Anime Expo 2016's 18+ Gundam Model Building panel presented by Those Gundam Guys and edited by FreddyWasWrong For those that missed the panel and was wondering why it's 18+, check out the video. For those that have never been to…
Anime Expo update. I’ve been busy the past few months with business trips and a short jaunt to Hong Kong to visit family as well as pick up items for this year’s SCGMC event. This past weekend was the annual Anime Expo and my time at this event has been getting shorter as the crowds have been getting larger. I believe they hit somewhere around 80k people, almost a 20k boost, which is pretty significant.
We arrived around 10AM on Friday, day 2 of the event. Angel and I have our respective kits for the Gunpla Builders World Cup event. There is a sea of people just waiting for the Exhibit hall to open, so we wait off in the wings before the access from our area is opened to the hall. We go in and Mike is already in there setting up his Kampfer, Geara Doga, and an Freedom. I put my Sazabi into the case, turn the lights on and fix the pose a little bit. I notice one of the folks from the Bandai Hobby department outside watching and looking at my kit. The guy has been coming to AX for the past several years so he knows me to an extent. He helps me pose the kit a bit with hand signals from the other side of the glass. Mike and I then help Angel put his kit into the case. It’s funny that every time we’re here doing this, Angel’s hands get so shaky, parts are falling off as he’s trying to place the kit. So the steady hands of Mike and I get the kit in place. I’ve never known Angel to be nervous about anything, but noticeably, at various contests, he gets shaky while trying to display his kits.
Last week, I was busy scrambling to finish up the little jungle diorama base to further the story of the GM team and their poor command unit succumbed to a prowess of a battle hardened Gouf Custom. I originally wanted to be done by Friday so that I could bring it out to AX Friday afternoon; but that didn’t pan out. I got about 70% of the trees placed by Friday afternoon before taking off to pick up Angel and head out to AX. Angel wasn’t finished with his kit either, and he brought along his unfinished pieces to work on during the con. AX was the typical, nothing out of the ordinary, but it was fun to hang out with the crew, wander the halls, and chat with the old staffer crew and just enjoy the people watching that ensued.
Another Anime Expo (AX) has come and gone. I staffed the event for the first time this year at the Art Show, dealing mostly with the Model Contest aspect of the event. This gave me the opportunity to experience a completely different viewpoint to the event. For the past couple of months, I have made many new friends with a good number of AX staffers, so as a result, I picked up a really insightful view of the event. I now have a greater understanding of the sacrifices made by the fans of the event so that they can greatly improve an event that they love and once upon a time, were mere attendees.
