Disclaimer: This review is based on opinion and observation! Please don’t give me any attitude for what I am going to say since like many other critics and blog writers I am entitled to my opinion. Please respect what I have to say, I already had one person get on my case.

Hello and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! I know it’s been a while for a review and I am putting off the Panel Hosting Tips til next post and still waiting on the interview stuff for this blog. Anyways, so a week and a half ago the first season of Heroes of Cosplay ended and well, I like the show so far!

For those of you who don’t know about this show or was turned off by it, it basically looks into the competition side and construction of cosplay among certain cosplayers. I know most of us don’t compete all the time but a lot of people attend the costume contest to see what people have made and enter it to see about placing for first prize and other categories depending on the convention. I did like how some people had their imagination and able to show their stuff in competitions at Kansas City ComiCon, our turf MegaCon, and WizardWorld. Besides what I liked there was certain things I didn’t like about the show like some people and still will mention what I liked, so here are my thoughts!

Concept:

Even though there were people out there that didn’t like the show, there was even a petition to change it or cancel it, but it did show a nice reality in cosplay competition. I know most cosplayerrs aren’t like that in the real world but there are those kind of people who act snobby like the Dr. Who group in the season finale in the Kansas City ComiCon skit contest (If you haven’t seen the episode, a person in the Dr. Who group yelled out something about people being out of towners when there are attendees that don’t live in Kansas City that go to it) and tend to be trolls. But what the concept gets me to watch is the different cosplays that get built and the people who build them some of these included the priestess versions of Miaka and Yui from Fushigi Yugi, Lydia from Beetlejuice the tv show, and even Merida from Brave during the first episode, which was also great.

What should the change be? The only thing the concept should change is add more guys to the show, why? Because guys also work hard on cosplay, whether it’s improve or not, guys have to build their costumes like girls and get in really good shape for some of these like the girls do. Not only that, they spend a lot of money to get the materials in order to get the parts needed, I know Jesse, the only guy they focused on for some episodes since he was new to the competition world, spent a lot on his Steam Punk Stormtrooper cosplay and possibly his Assasin’s Creed 4 cosplay to get it done when it came to materials. Heck, even Victoria’s (one of the girls) boyfriend even worked hard on helping her out in building some of the parts, such as getting the wiring together for her Tron outfit for Emerald City and the embroidery finished for Lulu, despite it not being complete in time for Wizard World’s competition, but still they should more of the guys doing the building and cosplaying along with girls. Yeah, we may have the goods but guys do work hard in cosplay too Scy Fy.

Conventions: This first season started well with the spring/winter season of conventions with Wizard World, Emerald City, Anime Matsuri (not to be confused with our Holiday Matsuri), MegaCon, and Kansas City ComiCon, which is not bad for the first season! It shows how the attendees and the competitors are able to travel long distances to get to conventions no matter where they are! Trust me, I was happy to go to Tampa finally for MetroCon this year and we traveld the miles and a lot of people do the same in other states, I even met a girl who came from Chicago to AFO for Quinton Flynn and Jeff Nimoy back in 2006 and my fiance’s friends from Miami do come up to Orlando time to time for MegaCon or other conventions. So, no matter the distance people will find a way of getting there!

What Conventions Should Be on Season 2? If there is one, since the petition maker probably sent it in, it would be interesting to put MetroCon for Season 2 if they decide to add the summer convention season since there are a lot of conventions go on during the summer such as Anime Boston, Anime Expo, and even San Diego ComiCon, and Otakon in Maryland of course! It would be nice to feature the seasons of conventions for other seasons if ScyFy want to keep going with this show since there are cons during fall and the end of the year in some states, but spring/winter does combine into one since January starts the year of conventions pretty much all over, still it would be nice to see about summer and fall conventions making it for the next season.

Changes? Besides adding a few season cons for season 2, I would have to say the only change here is showing a bit more of the convention instead of talking about it and showing the cosplayers trying to get their stuff together in the hotels. Why? Well it could give people an idea what kind of convention it is and how the setting is like and maybe would give them ideas of going in future years of the convention. Plus show people some of the guests that are there, for example, Jason David Frank was a judge during Wizard World, it would be cool if they shown one of his martial arts panels that he always host at AFO and other conventions, maybe that will get future martial artists pumped and to check out what moves he can teach at the convention.Another example, even though I didn’t get to see it much, but Victoria did go as Uhura from Star Trek to meet one of the guests at Kansas City, why not have one of the cosplayers meet someone at Mega and show that and so on? If I was on the show, I would want to be followed to interview a guest or shaking hands with them to show what guests get invited to these things, it would bring on new interests to attendees to these things. Wouldn’t the convention be happy to get new people? I know they would.

