Comic Con Finland 2024 Summary

 Hi everyone!

Finland's first ever Comic Con was held 10.-12.5 in Tampere Messu- ja urheilukeskus and I have a lot to say about it! If there is something I missed or didn't notice, please do share! This was definitely an experience... My companion to the convention was once again Dongrieg. Our trip started on Friday morning, we took a train to Tampere and got an earlier check in to Scandic hotel near train station. This was very cool, we made it con a little earlier than we thought. We had to take the bus to the convention venue and I was nervous about that. I've never used public transport in Southern parts, where such things are way fancier than we have in North. It sounded way more complicated than it actually was, so we got there and back just fine (it was also very cheap)!

Our sight straight out of the bus

On Friday I cosplayed Saber from Fate Stay/Night, her casual version. It was super chill, comfy cosplay for first day (or so I thought), only malfunctions being the wig. It's a ponytail wig  (not a clip-in one) and quite heavy, even though I cut a lot out of it. I wasn't sure how many cosplayers to expect, but there were a few, which is always cool.

Mirror selfie I took in the dressing room. I was bloated which made this costume a little uncomfy x_x

First thing on out arrival and stepping into the con we felt overwhelmed. We got our tickets easily, no lines there, but felt a little lost at times. Especially me, because my sense of direction is the same as Zoro's from One Piece. Good thing Dongrieg has better idea where everything was. We didn't have any specific programs we wanted to see on Friday aside from Sarjismiehet (Comic book men) Podcast. I didn't know much about them, but Dongrieg has followed them for a while and listens to their podcast actively. The subject was interesting so of course I'd join him. That wasn't until evening I think, so we had a full day to explore the area. I've never been to this building before, so there was a lot to see.

Here you got your tickets

Iconic Joker stairs

Puolenkuunpelit corner and some other booths

Angry Birds 15 years! Aka heroes talk stage

Tattoo station! I was so tempted to get FFXIV one from one of the artists, but all the time slots were taken

Dongrieg looking at some sword props, most of them were plastic

you could try some new Nintendo games here, gave Princess Peach Showdown a go :3

I got a little confused here, because the prices were in Swedish crowns

I got this one for free, if you know, you know

Dongrieg took a picture of me being silly

Helldiver and a mini-helldiver, so cute! :3

These were so cool

Wooooooow

Spooks! I have only watched 1 season of Stranger Things

Ticket!

There was a lot to see and buy, but not much to actually do. The only gaming you could do was play some nintendo games, but that was pretty much it. Some booths had these wheels of fortune, where you could win something small, but not much else. (Aside the ones you can take pics at like the Joker stairs and Peach Showdown booth) Not only was the con lacking things to do, it also lacked water spots! In every convention I've been to, you could always get water! Not here though and water bottles cost like 3-4€! That's insane! Good thing some con goers informed this on their social medias, but if you weren't following them, tough shit I suppose. We did have water bottles on us, but still! D: What this convention didn't lack was bootleg sellers. This is something I haven't seen in Finnish cons for a long while. Most of them sold Mystery bags with different themes and fandoms. This was definitely appealing to younger congoers that don't know better. I personally want to see where my money goes. Also these sellers didn't have any signs saying who they were, so that was also a red flag.

One example of these lucky/mystery bags, there were multiple sellers.

From what I've heard, the items in the bags didn't cost anywhere near the bags price. They cost waaaayyy less if you bought them from legit sellers separately. Some bags had legit licensed items in them, but also a lot of pirated stuff and sadly stolen art, which pisses me off ngl. I've heard some even had NSFW-posters! Which is very worrying... All I want to say is that Finnish conventions don't have any room for bootleg sellers!

In my Joker-arc

My Saber cosplay in all it's glory

Now that I've got my frustrations out, let's focus on some of the positives! Friday was very nice and chill day overall. You could breathe easy and there was enough space to actually see things. I met up with some people I've talked to over social media and got a seat at Sarjismiehet Podcast, some had to stand during the program.

Sarjismiehet at Heroes Academy

Even though I wasn't familiar with them, I found the panel very entertaining and easy to understand. The subject was how Marvel almost went bankrupt in the 90's. Very interesting stuff indeed and also very funny! :3 I hope I see them again later in some other convention. Western comics always have a space in any con I think.

After the panel we pretty much went back to hotel room to get some food and rest, next day would be another con day.

Next day we went to get some breakfast at hotel, got some water and went to con. I cosplayed Venat from Final Fantasy XIV that day, though I decided to dress up in the convention. The cosplay dressing room was good I think. It was unisex, but it had a toilet in there, so you could get some privacy.

This is how I left the hotel room

Changed!

