Fantasy characters emerged from the pages of magazines and came alive from the screens of video games at the annual Gamma Con convention held at the AIS.
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More than 4000 people were expected to turn out across the two days, to the event advertised as Canberra's own pop culture convention.
The celebration of video, board and table games, anime and manga, movies, books, comics and art, saw people of all ages dress up in costumes and take part in a huge range of activities.
Cosplay wasn't the only form of dressing up, with live action role play and sword play also proving popular.
Gamma Con is in its fourth year in Canberra, having started as a small gathering of 250 people at the Australian National University.
The non-profit event is run by the volunteers at the Gamma Con Society. Convener James Ansell said this year was the first the event was being run over two full days, Saturday and Sunday.
"We've had more people than we were expecting, so all the areas were pretty full of people bustling around enjoying themselves," Mr Ansell said.
"We want to make sure everybody feels part of the community, which is all about fun."
He said there was a wide variety of people at the convention, from families with children dressed up, to people who had spent months on their costumes.
For mother-of-two Geraldine Grudnoff, her children Alexey, 12, and James, 10, went dressed as Magneto and Wolverine respectively.
"It's great, it's relaxed," Ms Grudnoff said of the event. "Everyone here is friendly and happy, and it's a good atmosphere for the kids."
Ms Grudnoff said the family had visited the event last year, but this year it had doubled in size.
Two of the main attractions at this year's convention were television presenters Bajo and Hex. The two took part in an on-stage test of skill and wit and a question and answer session titled, 'ask us almost anything'.
On Sunday at 1.30pm the pair will take on Canberra's best with a live stage game of Mario Party.
Tickets are still available, visit gammacon.org.au
