IT’S FINALLY HERE!

MELBOURNE, Aust., March 28, 2009 – The Melbourne Showgrounds hosts one of Australia’s largest pop culture exhibitions, Supanova which features everything from Anime, Games, Science Fiction, Movies, Comics, Wrestling, Competitions and other entertainment. This year, all-star celebrities that include Hayden Panettiere (Heroes), Peter Facinelli (Twilight), Eric Roberts (Heroes), Morena Baccarin (Firefly), Richard Hatch (The original Battlestar Galactica), Bonnie Piesse (Star Wars) and Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) will be available to fans for signing, photo sessions and panels.

Apart from the myriad of merchandise available at supanova, the Madman National Cosplay Championship kicks off the first rounds in Melbourne, that will display some of Australia’s best science fiction costumes from movies to anime. For the uninitiated, Cosplay stands for “costume play” and has become an international phenomen with fans of these fictional characters creating thoroughly impressive costumes. The preliminary rounds offer contestants a place at the National Finals with the National Finals boasting a trip for 2 to Tokyo plus other exciting bonuses.

Impulse Gamer was given the opportunity of attending the first day of the Supanova Pop Culture Expo and needless to say, it was an impressive experience. The atmosphere at the expo was thoroughly energetic with hundreds of fans dressing up as their favourite characters. On arriving, we were greeted to the delightful Harley Quinn, a close associate to DC Comics The Joker.

Fans queued in large lines as they attempted to meet the stars from popular science fiction series. Heroes Hayden Panettiere and Battlestar Galactica’s Katee Sackhoff were the standouts for fans as many waited to get a chance for a brief chat, signature or a photo opportunity.

Katee Sackhoff says hello to one of her youngest fans

At 1:45pm, the Madman National Cosplay Championships began and of the caliber of the contestants was truly amazing. These custom made costumes would put some Hollywood costume designers to shame. There were also quite a few contestants that although did not shine like some, still got into the spirit and boosted the friendly atmosphere of the expo.

With a plethora of activities all happening at once, it’s easy to get lost (like we did) in the atmosphere of Supanova that we would highly recommend to fans of a variety of genres to attend. If you missed out on Supanova in Melbourne 2009, there’s always the Brisbane Supanova expo in April or AVCON in Adelaide for Cosplay purists.

A great day to be had by everyone!

For more information, please visit http://www.supanova.com.au/ or http://www.madman.com.au/cosplay/

Supanova Pop Culture Expo 2009 and Madman National Cosplay Championships 2009 Gallery