Cosplayers and Cons - The Good, the Bad, and the DO NOT WANT

I'm a cosplayer, although at the most I make about one or two a year. When cosplaying, it's important to pick a character you can see yourself as, and even more important to make it work. Unfortunately, that advice is rarely taken. There's a difference between being intentionally awful... (although I'm still confused to this day about the Kakashi cosplayer)

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...and not being able to tell the difference between what's acceptable or not.

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The Alice cosplayer is the very definition of the latter statement. A man in his 40s, basement-dweller, supposedly uses his mother's welfare cheques to get to cons and cosplay. He's got quite a history and a lot of creepy crossplays to match. So creepy is his behavior, groups have been known to go to extreme lengths just to make sure he doesn't find out about gatherings (including hugging people without permission, scaring small children for photos, throwing tantrums, and getting his mother to come down and yell at con staff). Apparently he was also banned from Disneyland because the company is afraid people will associate him with them. I'm tempted to post his Jessie cosplay, but there's not enough bleach in the world to forget that train wreck.

I'm somewhat glad I'm in Australia. For the most part, the cosplayer community is rather sane and polite - although there are acceptions and I've had a few bizarre encounters of my own. A guy once asked if he could have my underwear for a skit... Luckily I haven't seen him at any cons since then.

Hmmm I'm sure I can scrounge up something terrible for this thread let's see what the internet has to offOH GOD NO. NO NO NO NO NO

Spoiler:

THERE IS NO GOD.

Is that... Is that supposed to be Apollo Justice?

D:

Raine wrote:

Is that... Is that supposed to be Apollo Justice?

D:

Yes, and oh shit check this one out.

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I usually tend to be of the opinion that people should be able to cosplay whoever they want regardless of body type or skill level, but since cons are included in this thread...

I really hate people at conventions who insist on hugging you even when you tell them "no". I fell extremely ill during the last convention I attended, and when I was dressed as Kurama a ton of girls insisted on hugging me even when I managed to croak out that I was ill and they really shouldn't. They just did it anyway. I should probably feel bad for hoping they all got just as sick as I did.

It irks me even more when they do it to people in very elaborate costumes that are probably very delicate.

This whizzes right past failure and loops backs to fucking hilarious.

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Chalchihuitlicue wrote:

I usually tend to be of the opinion that people should be able to cosplay whoever they want regardless of body type or skill level

I'm of that opinion too. I don't mind faces so much if people try to put a bit of effort in like with make-up (even if you generally don't wear it) or getting a proper wig. I tend to rage more on lazy attempts, horrible interpretation costumes and bad behavior.

I hate it when people hug you too, or glomp. That's been banned from a lot of cons - along with yaoi paddles, THANK GOD - but I still hear a lot of horror stories. I've always been terribly afraid of doing an elaborate costume or an important prop because people tend to want to touch, or steal. I was at a con in Brisbane a while ago where I was in the bathroom fixing my hair and some girls ran in after having stolen some people's props. You DON'T do that! People spend time and effort on something which may just make their cosplay, and the last thing they need is for it to be stolen and broken to piece by idiots. We (me and a girl dressed as a female Captain Planet) ended up yelling at them to carefully take them back and apologise. Luckily they listened. =_=

Haha, Mafiosa, I was going to post that. It's one of my favourite cosplays just for the sheer hilarity.

Raine wrote:

There's a difference between being intentionally awful... (although I'm still confused to this day about the Kakashi cosplayer)

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That's Anne Packrat, who did that for the sake of :lolinsane: . I wish I had a picture of her Garbage Bag Final Fantasy X Lulu on hand.

Chalchihuitlicue wrote:

I usually tend to be of the opinion that people should be able to cosplay whoever they want regardless of body type or skill level, but since cons are included in this thread...

There is a really fine line on this: while I do not think that one should be 'prohibited' from cosplaying a certain character because of their body type, I do think that it may be prudent for an individual to modify their costume design according to their body type. Just because you're not a twig doesn't mean that you can't have fun and dress up like your favorite character...but if you don't have the body for it, cosplaying as Yoko from Gurren Lagann...bakini and all, will likely earn you the wrong sort of attention: you'd be better off modifying her costume so that it's a bit more conservative.

My biggest pet peeve is actually when cosplayers at ANIME conventions dress up as characters whom are not even vaguely related to anime or japanese culture: I went to Anime Boston this year, and I saw so many Jokers/Harry Potters/Alices/storm troopers that it wasn't funny.

