FanX 2023 Journal

 

(Guest Post by John)

My friend Mike and I went to Fan X this year. We were able to get on the train and I have to say that was a fun experience in itself. First off I gotta see Neo (Matrix) and I asked him why didn't you just fly there and he was like "oh he wasn't in the mood." Second off we got on the train and we were able to find some seats fortunately. I was sitting next to mad Eye Moody, professor Sprout and Haggard. Everyone had such impressive costumes. I was especially impressed with Mad Eye Moody, he 3D printed his staff, and glued it together it took quite a while; quite impressive. The conductor was fantastic when he got on the intercom to tell us which stop to get off of that would help us to get off for a fantasy adventure. He told it in such a fun way. For example, you've now entered the mothership where warping North for all your ghouls and goblins, then he told us to live long and prosper may the force be with us; and he add a lot more to that, but that was just an old snip bit. 

Mike's wife put together a scavenger hunt for us. We set off to do it all. 

FanX Scavenger Hunt:

1. Someone dressed as a character from a book that has NOT been made into a movie.

2. Someone you know out of costume. 

3. Most creative costume 

4. Someone dressed as an animal, place, or vehicle. 

5. Best makeup 

6. Dr. Who character 

7. Someone dressed up as a character from a movie that is not based on a book. 

8. Someone dressed as an animated character.  

9. Someone who doesn't do the dressing up thing.  

10. Someone in a costume that Mike's wife would totally wear 

On the way I found number 9. A guy went with his GF and didn't dress up. 

In years past when I've gone, I've mostly stayed on the second and first floor just looking and seeing and taking pictures of people. I normally had a better costume so people took pictures of me as well. Mike took the time to look at all the schedules and pointed out some things that might be extra fun and I looked into it as well. This con was definitely a little more interactive than past ones. Our first problem was finding our way into the Salt Palace, we had to go to 3 different entrances to get our passes. A press badge gets you into one additional room other than what most people can get into; the press room. On our scavenger hunt we passed by these girls that were dressed up in the best anime I have seen thus far in Fan X. However, I had no idea what anime was called other than I've seen it before somewhere. Mike has that info. 

We went to 255 to check out the science lab, and had a physics lesson. It was shorter than we thought it would be. I thought it was fun, Mike being a Physicist thought it was pretty lame as he has performed better ones before. 

We went down to the main floor and I saw some really cool things. I have to say I love the creativity of all the people who went. Every costume, everything they're trying to sell, even the decorations on the wall of their booth is creative and amazing. There was a picture of Pizza Hut Jimmy pasto and some war hammer stuff which is awesome. I stopped by this booth koldfire role playing games llc, that had a different role playing game system that they put together. They wrote the book and dressed up as the part which is #1 on our hunt. The main floor has many different themed areas, and that is where we went next. 

Star Trek, Star Wars, and Doctor Who. Great photo opts. Also taking care of #6 on our hunt. We got pictures of wizards, and #4 I know it's an anime of some sort of cat creature. Then we went to some panels. One being anime that should have stopped at season 1. Very true on all the selections they choose. I only watched sword art online, and I agree season 2 sucked. Then we went to room 255 again, and checked out the Star Trek Artemis simulation. Since not everybody showed up we got to try some of the stations I was on, which was really easy as just point shoot point-and-shoot and we were the first group to make it through the entire mission without dying which was a bonus because I don't like to die. 

As we were going back down to the main floor I found a girl with in my opinion the best make-up #5. I was looking for an author this year to buy the next book in the monster hunter series, but he wasn’t there. I took more photos of costumes. Then we went back to 255 and looked at the NASA programs. We learned that Osiris-REx It's supposed to be dropping a probe back down on the salt flats the next day. It was rotating around an asteroid and picked up some rocks and brought it back. Then we went up to room 355. I got a picture of my friend Paul who is a DM and out of costume #2. Paul offered to drive us home. Woot woot.