It’s that time of year again where we headed down to Birmingham to check out our first comic-con of the year.
MCM Comic-Con Birmingham at the NEC arena is always a good time. The halls are so spacious and with every MCM con comes a whole sea of cosplayers who really make the effort.
If it’s cosplay you’re interested in then MCM is certainly the best in the country for that, no other shows compare to the dedication that the fans put into their costumes at this particular convention.
On display inside the con were your usual host of subscription box stands, art stands, T-Shirt and merch stands but in terms of variety there was very little. Usually, there would be Japanese merch stands, unique food stalls, and games but other than a pop-up escape room the diversity of items on the stands were slim.
Whilst the items on the stalls were great I couldn’t help but wish there was more on offer for people to choose from.
After getting lost on endless games of 007 Goldeneye and being incredibly surprised at how a vintage Sega was still running after being left on throughout the duration of the con we took a look around the autograph area. Guests from various TV shows were in attendance but for MCM Birmingham this was not a strong line-up compared to many other cons I’ve attended previously.
I remember coming down and meeting some guys from The Walking Dead one year and that was awesome but walking past the guests I didn’t have a good idea who many of them were (my apologies) other than Charles Martinet who was the voice of Mario and Luigi in the video games.
I personally think the early year MCM shows are more a teaser of what’s to come for later shows. I always remember going to second MCM Birmingham show that is always hosted towards the end of the year and they always have much-improved guest line-ups.
In addition, this year’s London MCM Comic Con always snags some epic guests. Sebastian Stan (Bucky from Captain America) will be in attendance as well as David Harbour who plays Hellboy in the latest movie installment. Those two guests right there is the caliber that MCM have at their disposal to obtain it’s just a shame the March show didn’t have any such star power to draw a wider audience in.
Walking around you can’t help but beam with geeky pride as you spot people dressed up as your favorite characters. After hunting down a Deadpool, a Pennywise and of course Chewbacca cosplayers are always so friendly to take time out of their day to have pictures with other guests.
MCM always has this wonderful family atmosphere and with various activities such as lightsaber training, a double-decker bus of games consoles and various shows taking place on each stage throughout the day you can’t possibly get bored.
Whilst MCM Birmingham wasn’t the best in terms of the guests and stall variety it more than made up for it with attracting some of the most awesome people from miles around to celebrate in all things nerdy!
