Cosplayin It- Halloween 2011

Regular C&D readers know I usually have one go to fit that changes through the years with my TK-stylee.   As Halloween creeped up though I have been talkin' with fellow cosplay enthusiasts pals @wynk & @geekpinata pictured above on what we were thinking of creating and being at parties this year.  Hearing from them and others how cool it would be to bust their interpretation of Black Canary, Poison Ivy, Nightwing and others made me think that I needed to up my game and expand beyond the ABS plastic- cosplay life.

I had a meager budget to throw at a few costumes for the different parties I was planning on attending so i decided to go real cheap on one to have more time and skrill to rock on the other.  As you can see I went with Dexter and The Flaming C.

Here is my cosplay recipe for both:
Dexter

Dexter is stronger than ever in Season 6 and though this isn't in any way an original costume, it still is rare to find more than one Dexter at a party and the variations between how you can play on it--be it lab-geek, forensic mode, pre-kill (with syringe) or post (with knife)-- and so on.  I did a mix of forensic/killer mode.  Deter really is a dope, relevant fit on the cheap.

Ingredients:
Red or dark brown wig
Green (or grey) henly
Cargo or khaki pants
Boots
Black gloves
Fake knife
Fake blood spray
Metal chain
Cardboard
Black ducktape


Instructions:  From top to bottom you need to style the wig so the hairline is high to try and amplify the forehead/eyebow area for his menacing dark passenger gaze or goofy smile.  This is cosplay afterall not just costuming so you can't just dress the part you gotta be the character.  Roll or push up the sleeves of the henly to give more attention to gloves.  I found the miami metro police ID of Dexter at a nice costume props blog.  Print it out, laminate it, cut the cardboard to frame the id and mask it up with the black tape.  Cut a slit on top to weave the chain through.  You have your id now!  Works great when heads don't recognize you as Dexter.  
Spray you self with blood across one side of your face, neck, chest and arm.  The only things I needed to buy was the metal chain $3.99 (Michael's), the fake blood spray $7.99 and bloody blade $4.99.  So this Dexter fit cost me less than $20 and shouldn't be more than $60 depending on how you rock it.  Prep time was like 20 minutes, mostly to apply blood spray right and styling the hair.  Other options: black plastic/leather apron, lab coat, syringe, clear goggles, plastic face shield, black plastic bags, fake scalpel, surgical gloves.

The Flaming C

Conan O'Brien and Bruce Timm created The Flaming C as a Superhero alter-ego when Conan visited the WB Animation Studios earlier in the year.  Since then, the character has blew-up across the interwebz and even had it's own Museum Gallery and mock panel at this year's Comiccon.  With so much love for Team Coco and the lack of quality cosplay that peeps have yet to drop you know I had to do this right.

C&D got it down like dat!!  At Comiccon this year I was fortunate to roll with my homegirl Betty Geek that snatched me a Flaming C oven mit & cape that was the start of my primary fit.  From there...here are the..
Ingredients: 
Orange hair paint   $2.99
Blue/orange/purple snowgoogles
Synthetic hair (for beard)   $2.99
Gold pimp chain   $4.99
Yellow fabric 
Industrial velcro tape 
Foam 
Cardboard
Yellow, white, orange, purple and black ducktape  $7.99
Turquoise windbreaker   $34.00
White belt    $14.99
MJ beltbuckle   $12.99
Purple shorts    $14.99
Cellphone belt holster
Fishnet stocking  $7.99
Purple socks   $5.99
White stan smith adidas
 
Instructions:  I went with just painting my hair being that some fashionista friends advised it would look better without a wig combined with facial hair-- which unless you get it professionally done-- are both uncomfortable over the course of an evening.  Let alone trying to eat and drink while gettin nasty fake hair in your mouth...ugh!  As I was shopping around for the top I couldn't for the life of me find a longsleeve shirt in that color.  I started looking at running thermals and underarmor types but none fit the look and I don't got big ass muscles to look that heroic.  

