NZ Comic Con - Wellington Armageddon!

When Armageddon Expo announced that Kamui Cosplay would be visiting us for NZ Comic Con, I absolutely had to jump on board. I grouped up with Jungle Lady Cosplay and Sparky Cosplay to sort out accommodation and travel, and we started making excited plans!

Initially I intended to make the Witch King, but got quickly overwhelmed. Instead, I started work on my first Naruto cosplay, Hatake Kakashi. I was incredibly excited to cosplay a character I loved so much, but I decided to keep it a secret. Because, why not?

I had about four months to make the costume, which was probably plenty of time. However right in the middle of it I decided to make Rogue for the Auckland Cosplay Rave.

Which I subsequently ruined by raving too hard. Oops!

After finishing rogue, I was sewing pretty much non stop, every night after work, and every weekend late into the night.

But it was totally worth it.

Photo credit: Pixiscene Cosmedia

I'm beyond happy with this costume, and so happy I got to wear it to my first Wellington Armageddon. It's a perfect winter outfit - even the biting Wellington breeze didn't affect me. Having a face mask, headband, and basically a puffer vest is highly recommended.

Enough about Kakashi - I'll make a more detailed rundown of the build later on. How about the actual convention?

The drive down was fairly uneventful. We'll just forget the fact that I drove all the way to Paeroa before realising I'd left the vest back in Auckland. Yes, I drove all the way back to get it.

The weather was ideal. Slightly cloudy sky, relatively warm temperatures. Ruapehu looked majestic with its snowy blanket.

We got to Wellington at about 4:30pm on Friday - 'Geddon had already started that day. I was just excited to stay in a hotel!

We also visited Smaug at the airport. :3

Saturday started by me handing the reigns over to Sparky. Here she is reversing the car but looking fab. No, no posing! Meanwhile I was hunched over my knees in the tiny Starlet to avoid squishing my wig against the roof.

Jungle Lady's prop was Fishbones - a rather long and awkward (yet awesome) prop that we managed to fit into the back of the car. The jaw is removable, which I'm told cuts down loading time from about half an hour to a mere couple of minutes.

We started Saturday by jumping into Kamui's panel. I was not prepared for how hilarious it was going to be. I was in tears! Not only does Svetlana explain everything clearly, she also cracks the best jokes, and there was a lot of hitting Benni. Which elicited a few more laughs than he would like. 

Saturday also meant the Cosplay parade, where we ran around grabbing as many Naruto cosplayers as we could find. It was a great turnout. I was also particularly pleased that I correctly guessed the Menma, from the movie "Road to Ninja". Everyone looked fantastic; having a lot of cosplayers from the same show brings this great cohesion.

At one point walking the halls, everyone stopped. It became so blocked with people, no one was moving in either direction. Afterwards, we heard that the venue had easily reached capacity, and they had to turn away people at the door. I'm hoping they change the venue next year - a circular, narrow hall is apparently not ideal for the amount of foot traffic they received.

Saturday ended sooner than I would have liked, and I hurriedly finalised plans to have dinner at a nearby Japanese restaurant. In cosplay, naturally. Sparky and Jungle Lady headed back to the hotel to freshen up, while I grabbed myself a TwiggyOtaku. We milled towards the train station, tailed by a few more cosplayers.

It was raining outside, so naturally we situated ourselves on the floor and watched Soxy Cosplay, TwiggyOtaku, and Oxy Cos practice their flash mob dance.

Cosplaying in public is definitely a new experience for me, but to be honest it's the most fun I've had in a long time. Especially with friends, ha! We proceeded to be giant dorks, and took a whole lot of Naruto-esque photos. The food was good, and a couple of people asked for photos of our table (I'm not surprised, to be honest).

Exhausted, we headed back to the hotel, washed up, and crashed. Con-going is tiring business!

Sunday was our day to buy ALL THE THINGS. Most of the morning was spent attending Kamui's third panel, and assisting with Pixiscene Cosmedia's minishoots.

Behind the scenes! Coloured light and fake snow

That day I was Iruka! This costume is such a cheat - two characters, same uniform! Just roll down the sleeves and ditch the wig and gloves. ;)

Photo credit: Pixiscene Cosmedia

I nabbed a couple of Kamui's books which she graciously signed. I made Benni sign them too. I also grabbed a Pakkun plush that I spotted hiding away out of sight, and my first scale figure of Anbu Kakashi! Plus matching Zabuza and Haku mini figurines. Ugh, the feels.

Loved this Hinata!!

I feel bad for buying this, but then again, NO REGRETS!

The cosplay competition was amazing, the calibre of the costumes there was really high. There were some great skits too, with the De Wild's taking away a well deserved best in show! We made a hasty retreat shortly after the competition as we were all exhausted. Stuffing our spoils into our bags, packing the car the next day went better than expected, and we headed back up.

The Desert Road had snow all along the sides, but we didn't pull over to play. Instead Jungle Lady and I enjoyed spotting icicles from the warmth of the car.

We pulled into Tauranga after dark, and I spent that evening with Sparky pouring over the photos that had already made it to Facebook. Just hanging out with other cosplayers gives you way too many ideas for new costumes. TwiggyOtaku convinced me to enter the Overload Cosplay Competition - we'll even be doing a skit! I'm also fairly sure I've planned my cosplays for the next year already. They involve Teen Wolf, more Naruto, Free! Eternal Summer, Disney, Attack on Titan...I've lost track!

Auckland Armageddon is the next big convention. I'm mostly very excited as it marks one year from when I started cosplaying. I really had no idea what a big impact this community would have on my life. I've made tonnes and tonnes of friends - more often than not, failing to recognise them out of cosplay. The number of fandoms I'm a part of now is getting out of control - I'm finding it hard to choose what to cosplay. ;)

Attending Wellygeddon again will definitely depend on the guests, and I will definitely be flying. The drive was loooong, and I would have gone insane if not for Jungle Lady and her fantastic taste in music!

I really can't wait for Auckland Armageddon. The biggest convention in the country, and already they've announced some exciting guests. I'm not sure what I'm going to cosplay yet. It'll probably be Naruto characters, though.