WonderCon 2019 Recap & Cosplay

Last Saturday, a few friends and I drove down to Anaheim to attend WonderCon, an annual convention for comics, sci-fi, film, etc. This was my third year, having gone in 2016 and 2018 previously. Like the year before, it was held at the Anaheim Convention Center. Unlike the year before where I was very sick, I was in good health (although a little sleep deprived), really got to enjoy my one day at the con, and even got to wear a cosplay – something I haven’t done in awhile.

My Cosplay

As mentioned earlier, I actually got to do some cosplay! I’m going to do a separate post on my cosplay so I’ll keep it brief here. I actually hadn’t planned on doing anything leading up to the con. I literally decided what I was going to do the night before and actually stayed up till 4am preparing for the next day (I do not recommend doing this but I’m sure plenty of cosplayers can relate).

Once I made the decision to not go my usual cosplay route of wearing a wig and to instead use my real hair, I decided to go as the 2013 version of Lara Croft. I already had the bloodied and torn up tanks, pants, and necklace. All I really needed to do was add the dirt and blood makeup – something I’ve never done before. For that I needed some help and Luke did a great job doing my makeup and “bandaging” me up.

I used dark brown powder and cream eyeshadow for the “dirt,” lip liner for the “scratches,” and liquid lipstick for the “blood.”

Apparently, the one place Lara doesn’t get beat up or dirty is her back. (Intentionally did this to not get my friend’s car seats dirty.)

Arrival

We arrived at the convention around 11:30am and got a pretty great parking spot within walking distance to the convention. This was amazing compared to the far lot we took the year before where we had to take a bus over. None of us really had any plans other then meeting up at the Warner Brothers panel at 5pm. Thus, we proceeded to see what the Exhibit Hall had to offer.

Exhibit Hall

One of the first booths to catch our eye in the Exhibit Hall was for DC’s upcoming movie, Shazam! Being a longtime Zachary Levi fan, it’s pretty surreal to see his face plastered everywhere promoting a major superhero movie. There was a super short line for a booth where you stood in front of a green screen, said the word “Shazam!” and suddenly your body transformed into the superhero complete with lighting coming out of your hands. You could send yourself the video and post it on social media. It was super silly and awkward, but fun.

The actual suit he wore in the movie!

As a group, we went up and down each aisle looking at all the various booths and vendors. There were definitely some cute things I wanted to buy, but I resisted buying anything for myself. I only bought a couple pins from a super cute shop called BB-CRE8. They had some con exclusive pins of BB-8 dressed as the Avengers and I couldn’t help buying some as gifts.

These berets reminded me of the Just Peachy ones I tried the year before. So cute!

With my friend Veronica and her roommate Emily (how cute are their Cap and Bucky shirts?)

I once again met Stephanie Michelle (she’s a talented cosplayer and Youtuber who loves Voltron/Shiro/anime as much as I do)! She randomly approached me as an attendee at last year’s WonderCon and proceeded to talk about Voltron for a few minutes which was a big highlight for me. This year she was working a booth cosplaying as Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid. I stopped by briefly to say hi and took a couple selfies. As always, she was super sweet and friendly.

Meeting Stephanie at WonderCon in 2018.

You won’t like me when I’m angry (this is my angry face lol)

Urban Decay | Game of Thrones Pop-Up

Around 1:30, we started getting hungry for lunch. We went outside to Food Truck Row looking for something to eat but the combination of heat, long lines, and high prices took away my appetite. Just when I had decided to simply take cosplay photos until my friends were ready to head back into the convention center, I spotted the Urban Decay | Game of Thrones pop-up booth along all the food trucks. After a short wait in line, I was able to preview the new makeup collection and received an exclusive pin set! To see more photos and my thoughts on the line, check out my previous post!

The limited edition collection launches online April 14th.

