Our first MCR song choice was Helena, as it is our sort of group anthem and/or running joke (as I had written about here and here).


The background video was completely lame so we took the liberty of doing the actions from the original music video. We find it very difficult to pass up a chance to parody Helena. Out of love, of course. Sometimes I wonder if it's a traumatizing experience to watch me and my friends do karaoke from a stranger's perspective.

(Not like you can see it here but I chose that day to wear red eye makeup Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge-style, LOL)


I Don't Love You


Melo (Maid Macho) had a stab at this song.


Teenagers. Another boring replacement video for such a fun song, boo.


Okay now this is just ridiculous. The song is of course Ghost of You and the background video to accompany those heartbreaking lines comprised of totally mundane things like this chick watching TV with such mind-blasting indifference.


Now that's just lazy! What a travesty! It was supposed to be one of my favorite music videos! Still, Welcome To The Black Parade was very fun to sing as a group. I had a ball being the second voice while Miguel ~merkymerx and Melo !BallistaShark sang the main parts. Watching the way they moved, it was pretty apparent how much time they must have spent just staring at Gerard Way throughout the years.


Not quite the Black Parade. Close enough.

Somewhere during this session, Melo (not for the first time) screamed, "I'M GAY FOR GERARD WAY!" And there was much manly understanding in the room.


CAN YOU IMAGINE MY JOY UPON SEEING THAT ONE OF MY FAVORITE SONGS FROM DANGER DAYS WAS THERE? I thought that even just hoping for a song from Danger Days would already be asking for too much, but they actually had Planetary (GO!)


Melo, Erving, China, me, Miguel, Myk, EJ, and Dom's back (I think)

Not everyone in our group was familiar with this song but I asked everyone to just please please stand up and PARTY WITH ME! I'm really happy my friends are a bunch that easily obliges to such requests. Much partying was had. And all was good.

My friends got me a series of small cakes from a Chinese bakeshop. This was the grape-flavored cake. I had never even considered the idea of a grape cake before, so it was the first one I tried.

It was a rather cute little thing, topped with grape, a slice of dragonfruit, and some fruit-flavored chocolate bits.


There was a layer of grape-flavored jelly (which was very mild and not at all overpowering) over what tasted like buttercream, and the chiffon was infused with grape flavor as well. At first I was dubious about how grape would work with cream, but it was actually very nice. Watch me use the word grape in every sentence in this paragraph.


This cake reminded me of something stupid I did as a kid. It was the time I was introduced to milk with fruit flavors, so I knew of strawberry milk and melon milk and the like. Well, one day I thought I would be a little genius and make grape milk by mixing grape juice powder into a glass of fresh milk. It was terrible and no one should ever do that.

The view from one of our hotel rooms, and us derping in it.


Just chilling after our cosplay panel, with one of the most memorable people we've had the opportunity to befriend.


_{(Click to watch)}
Our resident stunt man and fight choreographer Dom as Lei Wulong (Tekken 5 P2 ver) practicing his moves and backflips to my favorite Tekken BGM!


_{(Click to watch)}
In this short clip you'll see...
● Miguel as Captain Jack Sparrow (On Stranger Tides version)
● The tide rushing in rather fast. The ground turned from damp sand to knee-deep water in a matter of minutes.
● Dom dressed as Lei stuck on a boat in the faaar distance behind Miguel.
● Bok stuck on his own little island with an umbrella.
● Reymond trying to fix his shoes/pants on his island beside Bok's.
● Shaky cam footage of me chasing the Captain, who runs out of breath.

The whole thing was just an awesome adventure, and we're happy our costumes got a taste of actual seawater! Hahah! There were lots of creatures in that water, too. Piles of pulsating tentacles, Jesusfish that folloped on top of the water, purple crabs, yellow squid-like things...

We must again thank the iluvcebu.com team for making this shoot possible!

I started with these — A paintbrush, a hot glue/gluegun stick, some tape, a brown paper bag, and some foil. Paintbrushes are very good bases for wands because of the shape and material. This once I particularly fancied because of the beautiful color and finish of the handle.


The brush was too short by itself, so I had to extend the other end somehow. Feeling very silly, I stuck the hot glue stick into the head of the brush, right in the middle of the bristles, and taped it into place. Sadly I did not get a photo of how it looked then. I tore of a bit of the brown paper bag and wrapped it around the glue stick for added stability, and taped that into place as well. (You can still see a bit of the glue stick poking out of one end.)


Next, I looked for images of Harry's actual wand and used foil to mold the basic shape as advised by Miguel ~merkymerx. I intended to put air-dry clay on top of it, but I put the foil first to conserve the clay and keep the weight a little light. It's especially appropriate for the texture of Harry's wand handle because it's supposed to look rough and organic.


This is the clay I used. It's an air-dry clay that's very easy to work with. (It's made for kids, after all.) Trouble is, it's not very sturdy when it dries. The final consistency is sort of like rubber foam, unlike the very hard finish of Sculpey. I'd have wanted to use Sculpey but I felt like I didn't have enough of it at the time.


This is how it looked when I coated the foil with Model Magic. I did my best to give it a wood-like texture.


Once the Model Magic had set and hardened, I coated it with gesso to prime it for painting, and also to add more texture. So sorry, I did not get to take pictures of the wand at this stage, but it pretty much looked like the previous photo, only the handle was white instead of blue.


I then painted over it with acrylic paints, adding more texture with it as well, and here is a close-up of the finished wand. I recommend going with acrylics if you're making props, as opposed to poster paints, and especially not watercolors. Acrylics won't run or easily rub off once they dry, so it's okay if your prop gets a little wet (or if you touch it when your hands are sweaty). They're water-based too so it's easy to clean it off skin and brushes. Don't get it on your clothes, though! It's tough to wash off of fabric.


I kept the paintbrush the way it was, because I really liked its original color and luster.


When I used this wand for an event, I had several people asking how I had made it, and they thought the handle was actually made of wood. I painted it from dark to light to emphasize the texture.


I felt quite happy to say I had made it myself, when people asked where I had gotten it. I should have joked that I had taken lessons with Mr. Ollivander.


And there we have my Harry Potter wand, made with stuff I had lying around the house!

I gave my pet lovebird Mango a little pat as usual before heading out.



Cheeky little thing. I wish I could have him send things to and from my friends with him like wizard's owls, hahah.



I then met up with Kat and Sammy , and we had lunch at Café Mary Grace in Serendra.



We were already partially dressed in our Hogwarts uniforms. Even though we didn't have our cardigans or robes on yet, we guessed that some people could tell we were on our way to watch Harry Potter, hahah.



The cafe had a really pretty, cozy interior



This was my lunch. Chicken Inasal Pandesal (the filling was accompanied by their own salsa and sauce) with a side of fresh potato chips and a creamy garlic dip. It was excellent!



Peach iced tea! My favorite kind. The Café Mary Grace tea really tastes like fresh peaches!
I apologize — I was looking forward to devouring my lunch so I was not able to take photos of Kat's and Sammy's food, but they each gave me a bite and everything was delicious.

We went to Cupcakes by Sonja to have some dessert. That's where we shot this.


I got a Vanilla Sunshine cupcake with chocolate frosting. I don't know what it is about this particular chocolate frosting but it's got me hooked. It tastes like there's actual molten milk chocolate in there.



Sammy got the Lemon Drop, which is also one of my favorite cupcakes.
We then went on a search for grey cardigans as part of our Hogwarts uniforms. I had been looking all around Ayala for them and came up with nothing. It didn't help that cardigans and sweaters are out of season nowadays. But that day, somehow, we got just what we needed! Happy with our fruitful search, we headed over to Greenbelt.

After slipping into our robes, we went around to pass the time since it was still early. It was funny how some people looked like they were trying very hard to pretend we weren't there. Hahaha! We were just quietly going about our business, eating gelato, looking around stores. Others called out to us, or tried to speak to me with a British accent. Others just smiled and waved, and we greeted them back. Some kids looked at us wide-eyed, and on one instance I put my finger to my lips and said "shhh" and winked at the little boy.


We went into this shop full of curious things, where I could not help snapping a photo of Sammy and Kat because it almost looks like it could be a store in Diagon Alley.



I dressed up as Harry. We were mostly going by the character descriptions in the book rather than the way they looked in the movie. (I am no Dan Radcliffe!) That is why I had these thick frames on at first, and why I chose jet black instead of Dan's dark brown hair.


Kat dressed up as Luna Lovegood since she loves Luna and has always felt she belongs to Ravenclaw. Kat had just used one of the wigs she had at home at the time, but we found one that was more appropriate about a week after, hahah.

We were wearing appropriate colored contacts but they aren't really visible here, hahah. We also need our patches and wands… There'll be a chance for that later! When we wore our robes again for a recent event, we made some upgrades. I'll post more about that soon!


Sammy was Parvati Patil, my fellow Gryffindor at heart. (Look at that fox behind Kat)

We went to the back of the store, nearly pressed our faces against the glass case of vintage spectacles, and we saw it — a pair of perfectly round frames! I hurried to a saleslady and asked her to please open the glass case so I could take a look. I picked them up carefully and admired them before putting them on. Then I turned around to show Kat and Sammy, and raised my eyebrows while I asked them how I looked. They said together, "YOU HAVE TO GET THEM"


And so I did. The size and fit felt just right on me. I just need to color the circular rims black somehow to get them to be a bit more accurate. Will do that for next time! (Also I am holding a paintbrush here because I hadn't started on my wand at the time HAHA)

We bought a pack of tissues, met up with the rest of our friends, and walked into the theater for the final movie of the series that has become such a significant part of our lives. Near the refreshment area, we saw a group of people who were partially dressed up and it seemed both our groups were kind of eyeing each other and wanting to say hi and ask for a picture, but our shyness got to all of us ahahaha.

I won't say much right now as a courtesy to those who have yet to watch it. It was just heartwarming and amazing to be in a huge room full of people who knew just how we felt. Even though we were strangers to most of the people there, we all laughed and cheered and cried and applauded together.

As the end credits rolled on we said, "Mischief managed!"

Still caught in a whirlwind of emotions, we made our way out of the theater. There was another group of people who dressed up for the occasion. We didn't miss our chance for photos this time. A lot of them turned out blurry. Perhaps Myk was still laughing at us for joining in with the sobbing during the screening.



Gotta hand it to the Quidditch guy for the dedication with the broom and all inside a mall!

After my friends and I parted ways, I got to watch again with Miguel :iconmerkymerkx: who had followed after dinnertime. The popcorn lady was very amused with me, and asked Miguel if he was Ron. Haha! My heart went on another ride and welled up with emotion all over again, but I was very thankful for it.


And here is a random webcam pic with my pet budgie, who is trying his very best to be Hedwig (although he is obviously far too small and too green, hahah)


Also, here's a photo of my Harry Potter costume with a few small upgrades.

Over here Miguel ~merkymerx, me and Myk had teamed up to fix Karl's hair for Phoenix Wright cosplay.



This is Melo !BallistaShark as the Davey Jones to Miguel's Captain Jack.
He also answers to the name Corporate Cthulu.



