28 May 2024
Patrick Kennedy
Hey, all you Geeky folks! It’s that time yet again! The magical event where geeks, gamers, anime fans and cosplayers can unify in love and harmony, to celebrate everything pop culture and fandom. MCM has been a staple in many communities since the mid 2000’s with humble beginnings, to a mega beast of an Expo that caters to all walks of life. MCM in the mid-2010s did go through some pain growths which many fans felt, Reed Pop acquired MCM for the UK, bringing in an experience more akin to the US counterpart, and we finally have an expo to be truly proud of—giving us a safe place to hang out, geek out and buy plenty of cool merchandise. Game-News decided to venture into the fresh air and sunshine to look at the first of this year’s MCM events in London!
Game-News was kindly invited along to the May 2024 event, and you can check out our thoughts, feedback and awesome photos of the event below.
A Oddessey of Geek, Gaming, and Pop Culture
The MCM London event takes place in the heart of the exhibition centre of London, the London Excel Centre near the docklands. It has been happening there for the last 20 years and it’s the perfect space for scale as it hosts shops, artists, and stages to see your favourite guests.
MCM made the most of the space, filling out the North and South halls with a variety of shops and sights to behold. The October event hosted even more stalls, shops, food places and anything which has carried over to 2024. Compared to last May’s event, this time it feels more brimming with new sights, sounds, food, and pop culture-themed goods.
As mentioned before in my last article, I feel the peak was somewhat reached, but more could be added, like photobooths, or bigger immersive experiences. Something mad like escape rooms, contests, or so be it, just have EGX merge with MCM to make one epic event. It’s possibly going to happen, and hopefully soon. There was a classic treasure hunt, which is always nice, and gives you something to look out for while venturing around the halls.
The North Hall hosts the more independent side of MCM, with the Artist Alley, which took up 1/3 of the hall, the independent shops and craftspeople who offered a great selection of goods and unique, handmade items to buy for themselves or as a gift. As always, I’m impressed that the artists have an immense amount of space, allowing more people to venture through the alleys with ease and check out the wonderful work of these independent souls who create such amazing bits for gamers, artists, and comic fans.
This also includes a huge number of independent sellers with unique arts and crafts to buy. Always lovely to see them, and buy some cute crafts.
And there was a good chunk of food stalls where you could chill and eat. There was the biggest offering of variety for food this time around and it was wonderful, as everyone could find something to munch on and chill after walking around.
And speaking of chilling the Safe/Quiet area made a return to a slightly bigger room, but considering the scale of the event, I had hoped it would be much bigger than before. Still, this is a nice little place for those who might feel overwhelmed at the event (especially on Saturday, which is still insanely busy).
Reed Pop genuinely cares and aims to make the venue as safe and enjoyable as possible for those attending, where everyone feels welcomed. I encourage Reed Pop to keep doing this, expand the safe areas and continue to expand on this inclusive nature. I do appreciate the kindness and offers of vibing a quiet space for a little bit, but again this could be expanded upon more, as the event becomes very crowded. If you can, I recommend going on Friday as it’s a little less crowded than normal, if you had to pick only one day.
The South Hall was the more mainstream area of MCM, focusing on bigger companies, brands, and shops, including Forbidden Planet, the stages for cool photo shoots, and the gaming section which featured the Retro Gaming lounge. I was a little disheartened again to see the lack of gaming at MCM, or new games and a chance to see them. I understand MCM is different from Euro Gamer, but having a small-scale version of that here would be amazing! Maybe for October who knows!?
What always amazes me is the dedication to the many fandoms, including that of Star Wars, which hosts some of the best displays at MCM. Even if you’re not a big SW fan, you can appreciate the brilliant events, stands and displays featuring all the cool gear from the films, artwork and places to take photos! The staples of MCM from light sabre training, which is always awesome, and there were even more places you could try out Gundam making, drawing, and digital art.
The photo ops scattered around were some of the bests, and more of these are needed. Depending on what is coming out, it will alter the photo ops of course. Like when The Witcher first came to Netflix, there was an amazing photo op that was worth queuing up for. The Star Wars ones are always the highlight, and these should just be at MCM every year I feel.
Although we have a couple of bangers for upcoming films, and there was nothing here to celebrate that! Deadpool and Wolverine are heading to cinemas within a few months, and there is nothing here for photo ops, goodies, or anything! It’s mad to think that one of the biggest films of the year, doesn’t have more merch, goodies, or even a poster to showcase. Shame.
The gaming side of things remains largely the same, without expanding too much with the retro games, but board/card game sections felt much grander in scale and density. I did love the row of Arcade machines, and Larping was way more of a thing this year, with two main spots for it.
Again, MCM and Reed Pop managed to organise and lay out everything in a clear manner and made it easy to find what you needed, despite the number of stands, shops and events going on.
There is always a great mix of Pokemon, anime, gaming and more, with Pokemon taking the spotlight, and the number of virtual merchants being very prominent. These were the likes of the TikTok store and more, which I found a little odd, but I know the popularity of trading cards is immense and these outlets allowed for a great connection between buyers and vendors.
Our favourite places to shop and drop!
As always, MCM provides some of the best shopping experiences for those geeking out, or looking for cool, unusual bits for themselves or loved ones. I feel the best thing about MCM each year is just the new stalls and goodies you can discover, from the everyday gaming gear, movie props, and Marvel tat, but then coming across rising stores that grant access to thriving new ideas, and wonderful trinkets that can only be made by the most professional crafters of strange and wonderous galore.
Blind Box Empire
Again, one of the last discoveries from 2023 was Blind Box Empire, and I love this shop. Blind Box Empire, a sweet little store that sold mystery boxes (which is being seen more of), but the goodies offered were just out of this world. Normally you get the same corporate tat seen everywhere, but Blind Box Empire brought a whole neat collection of cool characters, lovingly cute critters, and sweet little titbits I couldn’t help but adore. The store, the goods and everyone running it were super awesome!
My favourite is Monday Bruce, who is now my favourite spiritual animal, as an everyday 9 to 5 working Rabbit who sums up the feelings of working, and Mondays in the most perfect way since Garfield. I do hope his popularity grows as well as Blind Box Empire. Season 3 was released, and I had to pick up a few! Can’t wait for season 4!
You can visit their online store for a ton of different goodies, including the Monday Bruce series!
Figigo
We also had the return of the homemade, customisable Funko-character-inspired stand, Figigo, which again makes custom artwork in the form of figures based on yourself, your friends or your furry companion. We discovered these guys end of last year and the guys running it were super nice and cool, very talented and produced some amazing figures which is a neat twist over the Funko Pop formula.
Some of our other favourite discoveries were Horns of Odin, which produce all manner of different, tasty meads which again make great, unique gifts for friends and family (I recommend the Black Cherry Mead, so good!). And our favourite Cosmic Cat Lady Helenasia, who produces some amazing cosmic-inspired cat art which is anything any cat lover would die for.
This is what makes MCM worth venturing to, seeing all the new stores and special discoveries, and of course, gifts for loved ones. Yet, I couldn’t find my special stall that sold discounted Video Game collectors editions …. Sad days.
May blues …
May is never the standout for star power it seems like October had the likes of Andrew Scott (Sherlock, Spectre), and Stephen Amell (Arrow) to name a couple. There were mainly voice actors from anime, animation and gaming, which is always nice, including Rob Paulsen who is a living legend.
But again, some big movies coming out, and there was no one. I know it was wishful thinking to have the likes of Ryan Reynolds and Hughe Jackman … but man, if there were it would have made this the best MCM ever. I recall seeing Jason Momoa for his new Apple TV show in 2019 and that was a blast! This was one of the best guests in MCM history, and I had hoped we would get another instance like this… but again, May is always a lesser experience compared to October and I never know why.
May is a nice month, coming into Spring, and more chances for people to come out and have fun. Make MCM special in May, and sadly this was not the case this year for guests … again.
Overall?
MCM still proves to be the best event in town for pop culture, and geek fandom, and despite the star power, there was plenty to see, eat, and fun stuff to do. I was overjoyed to see MCM and Reedpop continue to listen to feedback and praise them for expanding with even more games, cosplay, and awesome stalls for shopping.
There is something for everyone, with an epic level of cosplayers hanging out, posing for photos, the many wonderful artists and independent sellers making great items to buy, and the fans who love to hang out and make MCM feel so alive and well. I wish MCM all the best as it continues to grow and become the giant of the geek culture showcase for the UK for many years to come. Thanks again MCM and Reedpop for the invite and we look forward to seeing you in October!