Group Cosplay Shoots

Before heading back inside to meet up with my friends in the courtyard, I couldn’t pass up the chance to take a couple shots of two great group cosplay photoshoot meetups. The first was for Star Trek. I was happy to see all the original series cosplays but wouldn’t have minded seeing some from the new series, Discovery (if you haven’t watched it yet, this hardcore Trek fan highly recommends it).

Live Long and Prosper

The second was a MASSIVE Star Wars group. There was such chaos with the many photographers before they were able to push everyone back enough. Since I’m small, I was able to secure a spot up front but the only way I was able to capture the whole group was using my Panorama setting. It was just incredible to see all the different costumes from all the different movies and to see fans of all ages, young and old.

Click to see the full size!

Warner Brothers Panel

After walking the exhibit hall a bit more, Luke and I headed over to the Arena around 4:30 for the Warner Brothers panel. Most of our friends had gotten inside already and had seats. We sat with my friend Meg who was visiting for the weekend from San Francisco (she’s the one that gave me the Lucasfilm tour). I haven’t seen her since my trip to SanFran so it was great to catch up on her life before the panel began.

The Arena has a capacity of 7,500.

The Warner Brothers panel showcased three of their upcoming movies: Annabelle Comes Home, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and Shazam! I’m not a big horror fan and am terrified of creepy dolls so I averted my eyes for most of the Annabelle trailer. It seems super scary so if that’s your thing, you’ll probably like the movie. The Godzilla trailer looked pretty impressive and made me want to rewatch the first movie which I accidentally fell asleep while watching on the couch.

The main attraction, however, was definitely Shazam! It was so cool to see the stars and director there. Fun Fact: I saw the director, David Sandberg, three years ago at my first WonderCon when he was promoting his first film, a horror called Lights Out. Crazy that three years later, he’s directing a film as big as Shazam!

You could tell everyone (especially Zac) is super proud of the movie and had a really fun time working on it. I saw a private screening of it earlier this week and they have reason to be proud. DC has had a rough time trying to find their footing cinematically, but this movie is sure to be a hit. I won’t say too much to spoil it but I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and can’t wait to watch it again.

End of the Con

After the WB panel, we said goodbye to Meg and met up with Veronica and Emily to head back to the car. We chatted briefly with some friends we ran into, and Luke had me do a couple impromptu photos since the lighting was just gorgeous during the Golden Hour. I’ll share those photos in the cosplay post but here’s a sneak peek.

Thoughts

I had a MUCH better time this year at WonderCon. Of course, being in good health plays a big part but so is the company. Last year, I spent most of the con on my own. This year, I got to be hang out with some of my favorite people.

WonderCon is one of those nice laid back cons where you don’t have to worry about planning every hour of your day, waiting multiple hours in line to get into a panel, or braving through hordes of people all looking to snag some precious con swag. Here, you can hang out with your fellow nerdy friends and dress up as your favorite characters without fear that the crowds are going to crush or destroy the cosplay you’ve spent hours working on. You can walk the exhibit halls at your own leisure knowing you’re not going to get trampled on. You can walk right into the at the biggest panel of the day minutes before it starts and still get a decent seat. For all these reasons, I really enjoy WonderCon.

If you’re looking for a great starter con, this is it.

MegaCon Orlando in May will be my next con, and after this WonderCon, I’m super excited to see what it’ll bring! I’ll be attending multiple days and (hopefully) will be doing multiple cosplays – we’ll see! I’ll try to plan something out a little earlier than the night before XD

Cosplay

Like last year’s post, I decided to include the cosplay photos I took with my recap instead of doing a separate post like I do for most conventions. After comparing the cosplays I saw this year to 2018, there were a few things I noticed that I thought were interesting. Definitely a lot less Disney princess, Disney animated, Pixar cosplays. Also didn’t notice many anime cosplay (a lot less Sailor Moon for sure) save for My Hero Academia which I saw a TON. Actually, I would say this year’s top cosplays were Into the Spiderverse, Game of Thrones, and My Hero Academia which all do make sense.