IT WAS RAINING OUTSIDE AND THIS KITTEN WENT UP TO THE DOORWAY AND GAH JUST LOOK AT IT



WHAT IS THIS SORCERY, CAT
We couldn't bear to make it go out in the rain!
These are just two of the 120381029 photos we took of it. Gaaaah.



Another team-up to do Jayem's Fairy Tail emblem for his Gray Fullbuster cosplay.
It's lacking a little something, don't you think?



There we go. Lovely.
AAAAA DON'T KILL ME YOU GUYSSSS



Well. This is... interesting.



Sooomeone's [cough!BallistaSharkcough] enjoying himself far too much



Fast forward to the con! Finished tattoo, and here's Jayem as Gray with Kat , his Juvia
_{Kat jokingly scolded him for being out of character after this photo, hahaha}

Jayem is actually based in LA and has only been to a few events here. Somehow we ended up becoming friends with him after helping him out since we observed him getting nearly harassed at an event a few months ago. He asked Kat to cosplay Juvia with him, and she said yes, and here they are!

They were pretty funny to watch during Toycon because Kat was always in character. Girls would flock to get their photo taken with Jayem and she'd glare at them from the side just like Juvia. _{(It was upsetting though, that some girls were incredibly rude to Kat, telling her to get lost and whatnot. Tsk tsk. If only I had been there when those things happened. I hope everyone remembers to pack their manners when they go to cons!)}



I realize we don't have proper group pics in my camera, so I'll go with our photo with JM ~angrylittleboy. We're not really being in character but hey, it's the three of us in a picture not entirely trolling something. Feels to me like a graduation picture, for some reason.

Charmie, Miguel and I were cosplaying characters from xxxHolic. I was Kimihiro Watanuki, Miguel ~merkymerx was Shizuka Doumeki, and Charmie ~yaoiangel14 was Himawari Kunogi Our outfits were based on one of the artbook illustrations, but we changed some details to our liking.

<sub>We enjoyed wearing these outfits out, but boy did we run into trouble with them. We almost couldn't push through with them. The wig that Charmie is wearing isn't actually her Himawari wig which is why the curls are missing. Her wig had unfortunately gotten stuck in customs and delivery was further delayed by a storm. Thankfully, we were saved by Ms. Czarina's wig which was similar. Miguel decided to use his real hair because his usual cut is similar to Shizuka's. But as you can see, by this time his hair had gotten too long and we were all so busy with our everyday lives, as well as with preparing for Toycon that he wasn't even able to get a haircut. Apologies to our fellow xxxHolic fans! We're still working on these costumes XD For us, what really matters is that we had a blast that day. More on this below!


(photo by Peppy)</sub>

And here's a shot of our friends' Phoenix Wright group!
Ange was Miles, Karl was Phoenix, Isa was Franziska, and Kitty was Mia
A lot of people apparently wanted their signs


_{photo by Marko ~Happy-Hario}

I was cosplaying Watanuki, so I took my place as shopkeeper at the Tuxessories table for a while.

Some people were asking about my pipe fox. I had sewn it myself; I'm not good with a needle but I did as best as I could. Here's a better look at it - [link] He came out bigger than the proper size because of the fur thickness, but I do like him this way as he's very squishy.



Pirate lady Miss Scarlett dropped by our table. We all thought she looked really cool so I asked if I could take a photo of her. She let us have a look at her pistol and we admired her Isla de Muerta gold necklace.



Two sweet girls who dropped by the Tux table. We had talked about sewing costumes and how parts of them can be a pain to wear sometimes. And I was like, "All I could manage to sew this time was my pipe fox... " Hahaha!

Quick reminder! The Very Merry Unbirthday 50% Off Sale will be over soon! Avail of it at Tuxessories.net while you still can!


Kuya Joma of Wakuwaku dropped by our booth too!
He got a Super Mustachio necklace
Before the stache



After the stache

And as always, shameless plug because he is awesome — If you're looking for AUTHENTIC figures, magazines, music CDs, doujinshi, plushies, etc. from Japan, drop by his store Wakuwaku sometime! He's located at FBR Arcade (the building with Yellow Cab) along Katipunan road. His kiosk is very near Yellow Cab and easy to spot once you enter the building. Ask him questions and inquire about special orders on Facebook [link] (He goes to Japan every so often to get new stock for his store)



And then we found JM ~angrylittleboy in his Shinsengumi outfit! With really cool kendo armor This is Miguel being out of character (as he was the entire day LOL) and fanboying over JM



It was so crowded in the hall, you have no idea how difficult it was to take this shot hahaha



Himawari and hover-hand molestation



Caaaat!



THEY WATCH YOU SLEEP



We saw him and all yelled ASSASINO! Ezio was very cool. His hidden blades were rigged to snap out and retract with a flick of his hand!



For a group of people who have been invited to host a panel on characterization multiple times, we sure let ourselves go a lot.
We can't seem to take ourselves seriously most of the time! I guess we save the acting for (a very few) pictures during photoshoots. 90% of our shots are outtakes ahahaha


_{(photo by Erving)}

Jayem as Gray and Kat as Juvia from Fairy Tail were doing better than we were at being in character.


_{(photo by Erving)}





Here is our picture as promised!
_{(Oh, don't mind us! Her camera suddenly run out of battery that time, so I offered a shot from my cam that I could post for her)}



The Warner Bros. booth Harry Potter exhibit! Bellatrix and Harry's outfits on this side.



What appears to be a Quidditch uniform (though something about it feels off to me, hmm) and Hermione's outfit.



We were joking around that people might have been mistaking me for a bad Harry Potter cosplayer around the Warner Bros. exhibit
Never have I heard of an owl that could coil around one's arm like a snake!

So I was like, what the heck, let's troll the posters


Durrr wrong angle and stuff but nobody told me and we were all busy laughing



Trying very very hard not to crack up



And now, a group shot!
Potter fans please don't kill us! (We actually are fans of the series too) I'm still laughing at Miguel's Ron impression. Hahaha! Brilliant!



HURRRRRRRRR



DURRRRRRRRR






UGUUUUUUUUU



This doesn't even need a caption.



I don't even know
I think perhaps we are making a heart with our hands


You know what, Tumblr has flushed out Voldemort's creepy factor in the movies for me because of this image:




YEAHHHH



YEA~AHHHHHHHHHH



PARTY IN THE U.S.A



FAM!

And then it was dinnertime!


Phoenix Wright channeling Kazuya Mishima



Bok and Melo !BallistaShark and their new NERF guns!
Buddy cop poses!



Bok: DADDYYYYYY
Erving: ...WTF?



Yuna pose!



Everybody do the Yuna!



COUTUUUUUUURE



Normal folk being photobombed by cosplayers



Tux Team (well, some of us) and our friends from Baguio!


After dinner, we went back to Megatrade to pack up stuff from our booth. It was pretty late by this time and the mall was also closing. As we waited for our friends, we shot some pictures to cap off the day.


_{(photo by Erving)}

A nice portrait of Kat as Juvia
Pretty clever how she did the makeup for her eyes to mimic how Juvia's are drawn!
Her brooch also turned out great, and I'm very happy about that because I helped cast the resin dome on the emblem. The blood the brooch drew from me was totally worth it. (I was stabbed by one of the two big pins used to secure it.)


_{(photo by Erving)}

Where is Gray?!
www.nooooooooooooooo.com
(It's a real website. Click it and look at this photo for the full experience.)


_{(photo by Erving)}

We saw the assassins again! They very kindly obliged when we asked for one last photo for the day.
They are too cool!


_{(photo by Erving)}


What is this crossover


Okay this part is going to be pretty dumb. So it was closing time and the exhibitors were putting things away. I don't know if it was the fatigue or if I had somehow had too much sugar that day but...



AAAAHAHAHAHA THIS CRACKED ME UP SO HARD



WOLVERINE WHAT ARE YOU DOING
WHY ARE YOU RIDING THAT MAN



YOU GUYSSSSS WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO SUPERMAN AND SPIDER-MAN YOU GUYSSSS
SPIDER-MAN LOOKS LIKE HE'S DESPERATELY FLAILING AND TRYING TO ESCAPE



SPIDER-MAN'S SHINY BUM
AND HE'S LIKE LET ME GOOOOOO (WE WILL NOT LET YOU GO)
AHAHAHALSKJDFALSDK;'JSD



SUPERMAN HAS NO HEADDDD?!
(photos getting increasingly blurry because I was out of breath running after them and laughing my face off)

Ahahahaha... hahah... whew... So we were walking towards the exit where we'd be picked up.


We saw this crew cleaning up after what looks like a Justice League event. I spy a section for Green Lantern, The Flash... and wait... what is that... What's that in the distance?



AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
In the immortal words of Dr. Rajesh Koothrappali...
"AQUAMAN SUCKS"

LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS-
So we saw this store, and we needed to take a photo in front of it for obvious reasons So there's Dom as Captain Li Shang, myself as Ping, and Bok as Ling from Mulan. _{Three more of our friends will be joining us in the future!} It was pretty funny how some people thought we were cosplaying characters from the movie Red Cliff!


_{photo from Katkat}

This snapshot shows Karl as Flynn Rider and Katkat as Rapunzel from Tangled, Kat as Belle from Beauty and the Beast, us Mulan people again, and about 2/3 of Captain Jack


_{photo from ~gazxiii}

A full body shot of me as Ping, and Miguel as Captain Jack Sparrow from the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, On Stranger Tides


_{photo from Nix *starrywhitewall}

Hanging out at the Tuxessories booth. Belle appears to be daydreaming. Flynn Rider and Prince Naveen greet our customers. I wonder if Captain Sparrow is up to no good at the back or is just characteristically intoxicated. We did a lot of singing Disney songs while we were at our booth. It was pretty awesome because so many people were totally game to sing along! Thanks, you guys! That was fantastic. Until next time!


_{photo from Nix *starrywhitewall}

With pretty Yuanie from Singapore as Kagemine Len, and Jayem from LA as Gilgamesh. It was awesome to see Jayem's costume come together. We helped him out with parts of it, including the body markings.



The night before the first day of Toycon, we all got together to help each other cram the parts of our costumes that needed work. And since the markings Jayem needed for Gilgamesh takes a rather long while to draw out, we figured it would be best to put them on the night before since Temptu (the body inks we used) doesn't easily come of anyway. Kat ~moonlightflight sketched the pattern on with red a pen before applying the Temptu.


_{photo from Nix *starrywhitewall}

The end result looked great! Captain Shang approves!


_{photo from Nix *starrywhitewall}

And so does Captain Jack Sparrow!


_{photo from Nix *starrywhitewall}

And so do the rest of us! We may or may not have been miming CAAAAN YOU FEEEL THE LOOOOVE TONIIIIIGHT


_{photo from Ricah ~micahmidnight}

With Madoka and Homura Y SO CUTE U GUYS


_{photo from z3LL ~z3LLLL}

Very cute group! Somehow I find myself missing Ragnarok Online AGAIN


_{photo from Jowie Rufino}

Belle was captured photobombing the lady who wanted a photo with Captiain Jack


_{photo from Jowie Rufino}

Miguel was very much in character


_{photo from DecDec TheRebirth}

With Markee !


