Otakon, Baltimore, Maryland, 2005

(Originally written on August 22, 2005)

This entire weekend has been totally crazy. It all started Friday morning when I was waiting for the cable guy to show up and install our new digital cable box. He was supposed to arrive between 8-10 a.m. but then I got a call from Comcast saying that he would arrive between 9 a.m.-1 p.m. I really couldn't stay past 11 a.m. and just when I was about ready to leave, the cable guy showed up. He didn't take too long upgrading our cable system so I was out of the house by 11:30 a.m.

I managed to arrive at the Baltimore Convention Center in time to eat lunch at nearby Harborplace then heading over to the "Introduction to Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls" panel that was being given by BJD Revolution. I had attended a similar panel of theirs at Katsucon a few months ago but I missed half of that panel due to the fact that my connecting Metro train took forever to arrive while I was waiting to transfer at L'Enfant Plaza. It was so nice to be able to see the entire panel from the beginning this time around.

That panel was crowded and I could've sworn that there were more dolls at this event than what I saw at Katsucon (although I can't be 100% sure of that since my memory has an annoying habit of being vague and cloudy at times). Once the panel ended, the moderators invited all of us doll owners to bring our dolls to the front for a picture taking session.

Unfortunately, the Otakon organizers only allotted an hour to the panel and by the time we were setting up our dolls for the photo shoot, the people behind the next panel had entered the room and they gave strong hints that they wanted us out of here.

So we started to socialize in the hallway while setting up the dolls on the floor of the hall to have a photoshoot. At one point, an Otakon staffer came over to us and he expressed his concern that we would block the hallway, which would create a fire hazard. As a compromise, we ended lining up next to the crowd of dolls and three people were allowed to take photos of the large doll group at a time. When everyone finished with taking photos, we all got our dolls and went our separate ways.

In the meantime I checked out the Dealer's Room and the Artist's Alley. While I was in the Artist's Alley, I managed to take photos of the various ball-jointed dolls that were displayed on many of the tables. I managed to say hello to some people I met before at the panel as well as the previous Katsucon and Anime USA conventions.

At 6 p.m. I checked out a forum on Girl Gamers where girls and young women took turns telling their stories about the sexism they encountered whenever they try to play or buy games that are considered to be "masculine" (such as Halo). It was an eye-opening experience for me because, as someone who cut her teeth playing Space Invaders and Pac-Man, I had never encountered such attitudes from guys like that. But, then again, my tastes tend towards classic games from the 1980's (like Donkey Kong) and music games (like Dance Dance Revolution) and I guess none of those games have exclusively "masculine" associations.

I ate dinner at nearby Harborplace but then I began to realize that I was tired so I went back home. (My husband and I opted to commute to and from Baltimore so we wouldn't have to deal with hotel expenses.)

Saturday my husband joined me at Otakon (he wasn't able to make it on the first day). This morning I went off on my own to the doll meet-up that BJD Revolution had announced before Otakon. The doll meet-up was scheduled from 10 a.m.-noon with the Doll Cosplay Contest to occur during that meet-up. The meet-up was scheduled so that doll owners who worked the Artist's Alley table would be able to participate and the Artist's Alley originally wasn't scheduled to open on Saturday until 12 noon.

Well things went haywire when the Otakon organizers decided to open the Artist's Alley at 9 a.m. (despite the fact that their own program booklet said that Artist's Alley wouldn't open until 12 noon) without providing any warning and the doll owners who were working the convention were surprised when the news about this filtered down. As a result, some doll owners couldn't stay long at the meet-up because they had to report to their tables.

It also wrecked havoc with the Doll Cosplay Contest because many of the contestants were working their tables in the Artist's Alley. As a result, the contest only had three dolls (including my own). Two of them won prizes (which were three pieces of doll-sized plastic food that resembled hamburgers, French fries, and sandwiches). My doll didn't win anything, which didn't upset me since the whole disorganization of Otakon threw a monkey wrench into the Doll Cosplay Contest. It's a shame because it was a great idea to promote the idea of using dolls to portray various anime and manga characters and it had the potential to grow into a regular feature of anime conventions in the future.

The meet-up wasn't a total bust because we were joined by many other doll owners who showed up late with their dolls. So we basically spent the time socializing until noon.

