General Cosplay

Scout

2010-02-11T23:53:00.000-08:00

Status: In-Progress
Deadline: San Diego Comic-Con 2010
Time: A Couple Days

Scout (in this case, BLU) is from a game called Team Fortress 2. He comes in two colors for two different teams: RED (Reliable Excavation & Demolition) and BLU (Builders League United). He's a Yank and a baseball enthusiast from Boston.

I have chosen to create BLU Scout because, for whatever reason, I dislike him in his red colors.

Most of these pieces were found in the secondhand store, and a couple (the bat and baseball) were purchased at a sporting goods store near me.

Debuting this costume at AnimeConji wasn't my original intent, though it ended up working out because there was a VALVe gathering there. The costume itself wasn't completely finished (as I was missing the backpack and the headpiece) but it was fun all the same.

We also had a lot of fun at Anaheim Comic-Con the weekend after. There was no actual Team Fortress 2 gathering, but we ran into a pretty big group anyway. These ones didn't really seem so terribly friendly, unfortunately, and I personally had more fun with the TF2 group from AnimeConji.

Spy

2010-02-11T23:22:00.000-08:00

Status: In-Progress
Deadline: Disneyland on Valentine's Day 2010
Time: A Couple Days

Spy. Oh boy. Spy is from the game Team Fortress 2, and he comes in the natural colors RED (Reliable Excavation & Demolition) and BLU (Builders League United). I have chosen to use a black and white pinstriped suit for my costume, so I can, conveniently enough, do either color if I so choose.

Well, just about one of the easiest costumes I have ever done. Simple pinstriped suit was needed, as well as a tie (red or blue), black dress shoes, a ski mask (either red or blue), a butterfly knife, and a cigarette case. Mostly all of this ensemble has been bought at a Thrift store near my home. All under $50 together, the longest item it took me to find was the cigarette case/Spytron 2000. I ran around several different smoke shops before I found one that was finally satisfactory to my needs ... and I don't even smoke, lol.

Dark Chii (Freya)

2009-01-14T22:37:00.000-08:00

Status: Retired
Debuted: Ani-Magic 2004
Time: 3 weeks

Chii (or, in my case, Freya) is from the comic named "Chobits". Mostly, I created this costume because, quite simply, I was bored. I created it, also, because I was jealous of all of those other Lolita outfits I've seen and I wanted to try and create one myself. I (in my opinion) failed at the whole "lolita" concept, but I tried. The wig was the only thing I didn't spend any money on. It had gone to the Inu Yasha Costume, which was borrowed from my friend for the day.

At Ani-Magic of 2004 I also participated in a Chobits gathering. Lots of people took our pictures, and I believe this was the very first time I had actually been subjected to, what I referred to at the time, snap-happy photographers. It was very odd for me, not being a very good cosplayer at the time, to be subjected to all of those cameras, but it was still fun. Sadly, I believe my ego inflated some since that time...

After I had gotten home, I unknowingly dropped my Chii ears on the floor of my room and since then, my rabbit has eaten them. I had to make new ones to wear the costume the year after that, but, once again, my bunny ate my ears. Now, all I have left of the headband is the headband and *some* of the flowers.

Green Tunic Link

2009-01-14T22:07:00.000-08:00

Status: Retired
Debuted: Comic-Con 2003
Time: 2 weeks

Link from Legend of Zelda is my favorite game character, so it's obvious that I would very soon create a Link costume of my own. This costume came across as a basic idea at first, just something that I wanted to create for the hell of it. I believe this costume was debuted in 2003, but it could have very well been debuted Halloween of 2002. Link is a wonderful character, and he's quite sexy, if I do say so myself.

Wearing it to Ani-Magic 2004, we had a blast with a small gathering there of Zelda cosplayers, as well as having a bit of fun in their pool. I had actually managed to get a few other people to go into the pool with me, so we had a "photoshoot", if you would, in their pool. It was a load of fun, and also gave my friend and I ideas, which gave way into my Blue Tunic Link the following year.

Panda Express Waitress

2008-07-21T23:31:00.000-07:00

Status: Completed
Debuted: Comic-Con 2008
Time: 3 weeks

Panda Express was kind of a "spur of the moment" costume. Since I work at Panda, getting the materials was easy enough. I wanted something sexy and cute to be part of the franchise, so I couldn't resist doing something like this. The shirt and apron came from my work. The shirt has been modified to be cut just below my breats (yes, I like showing off my midsection) and I have bikini bottoms on my butt. Painting on the word "Panda" only took about two days to do (since I had to let the red paint dry before painting the white).

More updates, stories and pictures will soon follow, but only AFTER Comic-Con has passed by.

