Every convention has its ups and downs, the good and bad, and that’s why we’d like to hear your feedback! Got an idea for next year and want to share it? We’ve got that covered too!

• SMASH! Ideas – Post your ideas, comment on others, or vote for what you like the sound of. No idea is too crazy (except the ones we don’t have money for)
• SMASH! online survey – How did you hear about us, and how do you rate this years events? These exciting questions and more are just waiting for your (multiple choice) answers!

Home Made Hype Winners

After much ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the fabulous entries for the Home Made Hype competition, we’ve finally decided on the winners; First place went to Sugarplumneko’s “Veritas“, and second place went to Elaine-sensei’s “Identity“. We want to thank everyone who entered, and we hope you had fun with the competition! We’d also like to thank Smith Micro and guest artists Endling and Ms. Rosek for contributing to the exciting prize packs (and helping us pick the winners). There were a lot of great entries so be sure to check them out in the competition folder.

SMASH! Competition Winners

Of course, there were plenty of on-the-day winners at SMASH!, so we want to congratulate all the contestants who fought hard and came out victorious in our many competitions.

Karaoke
Male Winner: Hee-chan Jang
Male Runner Up: Ganesh V
Female Winner: Nafi Bin-Isaret
Female Runner Up: Johanna Thompson

ITG
Winner: Christopher Tolevski
Runner-Up: Joshua McKinnon

Cosplay
Best Cosplay: Clare (as Sakura from Tsubasa)
Runner up: Will (as Tidus from FFX)
Best Group: Gentou (as FFXIII)
Runner up: Evangelion 3.0 (as Neon Genesis Evangelion)
Best Skit: Another World Breathing (as Loveless)
Runner up: Evangelion 3.0 (as Neon Genesis Evangelion)
Judges’ choice: Scarlet Devils (as Touhou Project)

BJD Photography
1st Place: Jacqueline Trang
2nd Place: Morgenne Kemp
3rd Place: Christi Scappatura

Next Top BJD
Winner: Jo

Super Street Fighter IV
1st: JC S.
2nd: Wilson

Tekken 6
1st: Rendy
2nd: Josh

Trivia
Group 4channers

Fanfic
Senior winner: Corinne
Junior winner: Joy Chen
Encouragement award: Narelle Bailey

Wacom Doodling Competition
Best Senior: Hyae-Na
Best Junior: Ayasemn
Special Mention: Maddison Leach
Special Mention: Lamice Ali

Themed Art Competition
Winner: Ryan
Runner up: Juliet
Best Junior: Catherine
Special Mention: Pete

AMVs
Best Action: Joe Duong
Best Comedy: Dianne Beatty
Best Drama: Keith Harrison
Judge’s Choice: Keith Harrison
People’s Choice: Anna Khaov

BAKUC
MAIN CATEGORY – OPEN CLASS
1st: Cheuk Lun Yau
2nd: Scott Taylor
3rd: Da Su

MAIN CATEGORY – JUNIOR CLASS
1s: Darryl Chow
2nd: Jaspur Ross
3rd: Quinito Gonzalez

SECONDARY CATEGORY – BEST SD/BB
1st: Scott Taylor
2nd: Jenny Wu
3rd: Tim Fung

SECONDARY CATEGORY – BEST 1/144 HIGH GRADE :
1st: Jonathan Domingo
2nd: John Kwan
3rd: Chee Loong Yung

SECONDARY CATEGORY – BEST 1/100 NO GRADE / MASTER GRADE
1st: Wai Yin Vivien Lau
2nd: Thomas Young
3rd: Brian Lew-Kee

It’s hard to describe what an immense pleasure it has been to plan and coordinate this year’s event. I truly believe, and I hope that you will agree, that this was our best year yet.

There are a number of people who deserve a great deal of thanks for their support to SMASH!

Yuko Miyamura, Tiffany Grant, Matt Greenfield, Shaun Healey and Mikiko Ponczcek were fantastic as our guests and made the entire event one unlike any other. If you’d told me two years ago that we’d be bringing 5 overseas guests to SMASH! in 2010, I’d have told you you were dreaming. But they were really here and so incredibly gracious and willing to help us out. We hope you enjoyed their presence as much as we did.

Our sponsors Madman Entertainment, HobbyCo, the City of Sydney, Wacom, Adobe, Kiseki Manga and Smith Micro Software helped us take the event to a whole new level this year. We don’t have the budget of a professional convention and we can do what we do only because companies like this provide incredible support. The event would not be what it was if it weren’t for sponsors who are willing to donate money, prizes, time and effort.

