MCM London Comic Con / EGX
October 2024
Tony's Blog - 27th October 2024 (Sunday)
Well, that was a blast. The fun started the day before heading to London. Thursday morning, Alison and Jodie came round and we played a ton of games, in which, I'm going to mention a couple of experiences through our game day which were mental.
The first game we played was Catan. After the last terrible game we played a few weeks ago where the dice just favoured me throughout, and even though I won that one, it was a dire victory. This game of Catan was brilliant, well balanced, but again the dice eventually gave me the 10 I requested and it was a clear win for me. If the 10 I asked for on my roll was anything else, Jodie would have won for sure. Luck of the dice once again. That isn't the main story of our games though. CLUEDO! Ahhhh, if it isn't Catan, it's Cluedo. Alison was the first to do a guess, Jodie and myself didn't have any of them and I really thought she was holding them all and having us on. We put the guess in as well, Alison didn't have the cards either, and she won the race to the middle. It took longer to set the game up than it did to play it. If it weren't so funny, I'd be disappointed, but what an unbelievable game. Can't Stop was fun too because I clearly couldn't stop and the dice hate me on that game.
Before all the tabletop fun, the first thing we actually did was play My Little Pony RPG. Alison was DM and we had our characters prepare to face a dragon. The game book was rather controlling, so eventually Alison started playing it more like D&D, which worked very well, and we sorted that dragon out in no time. My character that I've created which I named Black Hole, has a huge story to be told, and I'm going to continue working on it for next time.
Alison stayed over so we could head off to London on the first train at 6.15am Friday morning, which even with the London Underground, we still get to ExCeL in plenty of time before the convention opened at 10am. The first person I saw was Ben (The Toku Gamer on TikTok), first time we've met since following each other online. After the doors opened, I made a really quick video of the event and then went on my travels. I bought Klask from Dice and Destiny, they're always really friendly and kindly kept my game for me because it's pretty big, picked it up later on in the day. Not kidding, Klask is the reason my shoulders hurt after carrying it around London on the Saturday. I can't imagine how my back would have managed carrying that around all day?
I bought the Charizard Ex Super Premium Collector edition Pokémon box. Only £65 so that isn't bad really. Made an opening video which is on my Tonyo Times YouTube. Got some decent pulls, and the Charizard model is ace.
The big purchase was at the Dungeon and Dragons area which was huge. I signed up to D&D Beyond and had a nice chat with the gentleman at the front about the game. Then I stood in the queue for an hour and bought the new 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide, which if anyone who bought it at the Con, gets it way early as the release of the book isn't until 12th of November. Not bad. The payment system they had was broken though so wasn't impressed with that, but that was the only downfall really.
I had a nice chat with Nat of Small Fries Games, she was lovely. She wanted to play a game with me but time was limited and I had two panels to go see and meet up with someone who wasn't really at the con. *wink wink* I bumped in to Tim who's doing really well with Anime in the UK, and I had the pleasure of meeting up with said invisible chum and Tim, we had a good laugh. TINDER IN THE NORTH! Probably won't be a meme, but we'll see. I have an image in my mind to draw something now which will probably stay in my mind for safety reasons.
The big thing for me was seeing Natural Six in live action D&D. They're as amazing on stage as they are on their online series. I am SO HAPPY I got to meet Harry McEntire, Alex Jordan, Doug Cockle and Hollie Bennett on the voice acting panel, where they had some brilliant advice for anyone wanting to be a voice actor. I admit, I have the ambition, I have a few ranges in voice, but working weekends for the last 20+ years really killed that dream. It's not dead yet, just in zombie mode. I am working on getting Saturdays changed on my shift but it's not looking good if I'm completely honest, and if I wanted to do anything in the industry, I'd need that day free. Even though Alex says anyone wanting to do it has to be flexible, well I'd cross that bridge when I came to it. Having Saturdays off isn't just about spending time with my kids, I have ambitions. *more winks*
The happy bit. I got a photo taken with Hollie, Doug, Alex and Harry. Later on, after the stage show and end of Friday at MCM / EGX, I managed to get my packets of Tim Tams to Ben Starr. Gave them to him because on last week's Twitch stream, he looked sad when Hollie said she didn't bring any back from Australia. Well, they sell them in Tesco now. That was brilliant anyway. The only person I haven't met or done anything for now is Aoife Wilson. Any ideas anyone?
After getting out of ExCeL beyond 6pm, which was the first time being outside since getting there in the morning, we headed to Tesco, then to the epic place that sells the best chicken in East London, Le Royal. If you're around ExCeL and want a damn fine feast that gives you tons of food for a good price, check them out. Always got double portions from here on the Sunday after I had a long weekend at MCM Expo filming and not eating or sleeping properly. This got my energy charts back in the game. I miss those times.
