Another year at SDCC, another wonderful experience I will never forget. This time we stayed with a fellow Mass Effect cosplayer Ashley Ruhl who created her Commander Shepard armor in three months!
You should check out her progress shots in
her gallery! With Matt Jolly dressed up as James Vega,
Ashley as ME3 armor femShep, and myself as ME2 uniform femShep... we were the Mass Effect trio!
Preview Night of SDCC:
We retrieved our passes and headed to the Convention Center. We arrived with only 15 minutes left of Preview Night. I didn't get to go in (since I didn't have the pass) but Matt had a brief window to run in and grab me the limited Skelanimals Batman plush. Then it was off to prepare for the next day...
Day 1 of SDCC:
We arrive at the Convention Center, fully dressed up as Commander Shepard (from Mass Effect 2) with my prized M-920 Cain and Lieutenant James Vega (from Mass Effect 3). Our first stop was the Dark Horse booth to harass the evil Chris Priestly and to nab a Garrus lithograph and bronze Normandy. Chris saw my progress of the Cain on facebook and told me how great it looks. It was funny when one person came up and thought the Cain was for sale since I was resting it on the counter. After nabbing my goodies, we began our walk around the exhibit floor and immediately bumped into some fellow BioWare cosplayers
as well as people who were eager to take our photo.
We stopped by the
I-Mockery booth and saw his new print, which looked amazing! We dropped by the
Behemoth/
Newgrounds booth to play some Battleblock Theater and watch some people play
Castle Crashers and we went to say a quick hello to
Maddox at his spot. Where we snapped this pic...
Then we came across a booth advertising a movie I've been looking forward to seeing for a few years now.
Iron Sky is going to be a movie of epic proportions. If you haven't seen or heard anything about it,
click this link and find a way to request it to a theater near you!
Since we had some time before our first panel of the day, we headed over to the BioWare Base to try out the new characters for the ME3 Multiplayer. I immediately fell in love with the Fury. I cannot wait to unlock them all on my XBOX. I took a stab at the new Platinum difficulty and our team was the first to make it to Wave 6! The first out of the entire world! Well, apart from the BioWare dev team. We met some of the awesome people working at BioWare and I began my quest to fill my Mass Effect Art Book with as many signatures as possible. After nabbing a few and meeting some people who loved our costumes, we ventured back to the Convention Center to see our first panel... the Mass Effect: Paragon Lost panel. The new animated feature from Funimation about James Vega and his story. We will see what happens first hand at Fehl. The best part is when they revealed that Freddie Prinze Jr was going to voice James Vega again. I am definitely okay with this. ^_^ They had the composers of Paragon Lost come up on stage and one of them was David Kates... a man who has been making music for Mass Effect ever since the first! As soon as the panel was over, I rushed to the front to get the composers autographs. David Kates immediately loved Matt's James Vega outfit, claiming, "You brought me James Vega! I need a picture!" What started with me asking for his autograph ended up with him asking for our picture...
*insert fangirl squeal*
After Paragon Lost, we headed towards the Hilton for our last panel of the day... RIFFTRAX! I can never get enough of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 guys and I'm looking forward to seeing a live Riff of Manos: The Hand of Fate in theaters August 15th! Since we had some time, we looked through the beautiful Batman vehicles parked on the lawn. I wanted to take them all home...
Day 2 at SDCC:
First thing we did was stop by my friend's work. She had been working on her Commander Shepard armor since April and all her fellow coworkers wanted to see the end result. The best part is that she works at Trion! The ones who did Rift as well as they are working on Defiance!
After taking the quick detour to her workplace, it was time to head back to the Convention Center to play around for a few hours. We bumped into some other BioWare cosplayers and saw some unique costumes. Also during that time we got to meet Danielle Rayne who was in the
Portal: No Escape video on YouTube!
 |
| Courtesy of my good friend Jerome Mabrey |
Determined to another take a stab at the Platinum difficulty, I returned to the BioWare Base. Learning that another group made it to Wave 10 but couldn't finish the objective, I worked on getting a good group together. That's when I met up with some great players, including some that I play with on XBOX today!
We sat down and began our pursuit to victory. We had a good plan and were very vocal about where we needed help. Then we were on Wave 10... all we had to do was complete the objective and we would beat the record! We all waited to find out what our objective was when a cry of despair wailed out... it was an escort mission! We took out the remainder of our rockets and killed off every banshee/geth prime/atlus they threw at us. Then... we did it. We completed the objective! We were officially the record holders again!
We unfortunately died before we could make it to Wave 11 and attempt our luck at a Full Extraction but because of our record, our team received the Collectors Edition of the Mass Effect
XBOX360 Razer Controllers!
Feeling like a superstar, we went to meet up with some fellow Newgrounders at the Fox Sports Bar.
That's where we spent the rest of the evening having fun and goofing off... spending time with
Kevin Fletcher,
Ross O'Donovan, and
Fernando Zamora.
Day 3 of SDCC:
The day started off with the bus having a flat tire. It took us a little longer to get to the Convention Center but that's okay... there was Batman... As well as Zod supporters and Betelgeuse.
