Katsucon, Washington, DC, 2007

(Originally written on February 21, 2007)

Day 1

Here's a photo of my own dolls that I took before I headed off to the convention. Sitting in the back all dressed in purple on the left is my Volks Dollfie Dream. Seated next to her in the black dress with red hair is my new Ellowyne Wilde doll. (I initially decided to bring her because I wanted to see how well her clothes would fit on someone else's Mini-Super Dollfie-sized dolls to see whether I could get by with making MSD-sized outfits to sell in the future. Unfortunately, it was so crowded at Friday night's meet-up that I never got a chance to do this. I'll probably post a note on the Den of Angels at some point asking about this.) As for the smaller dolls sitting in the larger dolls' laps, they are--from left to right--my Little Soul Doll Kimmy, Orient Doll Ji (holding a tiny stuffed pig that I found at Target as part of the new Only Hearts Club Pets line), and Soom Mini-Gem Uyoo. The smaller dolls are now sporting brand-new faceups done by me. (Click on any of the photos on this page in order to see a larger version open in a new window.)

Last weekend's Katsucon was more crowded than last year. (And I thought last year was a total mob scene!) When I got in line to register on a Friday afternoon at last year's event, I waited maybe no more than a half an hour before I was at the front of the line while I felt smug the following day as I saw the long line that snaked all the way to the hotel's lowest floor. Well, this year was different. Once again I arrived on Friday afternoon only to find the registration line snake all the way to the hotel's lowest floor--just like what happened at last year's convention on the second day. I ended up waiting in line for an hour this year before I was at the front of the line. It was totally noisy and I did my best to avoid people who suddenly decided to socialize with each other and ended up blocking the hotel hallways in the process.

On top of that, the entire Washington, DC region had been in a deep freeze since that major snow and ice storm hit the area on Valentine's Day and totally shut down the metropolitan region in the process. (I later heard that the florists delivering Valentine Day roses and candy were really having a hard time making their deadlines and many restaurants had to deal with sudden cancellations.) It got hard walking the normally easy blocks from the Metro stop to the hotel where the convention was being held because I had to watch out for ice patches on the sidewalk. I ended up wearing my heavy winter coat, which I ended up having checked at the hotel because my coat is great for totally cold weather but it can be a total burden indoors. (At previous Katsucons, I wore my light denim jacket that I could wear indoors without worrying about using the coat check service.)

There were a few changes to this year's Katsucon, not all of which I liked. Last year there were a few tables in the Artists Alley that sold clothes and accessories for Asian ball-jointed dolls, which I loved. (Heck, I did a lot of impulse buying on behalf of my Volks Dollfie Dream last year.) Well, the Katsucon staff decided to tighten the Artists Alley rules where people were only allowed to sell drawings and actual artwork and discourage selling non-artwork related stuff (such as Asian ball-jointed doll accessories). I heard the decision was made on the grounds that selling non-artwork stuff was unfair to the dealers in the Merchants Room who frequently pay something like $500 to sell their wares there while the Artists Alley tables were far cheaper. I can understand the reasoning, except that when I was wandering around the Merchants Room during the convention, not a single dealer sold anything that was even remotely related to Asian ball-jointed dolls. (The only thing even remotely related to dolls I saw sold there were the 1/6 scale figures that were based on various anime characters. But these figures were more like statuettes in that they had no joints at all and they were stuck in one position.) I can see not allowing people in the Artists Alley to sell Pocky sticks since a few tables in the Merchants Room sold them. But they should've been more relaxed about items that the dealers in the Merchants Room weren't even selling.

By the time I got my convention badge, it was time for me to grab some overpriced sandwich for dinner from the hotel store. (Last year I actually left the hotel to eat at local places like Chipotle's for a cheaper price but it was so cold that I felt too lazy to even leave the hotel.) By the time I finished eating, it was time for me to look for the Ball-Jointed Revolution table at the Artists Alley, where we would gather for the first Asian ball-jointed doll meet-up before heading up to the hotel room where the meet-up would be actually held. (Since this was being held in someone's private hotel room without the knowledge or permission of the hotel or Katsucon staff, we didn't know until the last minute which room it would be held in.) I ran into Dizzy again but I didn't see Aie at all at any of the doll meet-up events.

Once we got word of the hotel room, we found out that it was on the top floor of the hotel (the eighth floor) so we had to use the elevators. It was a mob scene getting to the elevators as we had to wait in line for the next chance to use the two available elevators then squeeze into the car with a whole lot of other people. But we eventually made it to the hotel room where we laid out our dolls and socialized with each other. As you can see in the photos, the hotel room was jammed with dolls and their owners. The room got so noisy that, at one point, a hotel security guard came by and asked us to keep the noise level down. We made every effort to be careful since the meet-up was held in someone's private hotel room and it was being held without the knowledge of either the Katsucon organizers or the hotel staff.

Not only did we showed off our dolls but a few people also brought some doll-related wares to sell and/or trade. (It was definitely a way of getting around the stricter Artists Alley rules this year.)