Then it was on to the hotel at Travelodge Docklands Central, just off the East India DLR. WHAT????? WHAAAAAAAT? I booked a Super Room, and my god, what a super room it was. Check my photos for the view. Doing that again.
Saturday morning came after a terrible sleep, mainly because I slept next to the window and was distracted with the epic view until 1am before I decided to turn around and go to sleep properly. We couldn't do another two days at Comic Con due to life things, and we only booked the Friday at the Con and one night at the hotel. Couldn't really do much about that. Would have loved to go see The Electric State panel with Stanley Tucci, and the meet and greet with Natural Six, but not meant to be this time. I wonder if Ben Starr had eaten all of those Tim Tams by then?
We checked out after breakfast and headed in to London. Went to the Lego Store, Orc's Nest, Warhammer, Forbidden Planet, Japan Centre, and had the meal of a lifetime (again) at CoCo ICHIBANYA Curry House. CoCo Curry is damn amazing, and the pumpkin croquettes are heavenly. I also bought their mug.
On the Underground and on the train home, I gave my card to a couple of people who were really nice. The gentleman on the Underground, got chatting with him because he was one of the few people who now reads while travelling, don't see many people with books on the Underground these days as the majority are on their phones. Turns out he is a teacher and from the chat we had, an absolutely excellent and dedicated one. Very impressed. On the train home, a young lady sat with us on our table, and we all got chatting about conventions and stuff. Turns out she has some really neat fashion talents and interested in cosplaying. Perfect abilities for the convention world, that's for sure. I hope I see her again at a future convention, that would be brilliant.
I got off the train and left Alison so she could go further down the tracks to get home. We were both tired but not in the worst of ways. The three days we just had were amazing and I would seriously like to get some of the old gang back together at MCM London Comic Con next year and try and do the old style meet ups that we used to do. Fingers crossed.
I'm sat here on a Sunday morning doing this blog and my intention is to not do a lot today other than read and have a Stumble Guys Tetris stream on Twitch. That's it. Thanks for reading my blog if you got this far. Remember, if you're not a convention goer but interested in knowing more, I have 17 years experience doing these things so hopefully qualified enough to give advice, so please ask if you want to know any bits and bobs.
Well, that was a blast. The fun started the day before heading to London. Thursday morning, Alison and Jodie came round and we played a ton of games, in which, I'm going to mention a couple of experiences through our game day which were mental.
The first game we played was Catan. After the last terrible game we played a few weeks ago where the dice just favoured me throughout, and even though I won that one, it was a dire victory. This game of Catan was brilliant, well balanced, but again the dice eventually gave me the 10 I requested and it was a clear win for me. If the 10 I asked for on my roll was anything else, Jodie would have won for sure. Luck of the dice once again. That isn't the main story of our games though. CLUEDO! Ahhhh, if it isn't Catan, it's Cluedo. Alison was the first to do a guess, Jodie and myself didn't have any of them and I really thought she was holding them all and having us on. We put the guess in as well, Alison didn't have the cards either, and she won the race to the middle. It took longer to set the game up than it did to play it. If it weren't so funny, I'd be disappointed, but what an unbelievable game. Can't Stop was fun too because I clearly couldn't stop and the dice hate me on that game.
Before all the tabletop fun, the first thing we actually did was play My Little Pony RPG. Alison was DM and we had our characters prepare to face a dragon. The game book was rather controlling, so eventually Alison started playing it more like D&D, which worked very well, and we sorted that dragon out in no time. My character that I've created which I named Black Hole, has a huge story to be told, and I'm going to continue working on it for next time.
Alison stayed over so we could head off to London on the first train at 6.15am Friday morning, which even with the London Underground, we still get to ExCeL in plenty of time before the convention opened at 10am. The first person I saw was Ben (The Toku Gamer on TikTok), first time we've met since following each other online. After the doors opened, I made a really quick video of the event and then went on my travels. I bought Klask from Dice and Destiny, they're always really friendly and kindly kept my game for me because it's pretty big, picked it up later on in the day. Not kidding, Klask is the reason my shoulders hurt after carrying it around London on the Saturday. I can't imagine how my back would have managed carrying that around all day?
I bought the Charizard Ex Super Premium Collector edition Pokémon box. Only £65 so that isn't bad really. Made an opening video which is on my Tonyo Times YouTube. Got some decent pulls, and the Charizard model is ace.
