Convention report: Heat at Tracon V

We left from our hometown at ten on Friday morning, a day before the convention. Karan drove the first half of the almost four hour journey and I had the honor to freak out at Tampere's traffic, which for us small town girls was little crazy. The convention site was gladly easy to find. It just took one turn to left from the main road. Our hotel was just beside Tampere-talo. The first casualty of the journey occurred, when we drove down a ramp to the hotel's parking hall. It was a small scratch in the side of the car, caused by really narrow passage.

We booked in and found our room cool, while outside it was 30 Celsius. We had left some of Karan's props in the car, so she and Yoki thought they would go and get them while I would un-pack our costumes. But the car keys were missing. We were like... okay, when did this happen? In ten minutes time? Karan started to turn over her belonging. While she was going a second round I ran down to the desk, because for me it sounded like the most obvious place where they could be. And tadah! There they were. Happy ending for the second trial.

Well, that’s all about our arrival at Tampere. The next day started with wake-up call at seven, breakfast at half eight and preparations and make-up. We were ready approximately at ten. We thought that we would be able to see the opening ceremony, but didn't quite make it. It didn't bother us much, the first program we had planned to see started at eleven and it was a cosplay dance show.

Karan drawing arm tattoos.

Yoki's make-up close up.

MyuPro is a cosplay dance crew and new acquaintance for me. Of course I have seen videos from other countries, where cospay performances including dance and “musical” elements are a lot head of ours, but somehow I have missed groups doing the previous here in Finland. At Tracon MyuPro's show was themed Bleach. The name of the performance was “Valkaisuainetta”. In English I think it would be Bleacher. The show itself was build from individual pieces or performances with music from series openings to tracks from the rock musical. At this particular show they didn’t have special lights, because the circumstances didn’t allow the use of them. I changed few words with the group and they felt bit sorry for it even if the show worked without them. I have been acting in amateur theater for almost ten years, so I agree with them. The lights quickly change moods and can lead the eyes of the viewers to desirable direction. As a plus the shifts from one scene to other were thought trought. There was always something happening on the side of the stage, even if sometimes the meanings missed me. Did Rukia have a crush on someone or did she just want to dance with the guys, when she crawled to get to them? Never the less, I thought it was well played from Rukia and Yoruichi.

The hosts. The insert for the show was really character loyal.

The construction of the show was good. In some points there were too many repeats of a series of movements and at times it was clear that some of the pieces were not trained enough with the whole group. But those were just minor things my eye cached. Over all I enjoyed the show. It’s great that MyoPro has stepped up and given something new to Finnish cosplay scene. And it was a good cosplay! I’m somehow used to group performances with moderate costumes, but in the case of MyuPro I was happily surprised. The costumes were consistent trough the group. Star sticker approval for the props, the body paint and the wigs! Especially Hitsugaya’s wig caught my attention. It was also clear that the characters were casted with thought, keeping in mind the proportions of the group members. I'm looking forward of their other shows in future conventions. Best wishes for MyuPro!

Funny coincidence.

Water bottles were wih us all the time. And apparently with everyone else too, because there were zero heat strokes at the con.

The core of MämmiKunniaan.

At one we headed to Fandub lecture, hosted by Finnish fandub group MämmiKunniaan. They have made regular fandubs and comical ones from Naruto, Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist and many others. They talked about the constructions of the clips, which programs they are using and showed videos from requested by the audience. The audience was also free to ask questions from anything related to the production. People asked about how they could join the group at least twice. I don’t know was it only me, but I saw the question irrelevant and pushy.

After the Fandub lecture we had spare time, which we used beneficially by eating. We had bought some picnic food the previous day and stuffed them into our hotel room’s fridge. We just needed to pick them up, take a blanket with us and have a meal at the Sorsapuisto, park just next to the convention center. We were going to eat dinner at restaurant after six, when the con was closing for the day. Actually our timetable for feeding times proved to be the greatest idea ever. Nobody suffered from hunger and there were no tension about going to the store or finding a place to eat. In the future we shall continue on this road and plan the meals for conventions accurately.

Pan free time for Muddler.

Yummy salad for Takeru.

Sour grapes for Joxter.

