#derpycon 2016

Since my house is not very far from where DerpyCon is held, I usually forego getting a hotel room for the weekend, but we decided to go as a group this year since the con fell on @lovelyabyss95‘s birthday weekend. Being able to stay at the con center super late was actually pretty fantastic because it gave me the opportunity to not only celebrate my friend’s birthday with her, but also let me stay for night events I would have normally skipped out on. My DerpyCon 2016 story begins on Friday even though I heard that there was badge pickup on Thursday night for the con. Instead of making my way to Morristown, I was busy that night with some last minute cosplay crunching & also with picking up my copy of Pokemon Sun at my local Gamestop alongside @iron-rose-revolution since my store did a midnight release. I did, however, get up super early on Friday morning to get my Kanato Sakamaki cosplay on for the con!

After a great breakfast at my local bagel shop with @iron-rose-revolution, we made our way to Morristown to start our DerpyCon weekend! With a little help from the GPS, we ended up getting there around noon without much trouble at all. I did accidentally park a little too far on the opposite side of the parking garage, but that was a pretty easy fix. We gathered some of our luggage from the car and made our way to the con center to meetup with Angel Fox and our other friends who were rooming with us for the weekend. After dropping our things off in the room and picking up our con badges, which didn’t take much time at all, we were ready to start prepping ourselves for the Diabolik Lovers Photoshoot that we’d planned to do together. I’d brought along my Kanato Sakamaki cosplay so that I could shoot with @hkaze as Laito Sakamaki and @lovelyabyss95 who was to be our Yui Komori!

(Featuring Spufflez as Kanato Sakamaki and Angel Fox as Yui Komori from Diabolik Lovers during the Friday of DerpyCon 2016! Photography is by Angry Goat Cosplay & Photography on Facebook!)

We made our way outside around a block away from the con center in order to do our Dialovers minishoot since hotel lighting isn’t always the absolute best for photos. I was also rather sad because there was no giant Christmas Tree this year in the hotel due to the con being in November instead of December. I rather liked the December date because that meant that there were more holiday decorations, but I’ll get used it it being earlier. Thankfully, it wasn’t too cold outside that day, so we were able to take a whole heck of a lot of cute photos together. This con was Angel Fox’s debut for her Yui Komori cosplay, so I wanted to make sure it was extra special for her. We thankfully had a bunch of friends help out with the photoshoot, so it went over super well. I was happy enough with the area we chose that I opted to shoot there again the next day when I cosplayed from DMMD alongside Hღ Kaze Cosplay!

(Spufflez as Kanato Sakamaki, @hkaze as Laito Sakamaki, and @lovelyabyss95 as Yui Komori from Diabolik Lovers during the Friday of DerpyCon 2016!)

After we were done taking photos, I headed back on over to the convention center to browse the con for the first time since I’d gotten my badge. I wanted to make sure that I found the area where the cosplay contest judging was happening because I had been scheduled to enter on Saturday for the Hallway Costume Contest with my Usagimodoki Gijinka from DRAMAtical Murder. Afterwards I headed over to the Dealer’s Room and Artists’ Alley area so I could browse and ran into a few more friends on the way. I was pretty peckish after all of the shooting and socializing I did, so I picked up some Chinese takeout from the local joint we went to last year and headed back to the room to chill for a bit with @iron-rose-revolution and @awonderfulidiot. After having a late lunch I decided to wander around with @theemberwithin, checking out the different panel rooms for something to pass the time.

Whenever you go to a small con you run the risk of not always having something to do the entire time, but I was very pleased with my DerpyCon experience. I usually spend any downtime with The Ember Within when I go to events because I am not really a fan of sitting in con hotel rooms and just partying the weekend away. I like being out and about and experiencing the convention instead of secluding myself. I wandered into a few panels throughout my evening and night, including the Uncle Yo comedy one, which was great like always. I also did some karaoke throughout the weekend with @theemberwithin, which was one of the most fun things ever. I was back in the room, though, when we were celebrating @lovelyabyss95‘s birthday with some cake and good company.

(Featuring The Ember Within as Juvia Loxar from Fairy Tail with Spufflez as Kanato Sakamaki from Diabolik Lovers during the Friday of DerpyCon 2016!) 