The big purchase was at the Dungeon and Dragons area which was huge. I signed up to D&D Beyond and had a nice chat with the gentleman at the front about the game. Then I stood in the queue for an hour and bought the new 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide, which if anyone who bought it at the Con, gets it way early as the release of the book isn't until 12th of November. Not bad. The payment system they had was broken though so wasn't impressed with that, but that was the only downfall really.
I had a nice chat with Nat of Small Fries Games, she was lovely. She wanted to play a game with me but time was limited and I had two panels to go see and meet up with someone who wasn't really at the con. *wink wink* I bumped in to Tim who's doing really well with Anime in the UK, and I had the pleasure of meeting up with said invisible chum and Tim, we had a good laugh. TINDER IN THE NORTH! Probably won't be a meme, but we'll see. I have an image in my mind to draw something now which will probably stay in my mind for safety reasons.
The big thing for me was seeing Natural Six in live action D&D. They're as amazing on stage as they are on their online series. I am SO HAPPY I got to meet Harry McEntire, Alex Jordan, Doug Cockle and Hollie Bennett on the voice acting panel, where they had some brilliant advice for anyone wanting to be a voice actor. I admit, I have the ambition, I have a few ranges in voice, but working weekends for the last 20+ years really killed that dream. It's not dead yet, just in zombie mode. I am working on getting Saturdays changed on my shift but it's not looking good if I'm completely honest, and if I wanted to do anything in the industry, I'd need that day free. Even though Alex says anyone wanting to do it has to be flexible, well I'd cross that bridge when I came to it. Having Saturdays off isn't just about spending time with my kids, I have ambitions. *more winks*
The happy bit. I got a photo taken with Hollie, Doug, Alex and Harry. Later on, after the stage show and end of Friday at MCM / EGX, I managed to get my packets of Tim Tams to Ben Starr. Gave them to him because on last week's Twitch stream, he looked sad when Hollie said she didn't bring any back from Australia. Well, they sell them in Tesco now. That was brilliant anyway. The only person I haven't met or done anything for now is Aoife Wilson. Any ideas anyone?
After getting out of ExCeL beyond 6pm, which was the first time being outside since getting there in the morning, we headed to Tesco, then to the epic place that sells the best chicken in East London, Le Royal. If you're around ExCeL and want a damn fine feast that gives you tons of food for a good price, check them out. Always got double portions from here on the Sunday after I had a long weekend at MCM Expo filming and not eating or sleeping properly. This got my energy charts back in the game. I miss those times.
Then it was on to the hotel at Travelodge Docklands Central, just off the East India DLR. WHAT????? WHAAAAAAAT? I booked a Super Room, and my god, what a super room it was. Check my photos for the view. Doing that again.
Saturday morning came after a terrible sleep, mainly because I slept next to the window and was distracted with the epic view until 1am before I decided to turn around and go to sleep properly. We couldn't do another two days at Comic Con due to life things, and we only booked the Friday at the Con and one night at the hotel. Couldn't really do much about that. Would have loved to go see The Electric State panel with Stanley Tucci, and the meet and greet with Natural Six, but not meant to be this time. I wonder if Ben Starr had eaten all of those Tim Tams by then?
We checked out after breakfast and headed in to London. Went to the Lego Store, Orc's Nest, Warhammer, Forbidden Planet, Japan Centre, and had the meal of a lifetime (again) at CoCo ICHIBANYA Curry House. CoCo Curry is damn amazing, and the pumpkin croquettes are heavenly. I also bought their mug.
On the Underground and on the train home, I gave my card to a couple of people who were really nice. The gentleman on the Underground, got chatting with him because he was one of the few people who now reads while travelling, don't see many people with books on the Underground these days as the majority are on their phones. Turns out he is a teacher and from the chat we had, an absolutely excellent and dedicated one. Very impressed. On the train home, a young lady sat with us on our table, and we all got chatting about conventions and stuff. Turns out she has some really neat fashion talents and interested in cosplaying. Perfect abilities for the convention world, that's for sure. I hope I see her again at a future convention, that would be brilliant.
I got off the train and left Alison so she could go further down the tracks to get home. We were both tired but not in the worst of ways. The three days we just had were amazing and I would seriously like to get some of the old gang back together at MCM London Comic Con next year and try and do the old style meet ups that we used to do. Fingers crossed.
I'm sat here on a Sunday morning doing this blog and my intention is to not do a lot today other than read and have a Stumble Guys Tetris stream on Twitch. That's it. Thanks for reading my blog if you got this far. Remember, if you're not a convention goer but interested in knowing more, I have 17 years experience doing these things so hopefully qualified enough to give advice, so please ask if you want to know any bits and bobs.