4 Months Worth of Ketchup

So you all know the drill, I’m bad at writing up blog posts to you go months without an update on here. I hope those of you interested in my projects all follow me on Instagram at this point (@mikeydoescosplay) cause that seems to be the only place I’m actually consistent…

But I’m here now and I want to share what I’ve been doing with all of you… for the past 4 months lol

First off, I’ve been to Matsuricon since last I checked in, which was awesome! I had 2 (and 1/2) new cosplays, which it’s been a very long time since I’ve done more than 1 new thing at a con, but I had the time and motivation so I made it happen!

First up is Shigure Rangetsu from Tales of Berseria! I promised my friend Trickssi I’d cosplay this for/with her… at least a few years ago at this point so I finally made it happen! I’m pretty happy with how everything turned out, the costume itself was super obnoxious to put together between the silly pleated & paneled pants with the V-crothch that the Tales of series love so much (which consequently means they don’t stay up without the belt part cause that’ not how pants work in real life) , the weird sandal things, and the wig with its random braided rat tail and giant swoopy lock in the front. Despite having a bunch of weird bits it’s actually pretty comfortable, and of course my giant Morgrim more than makes up for all the agrivation. I did discover I have no easy way of carrying anything while I’m wearing it, so my plan for next time is to build a pocket into Morgrim to stash my stuff.

I don’t have a ton of photos in this as of yet, I’d like to do an actual photoshoot with Trickssi at some point with her as Rokurou, so you can expect some… eventually. But in the meantime here’s a couple.

Here’s the group from the Tales of gathering, which is the only one I’ve seen thus far. Thanks bridgey_cos for posting it!

And of course the only photo that matters.

Second up is the other totally new cosplay I did for Matsuri, and I did primarily for my con fam because we all share a deep love for NieR Gestalt/Replicant. While this wasn’t the cosplay I was initially planning on, I’m super pumped about it cause I don’t do a whole lot of designing and I got to play with it a bit since it’s a genderbend. I wasn’t sure I liked it as I was making it, but when all of the pieces came together I fell in love.

I absolutely adore Kaine and so cosplaying her was amazing. It’s actually pretty comfy too, besides the shoes (I changed into boots after we got these shots), and the leg wrappings do tend to fall down but otherwise it’s actually pretty nice to wear. And of course as Kaine I get to run around doing stupid shit lilke this…

And the best part was having my good friend Salem there as our precious cinnamon bun, Emil.

We even found another Kaine there (not that I have any photos of us, oops)! I’m really looking forward to having the whole Wolf Pack doing NieR cosplays together <3

Last up is a not-entirely-new-but-mostly-revamped cosplay. It’s one that I made a long while ago and very much wanted to update and redesign a bit. I’m referring to Nanaki/Red XIII from FF7. With the new hype over the fact that we have an actual release date for the remake (I’ll believe it when I’m actively playing it), I figured now was the time!

This is the only full-body photo I have from Matsuri, with this amazing Aerith cosplayer, but I do have some shots so you can see all of the details. First, here’s the old look:

Great big thanks to my dear Rion for this photo.

The hoodie, shorts, and wrist-warmers are the same, though I re-dyed the shorts because I’ve worn them enough at this point that the orange was fading. The shoes are new, but I didn’t do any work there lol. The biggest differnce is the hat with the spikes, which does a better job for hearkening to Nanaki’s design, and fits the overall punk aesthetic I was going for. The tail being a belt is another new detail, different from the actual stuffed tail I had before. Lastly we have the feathers and earring, the earring mirroring his beaded locks of hair that hang to either side of his face. I wanted it to be asymmetrical, which is why the feathers are together on the one side, and there’s only one earring. I thought that would fit better with the overall aesthetic than making those details symmetrical like his original design.

That’s all the new stuff I’ve done for myself lately but I have had a number of commissions I’ve been working on recently. If you’re on instagram you’ve seen them come together, but I’ll put together another new blog post (I promise it won’t be 4 month this time…) with all of that stuff.

Matsuri 2018

Hello everyone, welcome back! Now that Matsuri's over I have a little breathing room again so I actually have time to put together a post-con post! Matsuri was a blast overall and I'm already pumped for my next convention in a couple of months!!

Friday

I went down early on Friday, hoping to avoid as much traffic as possible and snag a good parking spot. With the imminent republican dinner and he-who-shall-not-be-named coming that evening I wanted to avoid as much hassle as possible. It mostly worked out except that the parking garage I wanted to be in was flat out closed, much to my dismay. I still managed to get a decent enough sppot in the outdoor lot and resolved to move my car saturday morning since I knew I'd be awake early cause that's just what I do.

