Cosplay Shennanigans: Budget Energy Effect Parts

If you've been following my cosplay articles in the past, you might have noticed my Brother Warth and Captain Cold costumes. I love these costumes because I love gimmicks.  Brother Warth had a light-up LED power ring and parts of the costume lit up under camera flashes because of retro-reflective vinyl.  Captain Cold is slightly different: it had a cold gun that had a bright blue LED, which was also a miniature fog machine.

I thought to myself, maybe I should introduce a fresh new gimmick that’s very visually exciting, and just plain looks like fun.  Being a fan of action figures and miniatures, it is always a treat to have toys with translucent parts, and even cooler, add-on transparent parts. I started noticing that SH Figuarts even starts selling effect parts either specifically for certain toys SEPARATELY or just awesome general effect parts.  I, being myself, who doesn’t have a filter, thought it would be nice to have life-sized effect parts for my costumes.

Arrow, or The Breakdown of a "Gritty Reboot." By Mike Fatum

Here's a well known secret for you: I hate "gritty reboots." For the last few decades it seems, everyone wants to take well known characters and strip away everything about them except the name, churning out the same group of chiseled jawed broody heroes for every story. For some characters, it works fantastic - thank god they did a gritty reboot twenty years ago on poor Batman. But a lot of characters thrive in the sun, and a little bit of cheese, and taking them to the stark color palate and constant window-gazing of your typical gritty reboot, and they fade into absolute boredom.

Whoa, how did this picture get here?