Our partners and friends at Supanova, Timezone and the Sydney Opera House helped get the word out out about the event. It’s hard to believe this is only Year 4 but we’re still a young event and there are plenty of people who’ve never heard of us. Thanks to our partners, that number is rapidly diminishing!

The staff of the Sydney Town Hall went above and beyond anything we could have expected. If it weren’t for the restrictions on the number of people you can physically put in the building (more on that below), we’d love to stay in Town Hall for a lot longer. Nothing was ever too much trouble and we especially would like to thank Sandra Domelow and Danielle Buckley who were kind, patient and understanding no matter how weird our requests were (Maid Cafe).

The SMASH! Management and Staff have worked on this event for almost 12 months. The event might only be for a day but I can assure you that the level of effort that was put in was incredible. No matter how unreasonable my requests were (run sheets!), the Management and Staff did it. And the event ran better because of their hard work.

The SMASH! Crew were the best group of helpers we could have ever asked for. We had a great response from people volunteering to be of assistance this year and Geelong and Kirsty spent two weeks whittling them down to the best of the best. I have only heard great comments about the Crew and I think that’s a testament to their resolve to provide the best service they could — whether that was to a staff member or a member of the public.

Speaking of which, our attendees! You blew the doors off the place! What a terrific response. At the end of the day this is really about you and your enjoyment. We’re putting on the show that we hope you enjoy and the only thing that makes it worthwhile is hearing that someone had a great time and can’t wait to come back next year.

It goes without saying that there were people who were unhappy last weekend. The two biggest issues were the venue selling out and the confiscation of weapons at the door.

I’m disappointed that anyone who wanted to come to SMASH! was unable to. All I can say is that we honestly weren’t sure that we’d get as large a turnout as we did. This was our first year in a new venue and after being two days last year we just weren’t sure what a step back to one day would mean. For emergency reasons, the venue has a limit to the number of people that are permitted inside at any one time and we were under an agreement to stop selling tickets once the maximum capacity had been reached. I’m incredibly sorry to those that travelled to SMASH!, line up and weren’t able to get in on the day. We announced the move to the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre on Saturday because we didn’t want this to ever be an issue again. I realise that’s small consolation for people that felt like they wasted their day this year but we hope you’ll be with us again next year. We’re working to making it even better than this year

In regards to the weapons confiscation, we apologise for the manner in which it was conducted. Unfortunately, a few cosplayers carried realistic looking firearms into the city and concerned members of the public called the police. I met with several officers on Saturday morning and was instructed to enforce a stricter weapons policy than normal. We’re looking at how we can best deal with this for next year but we apologise for everyone who was inconvenienced.

The things that went wrong this year fortunately seemed to be eclipsed by those that went right and we are incredibly excited about 2011. If you’ve got an idea, we’d love to hear it. We’ve created a special website at http://ideas.smash.org.au/ where you can submit, vote and comment on the ideas for next year. Please let us know what you’d like to see and we’ll do our best to make it happen =)

Our guests have all arrived and are raring to go and they’re really looking forward to meeting you all. We think you’re going to hit it off. And let’s not forget the Bandai Action Kit Universal Cup. By this time tomorrow two people will know they’re going to Hong Kong to represent Australia. What legends those chaps from Hobbyco are.

People don’t use the word ‘chaps’ enough any more.

And now I’m at that point where you wonder if it’s worth going to bed or if you should just stay up all night. Can’t wait for tomorrow.

• Five international guests. Where else are you going to meet voice actresses Yuko Miyamura and Tiffany Grant, artists Shaun Healey and Mikiko Ponczeck, and ADV film’s Matt Greenfield? Nowhere else this Saturday, that’s for sure.
• The first Australian BAKUC tournament, with its super special prize, a trip to Hong Kong! Check out all the awesome entries in the BAKUC showcase, or try your own hand at modelmaking with the HobbyCo Gundam Workshop.
• Artist market, Art workshops, Art panels, Art competitions. It’s all things art at SMASH!, really. Learn from our professional guests or peruse the works of local creators!
• Cosplay competition, gaming tournaments, guest signings, and much more!

Doors open at 9am for you lucky Advance Ticket holders, with an earlybird guest signing at 9-10am. For the rest of you folk, tickets go on sale on the day at 9:30am.

See you all at SMASH!

Sydney Opera House GRAPHIC festival
As if one guest-filled animation and comics event wasn’t enough this weekend, the Sydney Opera House is pulling out all the stops for GRAPHIC – Neil Gaiman, Kevin Smith, a live-score screening of AKIRA, workshops, panels, and more. They’ve even got a booth at SMASH!, so there’s no excuse not to buy your tickets!