At four we headed to lecture “Tales, legends and historical characters in anime and manga”. It was almost two hours long and I personally found it little dry at some points. I think it was in the beginning, when the lecturer went trough the different eposes. Of course it was essential part, but still too lengthy. Maybe it would have worked if the examples were mixed in the lecture thorough. What I found rather irritating was the attitude towards the corrections from the audience. They were passed by without polite thank you or any comment at all. Maybe this was because the lecturer was ill? Still the lecture gave new information. The examples varied from series from eighties to the newest one. One of them brought up nice memories from childhood and it was Starzinger. I never have paid that much attention to the design and the story line of the series. Well, I haven’t watched it in ages! But yes, now I see the influence from Journey to the West.

In the evening we went to after party. I drank few beers. Yoki and Karan enjoyed alcohol free refreshments, because they are wise. We arrived little late and didn’t see the bands booked for the party, but we did see the epic match Heroquest style! After the battle we sticked to table socker and had our own, tense tournament. We played three rounds, so that everyone would play two rounds with a partner and one alone. I can't remember who won. It must be either Yoki or Karan. I surely would remember if it was me.

Karan's favorite pose.

The next day started as the previous. Only difference was that Karan sat back and monitored our preparations. She had decided to not to wear her costume, which by the way was Izumo no Takeru from Opera Susanoh Sword of the Devil, but to take pictures. I so understand. She was so sweet, always ready to grab my camera when I had to pose or to hold my hat , when I was off to take pictures. Thank you again!

Yoki and Karan taking care of my hat.

Cutie Yoki taking care of my hat.

Karan taking care of my hat.

No, I didn't pose like this more than once. Only for Karan.

First we went to see the By-product of anime interest. I knew something about everything the lecturer brought up, but it was nice to have more information from them. The Vocaloid were the most alien for me. The lecturer stated in the beginning that he is going to handle the Vocaloid in the end and as long as he has time, because it is his own interest in them. It was well planned, because in our case, we didn’t find it that relevant. But in all, I liked the lecture. The lecturer had contact with the audience and the image material was good. For some sections I leave a question mark. I didn’t really see them as by-products, but as their own individual phenomenons.

At two we went to see the Cosplay group contest. I was surprised that there were still at least a handful of groups which dropped out from the competition. The performances were really music influenced, which is not bad. There were no embarrassing fan service or yaoi scenes, which made me and surely many others really happy. My favorites were the winner Koorizatou, even if I’m not familiar with Ragrarok Online and the group with four members, two “identical” tulle-skirt girls. The girls ecpecially were awesome. I got chills in a positive way on their “singing” parts. Talking about accuracy and performing. I think they were left without any special attention, because the series were not well known. They should really be acknowledged.

Test shots.

The hosts of the group competition.

Robotic tulle girls.

All the participants of the group competition and the winners. The ranks goes with the height. First pair is on the right.

After the competition we went to buy some snacks and chilled in the park until the closing ceremony. As usual the winners of the competitions were announced. We didn’t see the individual contest and when the winner was named I felt a bit sorry. It was Tira from Soul Calibur! One of my favorite characters from the game series! Noooo… But I checked the video from the competition from Youtube and she looked great and the performance was character loyal. Me likey. In all the closing ceremony was warm and nice way to end the convention. I specially like the moment when the people behind the event takes the stage. From my opinion they made Tracon a great and enjoyable convention and I hope we can attend it the next autumn.


The only thing left was the journey home. We changed our clothes at the convention site and headed to our car. Our luggage was already there, because we had checked out from the hotel in the morning. I was first to drive and you know what happened? The narrow passage got us again! The second scratch was accomplished. Again we drove in turns with Karan. It went well, even if we all were pretty tired.

In the end everything went well. The only casualties were the scratches on the car. I and Karan had sore leg muscles, because we didn’t have the most comfortable shoes. Mine were too a size too small and Karan’s… Well, I don’t even know how they stayed on her feet! Later this summer we are going to have a photoshoots for pictures and for a video starring Joxter and Muddler.


P.S The free water serving was great!

Completed: Detangling a long wig (and preparing it for future project)

There has been some time since the last post. I've been writing a long report about our experiences from Tracon and it is starting to seem like a forever project. I will try to step up and finish it on Sunday or Monday at the latest.

In May I started and experiment with silicon spray and a long wig. I had to put it aside, because we needed to work with costumes for Joxter and Muddler. Yesterday I had a day off so I went back to it. The working was a lot easier, because I had a stand for the wig head. It is actually from my fitting dummy, which I picked up from Yoki's place after... two years? I had planned to chech out the local flee markets for an cheap and old floor lamp, but then I realized that it would just take space and be somewhat unnececessary item laying around. Before I tried to use my table as a platform and my legs to keep the wig head still. Not succesful I assure.

Before, after and bundled.

I was really happy with the result after finishing the whole wig and it looked rather wearable as it was. For my purposes, I wanted to solve the fibers as well as possible. I'm going to use most of the lenght for wefts for a ridiculous ponytail. I also used pretty thich comb, which for some might sound horrible. But really, there were not too much of hair loss and with patience the fibers didn't get streched, which usually causes the wig to look messy.

The fibers doesn't get greasy looking when you take your time with the comb and remember to spray the silicon far enough. I haven't tried how the silicon will react to hairspray and other styling products so I can't guarantee that they will work normally.

After the detangling I prepared the wig for later projects, in other word cut it shorter and stored it and the material for the ponytail. Next week we are going to continue the making of the Snowtroopers and finally finish them. I hope that next week the weather would be bearable. I'm not designed for 32 Celcius for long periods of time. My productivity suffers greatly.

Because I didn't have a pair of helping hands I used yarn to make the cutting little easier.

Red rubberband marks the spot. I took off the gray yarns and cut the ponytail just over the rubberband.

Wig after the excess lenght has been cut out.

Trial for the placement of the base of the ponytail. Needs to be higher.

Tracon V cosplay in pictures

Now I understand why some cosplayers choose between wearing a costume and taking photographs. I was lucky to have Karan as a helpful aider. She always was ready to grab my camera, when somebody came to as for a photo. Naturally Yoki was handicapped because she needed to pose too. So big thanks to you, Karan!

We didn't hang out at Sorsapuisto more than few times for photographing purposes, but I did take some photos from cosplayers whose costumes intrigued me. One category of costumes, which I spotted from the colourful crowd was the "tents". As a dress maker I am drawn to them and in the case of Belle, I was sold because of the costume and the character. And the cosplayer was pretty as a picture!

Then there where my own favorites, like Grell from Kuroshitsuji and Raistlin Majere from Dragonlance. Yes, I'm an olf fantasy literature freak.







Balanced groups caught my eye as well as "dynamic duos". When you cosplay as a duo you start to pay more attention to the balance between the creations. The first pair, which I didn't even recognice (help needed!) I wanted to photograph just because of the previous. They were really nice too! And what would a convention be without western comic cosplays?

Kuroshitsuji is a pretty nice source for cosplay. The costumes are rather detailed and impressive. The One Piece group was inspiringly different and even if I don't really follow Reborn! I found the group coherent. The Sailor Moon cosplayers were so sweet and also MyuPro's members, who cosplayed and danced their way to my heart.










I took generally two or more photos from every cosplay posted here. If you are in the picture and would like to have the original and possibly the other one too, leave a comment! You can also contact me, if you want your photo deleted.

Sneak peeking

You know the feeling, when everything is finished and ready to go. It makes you feel satisfied and somehow empty. All your hard work and effort can be now packed and prepared to wear on the big day. For us it is usually a passing feeling. It lasts about two minutes and we usually haven't really packed all our stuff away, because we still need to sew some stitches and glue something to something. The two minutes usually take place between finishing everything and wearing it on the morning of the convention.

But now! Now we have that feeling and it's still two DAYS to the convention. We even took some photos to test our costumes. Wicked! Oh yeah, we needed to take them so that our faces would not be visible, because we didn't have the make-up on.

Finnish cosplayers and other con-goers, see you soon at Tracon!

"Of course it is legal. Trust me!"

Sniff... No sniff! Muddler!

Joxter using his time beneficially.

System mallfunction! Or... what?!

Few days ago, a very small bottle of clear liquid was found inside my mailbox. Thanks to Karan we were able to try to attach Muddler’s whiskers. Two attempts later the glue passed on to Hiron. She made the job look easy, again. The whiskers are made out of grayish fishing tackle, which I found after a quick search from mighty wreck storage.

Hazy picture of the whiskers trial.

Few days has also passed from the construction of Muddler’s evil shoes… or socks, but evil never the less. Yeah, Hiron was unhappy to be forced to take yet another round with them, but she didn’t shoot me when I suggested few alterations to them.