Kagome Higurashi

2008-06-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

Status: Completed
Debuted: Valentine's Gathering 2003
Time: 2 weeks

Kagome was, back then, a character I greatly desired to be. Making this costume was quite a lot of fun to do, and it was surprisingly simple. Making the skirt was easy, although I had never done pleats before. The sailr top to the shirt was actually made in about five minutes; there was no sewing or anything done on it, it was just cut out and then hot glued to the shirt. It looked really good for a five-minute hack-job, but it didn't last but more then a year before I had to re-design it. The shoes were kind of a hard find but we managed. They weren't quite what I wanted, but I was running out of time to look, so we just went with ones that weren't quite what Kagome wore.

We met another Kagome and even a Koga at that Gathering and we had a lot of fun with those people, making stupid poses and even Koga and Inu-Yasgha going off to piss on a tree. The Kagome that we ran into is pictured to the right of me above. She made a better Kagome then I did (I look horrid with black hair), but my costume was better than hers.

Inu-Yasha

2008-06-30T11:30:00.000-07:00

Status: Completed
Debuted: Cosplay.com Gathering 2003
Time: 1 Month

A Cosplay originally designed for a friend, Inu-Yasha was quite fun to make up. The costume itself was made out of a strange silk-like material, which was a VERY poor choce on my part, since almost every picture I took of this costume, the flash just bounced off of it and threw it back at me. The wig, which, like always, goes down to the small of her back, cost about $60, and was WAY more expensive then the rest of the costume, but since she was paying for all the materials, she could, essentially, buy what she wanted.

She had super-glued plastic nails to her fingers, which we then sharpened to a point. Her ears are made out of a furry material and came out looking quite fantastic. The entire costume looked really good and went along with my Kagome cosplay that I had made.

When I bought this costume back from her (for about 80% less than what we paid to make it) it had become too small for me. Ths costume is still in very good condition and it all still functions and works properly, but, sadly, I'm too small for it. When I bought it from her, all I got was the top and pants. She didn't know where the ears had run off to, and she needed the wig for other costumes, so she kept that.

Lanai Kiwatsura

2008-06-30T11:16:00.000-07:00

Status: Retired
Debuted: Valentine's Gathering 2005
Time: 3 weeks

Being a basic costume of mine, Lanai was just kind of something I tossed together. I looked in my closet and found a couple of things, but didn't really like anything. It wasn't until I found the top at a second-hand store that I really began to play around with the notion or "Original Cosplay". I never really did much "Original" works up until then; all of my stuff was based off of Anime or game characters that all I had to really worry about was how it looked according to the character itself.

Blue Tunic Link

2008-06-27T13:11:00.001-07:00

Status: Completed
Debuted: Ani-Magic 2005
Time: 3 weeks

Link from Legend of Zelda is my favorite game character, so it's obvious that I would very soon create a Link costume of my own. This costume was mostly inspired by that Zora mask that I got from a friend. One of my friends made me a Goron and a Zora mask out of paper mache' and that is what spawned making my Blue Tunic. I had a Green Tunic Link the year before this at Ani-Magic 2004 and I had dove into the water with it on and we took pictures in the water with my costume. I thought it might be cool if I made a Blue Tunic and went into the water then with the Zora mask, but I never did; we weren't allowed in the pool in our costumes this year. ^^;

Future Trunks Briefs

2008-06-27T12:23:00.000-07:00

Status: Retired
Debuted: Ani-Magic 2005
Time: August 2005 - September 2005

Mirai no Trunks is a costume that I found to be quite enjoyable. All of the pieces were bought and were used as-is for the most part. The only piece that was modified was the jacket; it used to be a long jacket, but I had to cut it for this one (I still wear it just as a normal jacket sometimes x3). The sword came from eBay and actually cost more then the costume itself. The boots of my costume were old ski boots that we just painted orange. The sword didn't originally come with a sheath, so we had to make one out of balsa wood, then we covered it in soft leather.

Debuting this costume at Ani-Magic 2005, I wanted to do a DragonBall Z Gathering. We didn't get a very big turnout, mostly we only got me, my friend as Vegeta, a Yajirobe and a Saiya-Man. It was fun just the four of us together and we did get lots of pictures and odd spoofs to go with it.

Green Raver

2008-06-26T17:32:00.000-07:00

Status: Completed
Debuted: Comic-Con 2007
Time: May 2007 - July 2007

The Green Raver, a random Rave cosplay of mine, cost me $105 total since all of the pieces of this thing were bought and used exactly how they were. Every year for Comic-Con I buy a bunch of multicolored glow sticks and then sell them, usually making about $100 every year.