I all of friday in Mordred, mostly in the traditional casual outfit. Likely the coolest thing I did all weekend was meet Erica Lindbeck, Mordred's VA (and 12 other characters I also love). I went with my friend Genki and I had her sign my sword and bought a Mordred print she had at her table too. She was awesome and very sweet. She gave me lots of compliments on the sword, especially after I told her I'd made it myself. I got a couple photos with her and as I was leaving, I heard my name.
"Mike."
I turned back around not at all prepared for what was coming next.
"Are you the one... who is my master?"

I'm dead I'm dead I died I'm dead.

My wig is falling off and I'm not looking at the camera, but at Least Erica Lindbeck looks great and is weilding Clarent Blood Arthur so that's all that actually matters.

After meeting Erica, Genki and I met our other friends to do our usual Wolf Pack dinner at Max & Erma's. It was still pretty early so we immediately got a table.... and were just about the only people in the restaurant at the time. Not gonna complain.

After dinner I went back to the room and changed into Mordred's formal outfit for the formal ball, hosted by Trickssi! As always, the music selection was lovely and the dancing was fun. I met Nekoyasha09 dressed as Semiramis, who I found out was going to be in my big cosplay group the following day... small world.

After the dance was over I hooked back up with my wolf pack and hung out until people were ready to call it a night.

Saturday

Saturday morning, as promised, I woke up too early for my own good, and used the unfortunate consequence of my internal clock to nab a fantastic space in the garage right in between the con center and the hotel. Booyah.

Saturday was primarily reserved for Fire Emblem shenanigans so I put on my fake tits, did some contouring, and finally took my debuting steps in Vaida's stupidly tall stiletto boots.

I am super happy with how this cosplay turned out and even though no one recognized me who wasn't a member of our group, I still had a blast! Since I was up and out early, it was a bit before I found anyone else in my group but eventually we assembled the Fire Emblem: 420 Blaze It Sword crew.

I honestly don't know who our photog was because I'd not met him before, but you can be sure I'll have his info and will bombard you with photos as soon as I have them. The shoot was ridiculous and fun, just as I was hoping.

After walking around in stilletto boots for hours, my feet wanted to die, so I went back to the room to chill out for a while before transitioning into my last cosplay for the weekend.

And that last hurrah was in a cosplay I've not worn in quite some time. Daru Chai and I busted out our Soul Eater pair from... I honestly don't even remember how many years ago now, and we hit the con floor.

Photo courtesy of Daru Chai Cosplay

Magically we ran into some other Soul Eater cosplayers and joined them for a little photoshoot. We were one of 3 pairs of Steins/Medusas and had a Maka and a couple of Souls. We definitely hammed it up as much as possible before I had to take off.

I'll be getting some more of these back too since someone was taking photos for us.
After the shoot (or at least part of the shoot), I ran off and met my sister for dinner, and yes, I was still dressed as Stein.

Photo courtesy of vespamary

We went to this lovely little place called The Table and had some awesome meats, cheeses, fried green tomatoes, and cocktails. Our libations included an Old Fashioned we shared in memory of Grandma B.

As soon as I got back to the convention center I was immediately whisked away by Madster,  Heckin.Sleepy, and a small crew of others who were on a mission to find hot dogs. So we went questing together and I had a drink with everyone while people devouered some delicious-looking dogs. After we were sated, we headed back so I could send Heckin.Sleepy home with his new props (while we discussed some new possibilities for commissions).

He didn't end up wearing Nero at the con, so I don't have any photos of the lot together, but hopefully I'll have those to share some time soon as well. By the time we got back, I was just about dead, but I did manage to find some of my pack and hang out for a bit before trotting off to bed.

Sunday

Sunday was a lazier day than usual since I didn't bring any lounge-y cosplay to wear. I was initially thinking I could wear Mordred again on Sunday if I was motivated enough to do so but needless to say I was not. Thankfully I got to hang with my pack for a while and pick up a few things from the artist alley before I headed home. And we got a pack selfie since we totally forgot to do that on Friday when we were all together.

And that was that. I came home to my boys and got in lots of cuddle time and some Bob's Burgers before I passed out from the exhausting, but fun, weekend.

Now it's back to work, and I have plenty to do with a full armor commission and several other props that need to get done between now and Youmacon. You'll get to see my progress on those here soon, or you can keep up with it as it happens on my Instagram, which I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping up with.