_{photo from z3LL ~z3LLLL}

Markee was cosplaying Sexy no Jutsu Naruto and using my photo as a prop


_{photo from Markee}

Pretty awesome, it was like I was in two places at once!


During the times we felt we needed a break from the crowd in the exhibit hall, we wandered out and looked around Megamall. One of our stops was Toy Kingdom.



I like how those guys tried very hard to pretend we weren't there.



What song do you reckon he's playing? Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum?



We found me a horse!
DISHONOR TO MY COW?
Down, Bessie!



Captain Shang made a man out of Superman.



A lot of people called Erving ~Huzafan Attila the Hun



We went to Starbucks for a dose of sugar for extra energy, and because it was near the event hall. The staff was delighted by Miguel's portrayal, and we were happy to see that they didn't forget the "Captain" No rum for Jack this time!



They didn't ask me for my name, but if they did I would have said the line from that awkward scene when Shang asked Mulan for her name. "I... have a name... and it's a boy's name too!" I loved that part, hahaha!


Stay tuned for more pictures from the next day! I was going to put them on this entry too but then there are more than 50 photos from Day 2.

In the name of the moon, we at Tuxessories invite you to be part of our Very Merry Unbirthday Party Sale!
50% off on Tux in Wonderland items, to commemorate the day we came up with Tuxessories!
Only from July 1 to July 8! Don't be late!

We can just pretend I'm cosplaying Seb when he's drawn like this:




Yup, this is the Sebastian I most relate to.

And also...

Hahahaha!

To be honest, I was hesitant at first to attempt to cosplay someone who seems so ridiculously dashing and perfect and... is basically fangirl-bait.

So unlike me, hahah. It's like gah, I can't be like that.


But it's this side of his character that drew me in. (Ciel's casual reaction cracks me up)
_{And I suppose, in a way, we're both not quite what we seem.}

I'll just leave these here...

And so I focused on torturing my bocchan.


"Young master, today we have prepared a dish of birthday spaghetti that has been cut into bite-sized portions for your convenience. There is a side of chicken that has been prepared in a manner that appears to be reminiscent of spherical confectionaries set on sticks. We have brought out the finest styrofoam containers and plastic utensils to accompany your meal."


"For refreshments, there is iced tea made from mixing powder with water, and purified water in a utilitarian plastic cup."


"To grow up to be a fine gentleman, you must accustom your palate to flavors unlike those from home that you are accustomed to."


"I implore you not to make this more difficult than it has to be, because one way or another, I shall fulfill my duty to ensure that my young master's nutritional needs have been satisfied. WITHOUT FAIL."


Our tablemates Yuu ~jaRoukaSama and z3LL ~z3LLLL brofist! So cute


Sese *seseostara and Alfred ~shimekops having a ~moment~ at the table.


Th-there were puppies...


One of these things, is not like the others...


Eventually I sat down to eat as well, and for a short while our table was peaceful.

I'll post photos of some of the people I got to hang out with that day. There were actually many others there but I don't know if they would mind me posting their pictures.


Ella as Edea from Final Fantasy VIII
I asked her about how she made her props because it looked so lightweight yet sturdy. I have much to learn!


Edea taking self portraits on her cellphone


I kept trying to make Ayumi laugh while she was doing her serious poses.


Nichole as Amy Sorel from Soul Calibur
Despite how she looks like she could beat me up in this photo, she's actually really sweet. Her mom is too. She even made Amy's sword for Nichole.






Epic Ironman cosplayer DonRobert, half of DR Industries.
I was just so amazed. I have no words. Apart from making fantastic costumes, both he and Izabel also have a great sense of humor. Such a great tandem.

I'll just leave it at that, with some pictures from DonRobert's shoot with Mr. Raphy.







After lunch, Ms. Barbara called us outside to invite us to shoot with Wally.


I can't take myself seriously in this photo.


I am trying to convince the Young Master to try out an alternate mode of transportation.


"I implore you to trust me, bocchan. How could I call myself a servant of the Phantomhive household if I could not manage to operate such a simple vehicle?"


GTA: Victorian Edition


FORNICATE THE CONSTABLE


"Now that wasn't so bad, was it?" [smile]
"Hmph."


Yuu ~jaRoukaSama as Miku Hatsune. Y YUU SO CUTE


I like how the details in the backgrounds match her hair.


Sese *seseostara as Julia Chang from Tekken
Such a trooper! Climbing up those trees in her costume!


Peppy calls this shot... FAN SERVICE
So much pun!

And then Cat ~catherinejannelle arrived! And I had two masters for the day! (Oh no...)


"I'm simply one hell of a pimp"?


And we went back to the ballroom to shoot a bit. Yuu is the cutest lightstand.



We actually took a bunch more. One of them, I have yet to post in my gallery (which I shall get to soon).

Here's a photo from Cat:



Erving is everyone's daddy.

You know those photos of us on the gondola?


If you were wondering how our photographer friends managed, here is the answer:

There was a little pedal boat for photogs.


This shoot was very relaxing.





By the time we retreated to the rest area again (the air conditioner was such a blessing on such a hot day) it was time for afternoon snacks.


Of course there had to be feeding photos again. This young master is not as stubborn.


We scolded Ku Ri for being antisocial. XD
[takes PSP away]


And then... my secret. I had a symbol on my hand that day, but not Sebastian's seal. It's a fabulous rainbow phoenix LOLOL
I had this because I attended a birthday party the night before. Everyone needed to get (fake) tattoos. They got tigers and dragons and flames and all sorts of manly things. I got a fabulous rainbow phoenix. With flowers.


A photo shot with the most awkward setup of the dayyyyy


TA-DA! Camera between my knees. Told you it was awkward.

Night fell, but we weren't done exploring as much of the beautiful place as we could. So off we went to venture out in the dark with Erving's lighting stuff.

We found a vehicle labeled the wedding car. It looked like those cable cars in San Francisco. It was open, so we trudged  in and took the chance to take pictures.


"I'm simply one HELL of a driver!"


Sorceress Edea


Somebody gunna get hurt real bad
One of Erving's lightpainted photos It's really cool to see how he does these things.
The light spheres were not edited in. Only cropping was done to this photo.


Ciel selfcest. Just because.
I see a heart shaped formed by their heads and the white parts of their clothing.


Erving will position himself however needed to get his shot.


Hi, Erving. We know where you live.


Behind-the-scenes shot by Peppy again. XD


A pensive Ciel.


"Ah, I must wake the Young Master."


"It's amazing how even he can look peaceful when he is sleeping. Humans are certainly curious creatures."

You have no idea how hard we were containing our laughter

Tux Team Familyyyy
Miguel — Roy Mustang
Charmie — Granado Espada NPC
Hannah — Kaito
Cassie —Kyouya Hibari
Jin — Maes Hughes
Kat — Winry Rockbell
Ysabel — Edward Elric
Melo — Maid Macho
Dom — Cao Pi (whose wig was neglected in the bag hahah)
Kitty
EJ
photo taken by Essa

We had been planning to do Fullmetal Alchemist cosplay for... years, I believe. But everyone's got a lot going on in their lives so it's one of the plans we've had to keep pushing back. I'm glad we were finally able to take our costumes for sort of a test run for the annual AME event. I say test run because we're still working on little stuff like the styling of our wigs, and one important character was missing from our group that day. We'll make up for it when we find the chance to have a proper photoshoot.

Oh man, I don't think I can do proper justice to writing about this event because it was a pretty hectic day for me. I wasn't able to take pictures of my own. This is going to end up something like a documentation of the day's photobombs. I will try though!


The star of the day was Melo !BallistaShark as Maid Macho. This is him in his working attire for Tempest Films.


EJ ~Dinkyass and Maid Macho wrestling in the sumo booth. The sumo suits were actually too small for them so they just went and wrestled. The group of bystanders seem entertained.

While this was happening, I was away somewhere somewhat panicking hahah. It was quite a hectic day as I had to do some errands for our Tuxessories table, I was one of the judges for the Cosplay of the Dead: Zombie Acting Contest, and I was judges panel for the main cosplay competition as well. It was a fun sort of chaos, though!

After the wild blur that was my morning, I realized I had not yet properly eaten. I get uncomfortable allergy marks on my arm when I'm deprived of food for too long, so we went to go eat before the events started.


Herpin our derps on the escalator.


A testament to how long we had delayed this cosplay plan — Ysabel has grown taller than Kat.


We went to eat at Tokyo Cafe, which was a little bit far from the con venue. That meant being around people who most likely didn't understand why we were dressed like the way we were. Times like that we just do our best to act normally, as if going around like this was the most normal thing in the world.

You might notice in this photo that we took some liberties with some parts of the military uniform. Instead of using some plainer elements as they look in the illustrations, we got some stuff like boots and pins from an actual military camp. It was pretty cool.


People are always nice to us though, and some even asked if they could take some pictures with us. This poor baby seems to be intimidated by my Elicia.

We stuffed ourselves silly during lunch (because we most likely would not be able to eat again until late in the night) and then Miguel and I ran back because we were called for the mini-contest we were to judge.


Onstage for the Cosplay of the Dead: Zombie Acting Contest. with Miguel ~merkymerx, Maid Macho, Dom, and Daniw.


As if Melo had not had enough wresting for the day already, he and Dom had to give a sample performance.


Oh dear, Cao Pi. What do you do when a burly maid zombie is lumbering toward you?


I'm not sure I want to know how this ends.


Our highly appropriate Resident Evil pair.

(Boo, I can't find where I placed the pictures of the other pairs. )


This photo was sent to me by Jessica Tan, who had taken the liberty of pointing out the friendly neighborhood photobombers. This particular Hibari (with a matching DAT ASS face) and Kaito are two the youngest in our group of friends. We call them our lolis. Seems we have taught them well.


Maid Macho x Roy action, Winry and Ed looking equally pretty (we must work on Ysabel's manliness hahahah) and me doing my impression of a passing cuttlefish (yeah I don't even know).


There were only supposed to be two people in this picture. Can you tell?
Durr my wig is too fluffy. Gotta thin that down. It's only through these pictures from other people that I see how thick it is hahah


Melo attacks with his usual positioning tactic. When he does this, you are likely to hear evil laughter and a deep voice saying "UNCROPPABLE"

After we had some time to hang out (and photobomb each other) I was called away again as the main cosplay competition was about to start.


I got to the judges' table and was happy to see that the other judges were two artists I admire (and two of my favorite people in the local cosplay community) — Mic *Delurianne and Wilson *batangbatugan. When the compeition started, I regretted not bringing my own camera immediately. A lot of people really stepped it up!


One of the standouts for me was this Kamael from Lineage II. She's fantastic!


Another was this Nightmare. Such a meticulously done paint job on all parts of the costume, and it's not seen in this photo but he has the huge sword with an eyeball that actually moves around. Amazing. I looked for him after the competition to let him know how awesome he is.


Click here to watch the video
Apart from the costumes themselves, these two had such wonderful energy and charisma! I highly recommend you watch the video of this tandem! Their stage performance for the competition was even better! I really wish I could have gotten a video of that, or at least pictures.


~eva-guy01 Kuya Robert's amazing Zaku was there again, though this time worn by Wilson *batangbatugan.


