Hello and welcome back! It is time for another convention spotlight and we are going to the West Coast, I mean West Coast of Florida, for a convention we finally got to go to last year and that is MetroCon!

How Did We Go?

Well, me and Gondras knew about MetroCon for years, hell I even heard about it before I started dating him back in 2006 and never got to go due to the whole transportationissues, money thing, and we have been going the Orlando cons such as MegaCon, JACON when it was still around, Anime Festival Orlando, KnightroKon when it started back in 2012, and we kept on hearing awesome it was and the different guests they got such as Greg Ayres (DNAngel, Air Gear, Angel Beats, Glass Fleet), Johnny Yong Bosch (Gurren Lagan, Trigun, Heat Guy J), and so many others! By the fall of 2012, some of our friends on campus finally convinced us to go last year and despite one bad panel hosted by cosplayers, our Blind EXP panel going bad, and a terrible hotel experience (I would not recommend the Courtyard Downtown) due to how maintenance was put off to that weekend and a night of a fire alarm, we are going back! Why? Because it gave us a new experience outside of Orlando! We were meaning to go and travel to other conventions and of course Metro was our first out of town convention we ever got to do it at and yes, will be going back in July! And of course, have press passes again! Last year was my first press experience and decided to do it again and this time will cover better panels that caught my eye on the My Cons Online schedule and so many other things! Let’s get started!

Location:

MetroCon is and has been held at the TampaConvention Center in downtown Tampa, FL! This place is huge and of course the convention does take full advantage of the size, as in holding everything on all the floors! The dealer room, panels, security, weapons check, and so much more on the first floor, one part of artist’s alley on the second floor and the rest on the third along with main events! A lot bigger than MegaCon’s set up in the South Concourse during 2008’s convention. It is also located near the Embassy Suites Downtown which people can still reserve, along with any other hotel in the same area such as the Sheraton, Marriot Waterside, and so many others, so I would suggest reserving now before the convention because this convention brings a lot of people for one weekend and we seen it last year, especially last year on Saturday!

Guests:

Like many conventions, there are always theTheme:

MetroConhas a theme every year and they do things to match it! Last year’s theme was East vs. West and now this year will be Old School Vs. New School, which will be dealing with the older stuff versus the new. I can see it working since anime did get its big break in the ‘60s in Japan and the ‘80s here in the U. S.! With all the series that have been coming out over the years, especially now, we do have the old and new going at it, hell try being part of the big .hack vs. Sword Art group like we are! Anyways, this will be an interesting theme, especially with the masquerade and the human chess match, which I will hopefully cover both this year when I didn’t have a chance last year with all the stuff going on at once! This year will be interesting!

Guests:

Like every convention, there are a list of guests! Last year there were guests like Janet Varny, Dante Basco, and this year will be bringing faves back to fit with the theme!

Scott McNeil: As you know, last year we interviewed him and you can find that post here in the past posts section in the “Interviews with Brittney Karbowski and Scott McNeill,” and he will be gracing the con yet again this year with his presence! And of course will have his fans following him, I did see one almost come into the green room when I was about to do the interview. Works still include Beast Wars, My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, The Ocean Studios version of DBZ, and so much more! His list is a long one! And fact from my autograph history when he was at MegaCon 2006, he was one of the first people to sign my FullMetal Autograph plushie along with Mike McFarland and Chris Breslauer!

Richard Epcar: This guy is pretty cool and was glad to meet him at AFO 2012 and now crossing my fingers to interview him this year! He is not only the voice of Batou in Ghost in the Shell, and Bobobo in Bobobo, but also has directed Bobobobo and Lupin III as well! He will be at the con with his wife, Ellyn Stern who has done live action and voice work!

Mary Elizabeth McGlynn: OMG! OMG! OMG! I am so happy she is coming to Metro! She has been a big namein the voice acting world for years and her notable roles are Kurenai in Naruto, the Commander in Ghost in the Shell, and our favorite hacker Helba in .hack//Sign and the games right after it! I am also corssing fingers to interview her and hoping to get my Helba cosplay done since there is that big cosplay group happening, still I am glad she is returning, oh yeah forgot to mention that she was at Metro before!

