Fan Expo Boston 2018 – Part 2

Celebrity Q&As and panels

If you didn’t gather it from reading Part 1, the main hook of these events is the roster of celebrities on site.

Besides photo ops and autographs, fans can interact with celebrities during panels and Q&A sessions. We were lucky to catch Jeff Goldblum, Evangeline Lilly, David Hayter, and almost the whole Back to the Future crew.

Jeff Golblum on everything he’s working on these days.

Not sure it was planned, but it was certainly great to see them all together for one panel.

David Hayter on how he found the voice for Solid Snake.

Evangeline Lilly on her inspiration for her book series “The Squickerwonkers”.

During each session, fans lined up behind a microphone and got the chance to ask any question they wanted.

Cosplay contests and meet ups

Cosplay is also a huge part of these events. This time, cosplayers could compete in cosplay contests, or simply join like-minded fans at specific meet-ups peppered throughout the show.

Cosplay Contest highlights.

We bumped into a Spiderman and a T-rex meetup while walking around the show floor.

Overall impressions

Earlier this year we both attended PAX East which, just like the Boston Fan Expo, was also held in the Boston Convention Center. Comparisons between the two events are inevitable and our impressions of Fan Expo are definitely influenced by PAX East.

One the things we enjoyed the most was the atmosphere. You can immediately tell that the people who attend these conventions are passionate about comics, films, games, There were many people but you never felt crowded, especially towards the end of the day.

We loved the great cosplays and it’s always fun to pick out known characters from your favorite films or games. A massive shout out to this guy with a stand who looked just like Rick Grimes (http://cecilgrimescosplay.com/)!

One of the things that really surprised was that most of the retail stands had some sort of Overwatch merchandise: t-shirts, posters, figures… We play the game a lot and it’s awesome to see how widespread it has become! By far the most referenced game in the event.

We also loved to see Dragon Ball references all over the place! We grew up watching this show and it’s very cool that it’s as popular now as it was 20 years ago!

PAX East used the entire of the Convention Center’s main hall and the sheer size of it was spectacular. It’s a shame that the Fan Expo only used half of it but then again, as we said before, it wasn’t very crowded.

Overall it was a great experience and I highly recommend it for next year!