The Old School Otaku Lounge

I thought it was cool when the staff at OTAKON started giving attendees a choice of badges. For some reason, they had leftovers in '98 so you can see all the choices. I wonder how many of us knew all the characters back then?
/same deal in '99 and 2000

The guy who does the Angry Otaku blog did a post of his badges a few years back:

http://theangryotaku.blogspot.com/2011/ ... d-why.html

That blogger really is angry; I didn't think our fandom was that distraught
Maybe I could post other con freebies/merch like this collection of drawings from ACEN 99, when guests were really nice about favors.
I would also buy Con shirts if the screenprint was from a character designer like Sonoda...call me a purist.

Anime Expo used to have really nice shirts that would usually highlight some anime that they were trying to promote that year. Past shirts included Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, Utena, Mushishi, etc. The TRC was the last year they featured anime shirts. I suppose the licensing rights became too expensive and AX figured that people would buy the shirt anyways, even if it featured their lousy creations.

I agree with the blog entry that, from an attendee perspective, cons are more about proving how hardcore that attendee is than anything else. It's not just in terms of "I know more about anime/manga X than you", but also in terms of how much stuff you have, how many cons/year you attend and how much you've blown on stuff. There's a term called "true fan" that's often thrown about. Certain fans can throw hissy fits when they perceive you to have something much nicer than them but yet can't recall what some rando character was wearing in Episode 9 of the particular series that they love. I've had nice little chat with some of them, and have happily explained to them that rarely does the nice stuff go to the true fan, but instead, the fan willing to part with the most cash.

I have most of my con badges to remind myself I was there, but they're so bland and I can't recall any of them. Some cons, like AX, used to hand out really nice lanyards, though these would often come with whatever anime/manga Bandai was trying to promote. Now, if the lanyard isn't the standard florescent orange Crunchyroll version they disperse at conventions they sponsor, it's a very generic red/blue/black one. I like to bring my old, nice lanyards with me to conventions and use them instead of the CR version. It might just be my own version of being a true convention fan, but I feel a lot better rocking old Premier Fan AX lanyards. I can't use them at my job (though I'm sporting a Team Mystic Pokémon Go one now..), so it's nice to be able to use them instead of letting them gather dust.

I just posted up the blog post since this reminded me of his con badges and how I thought it related to this thread. I might have read the post long ago, but I don't remember much. If its anything like Akage summed up, then yea there is truth in that.

I feel that I should post up my badges, which range from going to about every Animazement the past decade, local cons in SC, and a gaming conference. They're in a box somewhere, I'll have to dig for them. In terms of my Animazement experiences, they are starting to kinda all blend together now, which the only way to tell them apart is when I do my podcast episode sorta documenting my experience on audio so that if I ever, or anyone else, wanted to know what happened that year in my eyes, its on record.

Well, here is what I got so far:

Among my badges I have two saved lanyards, a nice BANDAI one from Otakon and a "House of Anime" one from Katsucon 8.
Seeing your dealer badge Dkop reminds me of when the occasional Japanese GoH would have a table of goods to sell. I bought art stuff from Range Murata, Yoshitoshi Abe, and Tsukasa Kotobuki face to face (usually prompted by a free signature).
In this photo there is a con freebie pin of "Maria", from Toyspress. I can't remember who the heck she was or which event it was received from. Maybe it was from that time period when M. Nagano was designing model fashions? My memory is shot

My dealers badges come from me helping my friend sell video games at Animazement since 2011, so each year he appreciates my assistance. I do see some GOH come by, especially how Masao Maruyama gets around on a hover round cart with like 3 other people behind him as he kinda carts around the dealers room. That man ages bit by bit every year that hes there.

Kind of weirded out by the Angry Otaku's comment that Anime Central's con chair in 1998 was "a d-bag" - unless I'm mistaken as to when he started chairing Acen, I know the guy who was the chair for Anime Central's first few years and I cannot see him behaving in a disrespectful manner, it's just not in his personality. I DID see him throw a vendor out for selling bootleg merchandise, so there's that.

I guess I gotta check my Acen '98 program book when I get home.

The '99 Otakon was my first Otakon and I remember getting a choice of badges there, as well. Most of my con badges are in a shoebox, but I'm always finding them stashed away in drawers, it's a process of getting them all into one place...

I feel that way about my program guides from local and Animazement cons over the years, they seem to be scattered around, or maybe I threw them away, not sure.