And then there’s cosplay… Now I fully admit I’m not a huge fancy dress fan. I have been known to put a costume on for New Years Eve (a story for another time but yes I was Princess Leia and no it wasn’t the metal bikini) or a party but I’m still not sure about spending the weekend dressed as Batman, Loki, Mr Fantastic, The Thing, Superman etc.

Cosplay does seem to attract a certain type of nerd. Most of them are super confident, play the part, pose for photos, prance around on stage for the competition. However there are always a few who seem really shy. I just don’t get it – why dress up and then be shy?!

Now the ‘buzzword bingo’ bit. I’ve got a growing list of cosplayers to spot at cons:

Super skinny Superman
Fat Jedi
Girl in latex/spandex who looks too amazing for ‘it’ all to be real
Girl in latex/spandex who really shouldn’t wear it
Girl in spandex who has black underwear on and hasn’t realise you can see it when a camera flash goes off
Girl in a corset style costume who’s breasts look like they are only just balanced in the fabric
Person with so much body paint they later realise they can’t touch anything, eat, drink or sit down
Parents who’ve dressed their kids up in something really embarrassing
Storm troopers
Short Darth Vader
Fat Batman
Random cartoonesque person who is apparently from some manga book
Grown women dressed as Japanese school girls, manga style
Muppets (I mean the Jim Henson kind)

I’m not telling you which of these we saw this time – that wouldn’t be nice…

Being a typical bloke Scifi hubby particularly likes the latex/spandex/painted girls. Here’s a few of his favourites from Kapow: