Buffy Vulkon - Tampa, FL
July 19-20, 2003

Last updated: 8򊐚003
my experiences

Oh my god. Where to begin? It was awesome! I went both days, though I wish I had known about the Friday events earlier... I was too tired to make it out there for that.

First... There weren't too many people dressed up, whether it be Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Angel based or not. I was surprised and somewhat disappointed. (It's not too hard to dress up as Drusilla or Angel...) There was this one guy in chain mail and leather armor... he won the best costume award. I went dressed as Spike, the British punk rock vampire (who else?). I won the "Best Vampire" award :) A LOT of people (mainly women) asked me if they could take my pic or have a pic taken with me. I didn't expect that, it was kind of funny, I sure didn't mind ;) Some just wanted a normal pic, some wanted me to "bite" them, and one girl wanted me to do that thing Spike did to Joyce in "Lovers' Walk" (pretend to bite her from behind without her knowing it). Some women gasped or screamed when they saw me, they thought I was James Marsters at first glance! I even did an impromtu "Restless" type of 'photo shoot' at the end of Sat. nite as I waited for the elevator in the lobby... lol.

The stars were all very cool and very nice! James Marsters (Spike) had to leave Sunday nite -- just before his autograph session ended! The fans were outraged that Vulkon didn't plan this better, so Vulkon had them all line up in the hallway and James ran the "gauntlet" to sign all the remaining fans' stuff! It was very cool of him, I think he ended up missing his flight or had to get another one. He obviously has a love for his fans... I just thought that was so cool of him. Andy Hallett (Lorne) was very tired when I got up to get his auto, I felt bad for him. He was cool too, didn't moan or look pissed about being there. I thanked him for coming out here and mentioned that he looked very tired. He was like, "I am." ;) hehe

I scared Mercedes McNab (Harmony) just before I got my auto from her. Hehe... I was taking a candid pic of her signing people's stuff, and she looked up and said, "Aaa! You scared me! I saw the clothes but couldn't see your face because of the camera..." LOL I guess she wondered how James Marsters got from signing stuff at the next table, to standing to the side of her table. The stars seemed to love my outfit, it was so fun... Iyari Limon (Kennedy) seemed to take a liking to me. When I got my pic taken with her, she leaned right up against me (her back to me), and said "hold my hands." I was like :-O And then she wanted me to do a "bite me" pic... hehe ;) Wish I had her email, so I could send her the pics.

When James Marsters first saw me (I was getting his auto), he jolted and was like, "Oh my god, it's my double!" He seemed to love the outfit and everything. I said I could be his stunt double, but he was like, "Naw you don't wanna do that." LOL On Sunday morning when I got my pic taken with my friend and him, he saw me and went "Spiiike!" hehe ;) And again, when I got his auto later that day. They called me "mini Spike" or "Spike's Mini Me." And for some trivia.... James Marsters' favorite episode of Buffy is "Once More, With Feeling" -- the musical episode! Everyone cheered upon hearing that... Vulkon showed that episode a lot during the weekend, and almost everyone was singing along and "going through the motions" of each song. A lot of fun.

There was a lot more, but that's all for now. I don't want to bore you. I'm in the process of getting all my pics cropped/resized so I can upload them to an online album somewhere. Overall, I think this was worth the cost of admission, even though there were some additional things that cost money. Like a pic & auto from Iyari or James Leary (Clem) or Robin Atkin Downes (Machida) was about $20. Though Robin's pics also had Amber Benson (Tara) in it and her real auto on them already! I got to meet a lot of awesome people at this convention, some from this area in Florida, and some from far away (Texas, Louisiana, England, etc).