Markee ~shinobimarkee whose usual cosplays are the likes of Sheryl Nome, Lady Gaga [link], Akazukin Chacha [link] and even Hannah Montana [link] was suddenly... GOKU. Complete with biceps attachments. Well played.

I wish I could show more cosplayers but guh I really can't remember where my files are.

While I was away judging, my friends were having their own fun.


Dom broke out the anime glasses and took his place in front of our booth as a statue.


Someone liked it, and put a bear on it.


Melo was just around, being pretty and stuff.


Statue Dom is joined by other... interesting creatures.


This is Maid Macho's KAWAII UGUU~ face.


It almost looks like Kaito and Roy are tripping over themselves at the back. And that is one happy Maid Macho. Check out those lacey socks.


YARANAIKANANA


After the competition, we met some people like Rain here.


With the adorable Ms. Grysh
I had so much fun cosplaying Maes Hughes. It totally made me happy how people would cheer when I whipped out the pictures of Elicia.


And took some silly pictures as usual. We didn't have a Jean Havoc in our group, I took his place on Roy Mustang's leg for the miniskirt speech pose.
_{Roy Mustang: [stops in the hall and strikes a pose] That day all female officers will be required to wear tiny miniskirts!
Jean Havoc: [falls to his knees with a nosebleed and rubs his face on Mustang's leg] You're a miracle, Mustang! I'll follow you forever!}


We spotted Queen Esther having a photo session.
So we joined in.
(Thank you guys for being such good sports, hahah!)


Inserting ourselves into another dramatic photo session (who was also a good sport)
EJ's face exudes unadulterated joy


Getting a group shot (group photobomb?) with Tiffany.


"YAMETEEEEEEE~"
Ahh, Melo you are so moe.


We're such nice friends.

Doing Miguel's makeup, being photobombed already by Cassie.


Kat doing Hannah's hair. So girly!


Cozy little dressing room area at the studio.


Pretty Cassie!


Our crossplaying lolis have been forced into cute little schoolgirl uniforms.
Aw come on, you guys look cute. <3


Miguel looking like a girl with a ponytail.


I has a waffle.

Since it was going to be for an ad campaign, we definitely did not want to use costumes of copyrighted characters. We just sort of mixed and matched pieces from our existing costumes.


I'm the strawberry... fox... thing...


Real swordsmen eat chocolate


Everything about Kat makes me think of candyyyyy


Secret Asian Man


They look like they could be from a manga called BEST TOMODACHIS FOREVER
(phrase picked up from my father ~Bubydub which stuck with all of us)


Dom putting the rest of us to shame with his physical prowess, as usual.


Dom with his amazing Frostmourne (that even lights up) made by AC Hernandez
His team is accepting prop/weapon commissions! Check 'em out [link]


Hey bro, you're really enjoying this huh?


This is what we liked to call our fake version of a popular shonen series. Can you guess which?

Residue from my medicine from the week I got sick. Bleargh.


Megurine Luka Nendoroid — with Tako Luka, which is the initial reason I wanted her, hahah!
She was given to me as a present


Tako Luka discovers pizza


Miguel said she's singing "Myyyyyy pizzaaaaaaa~ "
It's actually a piece of gummy candy


Mio <3
Other times, I use miniature food erasers for my Nendos to pose with.

Miguel gave me this Nendoroid Mio as a present from his quick visit to Fanime Con 2010, almost a year ago. I had been searching for it here for months after its release, but it was always unavailable or all I’d find in local stores were fakes. I was really happy to finally have her! I want to take more pictures when I find the time.

…I like the smell of Nendoroids. /creeper

(The quality of authentic Nendoroids make them totally worth the price. Check out this guide on How to Spot Fake Nendoroids by magnetic-rose.net)


Mio + Tako Luka = NIGHTMARE FUEL


Tako Luka encounters… takoyaki! Maybe she shouldn’t look so happy?


Working on a bunch of new cosplays for this year. My friends and I will be attempting a few more complicated costumes to challenge ourselves. I know it'll be fun working on them together!

1. Donate to Japan Quake Relief
A list of the top recommended organizations to donate to.



2. PayPal Donation Campaign
Support a cause you care about. Every organization handles disaster relief donations differently. When you choose a nonprofit to support, please read their mission statement or visit their website to understand how your gift will be used.



3. Google Crisis Response
All donations made through them ends up with Red Cross Japan. The Google page is pretty comprehensive and includes other resource links, a people finder, videos, live updates from Twitter with the #japan hash, etc.



4.The Nippon Foundation
The Nippon Foundation was established in 1962 as a non-profit philanthropic organization, active both in Japan and abroad. The foundation's fundamental aim is the realization of a peaceful and prosperous global society, in which none need struggle to secure their basic human rights.



5. Anime Fans Give Back To Japan through Global Giving
Even though it might sound silly to some people, I'm not afraid to admit how much anime has inspired me as an artist, and as a person. It makes me happy to see other fans take initiative like this! More information [link]



6. Prayers From Cosplayers
Those who cannot offer monetary donations, can offer moral support! The site says:
"A historic earthquake has assailed Japan.
Amongst the victims are many fans of anime, manga and games.
Although time and resources are necessary for the reconstruction,
it is courage and smiles that are needed above all.
Please send courage, smiles and your best wishes to our friends with the same hobbies."


7. 'Army For Japan' shirt from The Salvation Army
100% of the proceeds of the sales of this shirt will go toward The Salvation Army's relief efforts in Japan. Of course you can just donate directly, but you also have this as an option. It says on the description that the kanji on the shirt says "Save World Army". While I am no expert and cannot vouch for the accuracy of that, it is a beautifully designed shirt that commemorates how people from all over the world are teaming up to fight for Japan.


8. Crunchyroll Donation Fund
For every dollar that you donate, Crunchyroll will match your donation.
So for every $5 donated, they will give another $5 from their own pockets.

Tamashii Con
March 19, 2011
Megatrade Hall 3
5th Floor, Bldg B
SM Megamall

Things may look bleak, but they are far from giving up; so we should believe in them too!

We invite you to GA-KON!!! The Greatest Anime Convention EVER!
GA-KON Facebook event page [link]

Well... greatest FICTIONAL con, maybe!
(Look at how happy Gakon-tan is! Pfffhahah)

GA-KON is the event in which Cosplay of the Dead will take place.
It's an indie movie about a zombie outbreak in a cosplay convention.

Cosplay of the Dead Facebook Page www.facebook.com/cosplayofthedead

First...

MMM LUNCH. Succulent, very fresh, and nicely cut sashimi on a bed of seasoned sushi rice. HHHNNNNGGGG. There was salmon, tuna, shrimp, cuttlefish, hamachi, sweet egg, and sea urchin. Mmmmmm. I didn't use to like sea urchin, but I realized it was because the sort I had sampled in the past was not of the best quality.

And now I will stop talking about food. For the meantime.


Remember this shot?

In the description I talked about how there was a lot of background cleanup that needed to be done, and how failtastic the reject shots are.


This is one of those shots. How LOUSY is that? Hahaha! We hadn't yet figured out which way our friends should toss our strips of fabric, the light is all wrong, and Melo !BallistaShark and Dom ~Weakman are owning us in the facial area department. We didn't have nylon strings or any other materials to rig our fabric to achieve the zero gravity effect so this is the best we could do! Hahaha!

We're not fond of using fans or similar things to get the windblown effect because they tend to make our contacts dry up and mess up our wigs. Of course it's different for everyone but personally I do prefer a little more control, so having our friends toss the parts that need to appear moving works better for me.

This is why for times when you have a specific composition in your head, I suggest that you:
1. Explain your idea to the photographer.
2. Ask your photographer to get many shot variations per pose.
3. Often review the shots you have, to determine what is working out in the photo, and what parts are simply not right.
4. Adjust as needed, and keep trying for the shot you are looking for.

And that is how our train wreck turned into something remotely acceptable!


This is Dom practicing throwing Miguel's straps to look windblown for his solo portrait. It wasn't looking quite the way we want it to. I also felt that the light wasn't hitting Miguel's face or clothes at the best angle. We switched things up and kept trying.

Eventually we came up with this:

It's no masterpiece, but it's definitely an improvement!

Extra note from the description of this submission:
Miguel actually felt a bit conscious that his face shape is too round to suit the character. To work past this, I arranged the layers of the wig around his face in a certain way, and shot him at an angle in which his face looks longer and more angular. Hope this helps other people who might have a similar problem! I have to admit, watching ANTM can be educational.


As I also mentioned in the description, the editing was based on this official artwork from the game.

Another cosplay photo I worked on based on the above illustration:



Other rejected windblown effect methods.


Feeling the boyband vibe.


Dom has a talent for fitting himself in the oddest negative spaces.


We end up doing a lot of things apart from taking pictures during shoots. Sometimes, there is dancing.


Work it, Melo!

By the way, Melo !BallistaShark was one of Animax Asia's finalists for the I-Present hosting competition! He was flown all the way to Singapore to compete with six other finalists from all over Asia, and he won First Runner Up! The overall champion was our friend Monique/Midori ~MorningMiracle! I'm so happy for both of them! Congrats again, you guys!

Animax is showing clips from I-Present, so you might see Melo as the both burly and dainty Maid Macho on TV
:thumb187045558:


Soooo this is Miguel ~merkymerx frolicking in the studio.
And here you see the reason we didn't do full-body shots yet. Sooomebody didn't feel like putting on the leg bandages and wearing the proper footwear. This is also why in outtakes, our robes look so disheveled. Everyone moves around a lot, hahah. You just have to keep fixing up when it's time to pose for photos.


A shot that didn't quite work out because the blade is resting on Miguel's arm, and his other hand seems poised to hold a cup of tea.


Test shot of Dom ~Weakman as Harada Sanosuke, with a yet unstyled wig, missing hand wraps (somehow he forgot to wear them) and without his spear (still being constructed). Again, this is why we only treated this as a trial shoot, hahah.


Oh look, it's Cheese-zuru! ...and Hibird!
(We are no longer able to call Chizuru by her proper name because of how she was in the TERRIBLE anime adaptation of Hakuouki.)

We wanted to cosplay the characters' designs based on the game, so Kat ~moonlightflight attempted to manually silkscreen the asanoha pattern onto Chizuru's kimono by herself. The night before Cosmania, the screen got too clogged up and she could no longer continue after doing just half of the front of the kimono. People still appreciated it though, and we figured the unintentional asymmetry perhaps looked... stylish? Hahah! Regardless of that, we still plan to help her continue this sometime in the future.


HURR HURR <3


DO NOT WANT


DO WANT AFTER ALL. MAYBE.
(I think we might have just summarized Hakuouki Hekketsuroku in two photos. The awfulness of the second season of the anime cannot be stressed enough.)


D'awwwww.
(Cheese-zuru, you little harlot)

In the above photo, you see why Kat was sitting down for her solo shot — she couldn't find her proper Chizuru sandals that day.


Obligatory group shot tiiiime (even if we already look disheveled hahah)!


This is our sentai pose. Is it not a lovely sentai pose?


