Ikkicon VIII 2013

Ikkicon is an anime and pop culture convention in Austin, Tx. It’s always after Christmas and sometimes lands on New Years Eve. In 2012, I attended for the first time (you can read about it here.) It was a last minute decision, and I didn’t really know many people. This year I was invited to room with my friend Mia Moore! I was looking forward to seeing her and the chance to meet new friends. The only thing stopping me from going was the drive to Austin. Last time I drove by myself and had a horrible time trying to park at the convention. I was hoping I could find a ride since so many cosplayers from Dallas usually go to Ikkicon. So I asked on my Facebook and was surprised how many nice people offered me a spot in their car! I rode down with Joseph of Chiaroscuro Cosplay. He and I have met a couple times at local Dallas cons. It was a lot of fun talking about cosplay and prop making on the drive to Austin with him!

When I got to Ikkicon, I had to wait in a long long long line to get a badge. I didn’t pre-register, so my line had more people in it. I bet I waited close to 3 hours.

After I got my badge, I met Mia and her friends in our hotel room. It was thrilling to be around a group of friends, and I even looked forward to sleeping on the floor! Rooming with people at a convention was something I had never experienced before. It’s something you have to try at least once! We all got along great, helped each other put on our costumes, and walked around the con together. On Friday, Mia was dressed as Luna Lovegood and I put on my Annie costume from League of Legends.

The convention was packed! This was the hallway in front of the dealer’s room and main event room.

Inside the dealer’s room, there were a lot of booths selling action figures, anime, art and plushies.

It was hard not to buy everything in sight.

The two goodies I bought were a Pokeball and a Sword Art Online journal.

Over in the main event room, my friend and car mate Joseph (Chiaroscuro Cosplay) was Ryu in the cosplay chess tournament. This was cool to watch! When it was time for someone to take down another, they would do it in character!

While I was wearing Annie, I tried to find other League of Legends characters to get pics with. One of my favs was sharing an elevator with Jinx!

Josie and Pussycats

SO COOL!!!

Kurumi from Date A Live and Kirito from Sword Art Online

(If you check my Ikkicon Facebook Album you will notice I was on a mission to photograph every Kirito I could find! I did pretty good, too. I found seven!)

A beautiful Asuna from Sword Art Online by Firecloak Cosplay

(SAO is an amazing anime .. I am totally hooked! If you haven’t watched it you can here for free.)

The Last Airbender 

My good friend Payton of Schmall Cosplay dressed as Puppet Zelda and me in my Fionna cosplay from Adventure Time.

Jack Frost by Sake Kitty Cosplay. This staff was incredible. Each of those lights were individually placed.

Eternal Sailor Moon 

I finally got to meet Tamara and Alycen of Kirakira Cosplay! They were dressed as Pokemon trainer Serena  and Annabeth from Percy Jackson.

Beautiful Elsa from Frozen. She looked perfect next to the tree.

It’s Clary and Isabelle from The Mortal Instruments!! I spotted the white dress and stopped her to ask if she was dressed as Isabelle.. then her friend said “Yes, and I’m Clary!!” I got so excited! I regret not buying that white dress while Hot Topic had them.

Lilith by Texi Jo Cosplay and Gaige by Viverra Cosplay  

More League of Legends! Tryndamere by Odeus Cosplay and me as Annie

And here is my friend Marianne as Monet from One Piece in the cosplay contest. Her boyfriend, Eric, is my good friend from high school! I was so happy to see them both again.

These photos of me are by DTJAAAAM. 

I’ve followed his cosplay pics on Flickr and Instagram for awhile and was really excited to get to meet him! He visits around 40 cons a year taking photos of cosplayers.

I was also super excited to meet up with Ejen of Cosplay in America again. He’s been traveling to different conventions all over to take pics for his second book. Ikkicon 2012 was the first time I met him, and this was the exact spot in the dealer’s room!

Here is his video from this Ikkicon showing a behind the scenes look at cosplayers. You can see my a lot of my friends in it, and that’s me and Mia in the thumbnail!!

I was also filmed by MLZ Studios while wearing Annie. I got to attack the gingerbread village! I am at the 1:25 mark. They film amazing cosplay videos, and I was very honored to get be in one.

:+:+:+:+:

I had a blast seeing friends and meeting new ones at Ikkicon this time! It was fun traveling outside of Dallas. The size of Ikkicon is just right, too. I will be posting a tutorial on how I made my Fionna cosplay from Adventure Time. So check back for that!

And be sure to see all my photos from Ikkicon in my Facebook album!

The next convention on my list is the Dallas Sci Fi Expo in February.