Heyya Everyone!
Sorry it’s taken so long for me to post about this, but I’ve been a bit ill recently, plus super busy with work and everything!
So last weekend I attended BFCC 2015 and had an absolutely fantastic time!! On the Saturday I went in what I refer to as my civvies – basically I didn’t cosplay! My fiancé Luke had bought my ticket, all travel costs and a ‘special something’ (which I’ll go into detail on in a minute), as an early birthday present. This was fantastic as I’m a right pain the ass to buy anything for, as I always see things I want, but then buy them for myself in case I can’t find them again later. I was also really upset about missing MCM London in October, due to not being able to get time off of work. Our friend Matt went as Yellow Lantern Scarecrow and looked absolutely brilliant! We all had to duck under his scythe every now and then, but it was totally worth it!
Matt’s fantastic Yellow Lantern Scarecrow cosplay.
We got there in great time, about 10 minutes before the event actually opened, and thanks to the efficiency of the Showmasters staff, had our weekend wristbands and were ready to go within minutes! Once the doors opened and we were inside, I was super pleased to spot a familiar face, in the shape of David and Jo from The Monster Company.
I first met these two amazing people at MCM London May 2015, when I was browsing there stall and spotted something I had been trying to hunt down for a very, very long time: a Smile Time puppet of Spike from the TV show ‘Angel’. My jaw literally hit the floor the moment I saw it, I couldn’t believe my luck in finding one! I got talking to them about how much I loved the episode, about how rare the puppets are now, and about my cosplay at the time (ironically, the same thing I wore on the Sunday); my Katniss Everdeen Wedding Dress. They were stunned by the fact that I had made it all, and asked about the process of creating it, which lead to long conversations and my whole group deciding that this was a fantastic company run by friendly and enthusiastic people. I bought the puppet there and then, and spent all the rest of the con with a big old grin on my face!!
Me and David at MCM London May 2015
Anyways, back to the present; as soon as we entered the hall of BFCC, I spotted their stall again and immediately trotted over again to say hello! Not only did they recognise me out of costume, but also remembered me from MCM! David pointed to a shelf on the top of the stall, upon which sat a Smile Time puppet – of vampire Angel!! Needless to say once again my jaw was on the floor and I started reaching for it, like a small child wanting to be picked up. I bought it the second it touched my hands, and I don’t regret a thing. My first purchase of the weekend!
As the day progressed I bought a fair amount of things, mainly Pop! Vinyls and the odd figure here and there.
My haul from Saturday
Then I was told about the ‘special something’ – I was going to meet James Marsters on the Sunday, and have a picture taken with him. Well that had me both beyond excited and utterly terrified at the same time. Ever since I was young and started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I absolutely adored him and his character in the show, Spike. I also found out he was doing signings and decided I would bring 2 things with me to be signed; after a long decision, I decided on my Spike Smile Time puppet and my Chase edition Spike Pop! Vinyl.
Roll on Sunday! I had already signed up online for the BFCC Sunday Cosplay Masquerade, and because of this I went in my Katniss Everdeen Wedding Dress. Not really realising that would mean I would be meeting James Marsters in a dress with a giant cage round it – I was totally terrified that I would end up accidentally taking an eye out or something! After arriving at the convention again, I first popped upstairs and headed to the Cosplay Masquerade sign in desk. Everyone was lovely and talked me through everything that needed to be done, as well as where and when I needed to be everywhere. It was here I bumped into KouYumi Cosplay, who was helping to get everyone organised and talking with everyone about their costumes: I couldn’t get over how she had made such a fantastic Vaporeon costume in such a short space of time! I then had to head downstairs for my Cosplay photoshoot, which was super fun! I loved seeing everyones costume and chatting with everyone whilst we waited for our turn infront of the camera. I loved my pictures, and ended up buying a print of the full length shot of my dress, it looked so floaty and perfect!
My Official BFCC 2015 Cosplay shot
Luckily the photoshoot ended just in time for my timeslot for the James Marsters photoshoot, so I met up with my friends Emma and Sarah who had also booked to have a photo taken; we were all so nervous but beyond excited!! When my turn came I was so shaky, but as I walked up, he was so sweet and shook my hand, telling me I looked “absolutely beautiful”. I. Nearly. Melted. I had the goofiest grin on my face in the picture, and I couldn’t have been happier!! I even found a stall upstairs which was selling frames for the pictures, which had a plaque engraved with his name, and 2 shots on the right hand side from when he played Spike in Buffy. It was an immediate purchase, and now I just need to find the space to hang it!!
Such an amazing memento of meeting one of my childhood idols.
Later on that day we also had the signing with him, which was such a laugh! I queued up with Emma, as between the dress, the puppet and the Pop! figure, I didn’t have enough hands to hold everything. So when we got to the table we put the puppet and Pop! on the table as instructed, and a mini conversation took place which still makes me and Emma crack up when we talk about it:
Emma: I didn’t realise you were a lefty.
James Marsters: Oh yes. So where do I know that dress from? Is it Frozen?
Me: Almost, It’s Katniss from The Hunger Games.
James: Fuck Me! How did I not know that? Sorry, I was blinded by your eyes.
Well, at that point I had the gimpiest look on my face and couldn’t stop smiling, and after signing the two items, shook my hand again and wished us both a great day. I can safely say that he is one of the sweetest, most friendly celebrities I have ever met in my life, and I will never, ever forget meeting him!
These two beauties are now pride of place in our room ❤
After another few hours shopping, and in the case of myself, Sarah and Emma – giggling like schoolgirls about how much we adore James Marsters – It came the time for the masquerade. So I headed upstairs with my group, and left them sitting in the room whilst I was taken round the back with the rest of the entrants. Everyone was a buzz of excitement whilst we waited to go on stage and show off our costumes and performances. Looking around, a few cosplayers caught my eye; the Belle and Megara, who were so lovely and sweet, and their costumes were beautiful, and the Jon Snow and Sansa Stark. My God their costumes were perfect, they looked identical to the characters and stayed in character throughout the whole show. There were 40 entrants in total and we all had such a great time on stage! Then, after we had all performed, the judges got together to discuss our costumes, performances and confidence on stage. After an agonizingly long wait, the judges had made their decisions. The notable mentions went to the fantastic Ursula cosplay, whose makeup was stunning and costume just beautful! Also to the cosplayers of the Portal 2 androids ATLAS and P-body, whose on stage performance was so funny and perfectly in character. The winner of the group cosplay, was Jon Snow and Sansa Stark! I was so happy for them as they looked so perfect and were such sweet people. Next was the winner of the performance category; the stunning cosplayer of female Loki. Her lip syncing performance was perfectly on point and she looked fantastic, even down to the striking green contacts! Finally, was the first place winner of the show. Everyone was shouting for who they wanted, and then all fell silent as it was announced. It was Katniss. It was me! I honestly couldn’t believe it, I was so surprised! All the winners were asked to return to the stage for a group picture, and we were all so ecstatic!
For me, it was the perfect end to a wonderful weekend with my fiancé and close friends. And to top off the day, Luke bought me another gift, A Pop! Vinyl of Arkham Knight Harley Quinn, and Katniss Everdeen ‘The Girl on Fire’ – The only Katniss I was missing!
An amazing weekend that I will never forget.
All that’s left to do is say a HUGE thank you to Showmasters for holding the event, which was a great success; and to Dark Cleo Productions for hosting the Masquerade, which we all thoroughly enjoyed being a part of. I look forward to watching the video of the event on their YouTube channel, once it has finished being edited ❤
Much Love,
Sabrina xXx
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