Back for another year of Sailor Moon Celebration… except this year TSMC rebranded as Pretty Heroes to include ALL magical girl shows; especially the new season of Card Captor Sakura, Clear Card Arc. Unfortunate that booking forced Pretty Heroes to be at the same time as Yeti Con.
The real problem is Pretty Heroes was at its limit with Ontario Science Centre with space. Dealer room spanned three locations, Main room, bridge way, and Indie dealer room on two levels made it awkward. I didn’t even noticed that the bridge way out of bound last year was being used for more artists and cosplay guests until late in the day. Things got moved around but I got my media pass finally and was able to room freely.
With smaller cons, I could relax and take in panels as oppose to larger cons like Anime North and Fan Expo so I took in the Card Captor panel.
Everyone favorite turtle and a real iron man, Matt Hill was there talking about how he came up with Kero’s voice. He talked about his epic walk around the continent for science.
Carly McKillop was the original voice of Sakura. Being only 10 years old at the time, she recorded her lines alone in the sound booth. She also did work along with her sister on Sabrina the Teenage Witch animated series. Since then she has made a name of herself on the other side of the glass as a producer of music. This was her first appearance at a con for her role as Card Captor Sakura but after seeing her sister at cons for her work on My Little Ponies; she decided to give Pretty Heroes a try. Hope to see her more at cons in the future.
This was also the time to try NEW things at Pretty Heroes. I’ve been wishing for a long time to show photos and videos in 360. Meaning the photo or video looks like you’re right there. I did eye a Samsung Gear 360 but the software and apps didn’t work with my existing hardware. It would have cost me nearly a grand to operate one.
Instead I managed to get my hands days on a Monster Vision VR camera for $99 which worked with my current iPhone and tablet. Some quirks like the micro SD card wouldn’t insert properly unless it was forced with edge of micro SD adapter. The remote pictured above didn’t even have screws holding the back together. I had to go to Electrical & Electronics Supply on 501C Nightingale Ave to get screws small enough to fix it. In the end, I didn’t use it but used my iPhone instead.
I brought a regular tripod but my selfie stick attached to mini tripod worked better though not too stable. I was able to capture some rooms and record the masquerade is 360 video. How I’m going to get these images to website and social media is going to be another story of trial and error.
It was also the time to try out my hand at rebranding a game just for Pretty Heroes. Coming across a Flappy Bird clone on github, I remade the bird into a flying teddie bear. It was an interesting experiment but it’s hard to gauge on whither fans will embrace an indie tribute game. Kero Flap is up for a limited time so be sure to check it out.
Prior to the masquerade the panel “Successful Women in Fandom” panel ran over time with questions and answers. It was a great panel and they’re just going to have it again next year. I was worried about the time being that my bus back was at a firm 8:30pm.
The masquerade was charming this year with The Last Son cosplay as host this year. He did a great job and hope to see him back again next year. The masquerade was pretty informal with one sudden contestant at the end with her own original cosplay character.
All in all a good time, I can see that Pretty Heroes has outgrow Ontario Science Centre though the OSC staff literally bent over backwards to help make sure the con was a success. Hopefully Pretty Heroes can get their old weekend back for next year so it doesn’t collide with other cons. I look forward to next year.
