So, as some of you may, or may not, be aware of, I’m a cosplayer.  In fact, I was referred to by friends as a cosplay whore the first year I cosplayed.  Not because I make all kinds of fancy costumes, but because I love to play the crowd.  Honestly, I only have 2 costumes and one of them is the one I’m working on making into an Anime Central tradition.

That would be No Face from Spirited Away.

The other part of my cosplay addiction is that I’m somewhat of a perfectionist.  Kudos to those who make their own costumes, regardless of the appearance.  But I cannot sew to save my life yet appearance for me is incredibly important.  I want to try and be as accurate as possible when cosplaying.  In those regards, I’ve started down that ‘tradition’ path with No Face with the creation of soap tokens.

(Read on …)

So, as I believe I mentioned once before, I’m a HUGE Gunsmith Cats/Riding Bean fan. I’ve read the manga god only knows how many times, I’ve seen the anime more times than I remember (But my memory sucks, so what does that tell ya?), the Riding Bean OST is my staple on ANY road trip to Chicago, and I’ve even read a GSC fanfic (Not much of a fanfic reader) that is, by far, amazing.So when I read, late Monday night, that Anime Central will be having him as a guest, I became the fanboy that I thought went missing. An honest to god giggling fanboy. Real giggling. No kidding. Though it’s hard to giggle quietly when you don’t want to wake others up.

Unfortunately, my tradition of having 1 pencilboard signed by a guest each year cannot continue with him as I cannot seem to find any GSC pencilboards.  But, I have a practically mint condition Riding Bean artbook I can get autographed.  Oh happy days.

So, to see if I can get a small conversation rolling, here’s a question.

What series (If any) would turn you into a giggling fan and has it actually happened yet?

Let me start of first by stating this.

I am not a student of the UW. Never have been. Probably never will be. Which may confuse people when I mention I help the Anime Club out at the UW Student Org Fair every year. I’ve been a part of the club for going on 5+ years now. Seen presidents come and go. Same with friends. But, for as long as they’ll have me, I’ll probably always be there.

So, on to the photos.

Trying to practice more with photography, I decided to bring my little Cybershot with me to the Org fair this year, snapping photos as I went. And, as usual, a good number of them did not turn out. But that’s neither here nor there as I know the camera’s not the best, and shall hopefully be replaced within a few weeks. More on that later.

So, despite our snazzy table, this year’s Org fair didn’t see quite as big of a turn out as we had hoped for. Usually, we get at least a page and a half of names and email addresses of those interested in club. Not sure if it’s just because it’s second semester, or if the geek population has decreased just a little. Either way, less than half a page of names was a little depressing.

But Yotsuba seemed to enjoy it!

I only hope we can keep what small crowd we have this year. Things seem to be thinning out, much to our dismay.

Rest of the pics, BTW, can be found here.

Now, regarding cameras.

As I mentioned both above and I believe in previous posts, I’m in the market for a new camera. Crisu recommended a Canon. So I went a browsing through my local Best Buy and came by way of this guy. My question is, what are people’s opinions about this camera? It’s about in my price range (An SLR would be sweet, but unaffordable) and apparently had decent enough options. but I’m not quite versed in all things camera, So I’m hoping for a little feedback.

What is your opinion about the Canon - PowerShot 8.0MP Digital Camera?

So, my morning routine usually consists of waking up and checking my usual allotment of Anime blogs and news sites to keep me abreast of current related news and announcements.  And what did I discover during this morning “coffee and paper” routine today?  A new figure release announcement by Good Smile Company. 

Normally, I’d read such things, dream about having more money, and move on.  On some occasions, I’ll even get the urge to buy the figure and, if possible, fullfill that urge.  And, in cases like this, the urge will throw me up against the wall, beat me black eyed and split lipped with my own wallet and give me no alternative but to buy the figure or I would “regret it”.

Oh sweet, sweet pain.

The figure in question is none other than a Winter Wonderfest 2008 release of Konata from Lucky Star.

Item: Figma Konata Izumi cosplay ver.
Height: TBA
Series: Lucky Star
Maker: Max Factory
Retail price: 2,500 yen
Release date: 24 February 2008
Info: WonderFest 2008 Winter exclusive. Limited to 5,000 pieces for the event. It will also be available for preorder after the event through GSC online store with quantities made according to total number of orders received.

Usually, I would not go for the joints-style figure (Save Yotsuba and Danboard - But that’s Yotsuba and should be self explanatory), but given that this is coming from such an excellent company as Good Smile AND that it’s Konata, I just couldn’t pass this up.

I only hope Tokyo Hunter was right regarding the pre-order of the figure post Wonderfest.  Gotta keep a close eye on this one.

On the Pod: Lucky Star OP Single - Motteke Sailor Fuku

Inspired earlier today by several photos from a recent blog post on Dannychoo.com, I decided to embark on my second figure photo shoot. My subject: the lovely Fate Testarosa; released by Alter in December of ‘06.

She’s one of my more favored figures, purchased at Anime Central last year (Along with Nanoha).  It was funny seeing the expressions on the guys faces at the funi booth when I came back with her.  I was working the Funimation dealer’s room booth last year and was looking for that certain something to purchase.  It was about then when someone came by the table with this huge box.  I immediately asked him how much it was (only about $60 I believe) and if they had any left.  He thought so.

So I busted my ass to find the booth.  Turns out all they had left was their display model, which they were still kind enough to sell me post con.  Apparently, I upset a few folks as after I came, someone else asked about the same figure.  Good timing on my part.

My only real disappointment with it is the base.  For some reason the figure does not seem to fully attach to the base.  Enough to be stable, but still obviously not fully attached.  Oh well.  Gift horse and all.

Anywho, I was not as happy with the outcome of these photos as I was my first attempt. Of course, I’m still new to this whole thing and am using a rather old digital camera. But I still wonder what else I could have done to improve on these.

I wasn’t too sure which background color would be best for a figure like her. So, while I used the same rig as I learned about from Super Rat’s tutorial (Very helpful), I tried it with 2 different background colors. However, regardless of the color, a lot of the photos came out pretty sub standard in my opinion. I’m no pro, of course. But I’d like to think I know a crappy picture when I see one.

Like the Nanoha pictures, these were taken with the Sony Cybershot DSC-P32. I do wish I had a better camera to play with. But, ya gotta use what ya have and make the best of it.

One problem (?) I noticed with some of the pictures was a glare that appeared along the edges of the cape. I’m not sure if more lighting was needed, or just a good repositioning. I tried moving the lights I had set up (My work area is where my folks take their Ebay photos, so it’s relatively cluttered) but to no avail.

Anyone have a suggestion for that?

So, here you’ll find the remaining photos of Fate Testarosa including one for those looking for a little something…”special”.

Enjoy and please let me know what you all think!

On the Pod: Oh My Juliet - LM.C