Toronto Fan Expo 2025 – Day 2

I have to say, today’s venture into Fan Expo was a good one. After too long apart, I was reunited with my creative partner, Sue Lawley-Maynard. Can you believe we hadn’t seen each other in person since before covid? There was a point that if one of us was around then the other was probably…

The Hobby: Tales from the Tabletop (2024) – Simon Ennis

The Hobby rolls a D20 for charm! Filmmaker Simon Ennis shows us the connections, the obsessions, and the passions that have sprung up around modern board games, and the people who play them. Traveling across Canada and the United States The Hobby introduces a cross-section of society and the way they can be their best…

Fan Expo 2024 Day 3 & 4

Weekends at Fan Expo are a melange of crowds, celebrities and shopping. Those geeks who had to work all week, those families who were waiting for some time off, all descend on the Metro Toronto Convention Centre to get their geek on. The word of the day, for both Saturday and Sunday, is patience. Shoulders…

Fan Expo 2024 Day 2

Friday at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre was laid out before the exploring geek as an adventure of discovery and treasure-hunting. And it also served as a bracer for what was to come on Saturday, large crowds weaving along the pathways between booths, and the walkways that connected the North and South Building. I work…

20 Years of Tomb Raider (2016) – Meagan Marie

Lara Croft has been around for twenty years. And, I have to say, she looks better than ever. Since her first appearance in the game-changing, well, game, Tomb Raider in 1996, Lara Croft has made a name for herself in the action adventure series that centred around, an admittedly cartoon-like interpretation of a beautiful woman,…

Fan Expo Canada 2016 Preview

  Thanks once again to Touchwood PR, The Mind Reels will be covering Fan Expo Canada as press! I am particularly grateful this year, as it’s the first time since 2005 that I haven’t been able to purchase a pass for the weekend, and was not sure if I would be able to attend at…

Armada (2015) – Ernest Cline

  Cline has done it again. Crafting another fantastic novel that embraces and celebrates pop culture interwoven with a thrilling narrative. Embracing its inner Iron Eagle, Ender’s Game and The Last Starfighter, while in turn paying nods to Contact and 2010: The Year We Make Contact, Cline has crafted a novel that revels and embraces…

Fan Expo Canada – A Look Back

  As summer threatens to wind to a close (actually, did it ever really start?), and kids start shopping for back to school crap, my mind turns to what I fondly refer to as Nerd Christmas. Fan Expo Canada is on our doorstep again at last!   This year marks my 10th year in attendance…