Anthro New England 2024 Con Report
Whew, I can't believe I went through this again! But it seems after going to Furpocalypse for the first time, Anthro New England 2024 felt a little like "just another furry con" to me, but that was fine. This year was kind of mid-key for me compared to past years, for reasons I will mention later, but I had a good time anyways.
After spending much of Thursday night packing in preparation, Friday morning I woke up around 6 AM, had breakfast, packed a few final things, put on much of my Zak Wolf fursuit, and had my dad drop me off at the local train station so I could ride the commuter railroad into Boston (riding near the vestibule so I wouldn't have to deal with trying to get my luggage up and down the stairs in those bi-level train cars), then get on a Silver Line bus with all my luggage, and get to the Westin Boston Seapor District hotel!
Among arriving, the first thing I did was get into the registration line, and it was pretty long. Fortunately, the opening ceremonies started kind of late, so I didn't miss a thing!
Here's me heading on my way out of said opening ceremonies with my luggage. That picture was featured in a WBUR article about our convention!
Then I was able to check into my hotel room, drop off my luggage in there and unpack a little, and finally go onto the conspace and mingle with other attendees!
Here's me with Erete with his cool wolf getup. Check out the puppet on his shoulder! And yes, I recently replaced the eyepieces in Zak's mask.
Here I am with Blush (Master of Plush), her first fursuiting at Anthro New England! I'm always glad to welcome new suiters in the fandom.
Around noon, I changed into my private toon detective foxsona Sam Valentino, hoping to play in the Fursuit Games in this ego for a change. But I found out too late that now you have to sign up online to participate in the Fursuit Games! A streak has been broken; before this year I was in every Anthro New England fursuit games.
But at least it wasn't a total loss! I got to be able to attend a panel during that time about performing as a sports mascot, and given my experiences as K-O the Kangaroo, I had a LOT to share.
I also got a bit of a headstart snooping around the con space, looking for potential crimes. Here's me with my old friend Erin Kitsune; her first time seeing me as Sam!
And here's me with my old folf friend Tokala Nashoba in front of the Westin Boston Seaport District hotel's giant LED sign used for Anthro New England purposes.
This year, I actually passed out business cards like a private detective might do so, with my social media information on the back! I've seen other fursuiters give out such cards (and have gotten a few of them), so some time before the con I had a set of these cards printed up at the local Staples for me to give to others at Anthro New England! And I still have a lot of them left over to give out at Anime Boston in two months before I need to replenish my supply.
"Could this napkin I found at the bottom of the escalator be a clue? ... Naaah, it's only someone's trash!"
I was pleasantly surprised to see a fursuiter going around in a very spot-on costume of Timon from Disney's "The Lion King!" Very bouncy and in-character. So naturally, we had to get this shot of Sam Valentino asking Timon some questions, standard procedure.
At long last, my good friend Gale Frostbane, who I've known for nearly ten years now(!), gets to meet the private toon detective Sam Valentino in the fur!
This was right before I attended a photo room session as Sam.
Doing my classic magnifying glass pose, this time without any con badges.
Sure, while Sam Valentino does sometimes drink liquor like a typical classic private detective would (though I don't drink in real life), in the mornings he likes an iced coffee to give him a boost, and Dunkies makes some good ones outside of Toontown!
I also attended a fox fur meetup that afternoon. Look at all of us!
This was where I got to meet Günther, another fellow toony red fox. Love how his suit looks!
I also re-met with Kiera from Furpocalypse here.
Some time after that meetup, I met with Barton Fox, the chief photographer for Anthro New England! He even got a little footage of my snoot!
"Hmmm, this looks more like an onigri riceball than a sandwich or a jelly-filled doughnut. Sounds like more of that 4Kids plop!"
Yep, having fun with a plushie onigri riceball I bought at the dealer's den that day.
Since this year's Anthro New England theme was winter: "It's a Nor'eastah!", I brought along a few winter-appropriate records and my Fisher-Price portable phonograph! Here I am in one of the Jam Zones, playing Dean Martin's "A Winter Romance" LP album. Only two songs on this record are about Christmas; the rest are just about winter and snow in general, yet radio stations and retail playlists and such don't want to play them after Christmas when it snows for real! And yep, I'm wearing a scarf to go with the theme.
