Costumes for the New Year!

Happy New Year! I don't know about you, but I've had a crazy couple of months. I'm ready to start fresh and break open the packaging for a fresh new 2010. That last decade is old news, man.

I've graduated from school and even managed to get myself a job (for now), so things are going pretty well. The only unfortunate thing is that I'm still in the tiny living space I was last year, which makes costume creation extra-challenging. I'm hoping to be in a larger space by halfway through the year, but... who knows. I'm sure I'll be moving at least once this year.

So what's on the cosplay docket for Triene this year? Well, let's see!

The big news in the convention community of the Boston area and, honestly, the east coast as a whole, is that PAX is coming to Boston! We're all very excited about it. I haven't decided if I actually want to cosplay for it... I might just ride it out and use it as a networking and learning opportunity, as games are my career of choice, and I think I could learn a lot at the con without having to think about costuming. Plus, it could leave me more free to report on any cosplay there for your enjoyment! :D

Anime Boston is immediately after PAX. I think it's finally time to pull out the Pokemon Gaijinka costume that I created oh-so-long ago! I can actually afford the wig commission, and there is very little other work to do on it, so I think it will be perfect for a con that's so close to already being here.

Further down the line are the "up-in-the-air" cons... i.e., the cons I plan on going to unless something (new job, moving, sudden loss of funds) prevents me from going. These are Blizzcon (woo!) and Connecticon. Will I be able to create my Stormrage gear by Blizzcon? In this little room, probably not. But I'll see how it goes. For Connecticon I usually pull a costume out of the costume closet that hasn't seen much love lately, or that is convenient for me to wear. My friends and I will likely enter the Rockband tournament again this year... will we come out on top again? We shall see.

The idea of Otakon this year was batted around, but like the aforementioned two cons, I don't think I'll be able to commit to it as early as I'll need to to make it happen. Next year, then.

Finally, if you didn't know, the second-to-last Harry Potter movie comes out (it had better!) in the fall of this year. I have wanted to make a Bellatrix Lestrange costume, and I may seize this movie as my opportunity. Or, it may have to wait until the last movie comes out next summer.

At any rate, we shall see how this unpredictable year unfolds for me. What are your cosplay goals for the year? What cons are you going to?

Blizzcon Cosplay!

Well, Blizzcon 2009 was absolutely amazing. It's completely different from an anime con, and was twice as big as the biggest con I've been to!

I'm just going to focus on cosplay in this particular post, though as you might imagine, I have a lot to say about the rest of the con, as well. Going there was an absolute dream.

I have to admit, it was very difficult seeing all of the amazing costumes, because as I've mentioned many times before, I want to do WoW cosplay very badly. However, I had several very nice conversations with some of the people in the amazing costumes, so I picked up some good tips for when I start on mine! I mostly asked about armour making, as I've heard of so many ways to do it. Wonderflex was involved on everyone I spoke to (except one person, whose friends made his armour out of REAL LEATHER. Crap.), as I assumed, but the rest was varied.

The priest (first photo) used Model Magic on top of his armor, much to my noticeable surprise. I have heard of people making things with it, but it has some issues... it shrinks a lot, for one, and can be dented during various stages. He wasn't surprised at me being skeptical, so he went on to explain that it works very well and is nice and lightweight, you just have to remember to account for the shrinking when making the pieces. I'm now confident that if I do experiments to see how much it shrinks in different situations, I could form some pretty intricate pieces with it.

A girl dressed as a... which doctor? Shaman? From Diablo 3 told me that most of her stuff was made out of Sculpey, which surprised me even more than the Model Magic guy. Almost as if reading my mind, she said that it of course is very fragile, and she has to be extremely careful not to break it. She also used the much talked about Wonderflex/Friendly Plastic combo. She also used Bondo for a few things, and I asked her how easy it was to work with. She said don't use it on things that bend, which I pretty much figured. She also had a very cool system of LED lights embedded into cast resin jewels all over her armor. She explained that all of the wires were hidden in the cloth, and they were all powered by D batteries disguised in a scroll case! That was a great idea. I regret not taking a photo of her, but she was in the costume contest, so I'm sure there are many photos of her on the internet.

Kael'thas (second photo) is the guy who was wearing a costume made by two friends; one did the armor, the other the sewing. The armor was all hand-tooled leather, and was very impressive. Leather working is an in-game skill I have that I've always wanted to learn to do in real life. Hopefully some day I will. Anyway, he was very nice, and enjoyed doing Kael'thas's voice, which was fun.

I didn't get to talk to the Draenei Shaman (third photo) about his armor, but I thought it looked very cool. The LEDs gave a nice effect because the whole con was so dark. I wasn't so sure about the scale of his mace, but everything looked really great. You could tell he spent a great deal of time on it. I was also just happy to see a draenei male! More beard tentacles next time, man. Beard tentacles.

The costume contest was great fun to watch. I didn't have good seats, so I have no photos from it. It should be easy to find on the internet. The girl who won had a very intricate and amazing costume and, almost as importantly, was in character all the time! I saw her several times throughout the con, including on stage, and she was always acting her part. Congrats to her for all of her efforts.

Overall, there weren't many people walking around on the floor in costume, and I could see why. Most of the costumes were big and bulky, and the convention was completely packed and difficult enough to navigate in normal clothes. But... I'm going to try to do it anyway! Here's hoping I can get tickets next year.

Blizzcon, Baby! :D

That's right! I'm leaving very soon for Blizzcon with my friend Mike, and we are both ridiculously excited.

I should be sleeping because I have to get up early, but too bad! Hopefully I'll be able to sleep on the plane... I always want to but rarely manage it, so maybe being sleepy will help. ^_^;

I was about to put everything in the suitcase when I decided it would be fun to sew up my WoW-related t-shirts a bit, since they're all a little large (my Ventrilo shirt, ridiculously so). Not cosplay or terribly good sewing, but still clothing-related con prep... and fun! (Do I look sleepy? Because I AM o_o;)

I have some mini cards both for my cosplay site and for my WoW character, and I hope to give out a lot of each! So if you're one of the two people who reads this, and will be at Blizzcon, come find me. ._.

I'm going to try to blog from Mike's phone while I'm there, but we don't know how that's gonna work out. so if I don't, I'll be sure to write a nice entry about the con when I get back. For real! School's over. However, it's going to be hard to control my conflicting cosplay emotions - being jealous and angry because I didn't have time/money to make a WoW costume (which, if you don't know by now, is a gigantic slice of my "Cosplay Dreams" piechart), and being excited and impressed by the nice costumes. Bah!

...BLIZZCON, BABY :DDD