MegaCon 2012 Review

I have been to just about every major anime-related convention in Florida over the past 5 years. Some have grown strong, remain stagnant, or defunct. MegaCon, which is a comic and scifi convention, is known as the largest convention in Florida with estimated numbers hitting above 20,000, and while it is not necessarily an anime convention, it does attempt to cater to that audience. However I have managed to evade attending while feeling somewhat obligated to go at least once. So how does MegaCon stack up?

The convention center is pretty big; so big that it is actually divided in different sections with MegaCon only taking up a fraction of it. It is made up of wide hallways which connect to form a large square around all the events and panels. Even though the con has a huge attendance, the space provided for MegaCon was just enough to not always feel like you were stuck in the herd of people or claustrophobic like at AFO. The only place that seemed truly crowded was the registration area. I witnessed hundreds of people in line for a pass. Some attendees told me they had waited more than an hour in line to pick up their pass. The advance registration lines were fortunately not as bad except during the early parts of Friday. So I cannot stress enough that you should probably pre-register and plan a good amount of potential waiting in line time if there is something you planned on seeing. MegaCon also hosted a huge amount of food vendors inside; more than I had seen for a convention. Many of which were rather pricey, but there was an IHOP and a McDonalds a short walk away.

Speaking of walking, since this isn’t a hotel-based convention, expect to walk from wherever you are staying or parking. Parking at the convention center also costs at about $8 per vehicle.

Most of the convention center you can walk freely without being asked to show your badge, which is great if you want to take it off and do some photos. There are also a variety of places to take photos whether it’s urban, foresty, or park-like landscape. However, the area with the dealers, panels, and events is closed off by staff in which you are required to present a pass. I wasn’t haggled much to show it except when I checked out the dealers room.

Whenever I brought up this convention to other people, they would always talk about how great the dealer’s room is. Sure enough, it is the largest dealers room I have ever seen. Prior to this, I would normally say AWA had the biggest dealer room. MegaCon is probably two or even three times the size of AWA’s dealers room. There were so many dealers, it would be impossible to keep count. While a lot of the ones I did notice seemed comic book related, there were also plenty of video games and cosplay-related ones too. Next to the dealers room is also the largest artist alley I had ever seen. I could go on and on and try to explain it, but even my pictures won’t do it justice on how large everything is.

The attendance fluctuated quite a bit. As I mentioned before, MegaCon hosts the largest attendance out of any convention in Florida. On Friday, it felt only moderately busy and then on Friday night it seemed surprisingly dead. I do know a lot of people were attending the raves and concerts, but the lobby and some of the panel rooms seemed empty. Saturday was huge and it was for sure a staggering amount of people attending, more than I had ever seen at a con. Then as the day progressed, the convention steadily dropped in numbers and it looked like the same or even less than other cons I attended on a Saturday night. Sunday was a little livelier than I was use to though.

The cosplay I saw was excellent. Not just because there were armor, wings, and other crazy stuff, but also because of the amount of diversity. There was the obscure, scifi/fantasy, comic related, joke cosplay, and stuff that was pretty flat out weird. While I was pretty surprised I saw more than one Zombie Ate My Neighbors Cosplay, I never thought I’d see somebody actually make an A+ cosplay of Jim Carrey’s portrayal of the Riddler from Batman Forever. This is the kind of stuff that I can say only exists at this convention.

While walking around Friday I couldn’t find a video game room and assumed there wasn’t one other than some tables in the dealers room which had closed. In the hallway I did see a TV with Dance Central that was always crowded by people. After a few times searching, I noticed in-between all the people a door that opened to a dark room. Upon walking in I finally found there was one and.. it was okay. There were about 20 tvs which all featured games like Street Fighter IV, Tekken, Soul Calibur, etc.. The downside is that in order to play you had to pick up a controller from the staff member inside and this would require exchanging your ID. However since I did not have my wallet with me they did accept other collateral such as my hotel room key and were pretty nice about it.

When it came to panels and events it felt like the con had a lot to offer, but at the same time left something to be desired. The panel rooms were big and comfortable enough, but I noticed some technical issues that occurred during some of the ones I attended. At one panel there was a weird hissing sound coming from the audio during the Anime Horror panel. This also reoccurred at another panel I attended. As far as the content itself it was okay. There were tons of comic and sci-fi related panels which seemed pretty wild, but since I am not really into that I didn’t bother to attend. I did find it a little funny there was a sign with an arrow stating ANIME PANELS/EVENTS in order to segregate itself from other events going on. It also felt the convention ended earlier than what I am use to. In comparison to say MetroCon, AWA or EXP they usually have events that last all the way up to 3AM. However on Saturday night there were actually officers telling people to leave the building at around 11:45 PM.

Reeling back to my previous statement of being a multi-genre convention, its main attraction are hosting celebrity guests who offer signings, picture opportunities, meet & greets and Q&A panels. The guest list was extremely large and diverse which included voice actor Vic Mignona, Stan Lee and Tom Felton who played Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter. The downside is that most of these signings and picture opportunities cost money on top of having to pay for a pass which could equal the same amount. Although if you’re a huge fan of any said guest attending then, like several people I witnessed, they would have no problem paying this.

Speaking of costs I do have to admit I was a little surprised to find out Vic Mignona’s concert also required an additional fee in order to attend on top of having a pass.

When I asked about MegaCon to a couple of people they would usually tell me something like, “It’s just a big dealers room.” While it is obviously more than that, it can feel that way if you are not the intended audience. To sum it up, MegaCon is a huge convention that offers a lot and in some ways too much. If you are not really into celebrity guests and if you’re looking at the panels and thinking “meh” then I can’t say this convention really offers any surprises. As an anime fan, I’d say the con was okay and if you are more than an anime fan, it’s worth checking out. If you’re the more sci-fi/comic type then this would definitely be an excellent convention for you. There’s enough content here to lure you several states away.

Pros: Large convention center, good photoshoot locations, large and diverse guest list, huge dealers/artist alley room, friendly staff, OK gaming room, huge attendance, excellent cosplay quality

Cons: More sci-fi/comic orientated, anime events lacking, gaming room could be more diverse

ProTip: Thoroughly read the website and guides before deciding to attend.

Note: All photos belong and were taken by Ken AD Photography