Everybody say.... WAKARIMASENLOLLLLLL

Simple photo I took of Sandee with her camera, during one of our shoots. Just thought the light from that beautiful day was hitting her nicely.


HALLO THAR YOUNG ONE
This isn't actually related to the Oishi contest, but is part of a student shoot we helped out with on the same day we shot some entries.


For the Wasabi chips, we wanted to do something like a parody of Cooking Master Boy — the anime/manga about how you can rule the world through cooking.


Here's Miguel putting together an outfit for EJ.


Melo !BallistaShark as the Bad Chef vs. EJ ~Dinkyass as the Good Chef


Ej is standing like a true kawaii womans.


Ultimate Chef battle with cheesy-ass effects


Random shot of Dom and Melo as zombie apocalypse survivors. Wakarimasenlol~


Dom is collecting photos of him doing headstands in as many places as he can manage.


Even on a table in the rain...


...with an umbrella.


He will even headstand as a vengeful ghost comes out of the TV.
(We didn't Photoshop that, hahah. It's simply the effect of a setup which everyone helped put up.)


An outtake for our Japanese horror shot for the wasabi-flavored chips.


Final shot. Sada-chan couldn't wait for seven daysssss...


For the Natural Sea Salt flavor, the theme was Classical. We just took it as something traditional, influential and long-established so we chose to do a sort of nautical pin-up portrait. So here is Kat ~moonlightflight the sultry sailor woman. I was inspired by James Jean's pin-up portrait of Silk Spectre for the Watchmen movie. Special thanks to our friend Tza for lending Kat the jacket!


Another pin-up style photo I took of Kat, just for fun. She did her own hair and makeup! She pulls it off so well! We often tell her to do this look more often (like, even EVERYDAY) but she always refuses. Hope she changes her mind about it someday!

For the Kimchi chips, we tried to mimic the look and feel of Korean dramas. The photos in which I am included are by Kat ~moonlightflight and Kitty ~jiaren


Test shot that caught us sneaking some chips that were supposed to be just for props.


Miguel, you're doin it wrong.


Some of you might recognize this shot as the one I used as my profile pic for my Facebook page for a while. It came from this shoot.


Kitty perhaps going DAT ASS


HONTI NI SUGOU SUPA KAWAII ASIAN WOMANS


Scrunchyface Kat


Rayson in this photo looks like he wouldn't hurt a fly.


Candid shot of Kat


KITTY IS MOTHWOMAN


Me and my giant collar. I always feel like I look really weird when my teeth are showing.


This photo was from this shoot as well.

At the time, we were laughing over this image we saw on Tumblr:


And so this happened...







HERPIN OUR DERPS LIKE YEAH

Aaaaaanyway...  Final shots are below!


So basically, we dressed up as some of the usual archetypes in Korean dramas, Miguel played the bad boy, Isa was the token girl, and I was the good boy.


The bag of chips played the part of delicious product placement and plot device.

tuxessories.bigcartel.com/product/tux-cameo-for-charity

We at Tuxessories truly do appreciate the warm welcome of our customers, so this holiday season, we're introducing a couple of sweet designs in an even sweeter price.

Working time! Assassin's Creed notebook is a sure sign of serious effin' business. Hahah.
The people at Data Blitz gave it to Miguel ~merkymerx when he got his copy of AC: Brotherhood. For those of you wondering what he thought of it, he wrote a journal entry about it here [link]


We were at a place that Melo !BallistaShark had dubbed our zombie apocalypse hideouts.
I had a rather unpleasant mental image of looking down at the city below and seeing the carnage.


Luckily there was calming imagery around.


These pond leaves really fascinate me. And then I was distracted enough to forget about the zombies.


I counted and sorted some of the freshly cut pendants.


During the process of stringing the chains on for Omnomatopoeia.


One of my favorite acrylics is the very clear kind that we used for the I ♥ Yaoi pendant.


It makes me think of strawberry lollipops.


I like how the edges seem to glow on certain angles and lighting conditions.
So yeah, that's what we mean when we say clear acrylic.


The one we used for the Always necklace is a little bit different. This is translucent acrylic. It's got a bit more of a frosted look compared to clear acrylic.


And this is silver glitter acrylic, as seen on the Teeth of a Killer necklace. Despite what the name might imply, it's nowhere near as garish as the glitter commonly used for elementary crafts projects. The texture is very fine and the, ahem, sparkle is nice and subtle.


A photo of the Tux Cameo to show how it is a two-piece pendant.


Packed and ready to be shipped out!
We don't just stick the necklaces in brown envelopes, by the way. This is to protect the smaller tuxedo-themed boxes inside, that we designed specially for Tuxessories.


Part of ~Dinkyass EJ's Warhammer 40K army. The paint job on them was amazing.
I suppose you can spot which of them is the mightiest of all.

These are our lolis friends Hannah ~Hana181 and Cassie ~cazzu-chan. They usually cosplay boys, but we were determined to doll them up for this shoot. As you can probably tell, Hannah was quite against it. They are so cute though!

Miguel and I kept calling them BEST TOMODACHIS FOREVER _{(LOL we miss you father ~Bubydub)} and then it stuck, and everyone joined in. Hannah and Cassie weren't used to the whole girl cosplay thing, and they weren't even cosplaying preexisting characters with set personalities.

And so we came up with our OWN story on the spot, to help them figure out how to pose and do some characterization.

Disclaimer: The characters are not meant to accurately represent the true identities of the people in the pictures.


This is a job for... INSTANT BAD DOUJINSHI SQUAD! We call this story... I LOVE BLONDIE DESU A story by a collection of people who lack sleep in their systems. CRISIS AVERTED!

INTRODUCTION! Tsundere-chan is infamous around school for her tough demeanor and quick temper despite her cute looks. Princess-hime is the popular foreign exchange student. (AAH FOREIGN. THAT EXPLAINS WHY SHE IS BLONDIE #1) They are best friends, and it is only with Princess-hime that Tsundere-chan shows her softer side. AAAAAW~

The insignificant nameless students of Inconsequential Name High School of course wonder why they are BEST TOMODACHIS FOREVER despite how they are polar opposites. SPOILER: IT'S BECAUSE PEOPLE DON'T HAVE TO BE EXACTLY ALIKE TO BE FRIENDS, YOU JUDGMENTAL PLOT DEVICES.


Princess-hime has her eye on the aloof sempai (BLONDIE #2) who ignores everyone and is often just reading.
Unlike Cassie's natural blondieness, Blondie-sempai's flaxen hair is the product of bleaching. Because he's like, a rebel and stuff.

Princess-hime is like, "UGUUUU~ WE ARE MEANT TO BE, SEMPAI. FOR WE ARE THE ONLY BLONDIES IN SCHOOL"
Sempai is like, ". . . . ."
Blondie-sempai's shirt... Doesn't that belong to...


The literature teacher, Brunette-sensei?!
And what is this? Blondie-sempai was not blonde!?
Why did he change his hair?!


Blondie-sempai is betrothed to the literature teacher?!
Is this why he is always reading!?


They are friends with Curly-chan the voyeuristic boy love enthusiast?!


AND WHAT IS THIS...
EVIL TWIN BROTHER?!
MORE GRAMMATICALLY INCORRECT COMBINATIONS OF PUNCTUATION MARKS!?

And that's it for the first installment of TUXESSORIES INSTANT ORIGINAL BAD DOUJIN!
Written on the flyyyyyyy during the shoot and the photo sorting process
This how we roll in the Shire

I got myself new glasses! (I am horribly nearsighted.) I love these new red frames. They’re very lightweight and fit comfortably. They were very cheap, too. I had chanced upon them at a 100-yen store.

Alto-hime is from the Macross Frontier Ichiban Kuji Premium line by Banpresto. I have more pictures of him in this post. I got him from a good friend’s hobby store in Katipunan, wakuwaku. All the goods are authentic! Kuya Joma goes to Japan to get his stocks. If you’re looking for anime collectibles, Japanese magazines, J-music CDs, manga, doujinshi, and other similar merchandise, you should drop by! It’s near the Yellow Cab branch at FBR Arcade. You may also add wakuwaku on Facebook to stay updated about stocks, make inquiries or even make requests for Japanese merchandise you're looking for!


This is how my new glasses look on me. This is the one photo I did not take. Kata sent it to me after the De La Salle Zobel school fair, where they invited me and Miguel ~merkymerx to be guest judges for the cosplay event. More on that later! Suffice it to say that it was a really fun day. Miguel and I have missed going to school fairs, and to be immersed in the sights, sounds and smells (of awesome fair day junk food) was truly a wonderful thing.

(Also pictured above is my dA camera bag. Thank you again, dA! Will send a review ASAP!)


After that, we had a mean craving for toasted noodles and lemon chicken so we ate at North Park.


Miguel poring over the manual of his newly acquired Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.
(Which after a few seconds he put away because he likes to figure things out by himself anyway.)


For dessert, we decided to try a certain food stall because of the name — Miguelito’s Fried Ice Cream. A funny variant of Miguel’s name + fried + ice cream? SOLD. The ice cream mixture (i got it in Black Forest flavor - chocolate with a hint of cherry) was blended and poured onto this… thing.


Kuya Manong (LOL) spread it around until it solidified, which was like freeze-drying more than frying. He then scraped it off with a spatula and made several rolls of this strange ice cream. I asked him to put chocolate syrup and iced gem cookies on top. It was really good! Very creamy, and the sweetness was not overwhelming. The texture reminded me a bit of Dippin’ Dots. Only this was far cheaper at P35 for that relatively big bowl, including the toppings.

I… did not get to take a picture of what my bowl looked like because I completely forgot about taking photos and attacked it when Kuya Manong handed us our bowl. However! You can check out this post: a review of Miguelito’s Fried Ice Cream by Foodie Budget Traveler.


Do you know what’s better than being given a chance to shoot for one of your favorite restaurants? Being able to eat everything you photographed after the shoot! With the help of friends, of course! This is just an outtake from when we were fixing up. It's also but the tip of the iceberg of all the super delicious food we had that day.


These are plants around the edge of our koi pond that I would like to draw sometime.


Pearly white koi, with two of the younger ones. They like to eat food out of my hand sometimes.


The koi don’t eat the smaller fish that lives with them in our pond.


Mr. Carp is HERPIN MAH DERP


Bougainvillea plant on the balcony.


My favorite cup, from which I often drink royal milk tea.


NONE FOR YOU, MIO. YOU ARE TOO SMALL.

Giant tarps for Cosmania and the Cosplay Tournament of Champions at SMX!


Long line. There was lots of breathing room and good ventilation so I hope these people were comfortable during their wait.


Long line is looooong.


Cosplay Checkmate! I wish we could have watched but I think we were shooting outside when this was going on.


Outside the main exhibit hall, lots of cosplayers and spectators gathered to shoot photos. This seems to be pretty late in the day. This place is great for taking pictures when sunlight is streaming through the huge windows.

Part of the lineup of activities during Cosmania was the Cosplay Workshops. We were asked to do a panel on character portrayal.

I made sure to start by telling everyone that the things we were about to share are what we've learned through personal experience. There aren't any absolute rules about what's right and wrong when it comes to cosplay. Everyone is encouraged to try things out and learn what works best for them. We were just invited to share what we know and practice to possibly serve as a guide (not a rule) for other cosplayers.