My GF pulled a Hurley windbreaker off the rack and put it on me backwards.  Perfect!!  I swear she is an undercover cosplayer (hawtie on the left).  Hand drew a stencil for the white lightning logo, white star of david and the flaming C logo in purple, black, orange and yellow.  Shit took forever to bust it right but I like how it turned out once I applied it to the jacket.  With any non-permanent type of application patience is key otherwise the adhesive will be lost and won't look as clean.

Picked up a gold bling plastic chain from a Spirit store and took off some some links to shorten it before applying to the cape.  Repurposed one of my stormtrooper shoulder armor and used an old yellow shirt to wrap around the armor.  I then used the same fabric and cut a smaller piece and adhered it to the yellow shoulder pad to make the dangling tassles.  

Since I was already wearing fishnets...I wasn't gonna be throwing on no purple speedos.  I went with some smedium swim trunks from American Apparel.  The belt and ganja buckle was from Hot Topic.  GF bought me the stockings and purple socks from H&M.  I couldn't find the sock garters so I skipped em and since I was approaching my costume budget I just used my white, clean summer sneaks instead of buyng the golf loafers.  Total price was $102 and I invested around 10 hours putting it all together.

Was it worth it?!  Hell to the muthaeffing yes.  The above pic was even picked up by Team Coco yo!
I so got the cosplay bug that I even helped the GF style a sexy Lady Vader that was fitting for Betty Geek's Superhero Stripperpole Party we rolled to.  Here is a collection my three nights of Halloween festivities:

Illest cosplay from my crew had to be Geek Pinata's Poison Ivy, handcrafted from real leaves that she individually pieced together one leaf at a time...incredible mama!  I would say the leaf count was over 600, at least three bags of glue sticks and over 40 hours of work.  Thats some ill dedication Crys and a pissed off neighbor from making their tree/bushes nekkid!  Another of my crazy nerd pals rocked an Elektra cosplay that was hand-stitched direct from cut fabric.  I am so lucky to have these beautiful geeks as my fam!!  And newfound homeboy, Jake, rocked a mean handpainted Hulk.  Seriously sick.  Last year he was the painted Venom that I saw reblogged hundreds of times over.

Alright so two more nights of Halloween Cosplay...what you got planned next??  Please share some of your party pics or dope cosplay ideas too.  Thanks y'all and Happy Halloween!  Peace.  Oh and if you are curious about all the Flaming C crotch grabbing, thats my Hip Hop steez yo!





This post was written by:
big O

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if you don't know, now you know- Halloween Cosplay Edition 2011

Cosplay Day for everyone is coming next month and the question is what the hell will you be going as on Hallow's Eve?  Last year I was pretty spot on with some of the predictions of what costumes will be rocked. Tons of parties through the month and if you don't got a clue on who or what to roll as...here are some ideas that will turn heads and give you some geek cred.

5   Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
The successful book /graphic novel and upcoming movie (now listed on IMDB for 2013) brings together a marriage of two popular themes- Victorian style meets Zombie. This could obviously be a great choice for a group of friends that are dressing up to start the night Jane Austen-ish sharp, clean, pre-zombie then to end the night as wrangled, meat-eating zombies. 

Pro-tip:  Bring extra makeup (grey and black paint, fake blood, ripped clothes) in case you run into friends or others that aren't dressed up and want to join you on your mauling of the party/city.

4    Superhero Gender Benders

Captain America, Green Lantern, Thor-- all the rage from this years blockbuster flicks and sure to find your way onto shelves of racks at a Spirit/Halloween shop near you.  With the right fit and physique I give props to the brothas busting their cosplay likeness but just about everything is always better on a lady. 


Still plenty of time to make your own fit or customize the over-the-counter piece that will give you a more personalized, distinctive look.  

