My Sub-Zero cosplay debut @ ToyCon 2014!!

It's been a long time coming, and it finally happened. I finally cosplayed as my favorite ice-wielding Lin Kuei ninja; Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat last weekend at ToyCon Philippines 2014!! :D

What started off as a crazy "what-if" idea, became a passion project of mine, which would go under a great deal of planning, having the suit made, and physical preparation to look the part. Just to give you guys an idea of how much I had to bulk up before I cosplayed, here's me before I cosplayed as Sub:

This was me back in 2010 (which was 4 years ago). As you can imagine, I'm just a typical gamer geek who can only hope to cosplay Sub-Zero decently back then. :( Not only do I not look fit (or convincing enough to be a Kombatant for that matter), but even my arms are so thin and small:

So cosplaying as Sub-Zero then was out of the question. Add in the fact that I'm an introverted guy (which alot of people don't seem to believe nowadays), I can only WISH I could cosplay. However, a childhood friend of mine, along with other amazing people I met, inspired me to slowly start my journey into cosplaying. And thus started my secret personal project: to cosplay as Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat.

It started out quite hilariously. I just went all low-cost cosplay as a start.

But this little thing, sparked an interest in me to finally jump in and start taking cosplay a little bit more seriously than before. And so I went online and jumped into a couple of local Philippine cosplay communities and lucky enough for me, someone was nice enough to teach me the ropes and introduce me to a couple of key individuals who would soon help me in realising my dream of cosplaying as Sub-Zero. She would later become a good friend of mine; Louie of Hello Knightmare by Louie, is also responsible for the amazing Masterswords we sold last ToyCon on our booth.

And so, I slowly upgraded my Sub-Zero cosplay costume, by starting off with his mask. And for that I enlisted the help of Nimoy from Kamen Rider Custom Mask. He was highly recommended for his amazing work in making replica Power Ranger helms, and so I took the chance by having him make the mask, and lemme tell you I wasn't disappointed at all with the result.

I loved everything about the mask, from the quality of the sculpt, to the level of detail in that thing. And so, after having the mask made, I had my suit made next. And there's only one person that my friend recommended for their level of detail and amazing work with Spiderman costumes; Kino Kaoru.

Now this one took awhile, as there we're tons of people lining up to have their costumes made by the awesome team of Kino Kaoru and his wife, so I waited for quite sometime for this to be made. While waiting I went for another low-cost cosplay alternative for the suit (thanks to some online tutorial)

I also took the time to prepare myself physically and bulk up. Thanks to my cousin (who is a body-builder and moonlights as a bouncer at a club), I got myself bigger (although I got my waist a little bit too big for comfort), and my arms definitely improved. 

As for the suit itself, it may have taken sometime for my suit to be finished, but the result was well-worth the wait:

And as soon as I got the suit, the first thing I did was have my photographer friend; Edwin Francisco, come over and start taking photos of me wearing the suit. We did our photoshoot indoors, as I was unfortunately suffering from fever then, but the results were definitely awesome to say the least:

You can read more about our photoshoot on his blog Capture Clicks.

And the big day finally arrived; ToyCon. I was actually an exhibitor then, but I was contemplating whether or not I'd go cosplay on the final day, as I was still sick with fever. My significant other suggested I try anyway, as it is just one day anyway. And so I went ahead and cosplayed on the last day of ToyCon 2014.

And it couldn't have been any better, as I got reunited with a childhood friend of mine, who also happens to be into cosplaying. He is also one of my inspirations as to why I got into cosplay in the first place; Mr. Dan Geromo, who is famous locally in the Philippines as SpiderDan for his awesome Spider-man cosplays!! :D

I also got to meet fellow Mortal Kombat cosplayers, who also attended ToyCon!! I even met a fellow Sub-Zero cosplayer too!!

photo taken from Arkadymac.com

I ended up having lots of fun with both fans, and fellow cosplayers at the event. It was definitely an experience for me. :D

Kinda sucks I didn't bring a camera with me, I would love to have taken selfies with fellow cosplayers!! :D It was definitely an experience for me, and I'm so glad to be finally cosplayed myself. Thank you so much to everyone who made this dream of mine possible namely; Nimoy of Kamen Rider Custom Mask, Kino Kaoru, Hello Knightmare by Louie and Edwin Francisco of Capture Clicks. A special shout-out as well to my significant other who supported me with this crazy project of mine all the way thru, you helped me realize my dream. It was an amazing journey and one that I intend to continue for as long as I can. :D Till the next cosplay convention!! :D

Travelling Gundam Diaries - Travelling in the City!

A few days ago, one of the people in a Gundam FB group I'm a member of, asked me what had happened to my Travelling Gundam and if he is still travelling around so to speak. I realized that while it is true that I post my Travelling Gundam's adventures (and misadventures) via Instagram and Tumblr, not alot of people follow them. So I decided to make a compilation post of sorts of my Travelling Gundam's adventures.

Introducing, the Travelling Gundam Diaries! :D

And here's what my Travelling Gundam has been doing lately:

He watched "The Fault in our Stars" just recently.
Yes, Travelling Gundam is into chick flicks apparently... 

Here he is mixing a mug of hot chocolate. 

Trying out Hoagies' sandwiches. I think
he's trying to do some healthy living thing. 

Enjoying a wonderful sizzling burger steak at
a local food joint in the Philippines.

Enjoying the evening city lights.

After launching my little Travelling Gundam project, I'm very pleased to note that there has been some other people who did their own "Travelling" toy project as well. In the Gundam FB group I'm in, a user joined in the fun and introduced to us; the Zoomin Zeons. :D

And ofcourse, my significant other decided to join in the fun, but with a twist. Her's is the Travelling Hello Kitty. :D And here it is, along with my Travelling Gundam on a date:

Look forward to more adventures of my Travelling Gundam!! :D

Nintendo's mysterious E3 3DS game is... Codename: S.T.E.A.M.

After several speculations as to what Nintendo's mysterious unannounced 3DS game on 3DS ranging from Metroid, to a Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask remake for the 3DS, they finally unveiled the said game and to much surprise of everyone in attendance... its a brand new IP called "Codename: S.T.E.A.M."

Developed by Hitoshi Yamagami (who's previous works include Fire Emblem, Xenoblade Chronicles and Pokemon) along with Intelligent Systems (famous for their Advance Wars and Fire Emblem games) is a brand new strategy game for the 3DS. According to My. Yamagami, he developed the game in hopes of "finding a way to introduce more people to strategy games and have them fall inlove with them the way I have." This I have to see for myself.

Set on a Steampunk, Victorian London setting, Codename: S.T.E.A.M. players control a group of steam powered soldiers who are tasked of defending the world from an imminent alien invasion, thus the game's monicker "S.T.E.A.M." which stands for "Strike Team Eliminating the Alien Menace".

The game looks really nice with its cel-shaded art style giving it an old-school comicbook vibe to it. 

As for the game itself, it feels like Valkyria Chronicles (a PSP/PS3 game that I LOVE) where soldiers in Code name S.T.E.A.M. runs on steam powered weaponry. They have a limited amount of steam to perform attacks and move around the battlefield. Yep, sounds pretty much like Valkyria Chronicles alright.

And if that's not enough, the developers are saying they have come up with some alien designs that are heavily inspired from creatures from the Lovecraft mythos (Cthulu anyone?)

The game will also be having a sort of multiplayer mode to it, but for now details are pretty scant.

The game is coming on the Nintendo 3DS (and 2DS) next year 2015!! :D