Comic Con Haul

Hey everyone! I wish it was Saturday all over again! I had such a fabulous time at the Manchester MCM expo and it was over way too quickly. I would love to go for the entire weekend and stay over in Manchester, plan two different cosplays too. Hopefully next year will be the year I can make that happen! If you didn't see my (very amateur) cosplay, check out this post :) Anyhow, as promised, here is my haul post; I purchased some awesome things! If you're a fellow nerd or kawaii lover, or you just enjoy nosying at what people have been buying (I know I do!), then read on. Enjoy! 

My aim before I went to Comic Con was to come home with a new Funko Pop figure for my collection, a plushie and some prints from Brogan Coral, as it's a tradition of mine now to get some new prints from this amazing artist every year that I've been to the Manchester expo. I was very happy to tick off all of the items on my list, plus get some other wonderful items! Here's what I got...

I'm super happy with my haul!I picked up the Funko Pop figure and the Funko Mystery Minis Blind Box from the Forbidden Planet stall, and I was impressed that the prices were standard as it's typical to find that stalls will charge so much more at a expo. I bought the pin badge and Pocky snacks from Tofu Cute, which is a store that I like to buy from every year since they are one of my favourite UK suppliers of kawaii products. I couldn't find business cards on the stalls were I purchased the keyring or plushie though, sorry guys! My post is going to be pretty picture heavy from this point on :) 

I was over the moon when I spotted this figure on the Forbidden Planet stall at the expo! This Rick & Morty Pop figure is one of the new figures that were just released as exclusives for the San Diego Comic Con event, so it was a surprise to see it with other exclusives on the stall. I couldn't not buy it! It's so adorable, bright and colourful. Really kawaii and eye-catching, and I'm so glad to add it to my ever-growing Pop collection. The RRP of Pop's is around £12 and I got this SDCC Exclusive for £15 which was a fantastic price, becasue it would have cost me so much more with the cost of shipping and such to order it online! The figure is in perfect condition too. 

I've been watching a lot of blind box unboxing videos lately with my niece and my mom (I've gotten my family obsessed with blind boxes too, haha!) since we figured out how to watch youtube on our firestick, so I had blind boxes on the brain when I went to Comic Con. I spotted a few blind boxes for things that I'm not really into and I had given up that I would come home with a blind box, until my best friend & I were taking our last walk around the convention centre. The Forbidden Planet stall had two sides and I hadn't looked much at the other side, the one that didn't have all the Funko Pop figures. I spotted the Game of Thrones series 1 & 2 blind boxes on the other side of the stall, and these were only £5! I was so happy. 

I was hoping to get one of my favourite characters, Tyrion or Arya, or Rhaegal (the green and bronze dragon), and I would have been glad to get Daenerys, Khal Drogo, any of the dragons or the direwolves, or Jon Snow. I got Ned Stark, nevermind! I'm still impressed with the figure. It's in great condition and has lots of details for a small figure. I have a mighty need to collect all of Ned's children to go with this figure now :) Have you ever gotten one of these figures before?

I wanted to get a new Amuse plushie from Tofu Cute. I was looking for a 'character' that I didn't already have or one that I immediately fell in love with, but I didn't find any this time unfortunately. I did however see the Tofu Cute pin badge collection, that I'd totally forgotten they'd released so that was a wonderful surprise. It was tough to choose which one to buy but I decided on this adorable panda pin. I love how adorable it is! All the pins were £5 each and are all available on the store's website. I really like the presentation of the item too, each comes on a cute card which on the back has a little character description. Oh, and the back of the pin is pink plastic which is cool.

As you can see, I couldn't resist opening the cookies & cream Pocky that I bought on Saturday! I wanted a snack to take to my dad's house on Monday night to munch whilst watching the latest Game of Thrones episode. They were delicious! I picked up some milk flavoured Pocky as well, since that's my favourite flavour. I wanted to try Matcha flavour but they were more expensive so I decided to pick some up next year. 

I really like things that are made from hama beads because they remind me of my childhood. I made some hama bead things when I was younger at a summer youth club place that I went to. I came across a stall with some really awesome hama bead creations and I would have loved to buy one, however I couldn't think where to put it. I saw a pot of keyrings for £1 at the front of the stall so I just had to get myself this little mushroom. It's cute and I like the bold colours. I wish I'd seen a business card so I knew the name of the shop. 