3    The Flaming C
Conan O'Brien came to Comiccon this year with his very own COCO Museum in the Gaslamp and unsure

whether it was planned or not-- he crashed a WB Animation panel to show off his next big new thing-- an animation of his superhero likeness, The Flaming C.  Yeah it was basically a bunch of Young Justice clips with The Flaming C put in but it was still epic.  Besides having to wear pantyhose this is the ultimate, guaranteed-to-get-some action for Hallows Eve.  The ladies love Conan.  Good luck with the male camel-toe fellas!

2    Game of Thrones

 

Where last years most visible TV-inspired theme across different cities and parties on Halloween seemed to be zombies thanks to The Walking Dead, it looks like this year many will dress medievil.  I tend to look at the various cons through the year as a radar for what will be hot and GoT is looking to take over the zombie trend.  One of the more incredible cosplay I have seen was via the nerdybird rocking her version of Daenerys Targaryen who even caught the eye of George RR. Martin! 

I am just hoping to see at least a few doods rocking it as Tyrion Lannister surrounded with a harem of half-clad hotties.  You know you do too!!

1   Star Wars Mashup
What better way to show your love for George Lucas and his redick, non-nonsensical changes to the orginal Star Wars trilogy by creating a mashup of your own on the most recognizable icons from his films.


With the new Muppet-flick coming around the corner its timely to go as a Gonzo (hey look its Rizzo in his E-11 holster), Kermit or as Miss Piggy Trooper (better mashup would be Piggy the Hut with Salacious Kermit).  And the Bat-Vader concept as time-intensive as it probably is, could be worth it for those of you that have the ABS-crafting skills.

What are some other dope Halloween cosplay ideas that you  have seen or heard about??!! 


This post was written by:
big O

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501st Legion Saves the Day!

Vader warns me of the consequence in taking a bad pic

So about three months ago I was approached by a friend to help out with her pals wedding as her fiance is a huge Star Wars fan.  I gave her a tentative yes, as I kinda wasn't into the idea of walking around a beautiful reception hall dressed as a Stormtrooper.

A few months go by and after getting my homie to agree to join me on the Imperial appearance, I let the soon to be Bride know that we were in to help with her big surprise for her man.

And then 2 weeks ago my pal informed he couldn't make it out as he was on-call for work that weekend..doh!!  With less than a week to figure out how I was going to let Melissa know that we had to cancel-- cause I ain't rolling through any regal event without my Sith Lord-- why not reach out to the 501st Legion and see if they could help. So I did.

In less than a day the local Golden Gate Garrison responds back to me on my issue and with less than 3 days of notice-- they agree to have a Darth Vader attend.  I was still in a state of disbelief and concern that this was really hapenning

It's the big wedding day and I was all pumped to work as a personal guard for one of the 501st's finest -- so I spent a few hours in sprucing up the armor with a good cleaning which was way overdue from trooping at SDCC and Wondercon earlier in the year.  After making all the needed preparations- grabbing some water bottles, verifying I got every piece of the fit, a few towels and so on I made way to meet on location with Brian (SL-2865) of the Legion, the wedding coordinator and the bride.

Brian and I were received and brought to a changing room to get ready for Melissa's special wedding surprise for her husband, Matt.  During that time I got to pick Brian's brain on best approaches to problems I have had with my armor fit and also getting some insider bits of info on new tech in boom mics and other shit that you don't get from your average cosplayer.  Sweet! 

You can tell from Matt's (the groom) huge smile, he was psyched to have Vader in attendance

Gotta say it was sick seeing your average 5'11 guy transform to a menacing 6'5 Darth Vader.  Badass.

Every detail of his fit was on point and I was stunned to hear that he spent over 240+ hours on handcrafting his costume. 

So we were all ready to go, Brian became Darth Vader with his heavy breathing apparatus and all.

Then the door busted open and we see Melissa come in with Matt which wasn't planned-- and he went ape-shit, crazy on seeing that he had a legit ass Darth Vader and Stormtrooper at his wedding.  The look on his face and things that were coming out of his mouth was priceless.  Melissa was nearly in tears and Matt was huggin it out with Vader and me.  This was captured on video and I will post it once I get it from the filmographer. 