After checking out Uncle Yo’s panel, I decided to explore a bit more with @theemberwithin. I definitely wanted to check out the game room and was happy to see that DerpyCon had some really neat rhythm and dancing games in their arsenal. Throughout the evening I decided to check out the many things Derpy had to offer, which was great, but later on I found out that my roommates who had opted to sequester themselves off for a bit received a noise complaint an hour before quiet hours officially went into effect. I’m not really sure how that happened since “night time” hours were after 10 PM, but apparently the other guests had complained to the hotel staff while I was out. I don’t put any blame on DerpyCon at all for something like this happening, but I find it rather weird that one of the top complaints from attendees at the end of the weekend were about bogus noise complaints.

Like I said previously, I was not present in the room when we had gotten the complaints, so I don’t really have much more to say about that situation. I can, however, talk a little bit about two of the last things I did on Friday night before I turned in. Aside from the usual photoshoots and chatting with friends, I decided to make it out to the Anime 18+ Dating Game with some friends. I wasn’t able to stay out this late for events like this previously because I’d never stayed at the con hotel, but I was happy to stay up for this. The premise is that a contestant from the audience (preferably in cosplay) comes up to be the “bachelor” and then they are blindfolded while the other contestants are chosen. The “bachelor” asks the contestants questions, to which they (hopefully) answer in character, and then ultimately one person is chosen to be the date at the end. I’ve been to a few of these panels at cons before and was more than happy to be in the audience for another one!

(Featuring Toni X Temptress as Ruby Rose from RWBY during the 18+ Dating Game Panel during the Friday night of DerpyCon 2016!)

I was so happy that Uncle Yo was the emcee for this panel because his commentary is always fantastic. They went through a few rounds of the competition, with different cosplayers each time. Surprisingly, a lot of the cosplayers who ended up being chosen (via rolling a 20-sided die) were from the series RWBY. I’m writing this a bit later than usual, so I don’t remember all of the cosplayers who were in the panel, but some notable ones other than the RWBY cast were Slenderman, Phoenix Wright, and Fozzie Bear. I found it hilarious that the Slenderman cosplayer kept in character the entire time and responded to each question with static for an answer. I also super enjoyed the fact that our Ruby Rose bachelorette ended up choosing Roman Torchwick as her “date.” After the panel was over I even ended up getting my DerpyCon badge signed by Uncle Yo, which was so exciting since I’m a big fan of his work!

After the Dating Game was over I headed back up to the hotel room with my cosbuddies so we could wait for the final event of the night, the Cosplay Burlesque. It’s safe to say that this was the funnest part of my Friday night and one of the main perks about staying at the con hotel all weekend. Since the Burlesque didn’t even begin until midnight, it’s safe to say that I wouldn’t be attending it had I been commuting to the con from my house everyday. After chatting and psyching ourselves up, we got on line and were eventually seated for the big show of the night. The performances and cosplayers who went up on stage were perfection, and I greatly enjoyed each and every act of the night. The different performances had some very nice music choices and stories within themselves, which was a nice breath of fresh air. Don’t get me wrong, though, I super enjoy burlesque acts that don’t follow a story or plot. However, there’s just something really special about ones that do have that something extra thrown in. I was happy to have spent my Friday night with close friends sharing in the splendor that is the 18+ Cosplay Burlesque.

(Spufflez as Usagimodoki from DRAMAtical Murder during the Saturday morning of DerpyCon 2016!)

After the Cosplay Burlesque was over we all headed back to the hotel room and turned in for the night. (My favourite performers from the Burlesque were the Eevelutions group from Pokemon and the Ursula cosplayer from The Little Mermaid, btw.) I was planning on getting up early so that I could get myself ready to be judged for the Hallway Costume Contest, so I didn’t delay in getting on my Usagimodoki and heading down to the judging area. I had asked @hkaze to bring their Noiz cosplay so we could take some cute DMMD photos together later in the day, but my morning was taken up with contest related things. After I checked in with one of the judges, I remained in the cosplayer waiting area where I ran into @theemberwithin​ who was also entered into the craftsmanship contest! Waiting to be judged was really nerve-wracking, but it was nice to get the chance to talk to the other cosplayers who also entered the contest. I met a Noiz cosplayer whom I got to take selfies with and a really amazing Mami Tomoe. I always love getting to see the other crafters and sewers who enter into these contests because I get really blown away by their work.

