Hideo Kojima, the creator and director of the Metal Gear series, continued the Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker World Tour this weekend at the Gamestop location in Universal Studios Citywalk . To promote the new game, Kojima signed autographs for the lucky first 300 fans from 11 AM to 1 PM. I arrived at the Gamestop at 3 AM, and what began as a chilly, quiet morning eventually became a loud, crowded frenzy full of cheering fans, cosplayers, and sweaty gamers standing around in the summer heat.
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I arrived
at 3:00am, which started off as a quiet, chilly morning.
By 11:00am, the line became so crowded that some unlucky fans had to be
turned away. Wristbands were given out to the first 300 in line, ensuring
their chance of getting an autograph.
Some fans, such as this detail-oriented Snake cosplayer, arrived by less than conventional means.
Here's a closer image of our detailed-oriented Snake cosplayer. According to him, almost every part of his costume is an accurate recreation of Snake as he appears in Peace Walker, from the small writing on his elbow pads to the soles of his boots. Fans don't get any more hardcore than this guy!
The cosplayers continued to arrive, including those dressed as Amanda, Cécile and quadruplet of Snakes.
Cosplayer “dust-da” dressed as young Ocelot, “FantasyNinja” dressed as The Boss, “precious” dressed as a Sweet Snake Figumates version of Raiden and “Vernedead” as the freaking hilarious “product placement” version of Snake. Such nice people, they were! This picture was taken before the guns, swords, and Doritos were taken away by security.
Boss fight! Don't worry, the autograph signing was fairly peaceful. It's the Peace Walker World Tour, after all. Here, cosplayers are reenacting a moment from Metal Gear Solid 3.[
“Precious” showing off her “Sweet Snake Figumates” female version of Raiden costume. Did she get a lot of attention? You bet she did.
As soon as Hideo Kojima arrived, the crowd went absolutely nuts. Like a rock star, he walked right by the crowd as everyone chanted his name. He even pulled out his camera and recorded his fans showing their appreciation for him. Can you spot him in the picture? (Hint: he's the one holding the camera)
Here's the man himself, signing any one item per fan. The staff and security were very efficient, we were in and out of the building in about a minute.
I got him to sign my cover for the original Metal Gear Solid for the PSX. He seemed surprised that there was another autograph already on the cover when I handed it to him (Snake voice actor David Hayter autographed it in 2008). After the signing, I thanked him and shook his hand.
A very focused Kojima after signing about 50 autographs. Now he's got another 471 more to go (he was able to sign 521 autographs)
The spoils: Kojima's autograph of the top-left, accompanied by David Hayter's autograph (from 2008) on the bottom right.
Funny, even Big Boss himself had to wait in line like the rest of us.