The Cosplayers: Besides the conventions and concept, there was a pretty good cast of people for this season. It brought on people who have been working on cosplay for years and newbies to the competition scene and gives them test out new costumes that people rarely seen at a competition or test their construction talent in bringing out the best in building, especially if it has a lot of parts.

Fave Cosplayers of the Cast: I would have to say Team L. A. which consists of Hollyher friend (don’t remember name) and Becky, especially towards the end because the team know how to work together and able to make cosplay more fun rather than just a competition itself since there are a lot of competitors out there that take the fun out of it or get too serious in the game. My fave cosplay they have done was the How to Train Your Dragon as the twins and Astrid. Ilove the movie and I loved how they decided to do that for Kansas City Comicon’s skit contest since we see a lot of cosplays that deal with Dr. Who, DBZ, and now Project Cross Zone is starting to rise, but we rarely see these cosplays come around especially when it is a fun movie with dragons. Also, they did have a dragon mascot with them, which makes it even more impressive, I would choose them for “Best Skit” and “Best Craftsmenship” for the dragon since we rarely see something like that, even though I did hear how there was an Ariel on the rock being pushed during JACON while I was working that year. Anyways, love this group!

Not So Faves: I know I loved the Team LA but there are two people I don’t like and I should mention the first…please don’t get mad since I did put in the disclaimer that this is based on opinion and observation, I personally didn’t like Victoria when it comes to her time management. Why? I understand a lot of people tend to work and have lives out of cosplay but time in construction for conventions take months to do depending on what you’re doing. For example, when I started working on my Lucy cosplay I started in January by collecting the parts, as in the keys, the wig, the belt, the boots, and even got the pouch before MythiCon, still got it done before MetroCon and was lucky to get the outfit the week before since my friend who made it was sick after Florida SuperCon and managed to get it to me on time. Still, Victoria’s timing is bad since according to one of the other cosplayers that she heard about it as well when they were doing Miaka and Yui from FY for Anime Matsuir that Victoria is known for getting her cosplays done at very last minute or not done at all. Good example was the very first episode when she was trying to finish up her Lulu cosplay from FFX and as a Final Fantasy fan, especially starting to play during the later era, the costume designs require a lot of belts and zippers and Lulu has a lot of them and has embroidery on top of it. It would’ve been better if she started during the holiday season in making this costume and try to finish it off, but she had to skip Wizard World’s competition due to her embroidery machine was broken and had it shipped over night and partied when it was supposed to be worked on. If she appears in the next season, crossing my fingers that she improves in time management because cosplay needs months in advance usually when it comes to construction.

Yaya Han was another person I didn’t like, I know most people here will probably bash on me for saying why but hear me out! Reasons why I don’t like her is that she is hypocritical and she did become a bit narsassistic towards the end of season one, plus she does bash on improvising and buying parts. I will start with the improve and part buying:

First is the improve and prop buying, which kind of ticked me off especially when Holly and her friend had to improvise the horns on their Dungeons and Dragons cosplay for one of their characters. As said above, cosplay is pretty much time consuming and there are times when time does crunch and fly away from you and improve normally has to be done in order to get it done. I would give the points to Holly and her friend for what they did to store-bought horns because it’s not easy working with sculpting clay in order to get it done on time. One perfect example is how my fiance improvised his entire Reiji cosplay from the Endless Frontier cast in Project Cross Zone which he borrowed my Fruits Basket uniform shirt and my Ginji Amano/Pokemon Ranger gloves to make the costume and made his gauntlets out of duct tape he picked up at a CVS and got a wig from the wig shop fromd own the street from our hotel and sprayed half of it black and that took hours to do! I even told that angry commentor on here that he could have improvised Freed from Fairy Tail with Good Wills and Salvation Armys in the Tampa Bay area if he asked the info desk at wherever he was staying and just spray his hair green or buy a wig at that same wig shop and would’ve spent around $40 together and would be a part of the cast. Still, Yaya needs to understand that not everyone can make everything within a short time span and improvisation needs to be done. And of course buying props and pieces is another thing that tends to tick me off. Yeah, it may not be a great idea but as said that not everyone can make everything and have to put commissions to people to help out in getting items done or go on Ebay in order to pick up what they need. For instance, I can’t sew and had to buy the Akatsuki cloak from a friend who had a spare and of course, my Lucy keys are very detailed that it’s impossible for me to make something so intricate and try to get them painted in time. Most of the time the parts that get bought tend to get painted and changed up a bit to make it like the item that’s in the picture of the character in the first place. On top of that, wigs aren’t easy to make either and buying them is also important for cosplay and knowing Yaya, I have a feeling she buys hers and that is next…