LOOK HOW ADORABLE THIS IS!! I spotted an awesome stall towards the back of the convention centre that was selling various plushies, including quite a few Tokidoki ones. If you're a regular reader of my blog, you'll know that I'm pretty obsessed with the Italian kawaii brand, Tokidoki so you can imagine my excitement when I saw Tokidoki merch at Comic Con. I chose the 'Biscottino' plushie because I've never seen any merch of her before, plus who doesn't want a sweet donut kitty!? This keyring plushie is so so soft and made from such good quality material. I love the different colours and the overall design. I paid £7 for her, and I'll never be able to bring myself to put her on a bag or something because I don't want to spoil her.  

Something I love about going to Comic Con is that nestled within the nerdy merch stalls and other displays, they have an artist section which is fabulous to browse and see all of the artwork of various artists and comic illustrators and so many different styles and media of art. Each year, I visit the Brogan Coral stall and take advantage of the two prints for £6 offer. The prints I choose this year are just so gorgeous! 

I love love love all of the colours and the magical theme of the each of Brogan Coral's prints! I opted for sci-fi style designs this year as they are something different to my previous buys from the store. How stunning are the details of these two prints though!? Words can't describe how much I love them. I've written a review about the prints I purchased from Brogan Coral at last year's Comic Con, if you're interested you can read here. 

At last year's Manchester expo, I bought a print from SushiStudios and I lost it before I got home! It was a really awesome Ravenclaw house sigil design; I was gutted :( I found the stall again this year but they were only selling postcard versions of the prints. I obviously had to get one, and I kind of wish that I'd picked up one for each of the houses and not just my own. 

The detail of the Ravenclaw eagle is amazing! I love how each of the animal mascots were wearing a scarf in the colours of their house. Whenever I look for Ravenclaw merch, I usually prefer sigils with a raven design rather than opting for the traditional eagle of the house because I normally don't like the way the eagle is drawn or whatever. That's definitely not the case when it comes to SushiStudios design, because I absolutely love the eagle and I can't wait to put this postcard up on my art wall to display my house sigil with pride!

What I love most about browsing the artwork at Comic Con is finding new artists who's work I absolutely love. I discovered a new store called PearlesquedCreations and bought this gorgeous Elf illustration. Elves have always been one of my favourite mythological/fantasy creatures and I'm really impressed that this A5 print was only £2. I couldn't resist buying it! I didn't get a business card for the stall where I picked up this adorable sticker, which I'm sad about because they had so many other cool designs. I thought this kitty with an ice-cream smushed onto it's head was too cute to not buy, and I'm planning to stick it to the front of my new laptop when I finally get one. 

I hope you all enjoyed reading my Manchester Comic Con 2017 haul post! Let me know which was your favourite item that I bought in the comments. I had a brilliant time, even though it was exhausting. To get to the event, we have to catch two trains which are always crowded at the time we head over to Manchester. This is super hard on my anxiety so I am thankful for the twenty minute wait for our connecting train at Bolton station. It's all worth it once we get to Manchester though, and we see everyone else in their cosplay walking around the Oxford Road station area. 

The event this year was lovely and there were so many friendly people commenting on my Totoro cosplay. One girl asked to take a photograph of me which was really sweet (even though I felt so shy! I wish I was better at social interaction) and I ended up in a photograph with a group of cosplayers when I was waiting for my best friend outside the toilets, haha! The highlight of the day was getting to 'spy on' Manu Bennett! Any of my fellow Spartacus fans will know that this beautiful man played Crixus on the show. *insert all the heart-eyed emojis* 

Thankyou for reading!

 ♥

Have you ever been to a Comic Con event? 