Courtesy of the cool people at the Sydney Opera House we also have some free tickets to give away! Fill out our survey on the day for the chance to win double passes to Neil Gaiman’s live reading, whilst the winning team in our Trivia competition will take home two double passes to AKIRA.

Reel Anime: Evangelion 2.0 Premiere Screening
Those of you lucky enough to catch tickets to this sold-out show are in for a treat this Thursday with the premiere of Evangelion 2.0: You Can [Not] Advance at Dendy Newtown. Courtesy of SMASH!, the premiere will feature a special introduction by English voice actress Tiffany Grant, who portrays Asuka from the original Evangelion TV series, as well as Yūko Miyamura, the Japanese voice behind Asuka in both the Evangelion TV series and the Rebuild of Evangelion movies.

Missed out on a ticket? You can still enjoy Eva 2.0 and many other anime films on the big screen when Madman’s Reel Anime festival officially kicks off in September.

Any problems, drop our AMV Coordinator an email!

The map is now online.

If you missed out on buying your early ticket, never fear! Tickets will still be available at the door for $25. Sales are cash only and the doors will open at 9.30 am for on the day sales. Any problems? Email the Ticketing Coordinator.

SMASH! is proud to work in conjunction with Madman to bring you an extra special screening as a part of the Reel Anime cinema showcase. Catch the exclusive Australian premiere of Evangelion 2.0: You Can [Not] Advance at Dendy Newtown on Thursday August 5th, at 6:30pm. Courtesy of SMASH!, the premiere will feature a special introduction by English voice actress Tiffany Grant, who portrays Asuka from the original Evangelion TV series, as well as Yūko Miyamura, the Japanese voice behind Asuka in both the Evangelion TV series and the Rebuild of Evangelion movies.

If you’ve been living in a cave and only just found out they’re making an Evangelion movie tetralogy, here’s the scoop on You Can [Not] Advance.

The second film in the epic Rebuild of Evangelion takes us in a frightening, thrilling and cinematically stunning new direction.

The story of Shinji, Asuka and Rei, the chosen children who fight to save Tokyo-3 from monstrous creatures known as Angels is taken in startling dimensions that are both light, and dramatically dark. Piloting the mighty Eva will demand more of Shinji and those around him than any of them are prepared for!

Features all new characters, including Mari, an Eva pilot, plus new Evangelion units.

Missed the first one? Evangelion 1.0: You Are [Not] Alone is also screening in limited sessions. Check with your participating cinema for your opportunity to see both the films on the big screen!

Tickets will be limited for the August 5th Evangelion 2.0 premier, so be sure to book yours with Dendy when they become available.

Cosplay Competition

The cosplay competition is full. Thanks everyone that registered!

The cosplay competition is almost entirely full. That’s right. It’s about to fill up and if you don’t put your name down you’re in danger of missing out! Register now!

Bandai Action-Kit Universal Cup

Entries are flooding in for Australia’s first national BAKUC. And it’s not surprising. The winners of both the senior and junior divisions will win trips to Hong Kong to compete in the international final. To register your entries for the Bandai Action-Kit Universal Cup download your application form and get building.

Karaoke Competition

The karaoke competition is full. Thanks everyone that registered!

Think you’ve got what it takes to mix it with the best? Prove you walk the walk and don’t just talk to the talk (or mime the talk Brittany-style) by signing up for the SMASH! Idol. Places are almost full so if you want to strut your stuff, register now.

AMV Competition

The AMV Competition closes this Sunday July 17 so hit up the site for details on how to enter.

Art Competitions

With super prizes including copies of Manga Studio and artwork commissions from Endling and Ms. Rosek, get your entries in for the SMASH! Home Made Hype competition! Just create a piece of advertising (for either a real or imaginary product), such as a poster or DVD/manga/book cover, to show off your own original characters or series.

And don’t forget the SMASH! Themed Competition and Wacom Doodling Competition either. You could win prizes including Adobe CS5 (Adobe CS5!), Wacom tablets and vouchers from Kinokuniya and Manga Arts. Even if you can’t draw, you show go in it!

Finally, our good friends at Kiseki Manga are running an illustration competition, with great prizes to be won from Wacom, Madman and Copic! Check out their Emotions Competition for more information on how to enter. Submissions close Monday July 31!

Well, two can play at that game. We’ve got two guests endorsing our event. Take that Melbourne!