Mitch Traphagen photos.
Depending upon your viewpoint, Florida has a well-deserved reputation for all things weird — or, perhaps, it is simply misunderstood. But while Texas and California work hard to lay claim to the sometimes disturbing throne of all things weird, misunderstood or not, weird stuff does occasionally happen in the Sunshine State. And that, it seems, works out great for events such as the one held last weekend at the Tampa Convention Center.
In the middle of a weekend day in Tampa, few people even turned to look to at the brightly colored, perhaps even fang-toothed, aliens walking around with what appeared to be large laser weapons. Was it just another day in the Tampa Bay area? No! It was Metrocon!
Metrocon has been coming to the Bay area since 2007, with each year gaining more and more in attention and attendance. According to organizers, last year was a record year, with 10,745 people in unique attendance, 11,776 warm bodies and 24,526 through the turnstiles. No, I’m not quite sure what that means, either, but suffice to say it is a popular event based largely on Japanese anime, and very clearly fun was had by all, human, warm bodies and aliens alike. It is claimed to be the largest such event in Florida and one of the largest in the nation.
For more information, visit www.metroconventions.com.
Don’t worry! It’s just a girl in a glowing headset communicator, a guy with a gun and Gumby. Just move along ….
Just a warning to young men: She’s cute but she does have fangs and a very large weapon.
