Fan Expo Boston 2025 Gallery Part 2

I packed up my gear at 4:30 on Saturday afternoon. As I mentioned in the previous post, my time at Fan Expo Boston 2025 was less than optimal. To be fair, I started out in a bad mood. When I got to Will Call to pick up our badges, I realized I had left my wallet (and ID) in the car. The staffers were understanding and I didn’t even need to show my confirmation email. In fact, as I entered the building and was directed to bag check, the first security staffer recognized me from so many previous events at the newly named Thomas Michael Menino Convention and Exhibition Center that he simply said something to the effect of, “Oh, I know you. You can just go in.”

Once the rest of the Nerd Caliber team arrived, we set off to do what I had planned on since I learned we wouldn’t have a booth — grab a spot in the seating area of the food court on the show floor. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that there wasn’t one this year. In fact, almost any bit of open area that was common in the most recent years of Fan Expo Boston’s show floor was gone, and the space was even more crowded than ever, with seemingly smaller walkways between booths. And, there was no seating outside of the closed-off large panel theater spaces.

There was food and seating to be had, but it was on the west side above the show room in the first floor official MCEC food court. While there were long lines at the on-floor food vendors in 2023, the last year Fan Expo Boston was at the convention center, none of them were as long as the waits at the official food court. So, setting up at that area seemed like a bad idea.

Finally, Cosplay and Event Coordinator Pat Covey messaged me that the Masters of Cosplay judging area was on the top floor on the east side, in one of the bump out window bays with seating. So, despite it being so far away from the show floor and the crowds, we decided to make that the base of operations. It did have the benefit of being away from the crowds, so when our video teams came back, frustrated from not being able to film in the overcrowded show floor, they had a calm place to wind down. We did get some interviews and cosplayer segments, but not as many as Manny had hoped for.

Looking at social media, the most common complaint about this year was the show floor being too crowded as compared to previous years. That is a complaint leveled at any large convention and Fan Expo Boston in particular over the years, but even veteran attendees were posting about how bad it was this year. And while I had nothing but good interactions with event and facility staff, there were a number of complaints about both types of staffers being uncooperative or even rude. Again, to be clear, not my experience with staff, but I also won’t deny someone else had a bad experience just because I didn’t.

Ultimately, I had fun while I was taking cosplayer photos, as I always do. But the combination of travel burn out, misunderstandings and miscalculations meant that the situational flexibility I’m pretty well known for in the convention and cosplay world just wasn’t there for me this year. So, again, my apologies for only getting two galleries out of a convention the size of Fan Expo Boston. Next year I hope to have a solid Plan A and Plan B ready to go long before the first day of the convention.

Cosplayers in this last of two galleries include lillbitm80, sketchy.cosplay, aceofsnakes, lemon_squeetzy, minimalcosplay, tiny_tinker_cosplay, forgotten.planet.cos, touganloo, merry.go.round.of.cosplay, atticus._.cos, _spiderlilycosplays_, GiveWave Studios, mz_ampersand, thecalicoqueen, j.d.genius, mirak.cos, lizst613, alybeary13, deerinacage, and many more.

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Also, High-res images for sale is back!

If you are pictured in any of our galleries and want the high-resolution (3200 pixels at its widest by 300dpi) download for yourself, we can make it available via a private Smugmug link, for $10 per image. Just send an email to editor AT nerdcaliber.com. Currently limited to only photos taken by FirstPerson Shooter (aka Rodney Brown).