For the second time ever, I attended GalaxyCon at the Convention Center in Raleigh.
The first time I went was last year and I attended Friday and Saturday. I dressed up as a Sith Lord original character from the Star Wars universe. My party members were dressed as Johnny Silverhand from “Cyberpunk”, Ace from “One Piece”, Mihawk from “One Piece” and lastly a group of four dressed as Hank, Bill, Dale and Boomhauer from “King of the Hill.”
This year, fewer of us dressed up but Johnny Silverhand made another appearance. A version of Hatsune Miku and Big Boss from “Metal Gear” were there as well as Granmamare and Fujimoto from “Ponyo.” We also only went on Friday this year.
There were many big name artists and celebrities at the convention this year. Some of my favorites to see even from a distance were William Shatner, Sean Gunn, Gates McFadden, Jackson Rathbone, Brent Spiner, Scott Patterson, and so on. I never got the timing right to see a couple of the celebrities like Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis or Barry Bostwick. I was also really disappointed to see that Grant Gustin dropped out of appearing, at least on Friday.
I even got a fleeting chance to speak with Gates McFadden. She was walking away from her booth and I didn’t want to disturb her but someone from my party flagged her down for me and she was lovely.
Overall, the convention was interesting. There’s always a few people who clearly put their blood, sweat and tears into their outfits and everyone tends to be extremely friendly. There are booths upon booths filled to the brim with various merchandise, all of course overpriced. But, paying a bit more than you should for a trinket is sometimes part of the fun.
There is a word of warning I will put out about the convention is that some of the merchandise and activities are not for younger patrons. Toward the back of the convention area there tends to be an area designated toward less child friendly imagery as well as an “After Hours” version of the convention for R rated costumes and events.
That being said, the daytime hours and the specific locations of the merchandise makes the convention friendly to all ages. I didn’t even go all the way to the back this time around so I’m not sure how much age restricted merchandise there was.
At the end of the day, the con has cool stuff, cool people and cool costumes so I find the experience to be a good one.
— dj dragonfly
