The 2nd Annual Rose City Comic Con #RCCC and Some Tips

My modest take on Poison Ivy at Rose City Comic Con

Saturday September 21st and Sunday September 22nd we were all invited out to go to the Rose City Comic Con. We made the first day a family event and the second day my husband and I spent the day as a Mommy and Daddy day. We saw: vendors with their merchandise, exhibitors with their memorabilia, artists, special guests, celebrity guests, voice talent, gaming guests, live entertainment and panels, gamers and cosplayers. This comic and sci-fi/fantasy convention was definitely a mash-up of all things geeky and nerdy.

We received the final details very last minute so the night before my family got their costumes ready. I just dressed the girls up as Disney Princesses and they wanted to be twins so they were both Belle. As for the rest, my husband took me to the local Goodwill to see what I could find.

Batman Delbin and his getaway vehicle.

I found an awesome hooded back cape and a Batman costume for Delbin and was trying to find a Iron Man costume for Jaedan, but had no luck. I really didn't want to pay full price for one. Jaedan ended up making his costume out of a jumble of Steampunk looking parts to make a Iron Man arm to try and recreate this look. He had a round LED push light he used for the arc light reactor in the center of his chest and he cut the bottom of a aluminum pop can off to use as the hand repulsor. He also drew his Robert Downey Jr./Tony Stark beard and mustache on by hand. (Sorry I don't have a picture of Jaedan in costume, he is camera shy and had some slight costume malfunctions when he got to comic con.)

I was also scouting out my costume. I love cosplay and I wanted to be Poison Ivy. I wanted this costume to be a homage to my first Halloween with my husband. He was Batman and I was Poison Ivy. We threw our costumes together from thrift store finds back then also. His mask was made from a ski mask he had and black duct tape and cardboard. My hair was spray painted red. We never got a picture and I wish we had because it was awesome! My husband didn't dress up unfortunately though this time around. He didn't want to steel Delbin's thunder. This time I found a red wig and used fake ivy to wrap around me. The rest of my costume was makeup I had and clothing from my closet. The look I wanted to achieve was a more modest version of the seductive villain.

My ultimate goals in going to the Rose City Comic Con was to see the venders there, take lots of pictures of people in costume and go see The Doubleclicks perform. I was also looking for Doctor Who and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic memorabilia.

My husband checking out MLP art from Katie Cook and Andy Price.

What's this? Laura Croft with a Llama on her head??

Some very colorful people.

Arrrrrr!

Here are things about our visit I would change if I had a time traveling device:

• Know Where To Park: We spent the first moments after we arrived to the convention center trying to find parking. My husband was not too happy going around in circles.
• Plan What You Want To Do and See: I didn't even get the schedule out at all on the first day and they had some cool sounding panels that were also kiddo friendly that we completely missed out on. Also, there was the whole layout and map of all the tables for the vendors so I could have easily mapped everything all out.
• Make a Meeting Place: I was so caught up in the moment of everything that I lost track of my husband. Thankfully all my kids were still with me, but we spent hours trying to find each other because we didn't have a place to meet if we got lost from each other. Also, I didn't know that you could page people at the front desk and that would have also saved us some time. My other blogging friends that were there had trouble with their cell phones inside the building so we weren't able to meet up with most of them because we didn't set up a time and place to meet ahead of time.
• Bring a Bag: I thought that this, like other conventions I had been before supplied you with a bag to put handouts in that you would be getting. I was very wrong. I kept on saying to the vendors that I needed a something to hold all the awesome stuff I was getting. One of them finally gave me a comic slipcover bag to put some of it in. I kept on seeing RCCC tote bags, but didn't know where to get them and I found out later that they were an extra $5 to purchase at the RCCC Merch Booth.
• Bring Food and Drinks If You Can: We didn't know the policy on whether or not bringing your own food or drink was acceptable practice, so we left ours home. Concession stands and vending machines selling food and drink there were quite expensive! So knowing if we could have brought some ahead of time might have saved us some money and whiny children.
• Don't Forget a Camera AND Extra Batteries: This is actually something I didn't forget this time, but in the past I have forgotten and saw so many opportunities for pictures that presented themselves. The extra batteries are so important too because I know of so many times that my camera ran out of juice and I didn't have a spare. 
• Don't Forget Your Cell Phone AND Charger: My other blogging friends that were there had trouble with their cell phones inside the building. Signals were lost, batteries died, etc. Sometimes technology just doesn't work as well as we would like, but a cell phone could still come in handy. If you have a fancy phone or tablet with high res camera and games (I do not) you can entertain your kids when things get boring for them while sitting at panels, etc.
• Cosplaying Can Get Tricky: Seeing all the people dressed in costume was really fun for me, but some of the costumes were a little bit scary for my youngest who is almost 3. She was very intimidated by some and wasn't sure what to think. If I could go back I would have talked to her ahead of time about cosplay and how the people are just dressed up to have fun. Also, my oldest that was in the Batman costume got really hot while he was dressed up and was walking around in a mask he couldn't see very well in. Jaedan, who made his costume from scratch, had some technical difficulties and costume malfunctions with it too. So, I think more practical costumes are in order for next year.
• Know About All Kid-Friendly Things: If you are bringing kids then the key to any event is to keep them occupied and not bore them to the core. We saw so many things in the schedule after the fact that we totally missed that were also kiddo friendly. I am sure if we had planned our day out with the kids ahead of time that we could have stifled some of the whining that proceeded.
• Bring Enough Cash: Not all of the vendors took credit cards as we found out to our dismay when all our cash we brought ran out. We saw a lot of neat things we wanted to purchase while we were there at the con. There may have been a cash machine somewhere in the building, but those usually ding you with unwanted fees.