After the meet-up, I caught up with my husband and we ate at a lovely Irish pub that recently opened in Harborplace. (It also wasn't very crowded since many Otakon participants were eating either in the food courts or crowing up the area Japanese restaurants.)

After lunch we cruised around Artist's Alley, the Art Show, and the Dealer's Room, which required tons of walking. We went to a panel that was sponsored by Tokyopop where the company announced its upcoming slate of manga that will be released over the next year.

It was 4 p.m. by the time the panel ended and my husband and I were so tired that we ended up returning home.

On Sunday, the last day of Otakon, I came to the convention by myself. The sole reason why I even bothered coming on the last day because of a panel that featured Mitsukazu Mihara, who wrote the manga Doll and I really enjoyed that series very much. I changed my Dollfie Dream's outfit and I decided to take her with me for the final day. My doll was wearing the new pair of jeans and tiny Otakon badge that I purchased in the Artist's Alley and I hoped to be able to catch up with a few acquaintances from the previous doll events this weekend.

At the end of the panel, it was announced that Mitsukazu Mihara would be signing autographs at the Tokyopop booth in the Dealer's Room so I decided to go for it. I ended up waiting in line for two hours (I sat down in line much of the time in order to save wear and tear on my legs) but I got her autograph. She admired my Dollfie Dream but we didn't get a chance to chat much because there were other people waiting in line.

After that long wait, I decided to chill out by browsing around the other tables in the Dealer's Room. I became hungry so I decided to grab a couple of hot dogs from the vendor in the Baltimore Convention Center rather than walking back to Harborplace again. (It was very hot and humid outside and I was feeling tired and lazy.) By the time I finished wolfing down my hot dog, I found that the convention was starting to close down and I couldn't go to the Artist's Alley for the last time because it was closed. (I found out that the closing ceremonies happened at 2 p.m.) The Otakon and Baltimore Convention Center staffers were trying to encourage people to leave to I basically left. I was disappointed that I couldn't see some of the doll people in the Artist's Alley for the last time but, otherwise, I was ready to leave.

Once I got back from Otakon, I had to sort through the nearly 200 photos that I took of that event between doll photos and non-doll photos. Then I had to sift through the doll photos because I found out that I frequently took two or more photos of the same subjects from different angles. Then I wrote the story about Otakon for Dollicieux that I promised them I would write. I finally sent off the story and photos to them and I'm sure that the editors will further cut the photos down for posting on their site. (Well, it's always better to have more photos that they can use than not enough photos.)

I didn't send all of my doll-related Otakon photos to Dollicieux. There were some that I ommitted either because they dealt only with the vinyl 1/6 Volks Dollfie Plus dolls that I brought to the convention (Dollicieux deals only with the resin Asian ball-jointed dolls) or they were too redundant of other photos that I did submit or (there were times when I took two or more different photos of the same doll from different angles) or they weren't taken by me at all.

The first three I have were taken by a friend of Aie's (from BJD Revolution) whose name I have since forgotten. The photos are ones of all the doll owners who took part in the Saturday morning meet-up. (Click on any of the thumbnails on this page to see a larger version of the photo in a different window.)

The rest of the photos are some outtakes that I've taken that either didn't make the final cut at Dollicieux or I didn't even submit to that site.

Otakon Day 1: My Dollfie Dream Sakura is dressed in her sailor suit school uniform while resting on top of my duffel bag with my two 1/6 Dollfie Plus dolls—The Blue Prince and The Blue Lady.

When I first arrived at Otakon, I checked out the Artists Alley tables, where there were plenty of ball-jointed dolls on display. Most of them weren't for sale but many of the tables sold clothes and other ball-jointed doll accessories.

I took a close-up at this one ball-jointed doll in the Artist's Alley section of the convention because of her really cool waffle wig that has alternating strands of light pink and baby blue. (I was told that this wig is a CanCan wig.)

This year a new ball-jointed doll company called Bishonen House made its debut at Otakon. Bishonen House makes male dolls that, at 29 inches, are taller than Super Dollfies. Bishonen House was the only Artists Alley table that sold ball-jointed dolls.

Bishonen House isn't the only table to have unique ball-jointed dolls. This one-of-a-kind fox-like ball-jointed doll was for display only at the table of a Den of Angels forum member known as Lithe-Fider.

he first doll-related event at Otakon was the Introduction to Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls panel that was held by BJD Revolution. The panelists requested that all photographers wait until the end of the presentation before taking pictures. Once the presentation ended, many people waiting take pictures began to crowd around the dolls.

