Costumes and lightsabers the order of the day at Decatur's Midwest Toy and ComicFest

If you wanted to be extra-cool, you needed a lightsaber.

“I have a blue one, too,” said Caleb Womack of Monticello, wearing his black hooded robe reminiscent of the Sith in the "Star Wars" movies, while carrying his red lightsaber, which is the color most commonly associated with Darth Vader and other Sith lords. Blue is for the good guys.

And a few minutes later, he had a good-natured mock battle with Loreli Nelson, dressed as Xiao from the game "Genshin Impact" and armed with that character's spear.

Organizer Mickey Tate, owner of Primary Collectibles in Lincoln, has been involved with comic, fantasy and gaming conventions for a while, and since he's from Decatur, he said, he thought it was high time the city had a convention of its own. He wasn't sure how it would be received, and whether people would come, but he needn't have worried. The line of people waiting to get in went from the entrance to the convention room almost all the way back to the lobby, beginning when the convention opened at 10 a.m.

Vendors offered everything fans could hope for, as well. Tate knows a lot of vendors from his experience as a retailer, fan and convention organizer, and merchandise included anime, superheroes, original art, Funko Pops, collectibles, and toys of all kinds. There was a panel discussion on the wildly popular “One Piece” anime series, and celebrity guests including artists Paul Niemeyer and Afua Richardson, actor and writer Kenny Sills, and Isaak Wells, the voice of Skeletor.

Wells said he was a little taken aback by how many people recognized him on sight, since he's a voice actor, but assumed they follow him online. He's done the voices for other characters, notably Vladimir Putin on “Family Guy,” but Skeletor is his favorite.

“He's evil,” the actor said, falling into Skeletor's voice and adding a wicked chuckle.

To be a good voice actor, he said, you first have to be a good actor, period, and even though voice actors work alone in a studio with no one to react to, he doesn't find it difficult to perform that way. He lives in Peoria and works out of his own studio.

Richardson was dressed as Okoya from “Black Panther,” including the neck rings, which are really a choker that fastens with Velcro in the back. She said she had to dress up, knowing so many others were going to.

Ed Lozano Jr., a Decatur artist who does commissions as well as comic book illustrations, is a friend of Tate's, and though he'd been asked to bring his work to a convention elsewhere, chose the Midwest Toy and ComicFest instead to support Tate, and because he agreed that Decatur needed a convention of its own, he said.

“I, amidst being a comic book fan, like to collect nostalgic toys,” Lozano said. “I fill my studio up with them, so that's how we met. He asked me if I would be interested in doing this. I'm a Decaturite and this is an inaugural thing. This is the first time this has ever happened in Decatur and I told Mickey I had to be here. With my background as an illustrator, and being in the comic book industry, I said, 'no brainer, I'm here for you.'”

Nelson and her friends Naomi Beres, cosplaying Diuschi, and Katherine Davis, cosplaying Kondira, both from "World of Terriu," went all out with their costumes for the cosplaying contest, even dressing up service dog Abby as a dragon.

“For us, it's an opportunity to cosplay the characters, for one, and as a group, we're all friends,” Beres said. “We have a major group of people who like to cosplay.”

“I always look for a chance to dress up,” added “Runnalia,” otherwise known as Rhiannon Jenkins of Ramsey.