I didn't have enough time to do a proper makeup test and the wig could use some more styling, but the costume was super comfy. I was still bloated af, but the robe covered everything up nicely. For next time I will improve this! It was also nice to talk about the game with people. Thank you everyone who came up to me, you were all awesome! See you in Dawntrail! :3

Candy apples, didn't get any though

ooooooh~

Saturday was definitely more crowded than Friday and for some reason, a con that has already sold out, sold 500 extra tickets for Saturday. 10 000 people plus 500 more? Please correct me if I'm wrong. It was a lot. We were supposed to get autographs from Don Rosa, but there was a long line for that and for everything else. Someone lined for 6 hours for one of the guests! 6 hours! I paid 85€/ticket and I bought 2! I don't want to spend most of my day just standing in a line. Don Rosa's autographs and pictures were free at least, but Kit Harrington's weren't, people had to pay for autograph and/or pictures in advance and there was pretty much the same length of a line for him too. Some people didn't even get what they paid for I heard, absolute bonkers. Next time Finland could do how they do in France and give you time slot when you purchase an autograph and/or picture ticket. This way no one has to spend their convention day standing in line and miss everything else going on. You would get an appointment.

Finnkino gave free popcorn, but again, no water spots! :'D

Finnkino was there to advertise the new Garfield movie (that I would actually like to watch) and they also had a competition where you had to count all the minions in a poster and give your answer in their website, you could win movie tickets. Of course I or Don didn't win anything. At least we got free popcorn.

Venat does not approve the yellow tictacs

We really wanted to see Don Rosa's Q&A, even walked towards Main Stage 1 hour early, only to realize all the people there were all queued for him as well. The line reached all the way outside and the main stage could only hold up to 800 people. There was 10 000 in the con. We were definitely upset, but decided to give autograph a go after the Q&A was over. Boom it was another line there too. We did get some prints at least, but no autograph or picture. We were a little sad, Don Rosa is essentially Dongrieg's childhood hero. He has collected so many of his comics and he is ultimately his favorite artist overall, I'm sure he is also one of the inspirations behind his username online. Sure, Don Rosa is an older gentleman and definitely needs to eat and rest too. From what I've heard he would've loved to stay and interact with fans.

There was this Garfield mascot walking around the convention. Kids loved them so much! :3

R2D2 and Pirkka John Snow :D

Pirkka Venat :'D

We didn't have programs for Saturday. Honestly I didn't know if there were anything, because there was no schedule visible anywhere in the con or even announcements. The only time announcements were used, was when Cosplay Parade happened and essentially blocked the only exit. No one would get in or out, it happened when the con was at it's busiest, people got panic attacks (me included) and someone almost passed out. That's when I heard the announcement saying that C-halls doors were now open and you can exit there. They have the equipment to do announcements, but decided not to? Also for the Q&A, youtuber inkanitta pointed out that for the people that couldn't get into these Q&A's (there was one for every main guest) there could've been screens/live stream of them for the rest. This would've been  great because again, the main stage could only hold up to 800 people and there was close to 10 000 people there. 

The con day went super chaotically. Once again, I met up with some friends I've made during the con, did some shopping in the artist's alley and felt disoriented.

Ei saatana

Sunday Sunday Sunday. We weren't too sure if we would attend that day to the con since our train to Kemi went already at 3, but we got up pretty early in the morning and decided to give Don Rosa autograph another go. 

Main hall

Can you see the exit?

Of course Tracon and Ropecon was there

We tried to get in line for Don Rosa once again, but of course, other people got in first and there was a long line again. We were over it at this point and decided to do some final shopping. I found the perfect Mother's Day gift for my mom and found a Filo (Rising of Shield Hero) figure on sale, which was a nice surprise. It didn't say anything about being a little cheaper on the box, hehe. Also we got to see SLAM! Wrestling Finland's Q&A and a wrestling match session. For those who don't know, I love wrestling and their match was a lot of fun to watch. They had a workshop on Saturday, but there was no way of me joining in with my robe and long curly wig on. Maybe next time! :'D

Nick Lukkonen And El Miguel :D

I got s great view!

SLAM! Wrestling Finland were definitely the highlight of the con for me. I got a lot of information about wrestling in Finland and some techniques used in wrestling. Very interesting stuff if you're into it! Shortly after we took the bus back to train station and then home. Scandic Hotel was nice enough to let us store our luggage in their storage room, so we didn't have to carry any in the bus.

So.. How do we feel about first ever Comic Con Finland? I expected some things not to work especially since this was first even CC held in here, but the bootleg and stolen art sellers really bugged me. As well as the lack of water spots! Seriously! 3-4€ a water bottle! Insane! The feel over all was a "normie" con. And it shows through lack of con etiquette. Even Sarjismiehet said they were a little surprised how many people actually attended their panel since "most of you were coming to see youtubers!". I know this was meant as a joke, but fr. It wasn't the first time this was compared to Tubecon (a con specifically for and about youtubers). It's probabaly what most of the younger congoers wanted to see and there is nothing wrong with it of course. I guess I just hoped the focus would've been in comics games and cosplay.

Vuokko was happy mom and dad came back home

On that note, I'm going to end this. I had a lot of fun in Comic Con, but it wasn't purely for the con itself, but the people I got to meet and hangout with. Until next time!