Family Day at GenCon 2014

Spent a lovely afternoon with the family downtown at GenCon. This year we purchase tickets online, which I heartily recommend to anyone. We only waited about five minutes in the Will Call line as opposed to 90 minutes in the purchase tickets line as in previous years. It also meant we received nicer lanyards and our passes were not generic.

My oldest (pictured here) brought a large deck of unused Yu-Gi-Oh! cards that he traded in for $1.50 - not a lot of money but better than gathering dust under the bed. But don't think he's given up on the game! He still spent an hour and half in the dedicated Yu-Gi-Oh room playing losing to game masters from Japan. He even convinced mom to try a game or two. She was able to win at least one game against a vendor rep who was impressed that she was even trying the game.

Geek Chic was there with plenty to drool over as they combine two of my hobbies: gaming and woodworking. But another small vendor caught my attention: Stonehaven Minatures. Their primary business is miniature figurines (my daughter loved the warrior toads) but they are adding Pop-Up Terrains. These are playable surfaces that use Japanese folding techniques to collapse flat when not in use. Users purchase the file, print the images, then cut and fold. Even their business card is a cut and fold miniature throne!

The gaming area seemed almost twice as big as last year, but the vendor area struck me more like a flea market or swap meet than in years past. There were plenty of new games to try and buy but also a lot of buying and reselling going on. Also, there were hardly any freebies but it was the last day so maybe everyone was out of stock. We did enjoy watching a few rounds of Rock Paper Scissors Spock Lizard, even though my daughter still can't figure out who beats what!

Of course I was stuck with carrying a Minecraft sword - and four different people asked me where we bought it (FYE at the mall). There were lots of Doctors running around with fezzes, Tardis themed dresses and a plethora of steam punk and anime. The craziest thing I saw was a women dressed in a detailed Black Widow costume pushing a baby in a stroller with another preschooler hanging on. Somehow I missed that story arc!