PikaBellChu: The cosplayer and major Pokemon fan, PikaBellChu will be appearing at Metro again as a guest! I been to her Hour of Pokemon panel during Holiday Matsuri and enjoyed it, I hope I get to see more of her work this year and the major Pikachu display she had last year but with even more Pikachus!

Panels:

Oh yes! Can’t forget about these! We will be busy again with panels this year and will be helping our friend Tobi and his fiance with a LARP panel and another panel that deals with language and dubbing! Plus, a bit of news, the Blind Experience will be on hiatus for a little while until we fix the kinks! Sorry guys! But for now Gondras has something exciting and that is known as Old vs. New: Anime Edition! We are getting a time slot switch since I did get an e-mail about a panel that may be placed in our slot, I will update you guys when that gets cleared if it will be that Saturday at 9 PM instead of 8! What is the idea? Well, it is based on Nostalgia Critic’s Old vs. New segments he did a while back and he wanted to do this but with anime since there have been reboots for some series lately and it will tie into Metro’s theme! There are many other panels I will cover though that did catch my eye such as the Witch vs. Winx Club, of course the .hack vs. Sword Art panel, and so many others. I will try to make it to Scott McNeil’s panels since I heard they are pretty funny! And some of the guests, hoping Richard Epcar does another bloopers panel since we went to that during AFO and it was entertaining. Man, this year will be fun with panels! If you want to see the schedule of what’s up so far, go to My Cons Online and check it out! You can probably still sign up for hosting a panel, if you don’t have an idea, just come to the convention and once I get final word of the time slot change, I will be put it in one of my posts or in another spotlight newsflash!

Events:

MetroCon has two major events that go on, well three!

The Fantasy Ball: Yes the masquerade! It’s been years since I been to a masquerade, I only been to the Winter Formal Masquerade and the one at 2008 convention for JACON when it was around and this year I will try and go and cover it! There is a $10 admission and you can pre-order the tickets for that on My Cons Online, maybe I should do that but you can buy them at the Metro Registration desk at Thursday pick up, yep, this convention does that it’s worth to do that and can let you get the passes for the dance there and Friday during the convention when the dance is held at 7 PM that night. Yep, this dance is held on Friday and it is smart since they do have the rave and will mention that next! I didn’t hear the theme for last year but this year’s theme is Asuna’s and Kirito’s wedding from Sword Art! Since I like Sword Art, this is one dance we should go to and see how it goes! For dress code, you can read about it at the website and of course ask any staff members questions before the con and during! You can probably come up with a dress at last minute if necessary but read before coming up with an outfit! And what about masks? Easy to find at PartyCity!

The Rave: I heard the rave at this thing is amazing! We didn’t go last year as well but The rave is held on Saturday during the convention and we hear it is good from people who have been to it in the past, especially with the major lighting they use to give off its effects! Not sure if we will go since we haven’t been to any since Knightro’s rave during 2012. Let’s see how it goes!

The Human Chess Match: Oh yeaaahhh! I heard so many things about this and ever since I heard about Metro and their auditions for this event, I wanted to go to this! I already knew about Wasabi with their Human CHECKER Match back at AFO 2007 and we did stick around after opening ceremonies for that, but this is different! WAY DIFFERENT! How? Not only it has anime and gaming characters, a story to fit the theme, but it runs ALL WEEKEND! Last year there was a To be continued and according to friends, it will continue from it left off. They are holding auditions for characters and once I hear more things, may do a newsflash! Will try and cover this event since I wanted to go forever!

Well, that is it for now! You can check out this convention through My Cons Online and go to their page from there! You can still buy tickets, get volunteer info, and many more items! And any hotel information!

What is next for Nerdy Shique Universe? Well…today is the release of Lightning Returns and well…Gondras did get it due to things and since so many people didn’t like FF XIII and its sequel, even Spoony finished his review on it, I decided to do “Is it Worth It?” and tell you that way! And also, will be doing another convention spotlight and that will be on my new fave con, MythiCon! And of course, faves of January and February! That’s it! Til next time!