And here is a webcam shot from when we were in the car, on the way to Cosmania. I was making some final changes on our presentation for our panel, and panicking because there was less than an hour to go and we were still on the road.


We made it just in time! My friends and I were escorted to the lecture room and set up the equipment.


At first we were like...


...and then we LOL'd


Starting off our panel. The lecture room was quite nice.


To explain the text on the whiteboard, our panel was entitled Character Portrayal: Putting the 'Play' in Cosplay

We noticed there seemed to be absentees even though some people outside told us all the slots for workshop were already taken. Apparently a group had gotten lost because they didn't know where the lecture room was. Kat ~moonlightflight told me they dropped by our table later in the day. To be fair, there weren't clear indicators about the workshop around the venue. When I was getting tickets for Hannah and Cassie, people had me going back and forth as well. I believe the organizers will improve on that for next year.


Despite our main topic being characterization, we took quite a while tackling other topics too. One of them was a short lesson on basic fabrics. Here, I was tracing around Ysabel's dress to show how portions that were made using a certain fabric fall and flow differently compared to lighter ones.

Miguel ~merkymerx explained that the reason we were discussing other preparation topics is because based on our personal experience (and failed cosplays of the past) even though you pose or emulate a character's facial expression well, you could end up looking a little silly in a costume made with the wrong material.


Kat didn't know I included a photo of her Yoko cosplay to showcase usage of matte leatherette. Dohohohoho.


Me being totally out of character while doing a panel on characterization.


I believe this was from when we were discussing how do determine if you should paint or embroider patterns on garments. In our case, we chose to paint the triangles on the shinsengumi haori instead of making them out of fabric. We wanted to go for a distressed look so that our haoris would look battle-worn, hahah.


Oh man, this photo. Hahahahahahah. This was from when I dropped the F-bomb while giving the lecture. With a TV camera crew and other press people recording our panel. Everyone ended up cracking up after a second of shock. EJ ~Dinkyass tried to save me by going, "Ha ha ha, Jin said FFFFFUUUUUUUUUUN! I totally heard FUN!"


Kat ~moonlightflight live via sattelite! ...from beside me


Actually, we turned on the webcam so that even the people at the back of the room could see the pattern that she manually silkscreened onto her kimono to stay true to Chizuru's design in the game. (Well, half of her kimono anyway. The silkscreen broke and there wasn't enough time to make a new one. Gotta work with what we have! )


Kat made the stencil for the asanoha pattern out of green film on silkscreen. She cut out every single dash and dot off the film using an X-Acto knife. We haven't been able to find fabric with that pattern around here, so this is what we did. Miguel painted on the chain link design of Souji's kimono as well.


During another webcam session later in the class, I asked Kat to make certain facial expressions and angle her head differently and took snapshots.


I then scrolled through the snapshots to show the class how simple gestures can appear to change the shape of our face for photos.


And this is Miguel zoning out.


And drawing a :3 face on one of our favorite examples of Best Cosplays Ever.

We were actually afraid that we might not have enough material to discuss over an hour, but then all of a sudden it seemed like we didn't have enough time! And so, even though there were other things we wanted to elaborate on (not everything we discussed is in this journal, there was a looooot more) we moved on to test our students!


We organized a little game for which we had people from the audience act out certain character archetypes, pose anywhere in the room, and direct Erving on how they would like him to take their photos. Immediately after, we would upload the shots onto my laptop and review the photos for the whole class to observe.

Now I don't know if you guys would mind having your names posted here publicly so I'll just refer to you by numbers.

First challenge: We asked a number of female audience members to come up front and show us their interpretaion of... moe~


No. 1 made us go "awwww" with her pouty pensive face. The way it was shot from a high angle made her proportions look more child-like.


No. 2 went for a well-known Haruhi pose Tsun tsun moe?


No. 3 did a lot! She moved to a spot with good lighting, and had Erving shoot her from a high angle. She then goes for the doe-eyed look, raising her eyebrows to look more innocent, gave a shy little smile, turned her chin down to emphasize her eyes, and posed all the way to her fingertips.


Is No. 4 showing us tough girl moe? XD


No. 5 goes for meganekko moe

Second challenge: This time we asked for male participants who were not familiar with each other. They were made to pair up and play the part of... seme and uke This brought about many distressed reactions from the guys, and much delighted screaming from the girls.


Pair No. 1 goes for the classic romantic dip, with a not-so-classic twist. I must say the light worked well for them.


Pair No. 2 was perhaps our most reluctant but when they started posing, it was just... wow. Look at that intensity in their eyes. The gentle but determined grasp on each other. It's like a scene from a student-teacher doujin aaaahahahahahaha (Sorry you two, but I guess you can tell my friends are deeply inspired by your photos)


Pair No. 3 celebrates being out of the closet by get it on in the closet! Hahaha!

Third challenge: Villainous vampire!


No. 1 attempts an action shot and moved a lot as he posed


No. 2 poses by the blue glow of the projector and shows us a fang. Spooky!


No. 3 drew sparkles on the glass board. DUN DUN DUN. The worst kind of vampire is the type that sparkles. (Although it has been popularly debated that those sorts are more fairy than vampire.)


No. 4 goes under a light to get some shadows going to his advantage. Villainous hand pose that isn't up too high, check.


No. 5 makes use of the blue light from the projector and steps on a ladder to bring himself higher and make him look larger and more formidable. Great effort!

Final challenge: Groups of three, show us... a tentacle monster!


Group No. 1's tentacles are too fast for the camera. Boardcat says DO NOT WANT~ Run, Boardcat, run!


Group No. 2 volts into a united tentacle monster! With matching puckered mouth


Group No. 3 is a yellow-bowed Neko-Pandamonster!


Uploading and reviewing photos from the game


The winners! We had 'em troop over to our booth later on to claim their prizes. Congratulations to them, and to all who joined because they certainly made it fun for everyone!


Class photooooooo! You guys were so great! Hope you enjoyed it, and thank you for giving us wonderful memories!
Higher resolution [link]
(Will upload an even larger file later)

Perhaps one of these days I'll post up a compilation of the things we discussed and elaborate on the parts that we weren't able to for lack of time!


Outside the lecture room, photobombing commenced. Here is Dom who appears to be after Kat's brainssssssss


I was asked to sign some stuff, and yet again my inability to write decent dedications resurfaced.


Miguel signing a print of our art collab.


"Watcha doin', Soujiiiiii~?"


"Ignore me, will you? Who's your captain now? WHO IS IT?!"


Unf-ing continues.


O, captain my captain


Cassie is the bestest Captain Toshi ever.


There were so many people. I didn't expect it at all. We were in that spot for a while and then I had to be rushed off in time to judge the Cosplay Tournament of Champions.


On our way back to the main hall, my friends managed to do some running action photobombs


At the judges table with Paul Mendoza (one of the people I got to know from the local community when I was just starting out ), the representative from Brother Philippines (I'm sorry, I am terrible with names) and our guests from Singapore, Mr. Clive Lee ~miragecld and ~Jesuke


Other specatators


The stage setup for the Cosplay Tournament of Champions (or Cosplay TorCh)
I greatly appreciated the way they set it up and coordinated the lights and smoke with the skit. The screen at the back really helps set the mood as well. This team prepared a video in which the visuals were timed perfectly to be appropriate with what was happening in their performance. Major props for that. I cringed (and heard the audience gasp) when Zeus actually broke wings off from Hades as part of their skit.


Team Clash of Brotherhood (finalists from Clark)
Rolando Logronio and Cykah Malagad
cosplaying as characters from Saint Seiya


Team Miyuki and Nyappy (finalists from Baguio)
Dianne Kathleen Balagot and Clarizza Panganiban
cosplaying as characters from Black Rock Shooter


Team MARCH Omega (finalists from Cebu)
Amado Carl Hernandez and Jose Carlos Mallonga III
cosplaying as characters from DoTA / Warcraft III

Apart from the fantastic armor and weapons, the puppet rig for King Leoric was excellent. I'd sometimes forget that there's a guy behind, controlling it. They also utilized stage ninjas well.


Team 3/4 (finalists from Davao)
Dewilsurv Duane Bacon and Fracine Isabelle Aquino
cosplaying as characters from Bleach


Although they said that there were technical problems with the hind legs, I could see that they gave it their all and simply pulling off a centaur-like costume is something to be admired.


Team Star Ocean The Last Hope _{I'm not sure if they changed their name after changing their costumes} (finalists from Manila)
Paul Martin San Diego and Kenji Matsushita
cosplaying as characters from .hack

This was another performance I really enjoyed. Highly entertaining fight scene with creative usage of stage ninjas. There was even a little surprise at the end. I'll be linking to a page below where you can watch these skits if you'd like to.


Man, these guys could move. They made use of the entire stage area, leaping and and running all over the place. I admire their dedication and stamina.


Team Dire Husi (finalists from Baguio)
Deven Baculpo and John Rey Yap
cosplaying as characters from Avatar

I must say, the face makeup was really effective. Paul and I were speculating if they used prosthetics for the nose, but it seems it was just makeup.


Another judges table photo. I was caught fixing my ponytail, hahah.

You may watch videos of their performances here Cosplay TorCH videos at Otakultura


After judging, I reunited with my friends. Hijikata-san, where is that hand heading?


Cassie sneaks over to another photo, this time with Romi (other HIjikata, hahah), Jesuke, Yuu and Zell


After signing more stuff, I looked up and saw...


....SUDDENLY, RILAKKUMAS. Lots of them!


And then Plusle and Minun. And Charity gave us Pocky.


I... am not sure why we ending up doing this, but I would like to see more pictures from this time.


I think I was really out of it from exhaustion by this time. I have like ONE FACE for the rest of these photos. Like I was copy-pasted. Also, my scarf keeps choking meeeee. I really have to properly pin that thing in place next time.


Same face. (Hi Dom and Kat)


Same face still. Ridiculous. There are more but they're not worth putting here, hahah.

:thumb182822940:
Another snapshot of us in this area, by Kei !sakurako-shi

Those of you who are familiar with Hakuouki (the otome game/anime) might be wondering why our group's Hijikata and Heisuke are in the Western style uniforms while the rest of us are in their Shinsengumi outfits. The thing is, we didn't plan this. Actually, back when we first started talking about cosplaying Hakuouki, we had all pretty much decided who we wanted to be and were only missing Hijikata and Heisuke. And I thought Cassie ~cazzu-chan and Hannah ~Hana181 would be fitting, but I wasn't sure if they were interested. About a week before the event, Hannah was at my house for a get together between our familes. She saw the sleeve of my Shinsengumi haori peeking out of a bag and asked, "Is that for... Hakuouki?" And that's when I learned that she and Cassie were cosplaying, that's right... Hijikata and Heisuke. BUT in the Western uniforms. And so Hannah and I went FFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUU together. The end! Well, not really. We'll be helping them with the outfits to match ours, hahah.

In the meantime, here are some pretty photos of them by =KiraHokuten!


Cassie ~cazzu-chan as Hijikata Toshizo


Such a dashing Toshi!