I did this again Saturday afternoon for another photoshoot (yep, people were surprised to learn Fisher-Price made real record players with diamond styluses!) And yes, I am playing the infamous "Baby, It's Cold Outside" for this shoot.
Since they also had a clapperboard as a prop in the Anthro New England photo room, I figured it was only appropriate that Zak Wolf pose for a photo with it, to reflect my video production hobby (especially my YouTube Poops!)
Then I went to another jam zone and played my usual wolf-related 45s ("Hungry Like the Wolf" by Duran Duran, and "Li'l Red RIding Hood" and "The Hair On My Chinny Chin Chin" by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs!)
As it got later on Friday and Saturday night, in honor of the Year of the Dragon, I assumed the identity of my gentle Zodiac animal: Dawson Dragon! He got a lot of praise.
I attended another photo room session this way, along with briefly peeking into a latex fur meetup (since Dawson's head, gloves, feet and tail are made of latex anyway!)
Then Saturday morning, I got up, got coffee and a muffin from the Dunkies' literally across the street from one side of the hotel, and then assumed the role of my foxy gumshoe...
I, Sam Valentino, Private Toon Detective, still have a wild hunch that Anthro New England moved to the Westin Boston Seaport District hotel for if we outgrow it, we can expand operations to the adjacent Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, where PAX East and Fan Expo Boston are typically held! (But the Convention and Exhibition Center is about to undergo an expansion/renovation project, so Fan Expo Boston is temporarily re-locating to the Hynes Convention Center.)
Here is our first photo together, Ferdinand Ferret (in his Dr. Who getup) with me as Sam Valentino.
This year, I also participated in the ANE Fursuit Group Photo and Parade. You can see me in the latter here:
I appear around the 16:20 mark, marching close behind my friend Scurrow, who I've known for eight years now!
One of the con charities this year was for Wings of the Dawn, an organization that helps birds of prey.
They even brought two live birds of prey: a barred owl...
...and a red-tailed hawk. Two specimens I have seen in real life, and very cute birds!
As I said, this year's Anthro New England theme is "It's a Nor'eastah!", a wintery theme, since the con is held in winter anyways. And Saturday night it snowed, making it a perfect environment for our con! I will say it was a little tricky trekking through the snow and ice to get dinner! (A bacon cheesburger from Five Guy's, of course!) At least the Zak Wolf fursuit kept me warm!
Then that evening I attended a friend's panel about obscure 1990s cartoons, followed by a dragon/scaly meetup panel! Here's me with my sergal friend Professor Plum.
I'm still breaking in my new mattress at home (after years of sleeping on a saggy old one), so I tend to wake up with a stiff lower back and have trouble falling back asleep if it's early in the morning. But at least that night I got six hours of sleep, as they want congoers to get! So after that, I got a coffee and donut from Dunkies again, suited up as Sam Valentino, packed my belongings and checked out of the hotel room, ready for one last day of fun.
Every year we get more and more kids attending (or as I call these young fursuiters, "furlings", ala the "Once Upon a Forest" animated movie), and I'm glad the fandom now reaches out to all ages. Gives us a more positive image!
Heck, also on that afternoon, a couple of kid attendees that weren't in suit were very excited to see me, recognizing me as both Zak Wolf and Sam Valentino (I guess they watch my YouTube channel), and were happy to receive their own Sam Valentino business card I printed up. I can't believe I'm now old enough to influence younger furries! *shivers*
That day, there was a Pokémon fan meetup, and I couldn't resist stopping by, since I've always been a Pokémon fan since the days when there were only 151 of them and you had to trade them between two Game Boys connected via a physical cable! What's Anthro New England without some Pokémon stuff?
I wasn't too surprised to see my friends Raspberry Lucario and Pyrra the Charizard there, the latter being another fur I've known since the early days of Anthro New England.
"Nothing beats a seaweed-wrapped riceball!"
Yep, no 4Kids-style "sandwich" or "jelly-filled donut" cultural cover-ups here! You get Raspberry enjoying a riceball, i.e. that plushie onigri riceball I bought at the Anthro New England dealer's den.