Selfie!Con

Hey everyone!
Just got back from an awesome weekend at Matsuricon! As usual I'm not great at remembering to have people get photos of me in cosplay, but I did happen to constantly get selfies with people so yay for that!
 

Friday

I went down in Sothe, since I haven't worn him in a long time, and a friend of mine who does every version of Sothe ever was coming! So we decided to do PoR & RD Sothes together and it was glorious!

We went to the FE photoshoot and the person running the shoot didn't know who we were so we almost didn't get a Tellius series shot. Oops. But we did have a third, and made a Green-Haired Trifecta with Stefan!

After the shoot it was time to put my dance shoes and my fancy pants on because the wonderful Trickssi was running the formal ball and doing lessons beforehand, and I was not about to miss out on any of that.

So my fellow Sothe and I stopped being the same person and transformed into these winners!

God bless her for taking selfies with me otherwise I'd have no photos of my own cosplays from this weekend XD

Despite the lack of useful equipment prvided by the con for the lessons, we still had a lot of fun and learned to waltz, rumba, tango, swing, and salsa! I got some practice as a follow, which is always nice, and got to dance with some awesome folks. There was even a guy who asked for extra swing lessons afterwards when he learned that I was semi-competent at that one, so when we were at the actual ball he would come over every time a swing number came up and learn some new moves! Sadly I am not nearly as good a teacher as Trickssi so it was an interesting challenge, but we had a lot of fun! Also, my feet wanted to die.

After the formal I managed to meet up with my Wolf Pack at last since everyone was finally there by that point. We hung out for a while but everyone was tired so we we're up as late as we could have been.

Saturday

My only actual plans on Saturday were to go to the Destiny shoot in the afternoon, but I knew I didn't want to be in the Speaker all day so I went over in the morning in Oliver.

He's simple and comfy so it was a nice choice for the morning. I'm pretty sure only one person recognized me outside of my group of friends, but I'm totally fine with that since I know it's not a super widely-known game.

Once it hit early afternoon it was time to change into the Speaker and head to the Destiny shoot. The shoot was awesome, and sadly I don't have any photos to share at the moment because I didn't take any.... and let's be honest they all would have been terrible because I can't see anything directly in front of me when I'm in the Speaker. I do, however have another selfie with Genki that is the only documentation I possess that I actually wore him at all.

The shoot was great though, even though there were only a few of us. I got to make friends with Foundry 13 and Otherworld Cosplay, who were there as a titan and off-duty warlock, respectively. All three of us are planning on doing more Destiny cosplay, particularly with D2 coming out in a little over a week, and I'm hoping I get a chance to play with them at some point because they were both super chill and fun to hang out with. I know I definitely want to make my own warlock at some point, and if I have as much fun playing D2 as I did the original, I know I'm going to maintain that interest. And besides, the designs are so awesome it definitely tickles my creative juices too.
Another bonus was that we had one of the staff photographers running the shoot, so we should have some really nice photos and they should be up on Matsuri's website! I'll be sure to clue you guys in when I see those.

I bummed around the convention for a while longer in the Speaker, hoping there would be a few other people who wanted photos, which there were... along with a lot of questions about what the heck I was doing when the Cabal took over XD

Finally I had enough of being blind and having to walk like a princess, and changed into Penny. Unfortunately the Destiny & RWBY shoots were back to back so I didn't make it, but I did run into an adorable Velvet on my way back over to the con floor.

I spent the rest of the night hanging out and laughing my ass off with my wolf pack, AROOOO!

Sunday

Sunday was my usual waking up way too early because my body doesn't understand what it means to sleep pat 6am, so I loaded up my car, ate some free breakfast, put on some yellow shorts, and wandered over to the con center as Banjo & Kazooie.

The con center was a ghost town at that point so I just chilled and played pokemon for a while, but I ran into a few folks I knew before long and everyone seemed to be back together a lot earlier than I was expecting. We wandered around for a while, I found an artist with a full set of Team CFVY buttons (ok, my friend found them first but whatever) and bought some gorgeous Persona 5 prints from an artist I already have some prints from. Then, it was time for Mikey to go home to his boys. After the not-too-long-but-plenty-long-enough drive, there was much rejoicing, and many snuggles.

And that was that! I didn't really take many photos, although there were plenty of great cosplayers about.

And as most of you know at this point, my next big event is my Harry Potter weekend at the beginning of October, so I'll be making a ton of stuff for that. I may or may not be posting super regularly here this month, but I will definitely be taking photos of all the stuff I'm creating and will be sure to share.
Until next time <3