#sci-fi conventions

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Mark Hamill (1977)

[toku-fangirl-dolls]

Welcome to DollyCon 2021!

If there's one thing I've missed, it's going to conventions. So I set up a mini convention at home for all my American Girl dolls! There's lots to see, so come on in!

(Incidentally, this is the first photo in a long time that I've taken of my whole collection at once. It was fun getting them all set up on the stairs, but also tricky--I had to figure out how many dolls could fit while still leaving me room to navigate!)

"Welcome to DollyCon, are you picking up a weekend pass or one-day?"

"Just today, thanks."

I designed the poster in Canva. For the badges, I printed them out extra-small, covered them with packing tape to make them shiny, and ran a piece of yarn through a little hole to make a lanyard. I made three different versions: the red says "Saturday," the yellow says "Weekend Pass," and the black says "Exhibitor."

I printed a larger version to go in the poster holders on the OG movie theater (the poster size is 4x7, in case anyone else wants to make custom posters for that!)

Luciana is taking a selfie before she heads inside to get her badge! As someone who loves space, she is a big fan of Star Wars and she's very proud of her Rey costume. She made everything from scraps of fabric and hot glue, with Velcro on the belt to close it in the back.

Felicia is waiting for her first customer of the day! The store background is from AG (I think it was a PWP a few years ago?) and the counter is a TV stand.

I made the Gashapon machine from an empty tissue box. The bit on the front is a toy container from the dollar store (that I spent way too much time scrubbing the label off of, haha) and the "capsules" are from a set of dollar store golf balls. I printed out a picture of the front of a machine, and then added a scrap of foamboard to be the dial and some scrap cardboard covered with white paper to be the end of the little chute at the bottom.

There's so much to do at the convention! Claudia and Addy are watching the costume contest (and Claudia is filming her brother, who won second place).

Conventions are always crowded, so I tried to fit as many dolls into this picture as I could. Nick is stopping for some ice cream after a long morning taking photos. Let's see what the others are doing!

"Okay, that panel we wanted to go to starts in twenty minutes."

"Got it. Should we hit the Artists Alley after that?"

"Sure!"

"That'll be five dollars for the Gashapon token."

"Thanks!"

Part two coming soon! I had so much fun setting up my dolls and taking all these pictures--and it might've been a good luck charm, because there's a real-life convention happening in my area next month and we're going! Oh, conventions, how I have missed you. <3

[silvermoonart]

Now that the weekend is done and I’ve gotten to rest up, I was so happy to get to be in an Artist Alley for the first time in three years! CONsole Room was such a sweet and cozy Con. I felt very safe and everyone was so welcoming! I can’t wait to see it bigger and better post-Covid.

[coutelier]

Vril, The World’s first Con, and Bovril

What connects Bovril, the world’s first Sci-Fi convention, and crazy neo-Nazi conspiracy theories?

So, ‘Vril – The Power of the Coming Race’, was an 1871 science-fiction novella by British politician and author Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Indeed, this is the same Lytton who brought us the classic opening line ‘It was a dark a stormy night…’ (that was in a much earlier novel of his, ‘Paul Clifford’).

In the story, a wealthy traveler is exploring a chasm when he stumbles into a whole subterranean world, encountering a race of angel-like beings descended from ancient Aryans, the Vril-Ya. Vril is a source of energy that is much like The Force – it does pretty much anything you want it to; healing, machinery, mass destruction. Anyway, he spends some time getting to know them, falls in love, is sentenced to death, at which point he decides it’s a good time to leave. The story ends with a warning that one day the Vril-Ya will run out of space underground and likely return to the surface to destroy mankind.

In 1891, ‘The Coming Race and Vril-Ya Bazaar and Fete’ was held at The Royal Albert Hall. This was perhaps the world’s first-ever sci-fi convention – there was cosplay with people dressing up as characters from the story, and the hall was decorated to resemble the Vril-Ya architecture Lytton described (which was mostly a mix of Egyptian and Indian). Also there was a new paste made of beef-extract, whose name contains the words ‘bovine’ and ‘vril’ – Bovril, which you can still get today. I’ve tried it – it’s basically like drinking a mug of gravy (apparently some people also use it as a spread, which I was never tempted to try).

Anyway, you may be wondering, if this story was such a big deal then, why is it not spoken about much now? Why is Lytton not up there with Shelley or Verne or Wells as one of the pioneers of popular sci-fi? Granted, there are many stories and authors popular at the time who have since faded into obscurity, but most of them don’t sell out The Albert Hall or have a beverage named after them.

Well, some of you may have already felt unease at the word ‘Aryans’ above. Lytton himself was very into the occult, but throughout history there have been those who struggle with the notion that sometimes human beings just make stuff up, and many became convinced of the ‘Hollow Earth’ theory and that ‘Vril’ was based on a real magical energy - including, eventually, a number of neo-Nazi groups. There are far too many strange theories to go into – like Vril powered Nazi UFO’s, or that Hitler fled to Antarctica to seek shelter with the underground Aryans and is even now plotting his return – rest assured it’s all nonsense based on a piece of Victorian sci-fi.

[theladyfromplanetx]

When Gene met George.

(Photo taken at the 1987 Creation Entertainment/Starlog 10th Anniversary Star Wars Convention.)

[brutalgamer]

Cool collectibles on the way from Icon Heroes for NYC Star Trek con

Heading to the big Star Trek con, Mission New York next month? Then you’re going to want to see the exclusives that Icon Heroes will be beaming in. Mission New York The inaugural Star Trek: Mission New York is a pretty important convention, all things considered. As someone who used to be ...

[artfulusername]

What are you up to this weekend?

What are you up to this weekend?