Exhausted
Suffice to say, yesterday has been a busy day. I attended the toy con at Mega Mall, but had to leave before the cosplay competition because we usually eat at our grandmother's house (strange how we always refer to it as "grandmother's house" even though grandfather has always been living there as well, plus not to mention that the former is now deceased; and this isn't the only scenario for me since some of my friends usually refer to "lola" or grandmother's house as well if they do have regular visits) for dinner on Sunday nights. Of course it lasts until 7:30 pm, to my chagrin, so by then, most of the toy con would have been over. Then had to go to Gamer's Shop to meet some friends.
Toy Con Travails
Well, the good news is that they actually used an actual Mega Trade Hall rather than the Conference Room two years past, so the place is bigger (which is as good thing considering how crowded the place can get). Of course bigger venue also means a bigger entrance fee. They were now charging P50.00, but I guess that price is cheap compared to what the other anime/manga/comic/cosplay conventions are charging.
Bigger venue also means the possibility of a cosplay and there were some very interesting and original costumes (the latter because many Filipinos, not to fault them for it because it does become a budget constraint, tend to recycle the same costume over several events, even across several years... so seeing the same person wearing the same costume for the nth time can get disappointing at times). What caught the attention of most people at first was the girl who dressed up as Chii from
Chobits. She was a very nubile Chii in a state early in the series where she was scantily dressed and merely had wrappings to cover her. I was also impressed at how she made the cloth at her back stand out like a butterfly ribbon (I presume she used chicken wire?). Of course when I found out her reputed age, I felt like
Dean when he mentioned in an entry several weeks old of how he saw a girl he found beautiful, and was shocked at her age.
Later in the afternoon, I saw someone dressed up in a Doctor Octopus costume (movie and not the comic). What impressed me was how he managed to suspend his four iron tentacles (it was done with those transparent plastic wires). Other than the tentacles, the rest of his getup wasn't as impressive (because honestly, the movie Doctor Octupus anyway didn't look so unusual/spectacular, with the exception of his aforementioned appendages). He would have gotten bonus points in my book if his tentacles did manage to move.
Of course just before the cosplay competition was about to start, what I presumed would be the winners entered the waiting area. The Witch-King, an orc (complete with tusks and all), and the Uruk-Hai chieftain (with a very believable skeleton propped up behind him) entered. The material they used was well-painted and really looked like battle armor. I was impressed at the details, such as the skeleton hanging from the Uruk-Hai.
Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the cosplay competition so I didn't get to see who won. But I was betting the ones I mentioned above would somehow get into the finals. It seems that I was only wrong about the guy in the Dr. Octopus costume. A friend, Robert, won second place (I'm assuming this is the Robert in the Sauron costume and not the one in the Aragorn outfit), Chii for third, and the Uruk-Hai who won first place.
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