Her hypocriticism and narsasism kind of shown a side that a lot of people don’t tend to see in celebrities, especially in cosplay. When I saw some of these things while watching the show I was surprised of what went on and how she acted, especially in judging and towardspre-judging when she and her protiges were in the skit contest in the season finale. What I found interesting most of all is how she thought about sex appeal not being shown the most in cosplay towards one of her protiges in one of the peisodes when she went as Cyberpunk Poison Ivy from Batman. Head’s up, Poison Ivy, especially in the Arcum games, is sex appeal and I remembered how her original costume made her look back when I had my sight during the animated series years and there are so many girls still doing the costume, heck my fiance even looks at me for the Arcum Asylum version of her. Anyways, weird thing is that she went as C2 butterfly costume version and of course, in ep 1 she was one of the females from Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust and that shown off a bit of sex appeal and yet she says cosplay is not all about sex appeal. It can be but the Japanese and American animators and video game creators tend to make their females sexy as possible. And with her narsasism towards the end, it was mostly how she acted about the pre-judging in thinking that they should take a closer look into the costumes, which she mentioned she would’ve done. My thought about that is that these judges have a lot of judging to do with so many people coming into the skit contest that they don’t have enough time to get that closer look at some conventions, they tend to get an hour or two to do pre-judging and they have to leave for the next event or panel to get there on time! If it’s a guest, they have to get signings, events, and panels they are doing. I understood that part since I had to interview Brittney Karbowski and Scott McNeill for 15 minutes in the green room since they had so many things to do the rest of the day and if they were judges at something like a skit contest, they can be only be there for an hour and have to leave right afterwards to get to their next thing. Even though the skit that she and her protiges done together was great but I still like Team L. A.’s the best and Yaya needs to chill out and change some of her ideas and not seem so hypocritical and disappointed when someone’s costume has a bought prop.

Well, that’s about itt! This post will be going hand-in-hand with a post I am doing for Lighthouse Central Florida since I write my own thing on there! Next time will be the Panel Hosting Tips! I will try to get it done before Holiday Matsuri announces their panelists! Cross your fingers for Blind EXP to be there! Til next time!

Hello everyone and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! July and August already passed and you know what that means! Favorites time! Sorry if I am a little late than usual, since school has started up again for the fall and I did have MythiCon Year 1, I had to do school work and do my review and it was hard finding time to write it and plus my fiance had me stay last weekend since he missed me. Anyways, so onto my faves!

L’Oreal

Miss Pixie nail polish from the gel line: First is a L’Oreal product and it is the Miss Pixie nail polish from their new gel polish line that was released this past summer. It seems that since May that every line has released gel polishes like Sinful did it and loved it when I wore Amazonian from that line and Wet N’ Wild just released a new line for their Wild Shine gel polishes last month which I got on EBay and will try them out soon, now L’Oreal released this new line and heard about this color, Miss Pixie on YouTube through the haul videos. It is a dark, royal blue with some sparkles and man it’s pigmented! I normally get a lot of coats for one gel but this one took me three coats or was it two to get it working. I heard someone had to do four, probably exaggerating a little but I do like this one despite some bad reviews out there, I am guessing it’s due to first batch buyings that people had problems while I waited for my bottle.

Wet N’ Wild

Crackle polishes from Fantasymakers: A blast from the past returning on this list and that is the crackle polish set from Wet N’ Wild’s Fantasymakers line! As you know, Wet N’ Wild has their own Halloween line and every year they come out with new stuff and last year I got this and it was their crackle nail polishes that come in a set of three, silver, red, and blue, and one black polish for the base. When I first used it I didn’t read the directions and didn’t get the results I needed, but I had my fiance read them to me and tried them out again and decided to use the red one since I rarely do reds on my fingers and it came out as it supposed to. Unlike most crackle polishes, you get thin cracks versus the whole get more cracks for more coats, you need one and then it will give you a nice thin crackle. If these come back this year, I am getting more than one since I love these! I am also hoping they come out with new colors for it, like a purple, white, and orange maybe? Wet N’Wild, come on!

