PAX East '15!!

(for info on the Altenew blog hop, please scroll down to the previous post)

** PLEASE NOTE: This is possibly the longest cosplay post I have ever done.  I apologize in advance for the excessive number of photos! **

If the costume above looks a bit familiar, it's because this year Dave and I decided to re-do one of our favorite costumes for this years Penny Arcade Expo (PAX East).   Located in Boston, PAX East attracts gamers of all types- fans of console video games, PC games, mobile games, tabletop games and more.

In 2012, we cosplayed as two characters from the Sega game Jet Set (or Grind) Radio...read more about that here.  The characters were so much fun, and the costumes were bright and exciting, but a lot of things were made last minute and we have always wanted to revamp them.  Well, this was the year!

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Our characters are Beat and Gum, members of the GGs- a gang of inline skaters who go around the city spraying graffiti (while avoiding the police and rival gangs). Oh, and the soundtrack's awesome!  Here's a closer look of Gum's outfit:

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(yes, I am quite proud of my Photoshopping skills...looks like I'm really tagging the building!)

My character has quite the 'tude, so it was fun to portray her.  Sadly, action shots were a bit difficult since my Rollerblade wheels were locked.  We had an issue the first time around with security (just like in the game, lol!) and they made us take off our skates. This time, since the wheels were locked, we stomped around in them like boots. It was awkward and uncomfortable, but hey- we looked cool!

Yowza, my skirt was short! (*blushes*).   It's a good thing I wore matching short shorts underneath. That could have been a bad wardrobe malfunction!

Dave's costume was sweet too!

My dress (sewn from Butterick pattern 4443) is the same as last time.  I did, however, upgrade my turtleneck.  This one I sewed from scratch using Simplicity 1325.  

I couldn't find a striped knit fabric in the colors I wanted, so I made it myself.   I pieced together long stripes of green and lime knit fabric, sewed them together, and then topstiched next to all of the seams.  Then, I cut out my pattern pieces from it and sewed the top.  I had wing it when it came to the turtleneck since the original pattern didn't have one.  

The gloves you see there are also updated- I sewed the orange "t" on by hand, and trimmed the gloves with the same bias tape I have on the dress. I can't believe I still had some scraps of it left over from years ago!

Ahh, the skates!  I took these pics before we put the wheels back on...whooops. Basically, we spray painted our Rollerblades and sculpted the additional pieces from Model Magic clay.  This stuff is lightweight and air dries overnight. To strengthen the clay pieces, we went over them with a few layers of matte finish Mod Podge.

The little jet boosters on the back are made from travel-sized bottles, which were hot glued on the back.  I wish we came up with a better way to adhere them- within 30 minutes they all fell off, from people at the convention bumping into them :(   You may notice they aren't in any of our other photos!

We knew it was a possibility that we would be forced to remove our skates (luckily we didn't have to!), so we decorated normal shoes to mimic the designs.  This ended up being perfect for walking to and from the car, and to grab lunch.  I wore these slip-on canvas shoes with knee-high black socks, so they kind of looked like boots.

I sewed the aviator-style hat with no pattern- it was tricky!  This is actually the second one I sewed, since the first one ended up being too small- I forgot to take the size of my wig into consideration.  I don't like how wrinkly it is, but since the pleather is made from plastic, it melts when you iron it.

I also upgraded my wig- I got this one on Amazon, and I love it!  The little flips at the bottom are perfect, and it looks more realistic than my last one.

Here are Dave's accessories- upgraded glasses (which he painted), and some new headphones.

While on the convention floor, we ran into another Beat- he's from Jet Set Radio Future.  It's always fun to find people wearing costumes from the same game series as ours!  

Below are a few of our favorite shots that we found online after the convention.  Each one is credited to the photographer- make sure you check out their galleries for fantastic photos of other cosplayers!

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Well, that pretty much wraps things up!  The rest of the pictures are some highlights from the rest of the convention. We had a great time!!

PAX East '14 (Kat and Dante from Devil May Cry)
NYCC '13 (Clobberella from Futurama)
PAX East '13 (Gaige and Handsome Jack from Borderlands 2)
NYCC '12 (Black Widow and Hawkeye from Marvel Comics)
PAX East '12 (Beat and Gum from Jet Set Radio)
NYCC '11 (Rogue and Gambit from Marvel Comics)
PAX East '11 coming soon
NYCC '10 coming soon