All-Con 2012, Defeated!

I spent the past few days down in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas, both to attend All-Con 2012 and to hang out with my long-time long-distance friend ZRissa.

I'll spare you the details on the flight both to and from, though frankly the flight to Texas was a lot worse overall than the flight home. Now this was my first time attending All-Con, and to be frank it'd been a while since I'd last attended a "small" convention (that would have been NecronomiCon in Florida several years ago). After two GenCons (2009 & 2011), it was actually kind of nice to not be going at a breakneck pace, and the crowd itself seemed generally much more relaxed and easygoing.

Maybe it's just my perspective, but All-Con seems more of a "cosplayer's convention," at least if the number of folks that were dressed up just for the sake of dressing was anything to go by. Now that said, there were a lot of really neat costumes, including one lady that did a freaking fantastic Draenai complete with hooved leg extensions (and got a well-deserved win in the Saturday costume competition along with her two partners). And there were quite a few folks in costume that were also in character, including a J. Jonah Jameson and a very genki Rainbow Brite (probably from the star-shaped candy she was carrying around), and the White and Black Queens of X-Men fame. There were also a lot of anime maids running around, including a quintet of rather cute Japanese ladies. One guy had made a pretty nifty Optimus Prime (G1 for those that care) using mostly cardboard, and I salute the guy for wearing that thing because it had to be uncomfortable as well as a royal pain to move about it.

For the most part, I just wandered, attending a couple of panels, but also taking pictures of various costumes that caught my eye. And before any accusations fly of basis, pictures were taken of both men and women in costume. I did attend the Miss Star Wars 2012 contest to provide morale support to ZRissa.

Speaking of Star Wars, I guess I am now to officially be considered "Rebel Scum" as I've been made a Friend of the Rebel Legion (a costuming group that is the opposing number for the more well-known 501st Legion) for both the small bit of work I've done in the Star Wars universe (including sneaking in my first Star Wars d20 PC by way of Jedi General Morningfire) and a few other tidbits here and there, such as donating a signed author copy of Galaxy at War to the RL for a charity raffle to help support Make a Wish. No huge ceremony involved, but it was very cool, and thanks go again to ZRissa as well as to Phil aka DarthGM aka guy that now does Fragments from the Rim for the Order 66 podcast. Long live the Rebellion!

So flights aside, it was quite a fun weekend. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a lingering case of Con-Crud I need to get rid of.\