A Day Out at MCM Comic Con London

[Ad- gifted experience] When it comes to days out in London, Dann and I really both enjoy gaming events. As we both work in games, we’ve been to our fair share of gaming showcases, comicons, events and the like. MCM Comic Con London aims to be a family event for all ages, full of geek culture. We were delighted at being invited back once again and took a much slower time exploring the venue. MCM Comic Con London is absolutely massive – expanding across two halls at the Excel, full of different stands, cosplay, interactive bits and so much more.

One of my favorite bits of MCM Comic Con London is actually the artist alley. This is a quite big area dedicated to small artists to sell their art! You can often find lots of handmade items, all quite geeky or cute. I saw a lot of fun stickers, pins, key chains, t-shirts and so much more. As a huge Pokemon fan, I spent a lot of time looking at anything and everything Pokemon. There were a lot of options and I quite enjoyed finding some Eevee stickers that were absolutely adorable for our middle child Amelia.

The hats in the above picture are from www.leikya.com and the Eevee stickers are from @elliees_creations on Instagram

A lot of the shopping we did was actually Amelia focused, as she is also a huge fan of Pokemon. Kai and Robin aren’t so much into anything featured at the venue, but we did pick up handfuls of stickers from independent artists that Robin has since used to decorate everything and anything she has worked on. The artist alley is a good break from the more comercial stands that are around. A lot of the hall will be these comercial stands, selling a lot of different types of items from comics to board games to plushies. I always struggle with the bigger stands as I am never quite sure what is drop shipped, what is AI and what is just being sold at the con at a higher price. Dann and I did see three different poster stands, under different names, with clearly the same (we assume generated) art. At one point, we saw a stand that was selling the Squishmallow school supplies from Tesco at about 3x the price. There were a lot of Pokemon terrarium stands as well, which seemed hit or miss if they were hand made.

With so much to buy, MCM Comic Con London is kind of like a big shop, as the draw is being able to find and purchase a bunch of items for the specific geek thing you enjoy! There are also some non-geek items as well, like Pop Mart had a bunch of blind bags that I always really love. They also hand out free items every year if you are following them on Instagram – this year it was stickers. We also spent some time seeing everyone in cosplay!

There are a bunch of stage shows both showing off cosplay and giving advice on cosplay. When a show is about to start, you can really find a bunch of people who are all dressed up in costumes they have likely made from scratch. Dann was surprised by the long Ferby costume, and I really enjoyed finding some characters from smaller indie games like Night in the Woods. There just are so many people taking the time to show off their looks.

Pokemon Shirts from @KimmySparks on Instagram and Bucket Hats by Yoyo The Rice Corpse on Instagram

If shopping and cosplay isn’t your thing, there is also a huge lineup of famous actors that you can meet up with, have them sign your items, and say hello too. This often takes pre-booking or requires you to line up at a specific time, but if you are a super fan this is a great chance to meet your heroes. There are a few different photo opps at the con as well, primarily the highlight was the Game of Thrones sword throne. I was surprised there wasn’t more photo areas, especially as last year there were tons of Star Wars related ones as well as Jurassic Park themed ones. There was also a massive gaming bus where you could play some AAA games that have been out for a while, but it did have a big queue!

For food at MCM Comic Con London, there is obviously all of the food stands in the middle of the Excel, but there are also a bunch of special stands in the area. We went for goyza bowls ourselves, but there were also burgers, chips, chicken, crepes, etc. Basically the stuff you’d expect to see at a British event. I do personally wish there was a bit more focus on Korean / Japanese food, but that’s just me I think!

Clay pins made by www.ceceedraws.com

MCM Comic Con London is a good event for teens who are into geek culture and adults alike. We quite enjoyed seeing what other people were creating and doing a bunch of shopping. Dann, as he is getting into tabletop RPGS enjoyed looking at all of the ones that were for sale and checking out other board games that were there too. I love spending money on cute things, which is primarily what I did, but I also enjoyed the photo areas and being featured this year on the Like A Gamer stand!

You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!