Hannah ~Hana181 as Todo Heisuke.


Hannah, Heisuke is supposed to be short!


When I saw the photos of them pointing swords and staring at each other, I had a feeling they were trying desperately not to laugh despite how the pictures show otherwise. I confirmed with them later on. I was right.


Kat ~moonlightflight as Yukimura Chizuru


Charmie ~yaoiangel14 as Nakagura Shinpachi


(Wow my wig color is so bright in Kira's photos, hahah)
And this is me with Michelle, our guest from Malaysia. So pretty!
I feel so disheveled and messy next to her.

On that note, what we like about wearing a costume to a con before a shoot is that we get to test its comfort levels to know what we'll be dealing with when we wear it again. For me it was that I have to watch out how my haori is draping, my scarf has a tendency to try and strangle me, and my wig needed more cutting as it often looked messy and kept eating my face. We also observe its shortcomings (and our bad angles hahah) from other people's photos, so we can determine what to fix up or watch out for when we do shoots. In a more controlled environment, this is how we can try to improve:



Michelle with our Hakuouki group (minus Dom who was at our booth)


=KiraHokuten won the cosplay photography contest! Congrats on a well-deserved win, Kira! And happy birthday!


After the awarding of the many contests and raffles throughout the day, they prepared to wrap up the event.


Congratulations to the Cosplay Mania X team for a memorable, successful event!


X for Cosplay Mania X! Here's to 10 years of cosplay in the Philippines!


Celebratory confetti rainnnnnn!

_{(photo by Alfred ~shimekops)}

Background imitation no jutsu!
EJ is the EJescalator! ...Wait, that doesn't sound right.

I mean, look at that face. A girl who makes that face is very cool in my book. I'd wear a drafty skirt to a con for her. Hahaha!


Nice photobomb, Zaa Beasto Unit-02. (Photo from Max Factory)

_{If I am to wear this cosplay out again I'd probably wait until I get Mari's proper headband so I don't have to use Rei's A10 nerve clips, hahah. And the correct plaid fabric for her skirt is proving to be difficult to find. The closest I could get was this - which happened to be the fabric of the girls' skirts for uniforms in my high school.}


Sorry, Mari fans. I continue to deface your waifu.

This was the view from behind our booth. Lots of stuff going on all over the place. SMX as a venue was a refreshing change.


I was able to go around and take photos of some of the toys that were on display.




It would be cool if these were cosplayers, hahah.


GoShogun. Cute!


Jeeg & Pantheron
Did someone say Robot Unicorn Attack? Wait, we're missing a horn here.


Brook from MegaHouse's Portrait of Pirates series


Hijikata making the Hijikata Special Another beautiful figure by MegaHouse


DBZ! All the seven balls together! Someone make a wish!


This particular one caught our eye. EJ ~Dinkyass said that Goku looks like he's just barely coming to terms with the realization that he's riding on a sled made from the halves of super saiyans.


VN02 Miku! It's gorgeous.

It inspired Miguel ~merkymerx to draw this:



Kagamine Rin ~Meltdown~ figure, also by Max Factory.


K-On Figmas!


Vocaloid Nendoroids. TAKO LUKAAAAA!


Saber Lily! Such wonderful movement.

And now for photos of actual people, most of which are not by me. Credits are on top of corresponding photos.

_{(photo by Miguel ~merkymerx)}

This shot is a bit blurry, but it's one of the few full-body shots from my camera. My friend used to tease me that I should cosplay Sailor Mars instead of Tuxedo Mask because I have her legs. So there you go, man. I'm utilizing my disproportionate legs for cosplay.

Also, it's going to start looking like my arms had been glued in this position for the whole day because while I did other poses, almost all of the photos from my camera have me in this one.

_{(photo from Sammy ~flamable77)}

We met Sammy ~flamable77, a cosplayer from Baguio City. One of the golden moments of lulz for the day was when she was asking my friends if I was around, when I was right in front of her. Sorry, Sammy! They are a crafty bunch, but in a nice way! But thank you for proving that my transformation was successful! Hahaha!

_{(photo from Sammy ~flamable77)}

Oh man ~Dinkyass EJ's face at the back Well played, sir.

_{(photo by EJ ~Dinkyass)}

On the way to the Slurpee corner to get drinks for my friends, I stumbled into someone in a big yellow coat, but I saw a familiar pink collar under it. And then I noticed the glasses... and the headband... It was Czari as Mari in the pink plugsuit! (She took the coat off for this photo) We got a bit stuck posing for photos together, but it was alright because we were able to introduce ourselves to each other and chat while people asked for pictures.

Earlier during the day, Raymond ~cscentrl introduced me to Jen, who was also cosplaying Mari, but as I had mentioned earlier, in the Provisional Unit-05 plugsuit. The next two photos are some pretty shots for her by =KiraHokuten.

_{(photo by =KiraHokuten)}

My friends and I love this design, so we were thrilled to see someone actually cosplaying it.

_{(photo by =KiraHokuten)}

And Jen is one of the sweetest people I've had the pleasure to meet through cosplay!

_{(photo by Alfred ~shimekops)}

Ran into Dennis ~shutter-puppy, Kathy ~katZ16, Sese *seseostara, Romi ~wildquaker (and his sexy legs) and the others at the free Slurpee area.

Alfred ~shimekops asked if we could shoot Mari photos outside the con. I thankfully obliged and said I'd find Jen (Green Mari) and Czari (Pink Mari) to join us. I thought it wouldn't be too difficult as I had been frequently running into both of them before that. When I was purposely looking for them, they were suddenly nowhere to be found!

_{(photo from ~reginepetrola)}

Me and ~reginepetrola Happy birthday!

_{(photo from ~reginepetrola)}

Photobomb, photobomb... Friendly neighborhood photobomb...

_{(photo by Miguel ~merkymerx)}

Markee ~shinobimarkee as the Galactic Fairy, Sheryl Nome. He is always fabulous.

_{(photo by Erving ~Huzafan)}

After some time, somehow, the Friendly Neighborhood Photobomb Squad managed to track down the two other Maris and we were all finally together. It was so cute when Jen and Czari finally met and observed and compared techniques on how they executed their plugsuits.

_{(photo from Edward Albert Samoy)}

The Macross Frontier group (with special guest Sese) avenged the people my friends photobomb, and groupbombed me.

_{(photo by Miguel ~merkymerx)}

Such a fun group!

_{(photo from Edward Albert Samoy)}

On a random note, if there's anything I like about this costume, it's the glasses. I chose clear red frames because I noticed that on Mari toys, her glasses are sometimes made of clear red plastic and I liked how that looked. I'm tempted to get these fitted with the right frames for my nearsightedness so I can use them everyday.

_{(photo by Miguel ~merkymerx)}

I'm not used to girl cosplay so Alfred had to direct me.

<sub>(photo from Edward Albert Samoy)


(photo from Edward Albert Samoy)


(photo by Erving ~Huzafan)</sub>

Megane Club

_{(photo by Erving ~Huzafan)}

Melo, EJ ~Dinkyass and Kat ~moonlightflight wanted to do cutesy poses with their glasses too.

_{(photo by me)}

Heading down to NERV headquarters?

_{(photo by Alfred ~shimekops)}

Mari Makinami is part of NERV. Judging by his face, Melo must hail from a company called PERV [link]

_{(photo by Alfred ~shimekops)}

Four-Eyes Club again

_{(photo by Miguel ~merkymerx)}

We found this staircase and thought it was a bit reminiscent of Evangelion somehow, so we got some shots there.

_{(photo by Alfred ~shimekops)}

Dramaaaa.

_{(photo by Alfred ~shimekops)}

Shot and directed by Alfred ~shimekops, colors edited by me
Alfred is so much fun to shoot with. He has all these ideas for shots and really gets into it when he's suggesting poses.

His devID says it all:




Howdy, Sheriff Woody! He actually had a pull-string on his back. Miguel pretended to tug it and whispered "Reach for the skyyyy"


Toy soldier!


Heyyyy you're not Unit-02.
Awesome cosplay!


Throughout the day we were also admiring this Dhalsim. Melo got in touch with his inner E. Honda


Tux Team and our new friends from Davao, including Cosplay TorCH finalists Duane ~Du-Ai-Ni and Francine.
Dennis is doing the Mari pose too!
<sub>Miguel: HURRRRRR DURRRRR
Dom: DERP DERP

(photo by  Dennis ~shutter-puppy)</sub>

Melo has yet again deemed himself uncroppable, and Miguel has decided to temporarily stop doing DURR faces.


Dennis a.k.a. Shoti and Kat

_{(photo by  Dennis)}

Posing with a print before we signed it with our super teamwork message.

It was getting pretty late and after a full day of lots of interviews, meeting people, taking pictures, Mari-hunting, photobombing, helping each other manage the booth and the usual running around for whatever reason, we were all exhausted. While packing up for the day, my ears picked up on some music so I look toward the stage and see this iconic figure DJ-ing and dancing...


...Michael Jackson cosplay! I had fun taking photos because he was so dynamic, and because of the smoke and colored lights.


Pretty awesome way to end the night, yeah.

Michelle, a pretty cosplayer guest from Malaysia!


with Monique ~MorningMiracle looking flawless as always


Nyan nyan nyan nyan, ni hao nyan~


Even with me in my schoolgirl Mari cosplay, Markee ~shinobimarkee is more of a woman than I will ever be.

Most people are tired of Death Note cosplays by now, but I personally love when people do creative twists like this.


His shot of ~Jesuke as Megurine Luka during Day One
She looked so pretty!


He also took this photo of a ~Meltdown~ Kagamine Rin cosplayer


Sese *seseostara with our guests from Singapore, Miss Caroline and ~Jesuke
(this was from Day 2)


~Jesuke with the sword I had commissioned from AC


Brawl. Thought it was a photo of a toy for a moment.


Speaking of toys... The toy soldier from earlier!


I always enjoy seeing Kamen Rider cosplayers.


Hello, gentlemen.
So moe.

Yoshinoya Beef Bowl Eating Contest!


OM NOM NOM


~eva-guy01, a hero to many cosplayers (including myself), as Zaku. Awesome!

A better look at this costume:



Such amazing details on this Garo Makai Knights Kiba cosplay.
This is Guy Singzon and he was the Overall Champion! Congrats, Sir Guy!


Krischan Ramos as Nightmare
Winner of Best Male Cosplay


Erwin Luarca as Bumblebee
Winner of Best Comic Book/Cartoon Cosplay


Stephanie Sumbre as Monster Hunter Rathalos
Winner of Best Video Game Cosplay


Umi


I must say I really appreciated the stage setup. The lights and smoke gave these cosplayers a great setting to showcase their costumes.


Mr. Clive Lee ~miragecld, one of our guests from Singapore! I was totally blown away by his Gundam cosplay. Truly epic. I wish we had been able to catch his mecha workshop!

Click here for the full photo set!

Preview!

I often take pictures of what's outside my window. I've got a pretty sweet view of the sky.