We headed straight to the room showing the annual Quick Draw panel, which is followed by the
Voice Actors reading. Matt and I attend these every year. If you ever go to SDCC, it's definitely
something to go see! We laugh so hard every time. This year was even more special since Steve Blum was one of the voice actors on stage as well as they had a special guest show up... a legend among voice actors who began their career in 1944...
Stan Freberg! The voice of Pete Puma, Tosh the Gopher, Junyer Bear, and other characters from the original Looney Tunes. Here's the best part... he's still doing voice acting! It was amazing hearing the legend at work and how he started his career.
After the panel, Matt and I raced off to the BioWare Base to meet the voice actors from Mass Effect.
While waiting in line, I noticed someone speaking to Chris Priestly. I immediately recognized them and walked up with a huge grin on my face. "I'm sorry to interrupt but I need your signature," I said, trying to keep my composure. "You know who I am?" he asked. I nodded yes, "I am a big fan of your music. In fact,
I listen to the Commander Shepard song every time I suit up in my costume." I couldn't believe that I was talking to Gavin Dunne aka
Miracle of Sound. The mastermind behind the
Commander Shepard Song,
Normandy,
Crucible, and
Take Earth Back. He was actually a bit amazed that I was the first person
who recognized who he was, even with him wearing a shirt that said, "Miracle of Sound N7."
When the line was finally coming to a close, we could see the amazing voice actors of Mass Effect.
There was Raphael Sbarge (the voice of Kaidan Alenko), Kimberly Brooks (the voice of Ashley Williams), and Courtenay Taylor (the voice of Jack "Subject Zero"). We were last ones in line and they were already staying well past their allotted timeframe so we were super thankful to meet them.
After getting their autographs, one of the awesome BioWare people advised me that Corey Gasper was there and that I should show him my M-920 Cain... he is the senior combat designer from Mass Effect!
I showed him my modified Nerf gun and he said, "The M-920 Cain. And it has some weight to it! It actually looks and feels like it could launch a nuclear projectile." He was really impressed with my creation and receiving his praise is priceless. While we were on our way to get Steve Blum's autograph, Sylvia Feketekuty asked to join us! She is the writer behind Liara and Samara! We headed straight to the booth where he was located and it was a different experience seeing one of the writers get as excited as any of us Mass Effect fans over a voice actor.
Sylvia had to rush off to get ready for the Mass Effect panel so Matt and I went to meet up with
Tom Fulp (the mastermind behind Newgrounds) for dinner. We knew we wouldn't be able to get into the Mass Effect panel so we went straight to the BioWare Base to wait for the Purgatory Bar to open. I noticed that the line was getting a little messy so I decided to help the BioWare team out (since everyone was at the Mass Effect panel). I stood at the front and said, "Everyone listen to Cerberus Shepard, we need to organize the line to make it easy for people to come through as well as gain easy access to the back of the line." "We don't have to listen to you, you're renegade!" "I'm not a renegade yet. Give me a few drinks and then I'll start punching reporters!" The people laughed and then preceded to follow my crazy directions, thanks to the help of some great Mass Effect fans near my spot in line. I noticed Gavin Dunne came showed up in the line and went to talk to him once more. That's when I finally got my pic with him and when he gave me one of his limited CD!
As the time came closer and closer to the opening of Purgatory Bar, more and more fellow BioWare cosplayers began showing up. I met up with people from the costume contest BioWare held the year prior as well as I met new faces in the BioWare costuming community, many of which I am friends with on facebook. When
SubitoAllegra showed up, she told me that she found a good friend of ours...
Rana McAnear!
The face of Samara! That's when everyone started taking pictures...
As soon as Purgatory Bar was officially opened, it was non-stop fun! The voice actors were there, playing ME3 multiplayer and having drinks with all of us! Since Ross O'Donovan was there with his fiance
Holly Conrad of
Crabcat Industries, other Newgrounders showed up as well... like
Arin Hanson. We played a lot of games, drank a lot of drinks, took lots of photos, and had a blast together!
It was a night many of us would never forget.
Day 4 of SDCC:
The last day of San Diego Comic Con and the last chance I would have to take a stab at Platinum until I got back home July 30th... since I had time to burn, we walked the floor for any last minute buys and met up with some friends for lunch at a Mexican restaurant located off the beaten path. Right after lunch, we headed straight to the BioWare Base to concur the Platinum match. The first time, we didn't get as far as before... but then we managed to get the original team together, the one that completed the objective on Wave 10. We were confident that the next time we played, we would be able to finish it. We were set to be the next ones to take our stand when the current group beat us to the punch. Even though I wish it was our team, I'm glad my friend Jerome Mabrey was part of the team that defeated it first. He was playing it all weekend long, even longer than I did, so he definitely deserved the title of being the first. It didn't stop us from playing... now we were doing it for personal gratification... being one of the only people to beat it before it was released. I took my seat in the corner, picked the Phoenix (ex-Cerberus), and got ready to Smash everything. Thirty minutes later, we defeated it. We finished it faster than the first group by one minute! It wasn't going to get us the front page of anything but it was enough to know we completed it... as well as we got some more goodies from BioWare.
I finished gathering the last of the signatures for my book (let's see if you can identify them all) and then we were off... ending another great year at the great SDCC.
