Report: Twin Cities Con 2025

After visiting the convention for the first time last year, I was excited to go again. Did the event live up to my expectations?

Thursday

Rather than flying from Madison, I took a bus on Jefferson Lines from the UW-Madison campus to downtown Minneapolis (the time is about the same, and it’s much cheaper). Instead of a normal hotel, I stayed in a converted studio apartment a few blocks from the convention center. After picking up my press badge, I ate dinner, and then returned to my room to prepare for the next day.

Friday

This first day of the convention started with me going into the dealer hall and browsing the items for sale. I also noted the locations of the guests I wanted to interview, and attempted to organize those. The first panel I wanted to go to was about the confluence of music scene and cosplay (recall that I sometimes cosplay musicians as Pokémon trainers), however after waiting several minutes past the scheduled start time, a con staffer came in and announced that the presenters had run into a personal emergency and the panel had been cancelled.

One issue I ran into several times over the weekend is that there would be several panels or other events that overlapped. That occurred on Friday afternoon, when a panel featuring Eric Stuart and Dan Green overlapped a panel with Marc Summers, Kirk Fogg, and Dee Bradley Baker, which in turned overlapped a panel of comic book authors (which included Pokémon Baking guide author Jarrett Melendez). Oh, and in the middle of all that there was a panel covering the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: Voyager. In any case, the authors panel was an interesting watch, with them eating chicken (or perhaps its vegetarian equivalent) while talking about the comics they had in front of them.

Saturday

In some ways, this was less busy than Friday, though I did spend a fair bit of time waiting for things to complete. First up was a RWBY panel (featuring Daman Mills, voice of Amethio and Quaxly in Horizions). As is usually the case, I placed myself towards the end of the question line since my question wasn’t about the featured show. Unfortunately, this meant the panel ended before I could ask my question.

After viewing a panel about taking cosplay photos with a phone, I headed over to the board/video gaming area, where I got to listen to guitarist Brian Koening (look forward to an interview with him), and then observe the Smash Ultimate tournament. I checked in periodically to see how the tournament progressing, and interviewed the winner after the tournament ended around 8:30 pm (having started around 4).

Sunday

The first order of business was the combined Nintendo & Pokemon cosplay photoshoot, which included a trio of Eeveelutions, a pair dressed as the Mario Brothers from the 1993 Mario movie, and even a Corbeau costume. I asked that last one about when they started putting their outfit together, and they indicated they had only started within the last week, which was actually impressive given the level of detail.

Following this, Jarrett Melendez had a solo panel where he demonstrated the brownies recipie from his Pokémon baking guide book. Between steps, he would answer questions from the audience, which covered a variety of topics, ranging from what kind of restrictions he was placed under (if there’s a volume 2, do not expect curry croissants), general baking advice, and what kind of materials he gets to work from when designing recepies.

As I had been unable to track down the cosplayers I wanted to interview from the morning photoshoot, I got in line for the Sunday cosplay contest in an attempt to talk to them. Despite the schedule stating that the doors would open at 2:30, we actually didn’t get let in until a few minutes after the 3pm start time. As for the show itself, the Eeveelution group from the photoshoot had made the contest, but seems to have left after not getting picked for an award. I did not see the Corbeau cosplayer anywhere in the crowd.

Other Notes:

-The entrance into the secure area lacked the long snaking queue from last year, in favor of having folks queue inside the dealers’ hall before it opened. 

-Guests seemed confused on the policy/procedure for interviews, despite me indicating who I wanted to interview in my letter of intent.

-The attendees I talked to generally seemed to prefer this year’s event over last year’s.

-The best restaurant I ate at this weekend was definitely “The Brit’s Pub”, which had excellent food and service.

A press pass was provided for this event.