MACGcon 2012

On the 8th and 9th September 2012, Bintang MegaMall and MACGcon Society organised Miri's first Anime, Comic, Game and Pop Culture Convention. Unfortunately for me, a week earlier, I just came back from STGCC 2012, so my perception of a "convention" is kinda "grandeur" due to me still being hyped up by STGCC... I did try to lower down my expectation toward MACGcon considering this is their first event and it is free, but even with my lowered expectation, I can't help feeling a bit disappointed upon entering Bintang Mega Mall... Sorry MACGcon, I'm not trying to degrade you, but the STGCC is pretty much is still in my system and kinda spoiled me... huhuhu... but I do think, their usage of the word "convention" is too early, it is more like a showcase rather than a convention, the whole setting kinda remind me of Times Square Dress-Up Contest held here in Brunei last year...

 here is how the stage look like...

 and how the floor look like...

 and as you can see, the Remote Control section took quite a large portion of the floor, making the already small area to be even more smaller and more narrow...

but on the positive side, MACGcon have an even larger showcase of Gunpla than in STGCC...

 but on the downside, floor space is an issue again... having sooo many gunpla in a small area makes it look like they just dump it all there... and in the end, i kinda lost interest of trying to take picture of each and every one of the gunpla and just end up taking a wide shot of everything...

owh... this is nice... now they just need to make a bigger version of it so one day Miri got a gundam cosplayer of their own... 8D

other than the gundam figurines, there were other series too like one piece...

keroro

i saw someone cosplayed as her at STGCC... but I still don't know who this character is... lolol...

 there is dollfie too...

 some artwork were also on display... i wished they had more and also more artwork other than anime style/genre...

anyway... there weren't many cosplayers by the time I reached there... so that kinda add up to my disappointment... huhuhu... but thankfully, Day 2 turn out to be a much better day as I get to take lots of photos of the cosplayers there... :)

here are the only cosplayers from Brunei... eheh...

SJ as Euphemia Li Britannia from Code Geass

Nio as Shiemi Moriyama from Ao No Exorcist

Cherry as Okumura Rin also from Ao No Exorcist

 Cosplayers group photo with 3 of the event committee...

 they now feel like a celebrity as people almost non-stop want to take picture with them... eheh... something that they didn't get to experience during EAcon or the Times Square Dress-Up Contest...

 cute magnet of the day - Sakura... and yeah, she also joined the cosplay competition...

 Cherry trying to look badass... xp

at 1 plus, the contestant had a briefing on the rules and guidelines of the contest...

two cute magnet together... xp

and them two being lovey-dovey for most of the day... xp

and at 2 plus, the competition start...

 and here is the little Sakura... i'm kinda surprised she didn't manage to get into the top ten... true that her performance is kinda too long and tend to look kinda repetitive, but at least she really showed the effort to portray Sakura's character...

here is her video... you'll be the judge of it...

this is the winner of the competition... and here is her video...

and here is SJ's debut outside Brunei... xp

and the video...

and all together, there were 20 contestant competing on that day... can't remember what was the time it end... after seeing all the performance, i can't believe that there are some of them who look like they kinda mixed up between a cosplay competition and a talent competition... huhuhu...

and so after the competition is done, while waiting for the result, we went strolling around again... and Nio, SJ & Jes drew something at MACGcon art wall behind the stage...

them pointing to their own character which was drawn by Nio... too bad it is not really that visible here... huhuhu... owh... and Jes drawing is not in this side of the pic... eheh...

another group photo of the all the cosplayers...

the two cute magnet together again... xp

and us fooling around again... and can see SJ's relief expression now that the competition is over... hahaha...

unfortunately, SJ only get a consolation prize... but nevertheless, RM100 is still ok... better than nothing... 8D

3rd place winner... a Hatsune Miku???

how about a trivia for you guys out there... try to spot what's missing here...

sorry judges, I totally disagree with this one... i seriously think either SJ or this Yuzuriha Inori coser with the large prop should be in the top three...

2nd place winner... dunno the name... but it's from the series Nurarihyon No Mago...

the MACGcon first cosplay competition champion... Hotaru as Kurosaki Ichigo from Bleach...

Group photo with the top ten winner... 3 vocaloid in the top ten??? :s

SJ, Nio & Cherry taking a photo with one of the judge...

After the prize presentation, MACGcon haven't end yet, but unfortunately, me and the girls have to leave... so not quite sure what other stage performance they had after that... huhuhu...

So... overall I think the MACGcon wasn't that bad... since this is the first time they do this, there are bound to be some screw up here and there... but nevertheless, I'm still kinda upset with what seem to look like a lack of organisation of the the whole event... the schedule just keep on changing and it was only posted up online on the night before the opening of MACGcon... worse, it was posted close to midnight! and even when it was already posted up, the schedule changed again on the day of the event itself which caused Nio to miss the chance to join the CosWalk event... owh, not to forget, the stage lighting was horrible! what with the magenta--ish lighting? if you take example the STGCC Cosplay Runway, even though they used blue lighting, they also use white spot light to project it on the cosplayers, this simple thing can give photographers like me the joy of taking photos... so please, for future event, avoid using those colourful lighting... >_<

then they even put "comic" as part of their convention name... but as far as i can see, i don't see any single stuff related to comic were being displayed there...

and lastly, I wish I can see the scoring of the cosplay competition... in their rule, it state that 40% of the scoring goes to craftsmanship, and that is a very big point, yet Hatsune Miku who clearly missing some of her detail still managed to get 3rd place, so it kinda make me curious on how they give out the scoring... if it is because of her dancing performance, well, stage performance is only 20%... owh... and another thing is the judges... you're supposed to judge them, not take photos of the contestants while they are performing... >_<

ok... i think that is enough of the negative side of MACGcon... on the positive side, like i've mentioned earlier, they showcased more gunpla than STGCC... and since they don't have many booth, I get to enjoy more time taking photos of the cosplayers, even though the number of cosplayers are not as many as STGCC or even EAcon... and not to forget, the friendliness of the committees, they were sooo nice that it doesn't make us feel like an outsider there, so I really appreciate for your hospitality... :)

so moving forward, i still hope to see and hopefully, attend the next MACGcon with lots of improvement, especially the size of the venue... maybe, just maybe I  might want to cosplay next time... huhuhu... i kinda regret i didn't bring along my Joker outfit, at least had I bring it along, I could become the sole representative of the comic world during MACGcon... huhuhu... so to wrap it up, congrats to MACGcon committees, it's a good start with many learning curve, hope to see you guys next year with a bigger and better con... cheers!!! ^^v

PS: I will post up more photos of the cosplayers at another post... so keep on checking... xp