Teela and Zari in front of the '66 Batmobile. Teela has her Vanna White pose down pat ;)

Teela with R2D2 and R4 from Star Wars

Kids Area with more Disney Princesses!

The Mighty Morphing Power Rangers and Princess Teela have saved the day!

Stuff we enjoyed while we were at RCCC:

• Cosplayers: There was such a diverse lineup of characters. We saw superheroes, super villains, Steampunk, and characters from anime, manga, fantasy, sci-fi, books, movies, TV, games, and comics. My favorites were: Dr. Who, Tardis, MLP, Princess Zelda, Link, and San from Princess Mononoke.
• Kids Area: RCCC had a Kids Area that the littles enjoyed. They especially enjoyed the Little Engineers Table where they had remote control machines, robots and vehicles & LEGO simple machines to manipulate. The Kids Area also had Disney Princesses that did balloon animals/sculptures, face painting and story time for a small fee. There was also Super Hero Puppet Theater, Comics4Kids, The Alter Egos Society, and an animal petting zoo. I wish they had more for kids available for free.
• Panels: We only had time to go to one panel, The Doubleclicks. They were such a fun geeky musical group. I highly recommend going to see them! They are local to Portland too! I wanted to see and experience other panels, but didn't get to. Thankfully some of the panels you can see online for free on FlipOn.tv, but if you want to watch them all you have to pay $11.95 for the full archive. I watched the Female Comic Creators panel after the con.
• Vendors, Exhibitors and Artists: I saw so many neat things to buy and look at while I was there. My favorites included, but weren't limited to: Sock Dreams (gorgeous socks and accessories), Glow Sabers & More (had a demo unit of their marshmallow shooters for kids and others to try), Geekographs (etched metal fan art), Dark Horse Comics (had a lot of cool free stuff at their table), Espionage Cosmetics, Sabor Forge (awesome very authentic looking custom Lightsabers), Steam Baby (Steampunk awesomeness!), Yes Anime (super alloy collectable figures), Two-Faced Creations (fursuit and cosplay items), Charlie Donkin Art (really intricate and detailed fan art), Benjamin Dewey's Tragedy Series (great tragic comedy with short comics), Chooseomatic Books (Choose Your Own Adventure Books), Andy Price and Katie Cook (partners in crime in the MLP FIM from IDW), Eco Chernik (Exotic Fine Art I love the style of), Plays With Toys (Fun Toy Figurine Photography of Heather E. Ray), Erin Middendorf (Pottery Art I love), PicturePurrfect (I bought some cool MLP buttons from them and they also have prints, plushies, key chains, commissions and more!), Christa D. (She has an awesome Rainbow Dash sculpture that she made and other illustration art.), Cute Glass (Very cute fused glass chibi sculptures), Sara Richard (Love her MLP artwork she did for some comic book covers!), Cutie Bytes (Love their MLP necklaces and I also saw them at Everfree NW!), Bricks & Minifigs (Neat store in Beaverton and other places around the world that buys, sells and trades LEGO blocks and people), Project London (Special Effects Rich sci-fi movie that is all done independently with open source 3D! We bought the DVD and got it signed by one of the executive producers.), THG Props (props, replicas and restorations), and so much more!!!
• Other Stuff Worth Seeing: Old school video arcade, '66 Batmobile and Robin's motorbike, R2D2 and R4 replicas, guest stars.

The Doubleclicks performing their geektastic songs.

Yes, even Poison Ivy dresses as a Pirate if it is for charity! It's a pirates life for me.

It's not everyday you see Merida playing an arcade game.

Holy Collectables Batman!

This is a fun group: Tardis, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Steampunk

I probably left out so many awesome things we saw while we were there because well I really didn't want this to turn out to become a book...or even a graphic novel, LOL!

If you are ever in the Portland area next September 20th and 21st I hope to see you at the 2014 Rose City Comic Con! Also go follow them on Twitter and Facebook for all their updates.

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: Since I am in the Cascadia Connect group of bloggers I became aware of this event and was given free tickets for my family to go. Thanks to Pepper, the Rose City Comic Con and others involved for this opportunity. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this promotion.