Cosplay: Dark Lady (2016)

And we're back into convention season! This upcoming weekend, I'll be cosplaying at Emerald City Comic Con, but in getting my thrifty cosplay together, I realized that there were some costumes I never posted about from the last round of cosplay events. So, let's play catch up!

Growing up as a child, I was a fan of Sailor Moon. Now, at that time, the only version I could easily find is the now-out-of-print DIC dub, and so I got to know the evil, magically-adult version of Rini as "Dark Lady." In the original Japanese, she was known as "Black Lady," but this was changed in the first kids' version of the show for American political-correctness. And even though I know it's not her actual name, I still think of the character as "Dark Lady," and I went into this cosplay with that in mind.

Cosplay: PAX + Pokemon (2016)

PAX Prime is always a fun place to cosplay, and I especially love finding creative ways to thrift costumes based on video games. This year, as Pokemon Go was a summer hit, I decided to do two Pokemon cosplays on the fun, quick, and cheap!

Cosplay: Toni Stark (2015)

Sometimes a cosplay is more of a concept than a literal translation of a character. And sometimes the idea for a concept cosplay grows out of strange places. My concept for the gender-swapped version of Tony Stark (who I mentally nicknamed Toni) grew out of a pair of bright red pants I saw one week at a Goodwill. I had just been trying to think of a costume for the 2015 ECCC and there it was: I could gender swap my favorite Avengers character into a red-lipstick and red-pants wearing femme badass.

Quick Post: Purchasing Costumes

Purchased Leia costume;
thrift-shop toy gun  (2007)

In starting this blog and talking with a lot of people from ECCC, I think it's important to address impostor syndrome in cosplay. No, not as in you're pretending to be a character you're actually not; that's all the fun! I'm talking about not feeling like a "real" cosplayer. I know I mentioned feeling that way at the Star Wars meetup when I dressed as Rey before someone complimented me on my painted armbands. Others were sheepish about pieces they'd reused, thrifted, or (GASP!) purchased as a costume piece.  It was this last option that seemed to make the most people uncomfortable. If you buy a costume instead of making it yourself, are you a "real" cosplayer?

Cosplay: Rey (2016)

This past month was my second ECCC (Emerald City Comic Con) and my most difficult cosplay to thrift yet. I loved Star Wars: The Force Awakens and I decided to take on the challenge of making a cosplay for the amazing female lead Rey. However, it's one thing to make a thrifted and discount store cosplay when you're playing a character like Jubilee with mostly "everyday" clothes as her uniform. But a character from a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away? That's another story.

Quick Post: Rey Accessories (2016 - in process)

Hey folks! I'm getting ready for Emerald City Comic Con, and trying out my most ambitious cosplay yet: Rey from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. On one hand, you'd think she'd be easy to replicate, but her costume has a lot of small touches that are hard to find at thrift shops, and I hate the way the officially licensed ones look, so it's been a lot of small steps to put this one together. I'll do a full run-down of the costume after ECCC, but I thought I'd do a quick check in on how I'm working on the accessories.

Cosplay: Sonic the Hedgehog (2015)

I wasn't planning on going to PAX in Seattle originally, but a badge fell in my lap about a week before so I decided I had to go and see my game-and-computer-loving friends. But what would I cosplay as? Well, my 99 cent blue wig (the sister to the purple wig I used for Hit Girl) popped into my mind and before long I had a plan for a Sonic the Hedgehog costume!

All in needed was some blue "sporty" clothes, some spikes and ears for my hair, and those iconic red shoes, I decided. Oh, and some golden rings.