(Featuring The Ember Within as Moa from Show By Rock!! and Spufflez as Usagimodoki from DRAMAtical Murder during the Saturday of DerpyCon 2016!)

Sadly, we had a bit of a wait before we were called in to be judged since the staffers were behind schedule. I feel as if there were a great deal more entrants this year and that it negatively impacted the judging process since there wasn’t enough time allotted for everything that had to be done. It wasn’t too bad waiting since I was able to relax and catch up with @theemberwithin as well as talk to the other contestants, but I do hope that the whole process is a bit more organized this coming year. The judges themselves were beyond sweet and understanding, but I just feel like time got the best of staff for this year’s competition. I still do plan on entering again, though, since I really enjoy the whole craftsmanship contest atmosphere! After I had gone through judging (which still gets me nervous no matter how many times I go through it), I finally met up with @hkaze so we could have our DRAMAtical Murder minishoot!

(Featuring Hღ Kaze Cosplay as Noiz and Spufflez as Usagimodoki from DRAMAtical Murder posing w/ a trash can at DerpyCon 2016!)

I was a little sad that I had kept @hkaze waiting due to how long the Cosplay Contest judging took, but I’m happy that they didn’t mind at all! I definitely didn’t want to squander this opportunity to do a shoot I’d been wanting to have since I decided to cosplay as Usagimodoki. We went with @iron-rose-revolution to the little park area next to the con center where we had shot on Friday to do our DRAMAtical Murder photoshoot. It was a bit chillier out than the previous day, but not entirely unbearable outside. I was very excited to work with @hkaze again, and was super happy with how everything went! It was honestly one of the biggest highlights of my DerpyCon 2016 weekend. We took some really amazing shots with the help of Re-L Cosplay and spent the remainder of our time doing fun vlogs before ultimately heading off to a late lunch.

We ended up meeting up with Angel Fox, SweetDoom, and Ichigei Cosplay right before we decided on a place to eat since they were coincidentally headed out at the same time too. We ultimately ended up at a local joint across the street from the convention center with some pretty good food. (I’ll more than likely end up going to that tavern again next fall since I really enjoyed my lunch!) After mealtime was over, we parted and went our own ways since we had different plans of what we wanted to do. I thanked @hkaze for taking the time our of their day to cosplay Noiz and shoot with me since I knew they had some other cosplay plans for what they wanted to wear for the remainder of the day! (Also, I had to thank them for lugging my Teddy doll from Dialovers around for the day for some special photoshoot action which included extra derpy meme photos.)

(Featuring Hღ Kaze Cosplay as Noiz from DRAMAtical Murder with Teddy during the Saturday of DerpyCon 2016.)

After lunch was over and all of the photoshoot things I had wanted to do for the day were done, I decided that I would chill and explore the con again before I had to line up for the Cosplay Showcase. I ended up running into a few more friends that I had yet to see, which was really sweet. Also, throughout my convention weekend I got to do a lot of karaoke with @theemberwithin, which was so much fun. My most memorable moments were when we sang the Johto and Hoenn Pokeraps that no one in the audience apparently knew. In between the time that I got back from lunch and when I was waiting in the holding room for the Cosplay Showcase I wasn’t doing too much else other than catching up with people, but it’s still those small moments that I greatly cherish when I look back onto my convention weekends.

I dawdled until it was time to get ready for the Cosplay Showcase and made my way over to the holding area. I was getting pretty excited but also nervous at the same time since I knew that quite a few people would be watching me when I went up on stage. (I had asked the friends I was rooming with if they wanted to watch the performances and hallway cosplay contest contestants go up on stage since I knew it would make me feel better to have friends watching and cheering me on!) Thankfully, since @theemberwithin was in the contest with me I was able to spend the time before the stage portion of the contest with her in the holding room. We ended up chatting with the other contestants before the contest started and made a few new buddies! It’s always one of my favourite things to enter contests like these because it means meeting like-minded people who also put a lot of love into crafting their costumes.

(Featuring The Ember Within as Moa from Show By Rock!! and Spufflez as Usagimodoki from DRAMAtical Murder during the Saturday evening of DerpyCon 2016!)

After building some rapport with the other contestants and calming down our nerves a bit we were put into number order and given assigned seats. There were many more entrants this year compared to last year in the competition, so they had us sit in a separate room instead of the main showroom where the performances would be. There was a television set up with a live feed coming from the main room, so that we would be able to watch the performances as well. The Cosplay Showcase was set up so that the folks doing skits would go on first and then the costume contest walk-ons would go up and show off their cosplays. Since DerpyCon is rather small there were only a few skits, but it was still great to see people go up there and do their best.