The costume, originally coming just from the purchase of some Tripp NYC. pants, is loads of fun. The picture above, coming from an associate from Gametap, is the best one that has my picture on it so far. I really like this costume because it gets a lot of attention (and because I have huge boots that make me several inches taller :D). Having a Rave costume lets me add to it every year. If I find something that I really like or that I think would go great with the costume, then it gets changed, adding another item to it and, most of the time. taking another one off.

This costume consisted of a green wig, orange and green Tripp pants, large black boots, a black shirt, green and black arm warmers, my iPod and giant headphones blasting out Trance, and loads upon loads of kandi and glow sticks.

Black Cat Girl

2008-06-26T16:43:00.000-07:00

Status: Completed
Debuted: Ani-Magic 2005
Time: 30 minutes

Black Neko, my first cat costume, was just a basic one. I didn't actually make a single thing on this costume, everything having been bought already. The shirt and shorts I had already had, the jacket was a Christmas present back in 2004, the shoes I got from a second-hand store in 2004, and the ears came from ConDor 2005.

This costume is pretty cool, and I really like wearing it so much. It doesn't get that much attention, but it's still a relatively fun costume to be in. I don't usually wear this one all that much any more since I have the Blue Neko Girl instead. I love the blue one much more then the black one, so, maybe that's why I don't wear it all that much.

Blue Cat Girl

2008-06-26T10:34:00.000-07:00

Status: Completed
Debuted: Comic-Con 2007
Time: 10 minutes

This was one of those "throw-together" costumes. I didn't know what to wear to Comic-Con on Preview Night, so I dug through my closet and found this blue yukata I had found at a garage sale. Grabbing a couple other pieces of Cosplay that I had had already (the cat ears and tail) I just stuck it together and it is now my "Spontaneous Cat Girl". I found I got a lot of attention in this costume back a Comic-Con and it is now another favorite of mine.

I had originally worn high heels with this costume (which was a BAD IDEA), so not even an hour after I got to Con, I took off the high heels and just ran around barefoot the rest of the day.

Banjou the Pirate

2008-06-26T10:11:00.000-07:00

Status: Completed
Debuted: Ani-Magic 2005

Time: July 2005 - August 2005

My personal favorite costume, Banjou is an original Cosplay. A Pirate design that was originally made for my father, I dropped the measurements dropped down so that I could make one the same as well. The costume is quite comfortable, and I love wearing it around (not because I get attention, but because it's comfortable. LAWL.) The boots that are used for it are kind of hard after I've worn them all day, but they're not really that bad. The whole costume fits quite nicely, and I still wear it to Comic-Con every year for their "Unofficial Pirate Day".

Nurse Joy

2008-06-25T23:59:00.000-07:00

Status: Retired
Debuted: Valentine's Day 2004
Time: January 2004 - February 2004

Nurse Joy was a costume that I just randomly and spontaneously decided to do. I had always like Pokemon, and one day I got to looking at one of her cards from the Trading Card Game and I noticed that with my long hair I could easily put it up just like hers. After that is when we just decided to make Joy.

Using a pink dress I managed to find at the secondhand store, the only real thing we had to make was the apron and nurse's hat. The apron was made from a silk fabric, the shoulder straps stuffed with cotton to make them puff out. When it came to the hat, we went the cheap way and got a painter's hat from Home Depot then used the same white silk from the dress to make the top part and a piece of red-dyed leather for the cross.

This costume was cute and a lot of fun to cosplay as, and I'm quite sad that it doesn't fit me any longer; my tatas are just too big now.

Version 2.0

Status: Retired
Debuted: Ani-Magic 2006
Time: 10 minutes

Since my old Joy didn't fit me any longer, I had decided just to make another. Or rather, my mom bought a $5 pink dress from the secondhand store and prompted me to make a new Joy. All I did to make this Joy was take the apron off of the old dress and tack it to this one. This is the last time I've ever seen my hair be that long (directly after this shoot I cut it really short).

It lasted about a year and then my busty chest just got too big (again).

Ryo-Ohki

2008-06-25T23:28:00.000-07:00

Status: Retired
Debuted: Ani-Magic 2004
Time: August 2004 - October 2004

Ryo-Ohki was a costume I had always wanted to do since I was a huge Tenchi Muyo fan. For those who don't know, Ryo-Ohki is a Cabbit, an animal with very large floppy ears. Ryo-Ohki is obsessed with carrots, so that's why I have a giant carrot with me (I still have that wonderful thing <3).

For this costume, I used a very fluffy and fuzzy material so that I was soft to the touch, much like a teddy bear was. It's a full-body suit that had a zipper in the back for easy on/off access. Everyone who took a look at my feet thought that they were genius. I had taken my old tennis shoes and had hot-glued the fuzzy fabric to make it look like the cabbit's feet.