No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on June 18, 2014

I watch Heroes of Cosplay. I started because I knew a couple of people involved from the convention circuit and Masquerades I had either been in or had run. A couple had been models for friends of mine who are comic book artists.

We are now into season 2 and I would like to address a couple of things. I am going to try to make this so you don’t have to go watch the show to know what I am talking about by making this a little more general than the specifics of the show.

I will address one thing from last night. If you use your electronics, your batteries will wear out. Always test your electronics for length of battery power (how long does it last?) and chop about an hour if not two off of that to be safe for the show. Also make your battery pack easily accessible and know how you are going to deal with breaks and be able to get TO the electronics while in costume.

Expect nothing but anticipate everything. You don’t want things to break but they are probably going to. So figure out before the show how you are going fix things. Make a repair kit and remember to bring it with you. Before it’s all over, you can pretty much guarantee you will need to make some form of repair.

Now the thing that has been bothering me the most this season and bothered me last season as well.

Costuming in a week to get these elaborate costume done from idea to convention can be done especially if you have a couple of friends to help you, but it is not how most of us do it. Also not everyone has the entire week total free and are being paid by a company to compete.

I know people who walk off the stage at Dragon Con and then come home and start work on next year’s costume.

Have I pulled a costume together in a week? More times than I care count and I don’t care to repeat the stress levels needed to complete it. But there was a lot of planning that went into having all the pieces for the costume ready to be made. Also there are minimal drying times for glues and resins. There are ways to speed up the process a little but you don’t want things curing in the hotel room.

I think HoC sets some unreality goals for costumers believing that you can put together these sorts of costumes in a week and aren’t a sleep deprived mess when you get to the convention.

If the only reason you are going to the convention is the contest, then have fun but the convention is so much more than that.

I am grateful for sensible schedules.

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