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I haven’t read Mr D’s piece yet but will do so tonight when I have s good long while to sit down and read at leisure.
I hope you like! Don't feel the need to read it all in one go... it's 19500 words! Think of it more like getting the entire series at once on netflix or something. :P
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That was an incredible read, and there was so much stuff I'd never considered, like the way you had to clip the fur back. And that was before you made all the accessories and patches. Great read, and a great make.
Thank you very much! :D
I like that furry and costume stuff has become trendy enough so lots of folks are making thing and showing them off. There's a lot of stuff like that that's really useful to know that seems like black magic to spellbound kids trying to make foxy heads but is probably well known to Awesome Grans (or Awesome Mums or Awesome Sisters or Awesome Dads) (and actual professional tailors) the world over. I always read any toy or costume making book I find cover to cover even if I don't buy it.
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When you're 'being' Hotshot, do you play a role and adopt certain ways of moving and interacting with others?
I do, but unfortunately not as a result of being a good actor or having a firm grasp of what the character's like. I can't really speak in the head so I'd have to express everything with body movements, which is hard when you've got no peripheral vision (and you're a nervous oaf who definitely doesn't want to bump into folks). That jaunty walk I do in the video where I'm wearing the suit is partially due to the lack of forward vision; when I walk I have to move my head side to side constantly otherwise I can't see. Hotshot's got a (different!) slightly exaggerated confident strut as I'm going about the place, but that's about the extent of what I do.
MCM Comic Con events are always super crowded (except on the also-ran Sundays), so for the majority of the time it's all I can do just to try to get pushed along to the stalls that I'd like to see. There's not a lot of room for constant playacting (and you'd get on everybody's nerves). When there's an open space and folks want to take a pic, I'll strike a pose but I haven't got the practice for anything super mobile (as much as I'd like to... He's an action hero so it'd be martial arts and combat rolls if I could. I'm a lanky dude, but I'm about as agile as a lump right now.)
I know a lot of folks who do Cats musical stuff and they're all rolling about like nutballs in their shoots. I die of jealousy
every time. I think I'd be good at that stuff, but I've never seen the show so making small talk is even harder than usual meeting new cats...
HOWEVER! When I'm Skull Kid, it's honestly hard -not- to do stuff! The old mask was really heavy so I hunched when I wore it and had to focus on not letting it slip off. The new mask is a lot lighter so I can do more acting, but the weight of it is focused on the front of my head, so I still have to move in a certain way. The massive shoes need a special gait too - they're pratically clown shoes, so I naturally fall into a cartoonish stomp when I wear them. I liked acting in the old mask, but I couldn't see reactions or the space around me so it was really difficult to know if I was doing it right. How I did the little flute dance (on the props page) I don't know! With the new mask, I can really turn on the spook and everybody loves it! I honestly dunno how Skull Kid is supposed to move, from what I've played of the game he spends most of his time standing or floating so I just make it up. Slow movements, head twitches, severe painful-looking head tilting, reaching forwards, swaying, that kind of thing. I've read the Majora's Mask manga and I take some of his moves from there too.
At Manchester 2017, I gave one woman the fright of her life as SK by doing
absolutely nothing. I was just standing still in a queue for a t-shirt stand, and she turned to face me and it must've taken a second or two before she realised what she was looking at but she -screamed-. I wasn't even close. I probably didn't make things better by trying a little apologetic wave...
If you give other furries (rather than me cosplaying as a character with a furry head) a bit of floor space, they seem to know exactly what they wanna do though. Meanwhile, my brain's overheating and overthinking and "What kinda pose... ah... how about 'What the heck am I gonna do with this bunch of fools??' pose."
I think I'd be good at acting and playing about in general but as an unpractised six-foot-tall goober in a not-cute style Hotshot and me wouldn't be able to pull off cute. I need practice, it'd be very easy to be overbearing. I would give it my all if I had an adorable costume, but the characters I'm interested in (or at least interested in making) aren't the kind that do that playing about for the most part.
Also, another difference between Hotshot's cosplay and these guys' furry costumes is that I feel like I'm sort of representing the game, so I definitely don't want to screw up. (Even though I'm not really, but it'd be rude to take a stranger's character, be the only guy who's ever played him, and be a goof, right? If I made my own character up then yeah it's full steam ahead.)
One thing that happened that was super rad was they had a 3D scanner frame where you could get your picture taken from many angles and analysed so you can order 3D printed figurines of yourself. (And of course I couldn't see the entrance so I tried to enter through the side and almost knocked the whole thing down...)
I wouldn't pay what they're asking for one of these... but... aaaahhh I want one.