Here's me having a bit of fun in the video gaming room at Anthro New England, playing the original 1985 Super Mario Bros. game on the Nintendo Entertainment System while in fursuit! It's so addicting, and that music is so catchy in all its' 8-bit glory!
Let's just say that with the Mario Bros. taking the animation world by storm with their movie last year, Sam Valentino is going straight to the source in gathering information about Mario and Luigi...
My friend Raspberry also went around a bit in her other fursona, Rudy Colliesworth, a collie/German shepherd mix. I still remember when she first got that fursuit a year and a half ago, and I first saw it at Fan Expo Boston 2022...
After that, things were melancholic with the con winding down, and I attended a bug photography panel. But then came the Kaiju Clash, one last bit of mayhem before the con ends!
Here's Sam with Raspberry Lucario again at the Clash, but this time with her fellow Lucario friend Ruben at the Kaiju Clash! It was fun seeing both Pokémon fighting against the huge foam and cardboard buildings!
Me at the closing ceremonies, posing with a tote bag for the Maltese Fur Con, the first furry convention I attended almost ten years ago (that unfortunately didn't survive to happen a second year), that was sold at Anthro New England's charity auction. The winner let me pose for a photo with it. And what happened during those ceremonies became oddly fitting...
This year, we had 4,482 attendees, nearly a thousand more from the amount last year! And over 800 of us fursuiters were in the Group Photo and Parade! And we managed to raise $30,000 for the charities! (I'm glad I donated a little to that.) But what got me REALLY excited at the end was the announcement for next year's Anthro New England's theme:
"A Staggering Case." Yep, for their tenth anniversary, they're going with a mystery theme! PERFECT for Sam Valentino, Private Toon Detective! I even posed in front of the stage once the announcement was made! I'll still bring Zak Wolf to ANE 2025 (no Dawson Dragon this time, it was just for the Year of the Dragon), but I definitely won't be wearing him as much as my foxy gumshoe. I left the hotel a happy fox! (I actually wore my fursuit all the way home, and even rode on the same train with two other attendees from Brockton.)
Whew, I am definitely looking forward to having Sam Valentino try to solve the case at next year's Anthro New England! But first I've still got Anime Boston, Fan Expo Boston, and Furpocalypse to get through this year!
After spending much of Thursday night packing in preparation, Friday morning I woke up around 6 AM, had breakfast, packed a few final things, put on much of my Zak Wolf fursuit, and had my dad drop me off at the local train station so I could ride the commuter railroad into Boston (riding near the vestibule so I wouldn't have to deal with trying to get my luggage up and down the stairs in those bi-level train cars), then get on a Silver Line bus with all my luggage, and get to the Westin Boston Seapor District hotel!
Among arriving, the first thing I did was get into the registration line, and it was pretty long. Fortunately, the opening ceremonies started kind of late, so I didn't miss a thing!
Here's me heading on my way out of said opening ceremonies with my luggage. That picture was featured in a WBUR article about our convention!
Then I was able to check into my hotel room, drop off my luggage in there and unpack a little, and finally go onto the conspace and mingle with other attendees!
Here's me with Erete with his cool wolf getup. Check out the puppet on his shoulder! And yes, I recently replaced the eyepieces in Zak's mask.
Here I am with Blush (Master of Plush), her first fursuiting at Anthro New England! I'm always glad to welcome new suiters in the fandom.
Around noon, I changed into my private toon detective foxsona Sam Valentino, hoping to play in the Fursuit Games in this ego for a change. But I found out too late that now you have to sign up online to participate in the Fursuit Games! A streak has been broken; before this year I was in every Anthro New England fursuit games.
But at least it wasn't a total loss! I got to be able to attend a panel during that time about performing as a sports mascot, and given my experiences as K-O the Kangaroo, I had a LOT to share.
I also got a bit of a headstart snooping around the con space, looking for potential crimes. Here's me with my old friend Erin Kitsune; her first time seeing me as Sam!
And here's me with my old folf friend Tokala Nashoba in front of the Westin Boston Seaport District hotel's giant LED sign used for Anthro New England purposes.
