. Man, he is awesome. As my cousin put it he is a star, which is a step above celebrity. We concluded that hour with smiles on our faces and a fun set of memories.
Somewhere in-between things, we found a photo opportunity in the lobby. I thought it was cool, and I got a picture of me in it.
We continued to wander the floor after that. That was quite uneventful. No can I have your picture moments. Yes! That was great. After that, we went to the last panel of the day, which was a Doctor Who Ultimate Experience. They got all four of the Doctor Who actors that made it to the con (Peter Davison, Sylvester McCoy, Alex Kingston, and Matt Smith) together and did a panel. In this panel, they had the TARDIS prop on stage and they all entered via TARDIS.
It was loud in the ballroom. Hundreds of people yelling at the top of their lungs in a confined space makes for ear deafening loudness. After the room calmed down, the panel officially started. There were questions asked about the careers of the actors in relation to Doctor Who. They talked about some of the funny and embarrassing things they have done on and off set, Doctor Who or otherwise. One question that was posed was about the signature item that each character had and their origin. For Peter Davison, his signature celery stick was given to him by the directors so that there would be something unique about him. It never was really explained in the TV series until the last of Peter Davison’s episodes where it was revealed that too much of a certain gas would make it turn purple, then eating it would be the antidote. Sylvester McCoy’s signature thing was his umbrella. He asked for an umbrella for his character, and they came back with an umbrella with a question mark at the end. He loved it. Matt Smith’s signature bowtie and fez took a bit longer to explain. He said that while they were finding a costume, Matt wanted something that the other doctors didn’t have, a different look. He first got a brown coat with some high cuffed pants and a plaid button up. The Directors told him that that was good. Matt then asked, “Can I have a bow tie?” The directors looked at him like he was nuts. He gave them a look that said that he was going to have it. The first couple of his references to bowties being cool were all spur of the moment things. Later on, Matt was asking for a hat for his doctor. He said that it seemed that most of the other doctors had a preferred hat. The directors said no a couple of times. Finally, after Matt had insisted to the point of annoyance, the directors gave him a fez, thinking he would hate it. They were wrong. It became his cool hat. The panel went very similar to that for the entire hour and a half. We got on the train and headed home, utterly exhausted.
Day three was cloudless but cold. That day I decided to go as the 11th Doctor. I had a blue shirt that seemed very 11th Doctor-like that went rather poorly with my suit. I also tied on a black bow tie (11th Doctors thing). I got on the train and met my cousins, which was the same as the two other days. We got down to Salt Lake City and then sat in panels all morning. 3 end to end panels in the Ballroom. They were all great! The first panel was Alex Kingston. She said a lot of the same things the night before, except for how she decided to go into theatre. While young she had wanted to be a Flight attendant and then the British form of a judge. High school rolled around, and she realized that she wanted to be those things entirely for the costume, not the profession. That is how she decided to go into theatre, which lead into a TV role, which boosted her popularity.
The next panel was the Jason Isaacs panel. Man, he is just as funny as Alan Tudyk. He first went through all of the questions that were asked all of the time, which consisted of “What was it like to be Lucius Malfoy?” “What did you have to do to get the role?” “What was it like to work on the Harry Potter movies?” He answered all of those before he got the actual questions. He said that all of those were really simple questions. Answers were often too broad to answer bluntly, so he would share an experience. The experience I remember most (that he said) was his creation of the signature Malfoy look. He saw the concept art and didn’t like it. It showed a business man, short hair, and a muggle like suit. He knew of the character, and rejected the concept art. Malfoy was a person who had held power for so long, that the change when it came to the muggle-borns and those that were related to that aspect scared him. That was why he was such a bully. Also, he hated the muggles. Why would he dress like one and have a haircut like one? That was a very good reason for the way he looked and was great at his role. He also shared that his most rewarding role that he ever did was Lucius Malfoy. That was a very good panel.
The next panel was the Jeromy Renner (Hawkeye in the new Marvel movies) panel. There were questions posed to him about his career as Hawkeye, and about the upcoming movie Civil War. All he said about Civil War was that he didn’t know and he had spent a ton of time coming out to see the SLC Comic Con. There were questions about his archery skills. Regarding those, he said that the hardest shots for him were the ones he actually had to do. All of the other ones were CG. He also said that the archery Hawkeye does really isn’t archery, but is more of a trick shot and luck shot sport, seeing as many are impossible. He also talked about some of the other roles that he did, which were many that I had never heard of. It was a decent panel.
After that, we left the ballroom. We walked the floor for a bit, and I bought stuff for my parents. My aunt, cousin and I went and milled for about an hour and a half by the Photo Op area for our last photo op of the con, the Matt Smith one. While we were waiting, we went over and spoke to an entirely alone Sylvester McCoy. It was short, but it was still cool to talk with him. We shortly spoke about the panel the previous night, and how he was one of the liveliest up there, giving sound effects and crazy hand gesturing. That was short as a group of other people came up to see him. We then waited more for the Photo Op. And waited. And waited. And waited some more. The Photo Op people were really badly behind that day. Saturday is the worst day for Photo ops.
We finally got through. Looking at the photo op, we saw just how tired Matt Smith looked. He had just been through a combo photo op with Alex Kingston. With tons of people. Yet, at his alone one, he looked tired. We were VIP, so we were one of the first to get our picture taken. I felt sorry for him. I wandered the floor a bit more after that, and then went to a panel, which was about the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I left about half way through. There was no way I would have listened to it longer than I did. I found out that speculation and a hard core and deep knowledge of the comic books made for a panel that was less about the Cinematic Universe, and more about what the panelists thought about the comic books and what ones they would like to see in the cinematic universe. I was board.
The last thing of the night was the Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog Sing Along panel. That was a very different experience. There is something about having 900 other people singing and reciting the movie with you that changes the experience. That was fun to behold. After, there was a raffle where groaning was encouraged because the hosts thought it was fun. I never thought that groaning could be fun! Afterward, I headed home. I was tired enough that I forgot that the next day was Easter. Yup. That is tired.
(Shauna again-this is Daniel's totally-tired-but-still-having-fun look.)
Here are some other random facts that I learned about the FanX Comic Con 2016. As I learned these, I was kind of amazed. Fact #1: SLC Comic Con is the third largest in the nation, preceded by New York and San Diego. Fact #2: The Hashtag #FanX16 was the highest trending hashtag in the world those three days. Fact #3: There were two other cons going on around the nation at the same time, and SLC was crushing them in attendance and trending, even though this FanX is the smaller of the two cons that SLC does. These were all really cool facts that I learned.
So, there is a sum up of my FanX Christmas gift. It was the most fun I have had in a while. I never thought that waiting in line could be so much fun until FanX.
(Me again, adding my last comment-Patti told me that Josh had fun hanging out with Daniel because they like all the same things. I'm so glad that my kids are friends with their cousins and enjoy their company rather than just tolerating it.)