After taking hundreds of pictures over the course of an hour or so with many of Melissa & Matt's friends/family and sweating like a mofo more so than any daily cardio that you can partake in-- Brian and I felt Imperial for repping the Empire and ensuring order at this event.

If anything my calling in improving the armor fit with a torso strapping kit and finally installing the voice changer/amp prior to my eventual application to the 501st is more pressing after all of this -- as that feeling you get from seeing how much love you can bring to people is crazy addicting.

Congrats again to the newly married couple and thanks again to TK 8272, SL 2865 and the rest of the 501st for making this all happen.



This post was written by:
big O

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SDCC 2011: Cosplayin It

Believe it or not this was my first time cosplayin it at the mecca of SDCC. I usually rock my TK-stylee at Wondercon every year but once I heard that its moving south to Anaheim for a few years, I figured it was time to get used to calling it cosplay for a day and blank out everything else from the schedule.  Since Saturday is the biggest cosplay day of the con (night of the masquerade plays a part)-- me and Dark Sith Cupcake showed our Imperial allegiance for as long as our sanity allowed...usually 5 to 6 hours is the most I can bust in costume.

This years big add on to the fit was a bigger chestpiece that I scored from a costume shop in the UK.  The replacement armor was great as it provided more coverage than I had before over the torso, was much better quality and the paint shine matched more closely to my ESB afx bucket (helmet).  For NYCC I will definitely be investing in some Nike Pro Combat shorts to help with avoiding armor slippage that usually causes bruises and cuts in your skin. 

Many peeps have been reporting that this years show had  much less participation from fans in cosplay but I think what really happened was there was so many attendees this year that don't usually dress-up that it appeared this way.  One thing I know for sure is that I saw way more cosplay going on all throughout the gaslamp and outer rims of downtown-- as far as West Village and Little Italy even.

My personal faves that I saw during the show were all of the Mass Effect heads at the Bioware party across from the con, those Metal Gear Solid sentries that were even making that "!" sound, Isis, Psylocke, the Mandalorian troop from the 501st and of course those sickass Transformers.

What were some of the more imaginative cosplay and getups that you saw or rocked yourselves? Feel free to post some of yours and we will load them in with the rest of our slideshow. Peace and see you at NYCC!!

This post was written by:
big O

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Wondercon 2011 Edition: Cosplayin It

For those of you that get down with the the get down on cosplay at the cons, know you gotta step up your game every other show whether it be with costuming /makeup /accessory details, hooking up with a gang of other similar-themed cosplayers, researching those authentic action poses, partnering with a fab photographer to cover all of your mad action and of course the all important "handler"-- especially if you are going solo.

This year I elevated my TK-stylee by installing some fans in the bucket(helmet), contouring the armor more to my body with strategically placed industrial velcro and finally hooking up a boom mic and speaker in the bucket and chest hull.  Everything worked out well minus the fact that I just didn't take into mind the problem of over-condensation that wore down the glue in one of my fans and the mic.  With those kind of things you just can't always account for until it goes wrong.  Lesson learned.   

Was so crazy how this year felt so much more congested from the past few years but despite the crazy crowds and madness I always get re-energized from chatting & taking pics with all the attendees, kids and just enthusiastic on-lookers that don't know why the hell everyone is dressed up! I took it upon myself to help with the street traffic a bit and even put the smack down on some Rebel-scum.  Gotta keep it Imperial-- you know how we do!

Major props to everyone that came thru and showed up with all their creativity and passion in cosplay-- especially to the major standouts for me-- the Warriors Three, The Justice League of Gender Benders, Zatanna & Vixen, Babydoll, Hitgirl & Kickass, the performing Poison Ivy, the 501st, Ghostbusters, Blade, Reptile and everyone else that flat-out killed it.

Oh and did we catch you in some of these shots?? Drop us a line! More Wondercon photos will be uploaded this weekend.

Photography by:

chessie


Written by:
big O

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