This year, I actually passed out business cards like a private detective might do so, with my social media information on the back! I've seen other fursuiters give out such cards (and have gotten a few of them), so some time before the con I had a set of these cards printed up at the local Staples for me to give to others at Anthro New England! And I still have a lot of them left over to give out at Anime Boston in two months before I need to replenish my supply.
"Could this napkin I found at the bottom of the escalator be a clue? ... Naaah, it's only someone's trash!"
I was pleasantly surprised to see a fursuiter going around in a very spot-on costume of Timon from Disney's "The Lion King!" Very bouncy and in-character. So naturally, we had to get this shot of Sam Valentino asking Timon some questions, standard procedure.
At long last, my good friend Gale Frostbane, who I've known for nearly ten years now(!), gets to meet the private toon detective Sam Valentino in the fur!
This was right before I attended a photo room session as Sam.
Doing my classic magnifying glass pose, this time without any con badges.
Sure, while Sam Valentino does sometimes drink liquor like a typical classic private detective would (though I don't drink in real life), in the mornings he likes an iced coffee to give him a boost, and Dunkies makes some good ones outside of Toontown!
I also attended a fox fur meetup that afternoon. Look at all of us!
This was where I got to meet Günther, another fellow toony red fox. Love how his suit looks!
I also re-met with Kiera from Furpocalypse here.
Some time after that meetup, I met with Barton Fox, the chief photographer for Anthro New England! He even got a little footage of my snoot!
"Hmmm, this looks more like an onigri riceball than a sandwich or a jelly-filled doughnut. Sounds like more of that 4Kids plop!"
Yep, having fun with a plushie onigri riceball I bought at the dealer's den that day.
Since this year's Anthro New England theme was winter: "It's a Nor'eastah!", I brought along a few winter-appropriate records and my Fisher-Price portable phonograph! Here I am in one of the Jam Zones, playing Dean Martin's "A Winter Romance" LP album. Only two songs on this record are about Christmas; the rest are just about winter and snow in general, yet radio stations and retail playlists and such don't want to play them after Christmas when it snows for real! And yep, I'm wearing a scarf to go with the theme.
I did this again Saturday afternoon for another photoshoot (yep, people were surprised to learn Fisher-Price made real record players with diamond styluses!) And yes, I am playing the infamous "Baby, It's Cold Outside" for this shoot.
Since they also had a clapperboard as a prop in the Anthro New England photo room, I figured it was only appropriate that Zak Wolf pose for a photo with it, to reflect my video production hobby (especially my YouTube Poops!)
Then I went to another jam zone and played my usual wolf-related 45s ("Hungry Like the Wolf" by Duran Duran, and "Li'l Red RIding Hood" and "The Hair On My Chinny Chin Chin" by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs!)
As it got later on Friday and Saturday night, in honor of the Year of the Dragon, I assumed the identity of my gentle Zodiac animal: Dawson Dragon! He got a lot of praise.
I attended another photo room session this way, along with briefly peeking into a latex fur meetup (since Dawson's head, gloves, feet and tail are made of latex anyway!)
Then Saturday morning, I got up, got coffee and a muffin from the Dunkies' literally across the street from one side of the hotel, and then assumed the role of my foxy gumshoe...
I, Sam Valentino, Private Toon Detective, still have a wild hunch that Anthro New England moved to the Westin Boston Seaport District hotel for if we outgrow it, we can expand operations to the adjacent Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, where PAX East and Fan Expo Boston are typically held! (But the Convention and Exhibition Center is about to undergo an expansion/renovation project, so Fan Expo Boston is temporarily re-locating to the Hynes Convention Center.)
Here is our first photo together, Ferdinand Ferret (in his Dr. Who getup) with me as Sam Valentino.
This year, I also participated in the ANE Fursuit Group Photo and Parade. You can see me in the latter here:
Click to viewI appear around the 16:20 mark, marching close behind my friend Scurrow, who I've known for eight years now!
One of the con charities this year was for Wings of the Dawn, an organization that helps birds of prey.
They even brought two live birds of prey: a barred owl...
...and a red-tailed hawk. Two specimens I have seen in real life, and very cute birds!