Revlon

Super Lustrous Lip Gloss in Pink Pop: I think I was using the Pink Pop one during MetroCon, still I like this lip gloss! Even though it takes two coats to get on like some of the other glosses I own but still like the smoothness of its application. I haven’t used the lipsticks I have from the same line, I can see why this became a popular thing along with the Lip Butters. I may go back and get the Sugar Violets once which is a sparkling purple one in the line and I tend to go for purples. Still, a great product to pick up and it’s nice to wear during a night on the town, during a convention or not.

LUSH Cosmetics

Fair Trade Honey Shampoo and Happy Happy Joy Joy conditioner: Something from the birthday haul and it’s my new shampoo and conditioner, Fair Trade Honey and Happy Happy Joy Joy, which feel nice! I decided to start a new way of taking my hair and it’s not to wash it so often like I did before and try to wash it once a week and this combo is great for that! Fair Trade Honey is really great since it is made with actual honey and has other ingredients like linseed mucilage which helps moisturizes and conditions the hair! Better than the Honey I’m Strong shampoo and conditioner I used before these two, which helps my hair heal from that damage. With Happy Happy Joy Joy is best for curly hair like mine and it is made with the same formulation as Shine So Bright, which is the split end treatment I use from Lush, but this is made more as a conditioner. Some of the ingredients in this include almond milk which helps moisturize, then there is rosewood extract, grapefruit oil, and orange blossom poil as well to add a nice smell! If you have damaged or bleach your hair I recommend this conditioner since it will help out! Plus, it is very vegan friendly if you switched to vegan since a lot of the shampoos and conditioners have animal products and of course, silicons which is pretty bad for the hair. So, go and try these two out if you need something more refreshing!

Hot Topic

Black Heart Beauty Purple Lip Gloss: I was happy to find this when I went to Hot Topic and have been going a bit lot more lately since I had earring problems and I will talk about that next, this lip gloss was something I found while looking around in the Black Heart rack and seeing about getting more of the pink lipstick, which I got along with the shimmery one. I wore this lip gloss since it popped into my hands while looking for something to wear during my three day routine for lip products and it is like the pink lip gloss I picked up a few months back and it is very light on the lips. You may have to apply two times like the Super Lustrous lip gloss but worth it, especially when Hot Topic charges the same prices as drugstores for their make up. They are still doing buy one and get the other item a half off the entire store, so I was able to pick up the lipsticks and the next fave!

Black Heart Purple Glitter Eyeliner: I never got to try the eyeliners that Hot Topic made, even when they had War Paint a year ago, now I am glad I did get to try the Black Heart one in purple glitter. I thought it was going to be a deep purple with silver glitters but it’s clear with the glitter flecks which is fun and easy to put on. I put this on my bottom line when I put the eggplant liner from Maybelline and it gives a nice sparkly sheen and a nice alternative to just wearing the liquid liner I have from Wet N’ Wild to go with it. It even adds a bit more pop to purple shadow, which I used my E. L. F. purple shadows to see how it felt and it felt nice and I like the feel. I will find a blue one to go with my Aquamarine gel liner to give that a nice sparkle, especially when I do a blue eye look, so glad I have to use my Hot Cash soon!

Screw on piercing plugs: As I said above I had a bit of earring trouble recently. I didn’t know until by my second week of school, which was after MythiCon that I lost one of my gold hoops I tend to wear. I had these hoops since I was 8 and didn’t think I would actually lose one since I tend to lose them at certain times, which is true, after getting an infection from a pair of earrings from Paul Harris I lost a hoop but found it a week later. Anyways, I tried wearing a pair of diamond earrings my fiance gave me but irritated my ears and got the closed hoops from Hot Topic, that didn’t work out due to how the bead always falls off easily and gets lost and hard to find, so went back to exchange for these screw on ones that the guy suggested. I got a pair of Hello Kitty ones and another in blue sparkly stars and I am wearing the stars and like how they are lightweight and don’t tug like the hoops my fiance’s mom gave me for replacements. Great thing is that they do buy one and get a second for $5 from their piercing case that you tend to see in your local Hot Topics. I may get more in the future, unless I decide to get more piercings than just the single holes I have or just want to change up after a while in the holes I already have.

