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Costumed Characters Take Over Winter Con Event In Queens

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Dozens of science fiction fans dressed up Saturday, showing off their inner superhero at the first-ever Winter Con event at the Resorts World Casino in Queens.

The cast of characters took over the venue, both good and evil—all of them unique.

"I just came as this kind of cool elf-looking thing. I was going for mystical," Samara Ruiz said.

More than 2,000 local sci-fi fans put their creativity to the test, showing off their costumes and battling it out to see who was best dressed, CBS2's Ilana Gold reported.

"I'm going to enter the costume contest," Nicolina Cicarca said, who didn't know what her chances of winning were.

Attendees also got their hands on memorabilia and discovered rare comics.

"I work in a comic book store. I always try to find hard-to-find stuff I found what I needed right when I walked in," Andrew Gonzalez, of Yonkers, said.

As Gold reported, it's a convention similar to the Comic Con in the fall, but the timing makes all the difference.

"It's great to have it in the winter. Because the winter is kind of a slow season for cons," Jennifer Rose said.

For the group attending Winter Con, getting to dress up in December is really unheard of. But the organizers behind the event knew there was a great demand and they had to do something.

"Our people are always looking for something to do. The new Marvel movies are out, people love those things, and sometimes they want to express their fandom," organizer Frank Patz said.

And the popularity continues to grow.

"Comic Con is now cool and geeks are popular and smart is sexy," Lady Arielle said.

In the coming year, Winter Con could become a new tradition, Gold reported, and organizers say they plan to expand it in the coming years.

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