Oh yeah... Almost forgot. We are practically ready. Four days before the convention we are heading. This is our record. And because of that, we are in awe.

Almost finished!

Cosplayer, crossplayer, neutraplayer...

I'm a lady. I think there is no way I could be mistaken as a boy, but still my cosplay history is dominated by male characters. Not the most masculine men in the world, but still male. During the time I have been cosplaying, I have not used word “crossplay” to describe my hobby more than few times in the beginning. Particular term has just dropped from my vocabulary. There is an discussion on Finnish cosplay forum at Aniki.fi, which gave me the spark to write about the matter. “Cosplay or crossplay” is the topic, where people explain why they prefer one over the other. Cosplay. com has a own section for crossplaying for international tastes.

I see crossplay as a sub category for cosplay. As a term it defines that cosplayer and her character differ gender. If someone asked me if I see myself as a cosplayer or a crossplayer, I would answer that I'm a cosplayer. I have no need or will to highlight the gender difference between me and the character I’m portraying. So somehow I'm unable to comprehend why the term crossplay is sometimes such an issue.

I’m at the age, when parents don’t really care how I present myself. Or maybe they care, but also trust that as an adult I know what I’m doing. I’ve read that some of the younger cosplayers suffer from narrow minded parents, who don’t let them dress as a member of the opposite sex. Some in these cases there might be fear of “un-normal sexuality”, which is a rather twisted idea.

I think that crossplay doesn’t create anything that isn’t there already. Crossplay might be a supporting matter or way of self-expression of sexual orientation or usually neither of these. I know many people who dress as a member of the other gender while cosplaying and sexuality plays no part at all on their hobby. Cosplayers normally understand this, but sometimes the public doesn’t and I think that is something the parents fears the most. Being labeled isn’t nice and being bullied because people’s ignorance is horrible. I bet that is something what parents have in mind, when they ban crossplaying from their young ones.

To avoid negative commentary from parents or any other direction enlarging matter doesn’t help it. Crossplay can be thrilling. Also for some it is just cosplay. People have different types of bodies and sometimes they bend better to female silhouette and sometimes male. Sometimes the favorite character just happens to be male. When you cosplay, it’s all and only about a character. Cosplay isn’t reality, which sometimes seems to be forgotten. It’s just like theater, acting a role of somebody else than you. That is why I see the term crossplay as a descriptive word, not as an competing hobby next to cosplay.

As a side note, I need to add that sometimes I just love the term, because mind games are fun! For example, one time I saw a cosplay, where a girl crossplayed a boy who was crossplaying a girl. I only have cosplayed a girl who crossdressed as a boy.

General view on the progress and contacts trial run

Midsummer Day is on the next weekend. While everyone else are staring at a ridiculously huge campfire and eating sausages with potato salad, I shall try to finish all the incomplete stuff for Joxter and Muddler. Yoki will spend the weekend away, but she’s been really efficient these past few days. She found the perfect suede jacket to be torn to materials for Muddler’s ears.

Attaching rather real looking tail.

I already altered Muddler’s sock patterns according to our test version, but I’m going to start sewing on Saturday. I don’t want Yoki to be around when I start to curse and blame all the innocent creatures on Earth when things get difficult. I also finished Joxter’s hat. Only thing I still need to do with my costume is to weather it and possible find character loyal undershirt. The coat is pretty hot to wear.

Unidentified flying objects drying/flying in Yoki's room.

By the way, my convention envy got downgraded when I realized that there is only under few weeks to get the cosplays together. I’m bit worried for our companion Karan. I heard from Yoki, that she has made all the easy stuff, when I asked about the condition of her cosplay last weekend. We talked via Skype today, both parties working on the costumes. Karan assured that she will make it. Let's still cross our fingers!

Yoki painting the base shoes for Muddler's socks.

Now to the contact lenses. We bought them from Cybershop when they had sale going on. It was a nice coincidence that I found a pair for us both for half the price they originally were. Yoki’s lenses are 2-tone Onyx grey and mine are 3-tone Aqua marine. They are labeled to last a year. On our infrequent use possibly longer. We both have contacts on our left eyes, right on the picture. It's always pretty weird to put the lenses in the eyes after a long period of time. But next to that, they work nicely for our purpose.