Wouldn't that get you the wrong sort of attention regardless?

anangrychocobo wrote:

Wouldn't that get you the wrong sort of attention regardless?

Yeah, I can't imagine wearing a Yoko costume (without modifying it, anyway) even if I was in great shape.

Anyway, I don't like costumes that look all plastic much.

Lurv wrote:

Yeah, I can't imagine wearing a Yoko costume (without modifying it, anyway) even if I was in great shape.

Anyway, I don't like costumes that look all plastic much.

Skimpy costumes are usually a no-go, even if partly due to some con rules that'd get you kicked out for wearing it.

One of my pet peeves is people who use the shiniest material they can get their hands on. You really shouldn't be using it for, say, Naruto characters. I doubt you'd be very stealthy wearing reflective gold fabric (although not much can be said for bright orange jumpsuits, but still...).

I'd thought I didn't have any pertinent pics, but I checked my cosplay folder just in case.

I'd forgotten about...this.

Spoiler:

Like all the assrape didn't make Hojo creepy enough.

...oh hell I am not sleeping tonight. Points for making him suitably greasy, though. ...at least, I HOPE that's part of the costume.

Delcat wrote:

I'd thought I didn't have any pertinent pics, but I checked my cosplay folder just in case.

I'd forgotten about...this.

Spoiler:

Like all the assrape didn't make Hojo creepy enough.

...oh hell I am not sleeping tonight. Points for making him suitably greasy, though. ...at least, I HOPE that's part of the costume.

Creepy? Yes. Most accurate Hojo cosplay I've ever seen? Also yes! Fecking fantastic, wonderfully creepy and slimy.

I am currently Cosplayed up nicely as Red Sniper from Team Fortress 2. Of course I'm lazy, and the costume is missing a couple of things (like the guns and the icons) but hey, I can do that tomorrow.

And I DO have the hat.

Wrong thread, Harley. The Flaunt Your Own Costumes thread is on the Couch.

I started a general thread for bad costumes and cosplay, as I don't really have much to say other than a link dump.

This just gets more bizarre the longer I look at it

Raine already made a thread for this under "subcultures". Maybe we can merge your post.

ZoZo wrote:

I started a general thread for bad costumes and cosplay, as I don't really have much to say other than a link dump.

This just gets more bizarre the longer I look at it

I've heard of people making Hitler "cute", but this is the worst shit I've seen yet.

I've never cosplayed before, but a forum I'm on is planning on organising a JoJo con in 2012 and I absolutely MUST ATTEND. However, I am the total opposite of the character I really like and would want to cosplay. Plus I have no experience in wigs. So, I'm more or less just going to make their outfit for me to wear and see where I feel like going from there. I'm not too worried, there are a ton of cosplayers way better than me and I just want to have a little piece of fun.

Of course, this is four years away, so I might go mad during the time and try for a full blown cosplay of a more feasible character.


In any case, JoJo character and outfits tend to be bright colours, strange and bizarre designs, shapes, and patterns, and just all around difficult. Some people pull this off extremely well:

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While others... Eh....

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Spoiler:

Your images aren't working.

Oh damn it. Well screw that, I'm not hosting them.

There was a woman at a convention my friend and I went to a long time ago (we've been going and drawing commissions and whatnot for quite a while). I don't know quite who she was cosplaying as, but we somewhat cruelly nick-named her "Undulady" due to her propensity to stick out over her corset and, uh, undulate. Like, in a terrifying way. We were pretty much all for cosplaying at any size or shape; more power to the person for having balls, but tank tops paired with corsets serve only to accentuate floppy boobs (and present them in bad convention-style lighting). It did not help that her booth was next to ours, and she was actually really nice.
Mean little!Toastuh was mean.

Raine wrote:

Is that... Is that supposed to be Apollo Justice?

D:

Specifically, an unfinished Apollo Justice, snapped at a crappy angle. The lesson here is that it really helps to let someone else hold the camera.

Verandering wrote:

a forum I'm on is planning on organising a JoJo con in 2012 (...)this is four years away, so I might go mad during the time and try for a full blown cosplay of a more feasible character.

OMG. The internet, a time machine?
Are you in July like me?

Verandering wrote:

Oh damn it. Well screw that, I'm not hosting them.

You don't have to, you just have to make sure that picture urls actually have an image file suffix like .jpg or.gif or something. Right-click on the image itself and "copy image address" instead of using the link in the address bar.