Today I am sharing my Day Two recap of MegaCon Orlando 2018. If you haven’t already, be sure to read my Day One recap. I’ve still got a lot of MegaCon to cover and even more cosplay photos for future posts so let’s just jump right into this one!
What I Wore
I debuted a new cosplay! How many people remember Disney’s Kim Possible? It was one of my favorite cartoons back in the day and one of the last Disney shows I remember constantly tuning in for each week. My favorite thing about this cosplay was that it was a rather easy and comfortable outfit to wear all day. It was also super fun having so many people recognize me calling out “Hey, Kim!” and doing the Kimmunicator song beep as I walked by. Plus, I got to meet a few other Kims as well! To not load this post up with too many photos, I’ll be doing a separate post with more pics and info on this fun, quickie cosplay!
The Day of Panels
Friday was my day of panels. My plan was to basically jump from one panel to another. Originally, I was a bit worried I was being too ambitious but once I realized most panels were only 45 minutes instead of an hour and all took place around the same area, this actually became a very doable plan.
Working With Worbla Basics
After spending a bit of time at the Cosplay of Anime panel, I ran over to the lecture hall for this Worbla panel. Worbla is a thermoplastic modeling material that many use when looking to create realistic props, armor, masks, etc. I’ve never worked with it before but I hope to one day. It’s just amazing what I’ve seen people to with it. Unfortunately, it’s not cheap nor is it exactly readily available – these two things have kept me from experimenting with it.
This panel was very informative and helpful and made me feel more comfortable about the idea of working with worbla in the future. The biggest resource they named for someone interested in learning how to work with Worbla was KamuiCosplay‘s Youtube channel and book. Having checked out the channel myself, it is AMAZING. The things these people make just blow my mind.
My Hero Academia’s All Might! Chris Sabat Q&A
Next, I went to the panel Q&A for voice actor Chris Sabat. He’s voiced several memorable anime characters over the years. Some include Vegeta, Picolo, and others from Dragonball, Zoro from One Piece, Kuwabara from Yu Yu Hakusho, Armstrong in Fullmetal Alchemist, Christophe in Yuri!!! On Ice, and his current most notable work as All Might in the super popular series My Hero Academia. I had no idea that the same VA did all of these characters and it definitely shows his incredible range as a voice actor.
As you can se from these photos, the panel was PACKED. There was a huge line to get in and I wasn’t even sure if I’d make it inside initially. Luckily, I did and since I had a press pass I was able to roam around a bit and get these shots of the crowd. Till the very end of the panel, there was no shortage of raised hands hoping to ask Chris a question. He seems like a fun and easy going guy and this was a really enjoyable panel seeing him interact with fans.
Cell Phone Cosplay Photography
This was one panel I hadn’t planned on attending when I first made my schedule. It was held by the same group who did the Cosplay of Anime panel earlier and I was intrigued when they brought up they were doing this one later on. I recently got a iPhone 8 Plus and I’ve been obsessed with the new Portrait mode feature. It’s made me get more “artsy” and creative with my phone photos, and I was interested in learning perhaps some tips to get more out of my phone camera.
This panel had info on both general photography stuff (ex. composition, lighting, etc) as well as cell phone photography tips and tricks like what kind of lenses and lights you can buy for your phone, what apps you can use to edit, etc.
Cosplay Construction Breakdown with Yaya Han
Yaya Han is undoubtedly one of the most famous and talented cosplayers out there. She is also one of the first to turn cosplay into a business. She has her own line of cosplay fabrics at Joann’s and has appeared on tv shows like Syfy’s Heroes of Cosplay as well as a guest judge multiple times on TBS’ King of the Nerds.
Her work is simply amazing and as someone who’s followed her career for years, it’s incredible to see how she’s only gotten better and better. Also having met her a couple times now, she is so appreciative of her fans and beyond sweet and humble.
In this panel, she broke down from start to finish all the work that went into her Camila Fire Emblem Fates cosplay. I wasn’t able to get great shots of Yaya or the screen as I was creeping in the back but you can see photos of the completed cosplay on her site. It was super interesting to hear all the details about how she created such an intricate cosplay. Even for a pro like her, it still took 200 hours of work to complete. My favorite part was learning about how she used foam and fabric to create sewn armor instead of using something like Worbla. She said it was a very time consuming process but it created a very durable, lightweight and comfortable armor – things that are all SO important when you’re wearing a cosplay all day at a con!
Billy Dee Williams Q&A
This was another panel I hadn’t originally planned to attend that ended up being really enjoyable. Billy Dee Williams is most known for playing the iconic Star Wars character Lando Calrissian in the original Star Wars movies. As there are tons of Star Wars fans out there, it was no surprise he had a pretty sizable crowd.
Billy Dee shared that he recently celebrated his 81st birthday. He said he’s on a whole new healthy diet and exercises three times a week with a trainer. Some take this as a hint that he might be appear in the next Star Wars movie. It’s fun to think about but either way, I’m glad to hear he’s living a healthier lifestyle – hopefully this means we’ll have Lando around for a while!
Of course, there were questions about Donald Glover and his portrayal of Lando in the new Solo movie. He said they’d met as Donald was gathering information on how to portray the character and Billy Dee said simply to him, “be charming.” He found Donald’s Lando portrayal “pretty good, not bad” in his smooth Billy Dee way. He also answered another question stating he was a big fan of “This Is America.”
Exhibit Hall
I spent the remainder of my time browsing the exhibit hall. I took lots of photos of other cosplayers and also had lots of photos taken of my cosplay which was super fun and flattering! I also got the chance to finally eat lunch at one of the many food stands.
Some Hogwarts students picking out wands!
Such beautiful art! I just love the watercolor aesthetic!
Wrap Up
After the con ended, my dad and I did a super quick shoot of me in my Kim Possible cosplay outside our hotel. I’ll post those pics as I previously stated in a separate post. Then we got changed, walked over to the nearby McDonald’s for dinner, and went to bed nice and early to rest up for the busiest day of them all: Saturday!
When you finally take off the wig you’ve been wearing all day. Also admiring the great hotel bathroom lighting (I definitely should have taken advantage of this more).
