London Comic Con 2014 with Claireabellemakes!

{Editor's Note:  Claire and I have been online friends for a while now and she is such a great British friend sending me this amazing package during our package swap!  Make sure you check out our posts on that experience!  And of course check out her lovely blog and Etsy shop!  It was so fun to read about an overseas con!  Thank you Claire!! xo}

I’m so excited to be here today on The Nerdy Girlie to share my thoughts on London Film and Comic Con! I was a comic con virgin before this year, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but I headed off to Earls Court with my boyfriend on a boiling hot day with my geek mind open. We reached London in good time but realized that Tube + heat + flying ant day = horrendous journey.

Luckily we were meeting family who had lined up as outside was the BIGGEST QUEUE I HAD EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE. We soon realized that as we had pre-ordered our tickets we could get in after around 30 minutes in line. So first tip of London Comic Con; pre book your tickets. 

1st impression was honestly “have I entered a sauna”?  Queuing systems were not particularly organized once you got past the entrance of the exhibition hall, so we spent a good 30 minutes shuffling through a massive sweaty crowd with no idea where we were heading or if we had joined a Stan Lee signing or Dr Who line by accident.

Once we emerged from said sweaty nerd bundle (which included people with strollers, what?!) we found ourselves by the autograph line ups which were pretty reasonable and well organized with a ticketing system.  Obviously the super stars were hidden in booths to prevent rushing. Everything was pretty spread out which gave us a good opportunity to people watch, shop and find some good cosplayers to photograph and chat to. 

I loved Lego movie so had to get a photo with this guy!

We heard some people complaining they had lined up for 2-3 hours for various talks and signings, but we visited on the Saturday which is probably the busiest of all 3 days. Bathroom line ups for women were ridiculous also, but I managed to sneak into a staff one with no line after asking nicely yey!

We headed out of the exhibition hall for lunch, getting a stamp to re-enter later in the day.

The cosplay masquerade was pretty fun and these seats went from empty to completely rammed in a matter of minutes. There were plenty of DIY costumes including this awesome TARDIS dress! It looked pretty heavy.

We even got to witness a marriage proposal which was pretty darn cute. She said yes!

Artist Alley was awesome with tons of friendly people willing to sketch you and pass out free comics. The gamer zone was also pretty cool with a retro gaming arcade being enjoyed by all ages. My boyfriend is a game developer so he was in his element there and found tons of 80s games.

There was a good variety of booths to shop at including the Dr Who store, anime stands and tons of kawaii stationery. Alpacasso was EVERYWHERE.

The most cosplayed of the day was Spiderman and there was strong representation for Game of Thrones and Frozen characters. 

The atmosphere was really friendly and I had a great time. Next time we are planning to visit on the slightly quieter Sunday and will grab an early bird ticket for 9am entry to avoid massive crowds. 

All in all a good day, despite being incredibly hot and crowded!

You can find me blogging over at Claireabellemakes or come say hi on Twitter!