After the second to last skit was finished they had everyone in the cosplay competition part of the showcase line up in number order so that we could be ready for when we were to go on stage. Even though I’ve been in a few competitions, I still get really nervous when it’s my time to go up and show off my cosplay to everyone. Uncle Yo, who was the emcee for the Cosplay Showcase, called up the folks at the start of the line and we were moving fast. I was getting super nervous but at the same time trying to compose myself for my turn. When it finally is my chance to get on stage he calls my stage/cosplay name and makes a remark about how kids and their names are so funny these days (I will admit Spufflez is a rather weird name!) Since I’m cosplaying as the character Usagimodoki who is bascially a bunny rabbit, I decide that it would be cute to hop on stage like a bunny and waggle my tail in front of the audience. I was super happy to see that @hkaze, @lovelyabyss95, @iron-rose-revolution, and @awonderfulidiot were all in the first row of the audience, cheering me on! (It seriously boosted my confidence that much more to have them there!)

(Featuring The Ember Within as Moa from Show by Rock!! and Spufflez as Usagimodoki from DRAMAtical Murder during the Saturday evening right after the Cosplay Showcase of DerpyCon 2016!)

I had such a great experience in the DerpyCon 2016 Cosplay Showcase this past fall and will never forget how Uncle Yo sounded when he pronounced my cosplay name. After the walk-ons were done the special awards and grand winners were announced, both for the skit performances and for the cosplay contest entrants. I was so proud of my girl @theemberwithin​ getting a judge’s award this year! All of the contestants who got prizes and accolades were fantastic, and I’m very happy I had the chance to compete against them on stage!! Afterwards, @theemberwithin​ and I headed off to the karaoke room to chill before having dinner. One of the best things that happened that night was singing the Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo opening song with a Bobobo cosplayer. We ended up doing a lot of covers before heading back to the room, which was a big highlight of my night (one that I hope to have a repeat of at Katsucon next month!)

We ended up having pizza for dinner and then heading downstairs to the Game Room for some more dancing game fun. After I was done playing games, I headed back up to the lobby with @theemberwithin area to chill with @awonderfulidiot​, Ichigei Cosplay, Toni X Temptress, and Hellfire Queen. The rest of my night was spent in the lobby for the most part while we were talking about various things. I’m still super happy for those moments when I can just chill with friends and talk about pretty much anything for hours. At the end of the night, after avoiding the mini crisis of a friend almost losing her camera, half of us ended up going on a trip to Dunkin’ Donuts for a late night snack. It was way too cold outside for me to make the trip, so I decided to sit and rest in the room until I fell asleep. There were a few ups and downs throughout the night, but I had a nice Saturday overall!

(Featuring Angel Fox as Kuroo Tetsurou, SweetDoom as Oikawa Tooru, and Spufflez as Kenma Kozume from Haikyuu!! during the Sunday morning of DerpyCon 2016!)

Sunday was probably the day I was most excited for because I was looking forward to doing lots of cute and shippy Kuroken things for months. We had to get up early so that we could not only get all of our cosplay things on, but also pack up the car and get everything ready for check-out. I was still a little tired from the previous two nights since I didn’t get as much sleep as I maybe should have, but I was way too excited for my Haikyuu!! shoot to pay much attention to my fatigue. After all of the hotel things were taken care of, including packing up the car, I headed down to the lobby to get myself some breakfast before shooting with Angel Fox. I ended up having breakfast with my cuties @iron-rose-revolution and @theemberwithin at the restaurant in the main hotel, which was a great idea because my french toast was delicious. One of my favourite part of convention weekends is going out to eat with friends in restaurants or local joints because I love getting the opportunity to spend quality time with folks I don’t normally get to see.

(Featuring The Ember Within as Serena from Pokemon and Re-L Cosplay with Spufflez as Kenma Kozume from Haikyuu!! during the Sunday morning of DerpyCon 2016!)