As I said, this year's Anthro New England theme is "It's a Nor'eastah!", a wintery theme, since the con is held in winter anyways. And Saturday night it snowed, making it a perfect environment for our con! I will say it was a little tricky trekking through the snow and ice to get dinner! (A bacon cheesburger from Five Guy's, of course!) At least the Zak Wolf fursuit kept me warm!
Then that evening I attended a friend's panel about obscure 1990s cartoons, followed by a dragon/scaly meetup panel! Here's me with my sergal friend Professor Plum.
I'm still breaking in my new mattress at home (after years of sleeping on a saggy old one), so I tend to wake up with a stiff lower back and have trouble falling back asleep if it's early in the morning. But at least that night I got six hours of sleep, as they want congoers to get! So after that, I got a coffee and donut from Dunkies again, suited up as Sam Valentino, packed my belongings and checked out of the hotel room, ready for one last day of fun.
Every year we get more and more kids attending (or as I call these young fursuiters, "furlings", ala the "Once Upon a Forest" animated movie), and I'm glad the fandom now reaches out to all ages. Gives us a more positive image!
Heck, also on that afternoon, a couple of kid attendees that weren't in suit were very excited to see me, recognizing me as both Zak Wolf and Sam Valentino (I guess they watch my YouTube channel), and were happy to receive their own Sam Valentino business card I printed up. I can't believe I'm now old enough to influence younger furries! *shivers*
That day, there was a Pokémon fan meetup, and I couldn't resist stopping by, since I've always been a Pokémon fan since the days when there were only 151 of them and you had to trade them between two Game Boys connected via a physical cable! What's Anthro New England without some Pokémon stuff?
I wasn't too surprised to see my friends Raspberry Lucario and Pyrra the Charizard there, the latter being another fur I've known since the early days of Anthro New England.
"Nothing beats a seaweed-wrapped riceball!"
Yep, no 4Kids-style "sandwich" or "jelly-filled donut" cultural cover-ups here! You get Raspberry enjoying a riceball, i.e. that plushie onigri riceball I bought at the Anthro New England dealer's den.
Here's me having a bit of fun in the video gaming room at Anthro New England, playing the original 1985 Super Mario Bros. game on the Nintendo Entertainment System while in fursuit! It's so addicting, and that music is so catchy in all its' 8-bit glory!
Let's just say that with the Mario Bros. taking the animation world by storm with their movie last year, Sam Valentino is going straight to the source in gathering information about Mario and Luigi...
My friend Raspberry also went around a bit in her other fursona, Rudy Colliesworth, a collie/German shepherd mix. I still remember when she first got that fursuit a year and a half ago, and I first saw it at Fan Expo Boston 2022...
After that, things were melancholic with the con winding down, and I attended a bug photography panel. But then came the Kaiju Clash, one last bit of mayhem before the con ends!
Here's Sam with Raspberry Lucario again at the Clash, but this time with her fellow Lucario friend Ruben at the Kaiju Clash! It was fun seeing both Pokémon fighting against the huge foam and cardboard buildings!
Me at the closing ceremonies, posing with a tote bag for the Maltese Fur Con, the first furry convention I attended almost ten years ago (that unfortunately didn't survive to happen a second year), that was sold at Anthro New England's charity auction. The winner let me pose for a photo with it. And what happened during those ceremonies became oddly fitting...
This year, we had 4,482 attendees, nearly a thousand more from the amount last year! And over 800 of us fursuiters were in the Group Photo and Parade! And we managed to raise $30,000 for the charities! (I'm glad I donated a little to that.) But what got me REALLY excited at the end was the announcement for next year's Anthro New England's theme:
"A Staggering Case." Yep, for their tenth anniversary, they're going with a mystery theme! PERFECT for Sam Valentino, Private Toon Detective! I even posed in front of the stage once the announcement was made! I'll still bring Zak Wolf to ANE 2025 (no Dawson Dragon this time, it was just for the Year of the Dragon), but I definitely won't be wearing him as much as my foxy gumshoe. I left the hotel a happy fox! (I actually wore my fursuit all the way home, and even rode on the same train with two other attendees from Brockton.)
Whew, I am definitely looking forward to having Sam Valentino try to solve the case at next year's Anthro New England! But first I've still got Anime Boston, Fan Expo Boston, and Furpocalypse to get through this year!