Sudbury Game Expo exceeds expectations

Geek culture was alive and well at the first annual Sudbury Game Expo at the Cambrian College student centre Sunday afternoon.

Two hours into the event more than 800 people passed through the doors to peruse a large selection of classic and new video games, comic books, related accessories and original artwork from 57 vendors.

“We were blown away by the response,” said Brad Davidson, one of the event's organizers.

Davidson and his friends Trevor Pellerin and Michael Shanks got the idea to start a local game expo after they visited a similar event in Barrie, called the Barrie Game Exchange, only a few months prior.

Kevin Wells, the owner of a store in Barrie called PowerUp Gaming, that focuses on retro video games, said the Sudbury event had a better turnout than the one in his hometown.
“This is one of the best shows we've been to,” he said.

Wells quit a 22-year career in corporate sales three years ago to follow his passion for video games and launch a store that catered to the classic games he grew up with.

“I just got tired of the corporate world and I wanted to do something that allows me to interact with customers on a more personal basis,” he said.

The store has grown every year since, and he is now looking to triple his 1,200 square feet of floor space.

The Sudbury crowd that stopped at his booth was especially interested in some of the older gaming systems from Atari, Sega and other early pioneers of video games.

But the expo had plenty on offer for comic book lovers as well.

Sean Wilkinson helped plan the expo in its later stages, and had more than 3,000 comics for sale Sunday afternoon.

They ranged in price from $1, to more than $500 for an original copy of Conan the Barbarian #1.

Wilkinson said there has always been a lot of crossover between gamers and people interested in comic books.

“Right now nerd culture is going crazy,” he said.

The expo also gave artists a chance to showcase their work.

Established illustrator Rob Sacchetto had a long line-up at his booth, where he had much of his original artwork for sale.

Up-and-coming artist Trevor TenHave got to showcase his sculptures at his first public event.

TenHave said he recently quit a full-time job in Sudbury's film industry to pursue his passion for sculpting.

He had a couple sculptures of Link, the main character from Nintendo's Zelda series, on display, that each took hundreds of hours of work to complete.

He said he starts by sculpting the model in an oil-based clay, and then creates a mold in silicone.

He casts a resin in the mold that is painted once it has hardened and dried.

The hardened resin model is the final product he sells to customers.

“The feedback has been great,” he said.