Did you cosplay or buy anything nice? Tell me all about it :) 

I'd love for you to follow me over on my social media!

| Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Tumblr | Bloglovin' | Google + |  

Why I love Cosplay

It's been over a week since I went to Manchester Comic Con and  still can't stop thinking about it. I wish I was going again this weekend! It's such an awesome experience. The atmosphere is incredibly fun, everyone is so cheerful and friendly and lovin' life in their cosplay. When you put on cosplay, it's easy to feel like someone else, to take on the persona of your favourite character. It's lovely to see people in full costume, acting the way that their character does, imitating their signature moves, and giving their best impression of their voice/sound. The intricacy of some of the cosplays you see at Comic Cons is truly amazing! You can see that so much time, energy and passion has gone into creating their fantastic cosplay. I walk around the convention in awe of everyone's hard work. Some people resemble their characters so much that it's hard not to stare at them, it's mermerising. Other people's cosplay is really comical and creative too: giant robots, full-body My Little Pony suits, Roman statuettes. Imaginations run wild at Comic Con! Today, I thought I'd share with you the reasons why I enjoy cosplay so much. I hope you enjoy reading :)

One of the reasons why I love cosplay is the passion and effort that goes into it. You can really tell how much people love their chosen characters by all of the work they've put into their costumes, and even if they are not as intricate or well-made as some of the cosplay pros, people are just so cheerful being dressed up as their favourite characters and it's awesome to see. They feel badass in their cosplay and that's all that matters. Everyone is so happy, and the overall atmosphere is fabulous! Another thing that I love so much about cosplay is that you can dress as any character you like! There's so much imagination that goes into people's cosplay. This year at Manchester Comic Con, a girl dressed as a unicorn and she looked so amazing. 

The main thing that I love about cosplay events like Comic Con is the community spirit, the friendliness... it's wonderful! I'm not sure if this is the case for everyone, but I get a real sense of belonging when I'm at Comic Con. I mean, there's always a few people in every community that are not the nicest, but in general everyone admires each others cosplay and shares the love. People want to take photographs of your cosplay or compliment you. When I first walked into the main hall of the event last Saturday, a girl who was also cosplaying as Totoro ran over to me excitedly, saying I was the first person she'd seen all day also dressed as Totoro :) She was super nice and asked if she could take a photo with me. It was really sweet and if I wasn't so socially awkward and anxious when meeting new people, I would have remembered to ask her name! But instead, I stood there giggling and chirping the odd word out >.< So on the chance that my Totoro buddy reads this, hey! 

I love how people will organise meet up's with their cosplay counterparts, and make facebook groups for them to join to chat about their love of the characters. One of my absolute favourite moments of the day was seeing a huge group of Disney cosplayers meeting up outside the front of the convention building and having photos taken together ^.^

Another highlight of Comic Con is when instead of saying hi to you, people will say a random phrase or make the sound of the character you are dressed as XD It's just brilliant to be around fellow nerds!! At my first Comic Con, I dressed as Pichu and a few people just made a Pichu sound at me! It was kind of surreal, I don't know how to explain it :D I've been considered the weird one (affectionately, of course) in my friendship groups in the past because I do things like this, haha! So to be surrounded by people who are just as dorky as me feels epic. Comic Con is one of the only places I know I won't get weird looks walking around making random squeaks, etc. It's like my home from home :) 

I wish I'd taken more photographs of people's cosplay but I'm still working on my ability to approach people and ask if I can take their picture. I'll hopefully be better next year but here are the couple of photos I took: 

How gorgeous is this Disney Princess cosplay!? Her dress was absolutely stunning and  so eye-catching! It must have cost so much to make/buy :O I asked to take her photograph to show my nieces and nephew that people dressed as Princesses at Comic Con; I know that they will be very impressed! There was a guy cosplaying as a Pokestop! It was AMAZING! I just had to capture this photo of him following Pikachu around. What a creative idea for a cosplay though! The final photograph I took this year was one of my favourites of the entire day. I absolutely adore Cats The Musical! It's one of my all time favourite musicals; I've even been to watch it live TWICE (and would never say no to going again & again). This girl's cosplay of Mr. Mistoffelees is so pretty and sparkly. I absolutely loved it!! *insert all the heart-eyed emojis here*. 

Here are some more photographs of amazing cosplay. I took these at last year's Comic Con, as one of my friends was an absolute star and asked everyone if we could take their photo so I didn't have to. Yay! :D

Finally, I wanted to show you all the cosplay outfits that my best friend & I have worn so far, firstly for Manchester Comic Con 2015 when we were Misty & Pichu, and this year when we were a Hufflepuff student and Totoro. I'm already planning who I'm gonna cosplay next year!