Sometimes I share pictures of my food, hahah. This is a type of Oreo I tried out - they're blueberry ice cream-flavored. I was wondering why they called it "blueberry ice cream" when just "blueberry cream" would have sufficed. When I bit into one, I realized why. It actually feels cold inside your mouth. A really mild and pleasant sensation, IMO. And while it feels cool, there is no mint taste so it's not like you're eating toothpaste. Try to pick some up if you see them!


My Tako-Luka likes to eat too. That's a slice of gummy pizza candy.


My current favorite snack - artificial bacon chips! Hahah! Dehydrated potato matter with chemicals simulating bacon flavor, mmmm.


I love being greeted by vibrant sunsets when I look outside my window.
I didn't edit the colors for this shot.

Oh, and I made a Tumblr post that some of you might enjoy.

The Costumed Colonel
(Click the link to see the rest! There are lots more. Mustn't miss the last one!)

The following pictures are from when we attended ~anti00gravity Gine's 90's-themed sendoff party. She's studying at SCAD in Hong Kong now! We're so happy for her!

My friends and I talk about how much we miss the 90's so we were psyched about the party theme, and even more because people were encouraged to come in costume. Kat, Miguel and I chose characters/personalities who meant something to us in the 90's.


Although technically an 80's character, Kat chose Jem from Jem and the Holograms. Kat looks a bit funny here because she lined in Jem's eye makeup with white eyeliner and is  using lipstick to color it in. She later put on bright pink eyeshadow to finish it up. It was fascinating to watch, and the final outcome was pretty cool.



Miguel chose Braveheart, but only did the face paint instead of the whole outfit.


And I was... Taylor Hanson. Hahaha!
Little known fact - back then, Taylor Hanson was my hero. I remember how my cousins would often wait for Hanson's video for Mmmbop to come on TV. It was initially because they rollerbladed in it and we were obsessed with blading back then; we were out on the streets from 6AM to 6PM. Eventually we found the song catchy and thought it was cool that there was a band on MTV comprised of kids who were just a bit older than us. For some reason, I looked up to Taylor in particular. I thought it was funny that so many people were confused by his gender, but I didn't really care. All that mattered to me was that I liked their music and I thought it was cool that he and his brothers went and chased their dreams at such a young age.


Gine's shot of our happy little table at Offbeat Cafe. Hi Sandee and Kitty ~jiaren!


The food there was so goooood. Here's is Kitty's burger. Yes, there is an egg in it and they used sugar-glazed donuts as buns. SO GOOD.


And then for some reason I suddenly had facial hair and a fedora so I went from being Taylor Hanson to Kid Rock.
Cross out Mmmbop and replace with...
BAWITDABA DA BANG A DANG DIGGY DIGGY
DIGGY SAID THE BOOGY SAID UP JUMP THE BOOGY

MY NAME IS KIIIIIIIID


By the end of the night, they were calling me Kurt Cobain. I know, I know. Facial hair on me is highly disturbing.

_{(photo by Kira =KiraHokuten)}

I wore my Shippu! Konoha Gakuen Den version Naruto costume because I realized I've had it for a long time but had never used it for local events. (I first wore this for Fanime Con 2008) Truth be told, I had trouble with my blue contacts during that morning so I opted to use my red ones instead. Kyuubi rage My eyes were also a little swollen from lack of sleep at the time so I tried to work with it instead of against it. I put some brown makeup around the edges to go for a slightly more rugged, angry look.


There was a big crowd around the gymnasium (which was air-conditioned, yay) when we arrived. As we had hoped, there was the familiar atmosphere of school fairs. The guy posing for my camera is Melo. You'll see a lot more of him throughout this entry. It was his goal to be in at least 90% of the pictures.


There were tables and booths around for students to sell items. Saw a lot - accessories, artwork, wigs, clothes, bags, etc. There was even a booth where people could get their hair sprayed different colors, hahah.


Can you spot Melo?

A lot of photobombing went on during this day. Kat spent time documenting a lot of it. One of the first was...


This was supposed to be just me and Alfred's Miku plush but...
There is no such thing as a solo photo with these guys around.


And now with someone's Pedobear plush.
(EJ is wearing his Pedro Oso necklace, heheh)

_{(photo by Niko ~nikocruz)}

Oh no they didn't! Run away, little girl! RUN. AWAY.


I didn't even know that Romi photobombed us until Kat gave me copies of these photos. Well played, sir.


These are our sexy faces. Romi ~wildquaker is cool. I dub him Fabulouch.


Photobombing is contagious. Can you tell that there was only supposed to be 4 people in this picture?


With one of my cosplay idols, Guy Singzon. He makes such amazing armor.


Goofing around with Orochimarkee. The snake, it is licking my face.
Miguel says HURRRRR

_{(photo by Erving ~Huzafan)}

You bad, bad people.
10,000 Years of Pain!

Sir Richie invited me to go outside for a bit to shoot around the venue. My friends went as well so that we could explore the school grounds, and Richie, Kat and Kira took the following photos.

_{(photo by Kat ~moonlightflight)}

There were these beautiful old walls with moss.
It might be interesting to note that while I was posing for this shot, my friends were singing Backstreet Boys songs to me.

_{(photo by Kat ~moonlightflight)}

Pensive stairs shot. I was actually admiring the moss on the wall.


This is what I was seeing. I had to capture it before we left.

_{(photo by Kat ~moonlightflight)}

Against the brick wall.

_{(photo by Richie dela Merced)}

Stair shot by Sir Richie.

_{(photo by Kira =KiraHokuten)}

Schoolyard fight?


Back at the gym, the photobombing continued.


We also learned to form what we ended up calling a human centipede. (Nothing like that disturbing movie, don't worry.)


And then there was LIIIIIIGHT!


Dom found a masked friend!


EJ started photobombing Charmie and this nice group of people. At the back we see Melo swooping in to join.


Wait for it....


SUDDENLY, A GROUP BOMB
(Sorry, guys!)


This is us doing an... art shot with Markee.


Our favorite target, the girl who was using a videocam to take pictures of herself and her friends. Her screen was swiveled to face her so obviously she'd see us squeezing ourselves in the background. When she turned around to laugh at us, we'd act nonchalant and walk away. Thank you for putting up with us, miss!


Dyyyynamic group shottttttt!


And since we were on the basketball court of a school gym, obligatory...
WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER~
Ahh, brings back memories of this part of our joke cosplay skit.


And then we had to sit ourselves down and behave because the cosplay competition was starting.

_{(photo by Niko ~nikocruz)}

Sese *seseostara, Zell ~z3LLLL, me, and Art ~artryan18 at the judging table.

_{(photo by Niko ~nikocruz)}

I'm not sure what's going on with my friends at the back. Let's not find out.

_{(photo by Niko ~nikocruz)}

Cool Predator mask!


Barricade, who seems to be unhappy to see me.


He even had Frenzy skittering around him.


Little Leon!


I suppose you can guess...


It's Bumblebee! I was surprised he could move so well in that costume. He could even jump!


Brawl

I wasn't able to take much other photos from the cosplay catwalk, sadly. I had to concentrate on judging.


Bumblebee with kitty paws, pawing at someone in the crowd.


He saw me and waved


Kat ~moonlightflight and Melo won the Onigiri-Making Contest!


Some of their loot.


Trap-Miku who had earlier coquettishly sauntered onstage like no one's business.

_{(photo by Richie dela Merced)}

Not Charlie's Angels

_{(photo by Richie dela Merced)}

Me and my big, bad delinquent gang. The most badass of all is super giant Erving at the back.
And yes, they do make me look even shorter.
_{(Since people often ask - I'm about 5'4" and I'm not bothered by my height at all. I think it's a good size to be. Just don't expect anyone tall when you see me, hahah.)}


Honorary father and son, Art ~artryan18 and Dom ~Weakman


We had to leave right after the competition because some of our friends needed to get home. We just stopped for dinner in Chinatown. It was fantastic.


From me and my friends, thank you so much once again to ~hopiangmangga and ~adobongsiopao (your usernames make me hungry) for these cute keychains of their drawings! I was not able to catch if your friend had a dA account, I'm sorry. But you're all so sweet! I'm looking forward to giving Ysabel ~SavingSunlight the Taiga keychain when I see her.

Main page tuxessories.bigcartel.com
Custom layout coded by the wonderful ~jiaren!

Tuxessories is on Facebook now! facebook.com/Tuxessories


Just click the " Like" button to receive our latest updates on your Facebook feed!

Jump rings, clasps, more jump rings. At the back is the reject clasp pile for the ones that were too stiff. We don't want our customers hurting their fingers!


This is Kat chaining up one of our Pedros.


AN ARMY


Kitty sorting out some chains. So natural... It almost looks like she's making noodles! CHINESE SKILLZ!


Our pile of finished necklaces. That clear acrylic looks like candy. I was sorely tempted to bite them.


The laser had taken a bite out of this one.
For those wondering - our pendants are made of acrylic plastic, cut with a laser.


Playing with the punched out bits from the Om Nom pendant.


I didn't think you could make a face with those letter pieces, but Miguel managed.

Open your eyes
I see
Your eyes are open
BEST LYRICS EVER Y/Y

The above shot was from when I was trying to make Kat laugh by directing her like Tyra Banks. I was commanding her to "smize". And we proved that when you poke fun at yourself, a lot more light and joy actually pops into your expressions.


I think we all enjoyed this pendant shoot the most. Pepperoni crunch! 8D


For the I Yaoi pendant, they had Miguel ~merkymerx play the seme with me as the reluctant uke. The girls decided on which wig, contacts and shirt I'd wear and I ended up like this.


It's kinda funny when you see how Kat ~moonlightflight was actually squatting so that we could achieve the photo above.



Obligatory group shot after we wrapped up the shoot!


The other shot which I had shared over my Facebook the night after our shoot.
Some people actually managed to guess what my pendant was about.

From your favorite 'Mechanical Narwhal-Inspired Equine Quadruped Assault' game comes this beautiful creation that you will certainly want to be with you. Always.


I am a bit embarrassed about this photo but here you go! Hahaha!
Now you can proudly wear your love for boys love, but it'll still be a secret from people who can't read katakana!


Kat the Explorer with her not-so-lovable baboon sidekick go on adventures with... Pedro Bear.


WRAIT I'M EAFING
The chain for this necklace is extra long so you can hold it up beside your face as you enjoy your food.

Official site - www.midorisekai2010.webs.com
The poster is also uploaded on the artist's gallery, if you want a better look at it: [link]

Tickets cost 100PHP. You may pre-order from the organizers: [link]

1) bubydub ( here on dA) as Simon



SHE IS MY DARLING FATHER AND ALWAYS MAKES ME SO HAPPY I HAVE TO TALK IN ALL CAPS

2) VintageAerith ( here on dA) as Nia



We have not even personally met and we can make threads of epic proportions just talking about how deeply TTGL has touched our hearts!

3) FoolofLeuda as Leeron

THOSE. HEELS.


"Beautiful queen~!"
I don't know what else to say. He makes me feel like Leeron has come to life.

by ~merkymerx

:thumb168136722:
by !petitecamomille
(She'll be doing commissions in the near future!)

If you're interested, either comment on Isa's album in Multiply or send her an email through this address:
roriroripoppu [at] gmail [dot] com