Unfortunately, only an hour was allotted for the BJD panel and the people involved in the next panel took over the room so all the BJD owners and enthusiasts decided to congregate in the hall to try taking doll photos there.

Gathering the dolls for a group shot became a challenge because at one point one of the Otakon staffers expressed their concerns about the large group blocking the hallway, which would pose a fire hazard. As a compromise, BJD Revolution had to decree that only three photographers at a time were allowed to take a group shot of the dolls and everyone had to line up if they wanted to take pictures.

Here are some of the dolls that attended the panel.

My Dollfie Dream, Sakura (wearing a platinum blond wig and her sailor suit), is among the dolls in this shot.

The dolls were literally lined up against the wall for this photo op.

Otakon Day 2: This day began with a doll meet-up that was scheduled from 10 a.m.-12 noon. This doll arrived in a casket-shaped carrying case.

Unfortunately things went wrong when word filtered down that the Otakon officials abruptly decided to open the Artist's Alley at 9 a.m. without much warning. As a result, most of the Artist's Alley participants couldn't stay very long at the meet-up because they had to get to their tables quickly. They managed to stay long enough to have a group shot of the dolls at the beginning of the meet-up.

After this initial group shot, many of the Artist's Alley participants had to leave with their dolls. The good news is that more doll owners came later so it was still a well-attended meet-up.

This meet-up provided an opportunity to see some rare hard-to-find ball-jointed dolls, such as this Limited Edition Chi Super Dollfie (wearing a black dress and holding a small pink bunny in her lap).

The smallest ball-jointed doll who came to the meet-up was this Unoa Light doll (wearing a pink wig and cat ears), which is the size of a Dollfie Plus. Like her larger Unoa counterparts, this doll has the eye-moving mechanism.

Sakura is dressed in her cosplay outfit while she cuddles The Blue Lady and The Blue Prince during the doll meet-up at the convention. (Her cosplay outfit was based on the ones worn by a line of expensive dolls known as Plant Dolls in Yumiko Kawahara's manga series Dolls.) The doll cosplay contest was held midway through the meet-up but only three dolls participated due to the fact that other contestants had to work their Artists Alley table after Otakon officials suddenly decided--and without providing any advanced warning--to open that section two hours earlier than previously announced.

Here's a close-up shot of the doll that won the doll cosplay contest. He's a Mini Super Dollfie-sized doll who was dressed as Gaara from the anime series Naruto.

The Blue Prince and The Blue Lady managed to get away from Sakura to take some quality time for themselves.

The Blue Prince decides to wander off on his own away from the other dolls for a moment to himself.

Here are some tiny goth-looking dolls.

Here are a couple of pretty ball-jointed dolls.

This doll looks demure in her outfit.

The tiny Unoa Light doll sits among the larger BJD's and Ultraman (far left).

Most of the meet-up consisted of doll owners gathered in small clusters socializing and comparing their dolls.

The meet-up ended with the dolls being gathered into a large group for another round of picture taking.

Here are a bunch of ball-jointed dolls lined up together in a gang, which is a rare sight.

Anyone who wished to own all the dolls in this group would have to fork over thousands of dollars.

One doll (center) even had his own tiny bottle of beer with him.

Some of the dolls who showed up at this meet-up are rare and very hard to find (even on the Internet), such as the Limited Edition Chi Super Dollfie (located second from the right) and the tiny 1/6 scale pink-haired Unoa Light doll (who is seated in the lap of a larger doll).

Otakon Day 3: Sakura is all dressed in her brand-new outfit, featuring the pretty flowered jeans that I purchased from Dizzy in the Artist's Alley table the day before. (The shirt is really an Eeyore wristband that I purchased for $4 from a local Hot Topic store a few months ago.) The final day was the shortest because the convention formally closed at 3 p.m. While I was able to check the Dealer's Area for some last-minute shopping, I was unable to go back to the Artist's Alley area because it was closed by the time I got there. It was a shame since I wanted to see if there were any doll-related goodies that I was interested in buying. Oh well, that's the way things go sometimes.

Otakon, Baltimore, Maryland, 2005

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