Guest Post: Spencer's FanX Top 10

Today, Mormon Geeks has a guest author: Spencer Ficiur. He will walk through his favorite things about the Xperience. I think he likes Cosplay.

I, T.J., will be back on Monday with...well...something epic. We all know it will be, I mean, this is me I'm talking about here. (Alien abductions are involuntary, but probings are scheduled.)

I had my first comic-con (fan) experience this past month. Disappointed that I couldn’t go to the Salt Lake Comic Con back in the fall because of work and school, it was wonderful to be able to make the time to go this time. So as such I’m guest posting about my top 10 moments of Salt Lake Comic-Con Fan Experience!

10. Meeting my doppelganger

Thursday, my friend David and I dressed up as Captain Hook and Prince Charming from Once Upon a Time (our favorite obsession). I’m proud to say we were pretty unique in our costumes, as we only found a few others in Once Upon a Time cosplay (two of them will be in spot #7). So spot #10 goes to meeting the other Captain Hook. As much as I love my Hook costume, I’ll admit his was better (though I’d say that’s largely because his facial hair was real).

9. Don’t blink! Don’t even blink! Blink and you’re dead!

All three days there was a TARDIS at FanX. Naturally as a devout Whovian I had to visit it. Next to the TARDIS was a weeping angel. Kinda freaky when she would actually jump out at you. So naturally when I was dressed up as the Eleventh Doctor on Saturday I had to face off against this demon. No way was she getting the TARDIS on my watch.

8. Adventure is out there! Traveling up to Comic-Con

David and I took the train up to Comic-Con each day and it was interesting riding Frontrunner in cosplay. It was also fun to spot all the cosplayers getting on and getting off as we rode up to Salt Lake. My favorite of the three days on the train was Friday when we dressed up as Carl and Russell from Up.

7. Storybrooke reunion at Comic-Con

On Thursday when David and I were dressed as Hook and Charming we were pleased to run into someone cosplaying as my character’s true love (Emma Swan) and someone cosplaying David’s favorite anti-hero (the Evil Queen, Regina). We quickly took advantage of the opportunity to get a photo with these ladies. Their costumes were awesome!

6. Bigger on the inside

As mentioned previously, the TARDIS was at Comic-Con all three days. As I had three different costumes, I took a picture in the TARDIS each day. My favorite was Russell and Carl commandeering the TARDIS for an adventure!

5. I’m that good at cosplay

Saturday while I was dressed as the Eleventh Doctor one of the staff at FanX invited me and Adam to get our pictures taken for Comic-Con’s Facebook page. I knew my Doctor cosplay was good, but it was really an ego boost to be asked to get my picture taken professionally for free. Moral of the story: if you’re going to cosplay, do it right.

 4. A Time Lord and his time machine
On Saturday I decided to treat myself to a little piece of fun that would make my inner child happy. The Michael J Fox Foundation had a Delorean at Comic-Con for people to take pictures in. The proceeds from it went to the foundation. It was my birthday, it was going to a good cause, and I was dressed as a time traveler. I figured it was a good idea. Having raised me on Back to the Future, my dad was pretty pleased.

3. Do you fancy Billie Piper?

A Rose by any other name… One of my favorite companions from Doctor Who (Donna is #1 and Rose is kind of tied for #2 with Clara) it was a cool birthday gift to myself to get a picture with Billie Piper. This would have easily made #1 on my list if we’d seen her for more than 15 seconds.

2. I live for the applause

Pardon the Lady Gaga reference, but it was pretty hard to top the applause that David and I got when we walked into a panel about Pixar movies as Russell and Carl. Apparently they had just finished talking about Up just before we came in and between our outfits, David’s balloons, and my stuffed Dug, we were hard to miss when we walked in. Again, my ego was boosted a little.

1.  Cosplaying

Simply put, my favorite part of Comic-Con was dressing up. As mentioned, Thursday we dressed up as Once Upon a Time characters (Charming and Hook), Friday we dressed “Up” (Russell and Carl), and Saturday I dressed as the Doctor with David as my fanboy companion (technically he was a David Tennant fanboy, but… wibbly wobbley timey wimey… stuff). Friday’s costumes were my favorite. Only earlier in January had we decided we wanted to cosplay Carl and Russell (most of the stuff we had already; cheapest costume I’ve made yet) and it came together so well. Not only that but I got a huge ego boost when people kept asking to get their pictures with me and Mr. Frederickson (also, if David’s hair greys like that in reality it’s gonna look good). Like I said before, with cosplay, go big or go home. And we went big.

I’m looking forward to Comic-Con in the fall. I’ll already debating on whether I want to do the same costumes again or if I should branch out (I also have a Mario costume I could utilize). Fortunately I have some time to think about it. So I guess I’ll see you at Comic-Con.