I just have an absolutely fabulous time at Comic Con, and I can't wait to go to more in the future. Cosplaying is so much fun and if you've never done it before, I can't recommnd it enough. You'll be able to release your inner child and play fancy dress but in a room full of hundreds of other people joining in too. How can you say no to that!? :)

Thankyou for reading!

 ♥ 

Have you ever been to Comic Con? Did you cosplay? Tell me all about it.

I'd also love to know who you'd dress as if you've never been to Comic Con before!

 Like this post? Check out my other Comic Con posts:

| Dealing with Anxiety at Comic Con | Manchester Comic Con Photo Diary |

 

Manchester Comic Con 2016 | Photo Diary

If you follow me on social media, you might have seen that on Saturday I went to the Manchester MCM Comic Con. I absolutely love going to Comic Con, it's such an awesome day out for a nerd like me :) I love seeing all of the cosplay that everyone has put so much effort and passion into making and spending an afternoon shopping at all of the stalls which perfectly cater for my fellow kawaii lovers, plus gamers, anime and manga fans, and those who appreciate fantasy and art. I always go crazy with my camera at Comic Con so I thought I'd share some of the photos I took with you all. Enjoy! 

For those of my readers who might not have heard of Comic Cons, they are big events which were originally known as Comic Book Conventions where fans of comics could meet up to share their love of their favourite stories, artists and characters, and have a chance of meeting their most loved illustrators and writers. Some people would also dress up as their best characters to show their love for them. Over time, as the 'nerd' culture grew and people became interested in a massive array of things, these conventions developed and featured all sorts of hobbies and interests. We now have Comic Con events that accomodate for so many geeky niches, and they bring people together which I think is awesome. So, here are some photographs of Manchester's event: 

I fell in love with this adorable little cat character as soon as I saw it, meaning I couldn't not buy one of these pin badges for my collection. How could I say no when the card says 'Take Me Home Please'!? So cute :) 

My best friend made me giggle when she spotted this Wobbuffet and immediately picked it up to show me. Basically, I am constantly imitating Pokemon because I'm a dork haha, and well Wobbuffet is one of my favourite Pokemon sounds to make. Me & Jess like to remind each other how weird we both are! I seriously regret not buying this little guy now. 

I managed to take a sneaky photograph of Andrew-Lee Potts, who you may recognise from the TV series, Primeval. I am way too shy to go up to famous people unless they are like my all time favourite celebrities so I was attempting to get some pics of him without being noticed :) I only managed to get one good shot though because a lovely girl dressed as anime star, Hatsune Miku, asked if she could take a photograph of my cosplay. I dressed as Totoro (from the Studio Ghibli movie 'My Neighbour Totoro) and well everyone loves Totoro! 

How pretty are the My Little Pony figures above!? Seeing them was so nostalgic as I had these figures when I was really young. I remember that I used to chew their legs! haha seriously though, those figures are so gorgeous, really colourful and sparkley. 

One of the things I love most about going to Comic Con is all of the kawaii stalls! Tofu Cute is probably my favourite UK Japanese and East Asian supplier; be sure to go and check out their website if you love Japanese snacks, kawaii and they are also the official UK supplier of Amuse plushies. Check out my own Amuse collection here. I get so excited about visiting their shop at Comic Con! Another kawaii shop that I was really looking forward to visiting was the LoveJoJo stall, which is another UK Japanese supplier who also offer a monthly subscription box that I've been curious about trying for a while now. When I spotted LoveJoJo's instagram photos of their stall, I was so giddy! I was certainly not disappointed when I saw it in person. 

The final photo I've decided to include is of a creepy af teddy bear that I spotted on the stall of an independent artist. As a massive fan of horror, I thought it was awesome, although others may not agree :) It immediately made me think of the 2002 movie 'Cabin Fever' which was full of some lovely skin peeling off gore! 

Thankyou for reading!

 ♥

 Have you even been to Comic Con? What did you think of it? 

If not, do you want to go? What would you cosplay as?

Check out my other nerdy posts:

| My Top Five Pokemon | Chibli Pokemon Phone Case | Princess Mononoke Necklace |