After catching up and filling my stomach with some great food it was time to make my way back to where Angel Fox was so that I could shoot with her and SweetDoom! This was the big shoot that I was most looking forward to during DerpyCon, so I was pretty damn stoked. Unfortunately, the weather was really not the best for shooting outside (way too cold for any sort of sports anime), so we decided that we would use the walls next to the Dealer’s Room entrance for the shoot. There was plenty of room and not that many cosplayers in that area, so we didn’t have to worry about being in the way of anyone else. We ended up taking so many super cute and shippy photos with the help of @iron-rose-revolution​ as our photographer. I’ve already shared the majority of my favourites from our shoot together on here and my other social media, but I still have a few more shots I plan on posting! The shoot went off without a hitch and we got to do everything that we had planned (including vlogging), which was honestly a great feeling.

After my super cute and shippy Haikyuu!! photoshoot was over I tried to make my way back to the karaoke room with @theemberwithin for one last round of songs, but sadly they were already closed up for the weekend. Instead, I made my way to Dealer’s Room for another lap so I could look at the wares a bit more closely. I ended up getting a birthday gift for my cutie @lovelyabyss95 and a Steven Universe button for my ita bag, but I really didn’t end up with too much else. Two of my friends were tabling, so I got the chance to catch up with them over the course of the weekend. After I was done in the dealer’s area I decided to head down to the Game Room for some final rounds of the dancing game that @theemberwithin​ and I found!

(On Sunday I ran into @kazuyaharu as 707 from Mystic Messenger while I was chilling with @iron-rose-revolution! I ended up turning into a hella casual Kenma Kozume.)

Pretty much the remainder of my time on Sunday was catching up with friends that I had run into, but I did manage to catch the end of Michele Knotz’s Pokemon Party Panel before the end of the day! I didn’t even know that it was going on until I heard people talking about Pokemon in the distance and found my way to the room. I heard that because Todd Haberkorn had to sadly cancel his appearance this year Michele Knotz was able to use the time slot and room to host an impromptu panel. It was a really nice last event and end to my DerpyCon 2016 weekend. I even go to chat with Michele Knotz at the end of it and tell her how much I enjoy her panels. (She is such a sweetheart and so genuine!!) My Sunday was very chill and filled with chats with lots of friends, which makes me so happy because I normally don’t see people outside of conventions. The absolute last thing we did before heading back home was going to the Closing Ceremony.

It was during the ceremony that we were able to air our grievances concerning the hotel staff and their numerous attempts to quiet us down before the sanctioned quiet hours. We found out from others in attendance that we were not the only ones who received bogus complaints throughout the weekend, and the DerpyCon Staff said they will try to open the line of communication with the hotel staff to rectify this for the sake of future events. Other than that issue (which was probably in part due to another group of people reserving the upper floor of the hotel for a different event), there really weren’t any major criticisms. There were some really bad things not related to the convention specifically that happened, but that has no bearing on the event itself so I will exclude it for this report. Overall, I had a pretty great weekend filled with tons of catching up, fun panels and events, and lots of photoshoots. Only thing that would have made it better was to win the raffle at the Closing Ceremony to get a pass for next year’s DerpyCon.

(Featuring Angel Fox as Kuroo Tetsurou from Haikyuu!!, The Ember Within as Serena from Pokemon, and Spufflez as Kenma Kozume from Haikyuu!! during the Sunday of DerpyCon 2016!)

But yeah, overall I had a fantastic time this past fall at DerpyCon 2016 and am totally planning on returning again this upcoming fall! Derpy is a small con with a lot of charm and personality, and I can highly recommend coming here if you’re in the New Jersey area. It might not be worth it to folks who are super far away unless they enjoy smaller and more intimate events, but for what it’s worth Derpy is a really solid con. I plan on coming back each and every year as long as I have the means to do so. I’ve got plans already for this upcoming year’s Cosplay Showcase, so if you do end up going don’t forget to cheer me on! :’)

I sincerely hope that you enjoyed my DerpyCon 2016 Convention Report! I greatly apologize for the lateness of it, but since I was super busy this holiday season I didn’t find a spare moment to write this up. Irregardless of that minor detail, I do hope that you all have a great night and enjoy what I have in store for this blog. I’ll be sharing my MAGFest 2017 con report as well as more pictures from my photoshoots and Katsucrunch Cosplay WIP photos! My next event is going to be Katsucon 2017 next month, so see ya there if you’re going too!

Feel more than free to check out my other social media below if you enjoy my cosplaying! Thank you so much for your support!!