Ottawa Geek Market Far from the Ordinary!

Sean and a Veteran Storm Trooper

The Ottawa Geek Market came to a close this past Sunday afternoon, and with it one of the most unusual experiences of our 2013 trade-show calendar.

Held within the colossal field house at Carleton University, this two-day show featured an eclectic (ok, bizarre) celebration of all things Comics, Super-Hero, Steam-Punk and Sci-Fi.  Indeed, one of the only shows I’ve attended where many of the customers were actually more interesting than the merchandise being offered.

My personal favorites?  Certainly the 8-foot Chewbacca, strolling the floor in huge strides with the occasional Wookie-howl echoing off the domed ceiling. I was also impressed by one of the coolest Storm trooper costumes I’ve seen, with his helmet depicting the wicked after-effects of a blaster-strike (see photo).

Sean at our Ottawa Geek Festival Tables

As the only coin dealer in attendance, our main interest in the show (aside from just having some fun) was to debut a number of thematic collectibles that fit in well with the Festival’s primary themes. Thus, in addition to the New Zealand Mint’s Star Wars and Doctor Who coinage, we also promoted the cool and bizarre new “Zombucks” apocalypse coinage, together with a large variety of authentic U.S. One Dollar novelty notes featuring the likenesses of [again] Star Wars and Doctor Who characters, as well as a few key “Walking Dead” characters.

We found the first day of the show (Saturday) well-attended but starved of willing buyers, whereas Sunday’s warm sun seems to have brought out the keen shoppers.

All-in-all a fun weekend (joined much of the time by my sister Shane, on her first visit from the west coast in 3 years!), but now time to concentrate of planning for our impending Montreal Nuphilex, the semi-annual “flagship” event in our show calendar.