Day 2

By the second day, I decided to decrease my dolly load a little bit by leaving my Ellowynne Wilde doll at home since things got to be a bit heavy with lugging two large dolls around the convention. (The other dolls are all pretty light and tiny so they were pretty easy to carry around.) I decided to be creative and have my Volks Dollfie Dream and I wear similar clothes on that day. We both wore matching t-shirts (which has the artwork from Pink Floyd's classic The Dark Side of the Moon album) while my doll wore pink paisley pants and I wore camouflage pants that had alternating colors of pink, brown, and grey. (I had a couple of people at the convention notice the matching t-shirts.) The only bad thing is that I forgot to get someone to take a photo of me and my doll in matching outfits. Oh well!

The first thing I did when I arrived at the convention was to check out the Merchants Room where I purchased a lot of different flavors of Pocky sticks. There was one t-shirt dealer who noticed my Pink Floyd t-shirt who showed me one t-shirt that he was selling that featured a pink-tinted photo of Sigmund Freud with the words "Pink Freud" underneath. Between the shopping and a short lunch break that I took (I brought my own lunch to the convention in order to save money on the overpriced hotel food), I was late getting to the second doll meet-up but it wasn't so bad since there were still plenty of dolls and their owners present. Here are the photos that were taken at the second doll meet-up (which was held in the same hotel room as the previous one except this one started at noon and ended around 1:30 p.m.).

One person brought a tiny ball-jointed doll that she made herself using Sculpey, elastic string, paint, a tiny fur wig and Kelly doll clothes. This doll is about the same size as my Orient Doll Ji.

Here are some more photos from the meet-up.

Like the previous meet-up, a few people brought some wares to sell and/or trade.

The meet-up officially ended around 1:30 p.m., which provided enough time to travel over to the "Introduction to Super Dollfie" panel that Dizzy was giving. At the previous night's meet-up, Dizzy said that she needed help because she left her PowerPoint presentation at home so she asked us if we could show up at the panel and leave our dolls at the front so she would have actual examples of Asian ball-jointed dolls while she gave her presentation. The panel turned out to be a popular one because all the seats were taken so many people ended up either standing up in the back on sitting down on the floor. After the panel ended, many people stuck around to socialize and check out the dolls so I managed to get a few pictures in before people packed up their dolls and left.

I took this really interesting photo of an owner and her doll who were dressed alike (including even matching wigs):

After the panel ended, I packed up all of my dolls except for my Volks Dollfie Dream (that's mainly because I wanted to show off the fact that we were wearing matching t-shirts at the con) and I got a snack and basically chilled out as I waited for another panel that I was interested in to begin. I took this photo of my Dollfie Dream in the meantime.

The only one non-doll event I participated in at Katsucon was one on J-rock. I wanted to go because I thought it would be interesting to hear what kind of rock music was emerging out of Japan and to decide for myself whether there were any Japanese equivalent of U2 or Aerosmith or Nirvana. Unfortunately, I didn't like the way the panel was run.

Try to imagine that someone was going to give a panel on popular British rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s but no music from any of these acts were going to be played. Instead the person decides to show various clips showing band members goofing around with each other backstage, wandering around a local shopping mall a few hours before a show, or other bloopers. In fact, whenever an actual snippet of music would come on, the DVD would be abruptly turned off. A newbie wouldn't know what any of these bands sounded like while a long-time fan would feel frustrated at not hearing any of the music that made the fan love the band in the first place. Well, that was how the J-rock panel was presented. I saw a few people begin to walk out during the panel and I ended up leaving myself halfway through since I felt frustrated that I wasn't going to hear any of the music. It's too bad because had I heard anything that I actually loved, I would've run back to the Merchants Room to find any CDs from the band in question. Oh well.

I left the convention after I walked out on the J-rock panel because I was feeling tired and I was invited to a dinner party at a friend's place that night. Even though I purchased a weekend pass (mainly because it was $10 cheaper than if I had bought separate passes for Friday and Saturday), I ended up staying home on the last day of the convention since there weren't any panels that interested me and I had already finished all the shopping that I was going to do on the previous two days.

The Swag From Katsucon

(Originally written on April 23, 2007)

I attended Katsucon back in February and attended a couple of doll meetups. I also spent a lot of money buying stuff on impulse for my Dollfie Dream, Sakura, yet I haven't gotten around to taking and posting photos of the stuff until now.

Everything that Sakura is wearing in this photo came from Katsucon, with the exception of her Azone shoes (which I purchased from Hobby Link Japan). She is wearing an orange Poshdoll wig, which I purchased from Dizzy, who helped organized the doll meetups at Katsucon through the group BJD Revolution. Dizzy also sewed the shirt and pants that Sakura is wearing in the photo. My Dollfie Dream is a bit too busty for the shirt but I'm going to save it for the time when I have the opportunity to buy a male ball-jointed doll as a companion for her.

Here is a back view of the outfit. If you like Dizzy's work based on these photos, then you may want to check out her website at thedizziness.com.

Sakura is modeling another shirt that I also bought at Katsucon. This one was created as a special limited edition Katsucon exclusive by a person who goes by the name bluegirlwish on the Den of Angels forum.

Here is a close-up of the photo. In case you can't read the tiny print on the t-shirt, it reads "...cast me gently into morning." If you like this t-shirt, you may want to check out bluegirlwish's website and LiveJournal.

Katsucon, Washington, DC, 2007

Day 1

Day 2

The Swag From Katsucon

Back to Adventures With Dolls Index

Back to Dolls Index

Back to Home