Nail Care

Strengthening nail polish remover: I love this stuff a lot! I started using the regular nail polish remover again but noticed that the one my mom had was drying my nails and the ones with the sponges inside weren’t working out like I thought before and went back to the bottles. I found one that helps strengthen nails which helps harden the nails after a polish gets cleaned off and for new paint jobs along the way.

Snacks

Green Tea Chocolate Biscuits: I mentioned these during my MythiCon review and it was one of the items I picked up from the snacks guys and love them! As said before, was hoping to get the Green Tea Kit Kats but he was selling these instead since he sold out during AFO the weekend before Mythic and was glad to get them! They reminded me of those catalog brand chocolates you get during the fancy chocolate fundraisers that you tend to get during school, which I remembered it happened to me when I was in elementary and there was this one kind my parents and brother ordered and it was a biscuit with chocolate, like those baking chocolate squares you tend to see but thinner and a cookie on top! These are like that but the chocolate is green tea flavored and goes well with the cookie. I may ask the guy about these again since I have his contact and he will be at Holiday Matsuri, which is great!

Sour Gummis in energy and soda flavored: I love Japanese gummis and I found these at the guy’s stand at Mythic and they were so good I had to get more! I bought three more of the energy ones and one of the soda ones. I had to put these in one of the small containers I got in the Pokemon Movie 2000 lunchbox because they tend to get stuck to the packaging and the sour powder is pretty sticky. I wouldn’t eat these more than one at a time because the taste can make you feel like you’re eating two or three Warheads at a time, so be careful with that. Still, very tasty, hoping the guy has these again for Holiday Matsuri!

YouTube Channel

Grav3yard Girl: First time mentioning a fave YouTube Channel and that is Grav3yard Girl! I tend to watch her videos since they not only talk about beauty products but also talk about other things such as paranormal things, shopping, and ones that are of giving advice, which is pretty awesome. Plus I do like how she makes it funny in her own way. One of my fave videos she has done was when she was doing her Back-To-School giveaway and was talking about the stuff she got for it and man it was a lot, especially with crayons. I felt the same way when I used to draw I used to buy Colored Pencils like crazy! So don’t feel bad Grav3yard Girl! I did watch her August favorites and saw that her faves were from her birthday shopping trip while she was in California. Can’t wait what she has next!

Song

“Be As One” by W-ins from Fairy Tail Season 2: ::sighs:: I am such a Fairy Tail lover and since after Mythic, I decided to download the music after getting part 6, which is the second part in season 2 and this song comes up as the newest closing theme and it’s called “Be As One.” It is a sweet, poppish song from Japan and it is apparently the group’s single right now and they are known as W-ins, I think it’s supposed to be Wins but still this song gets in my head like how “Fiesta”, the opening for part 6, got into my head earlier this morning but this one seems to fit this part of the season since it deals with losing people that are close to the Fairy Tail guild members, especially with Wendy and Carla, who get introduced in this season. There should be more songs like this to close episodes and I would like to play it when we do Fairy Tail Part 2: Blind EXP if it gets chosen for Holiday Matsuri this year!

Accessories

Happy bracelet: Even though I love my Gray Fullbuster necklace, which is the Rave Stone design from RaveMaster but this is a major favorite! I love Happy from the series and I bought this bracelet that has different images of him doing different things like eating a fish, being mad, and so many other things, which is cute. I even worn it while I was cosplaying as Lucy at Mythic since I had so much to carry and I didn’t want to carry extra stuff with Happy, so the bracelet was the next best thing! I still wear it by the way and so glad it exists! I hope they make ones for the other cats that some of the other Dragon Slayers have, like Carla as an example.

WWell, that is about it for this edition of my favorites! Next will be my next advice post on how to host panels since you guys may have seen someone’s comment about how I thought his Fairy Tail panel was not that great and I was being honest! So, since I host panels and I think this would be best to do one since the convention season here in Florida won’t officially end til December, before Christmas pretty much and since Holiday Matsuri is accepting panel requests, why not talk about how to do a panel right? And I am still trying to get my fiance get the interviews with Scott and Brittney from Metro so I can post them here so you can see what I asked them. So, til next time!