5 Reasons why you should know Goldy more

Not many people know Goldy, known in Japan as one of the best cosplay craftsmen and cosplayer around.  But then again, not many people are really into mecha, armor and hands-on crafting in general. 

But to tell you the truth, if you don't know Goldy, you're missing a lot about knowing one of the legends of cosplay.

In a nutshell, Goldy has been inspiring a small community of cosplay/mecha enthusiasts into building their own seemingly impossible mecha or armor costumes, and back then around early 2000's.  If you've been around that time and you see pictures of this awesome "Gundam Guy" floating around forum sites, and even 4CHAN (admit it, some of you have been there often), he would be THAT "Gundam Guy".  Some cosplayers look up to him as inspiration that they themselves created works equal to his. One of them notably is Clive Lee of Singapore (yes, the other "Gundam Guy").  Honestly back then I tend to mistake them both as the same guy, before I got the chance to meet Clive online and in person.  So if this bit of info doesn't convince you, perhaps these 5 other reasons will:

1) He's been cosplaying mecha for about 10 years.  And its not just 10 years, with certain year or two in haitus, but 10 years of continued mecha and armor making.  That makes him a guru on anything mecha costume related (Why guru? More on that later).

Screenshot from Cosplaygen's article: http://www.cosplaygen.com/goldy-marg-a-wizard-of-cosplay-crafting/

2) In those years, he made 11 very well made mechas and armor.  Not including the numerous quality props he made for himself and other people.

From his Cosplay.com account: http://www.cosplay.com/member/146645/costumes/

3) He teaches other people how to build them.  He conducts workshops in Akihabara, with plenty of satisfied attendees. Plus he uploads them at his Youtube account.  Of course there is always the problem of the language barrier but fortunately there are videos that had interpreters or english-speaking assistants to help him out.  Check out his website Gadget Tool for more info regarding workshops.

 

No, that guy is not Goldy but one of his assistants/students helping him out in

demonstrating one of his techniques in making a body part mold.  This clip is

amusing because it does show Goldy in action, but his face is off-camera. XD

4) He's been featured in several well known websites and publication, like Cosplaygen, Anibee.TV, London's Costumerism,  Cosplay in America's Tumblr, website and book, and All-Nippon Airlines (ANA) Cool Japan website.  And I'm sure you've seen his cosplays in 4Chan as well.

https://www.ana-cooljapan.com/cosplay/#/

5) He's been around a lot.  His work had made him a representative for Japan's World Cosplay Summit in 2006, in which he won a special award for his craftsmanship.  He also became an invited guest, judge or speaker for numerous events not just in Japan, but in Korea's World Cosplay Festival 2008, Thailand's Animation & Multimedia (TAM2007), Singapore's Cosplay Challenge 2009 and Asia Cosplay Meet 2012, London's MCM Comic Con and as far as USA's Anime Expo.

Now he is now visiting the Philippines for the first time as a guest at the premier cosplay-centric event, Cosplay Mania.  Even other famous cosplayers like Reika is excited to see him that she even announced his visit at her own Facebook Page.

I'm pretty excited myself.  If these reasons aren't enough to make you want to meet him, I don't know what will.

For more information regarding his visit, head on to http://www.cosplaymania.com/.

You may follow them for updates at
FB: /CosplayMania
Twitter: @CosplayManiaPH
Google+ http://gplus.to/CosplayMania

Anime Festival Asia 2011: Day 3 (Nov 13)

Continued from AFA Day 2...

I really hate my body clock. @_@

Barely shaving 4 hours of sleep, I woke up feeling haggard and with body pains due to mine not being used to walking around for hours in a mecha costume. But instead of working on fixing the costumes (the Zakus need major adjustments, we didnt test-run them to be worn for almost two hours and the, erm, crotch armor for both kept falling off) I decided to melt off the pain by dipping in a bathroom tub full of warm water.  The water felt really good, I actually slept in the bathtub for an hour! Im glad my body was too long for the tub as my head was clearly above the water and over the rim, but I ended up looking like a crinkled raisin when I got out.

Since this was our last day and our scheduled flight out of Singapore was around 5:40pm later that day, we already packed our things and prepared to check-out the hotel by lunch.  With the help of Melo and Dom, along with our roomies Rotch and Rael, we carried our bags to Suntec and arrived at the designated area assigned to us backstage.

Before going backstage, we bumped into some friends who were already in their cosplay costumes like Leanne and Judith (im not sure what you guys were cosplaying, sorry ^^;;) and of course, the Tux Team as well.

Remember I mentioned that Melo and Dom helped us in carrying our costumes to Suntec?  Yes, they were already wearing those costumes.  XD

Anime Festival Asia 2011: Day 2 (Nov 12)

Continued from AFA Day 1...

My body clock was my worst enemy that morning.  No matter what time I've slept, I always wake up at 6am, despite sleeping past 1am that morning thanks to the room romping pajama party at the 12th floor earlier that night.

I spent the next hour fixing the costumes while trying my best not to wake any of my roomies.  By 7am Jewel was awake and left the room 30 minutes later to pick up our AFA tickets at 8am.  Rotch and Rael left later at around 8am to take a walk leaving me by myself fixing and preparing the costumes for later.  I used one of the big boxes, and with the rope we brought along, fashioned it into a crude backpack.  Then Jewel, Rotch and Rael came back around 10am, and before leaving, decided to have a very heavy brunch before dragging the costumes to Suntec.  We decided to eat at this food court where Jewel and Rotch decided to eat a claypot meal and Rael and I some Indonesian fare.

Claypot Meals Pork "Liempo" and  Sausage

Awfully bland Pepsi Twist :P

Claypot cooking intrigued me.  Its basically putting a rice topping meal over a super hot clay pot, practically burning the bottom rice portions into crunchy flakes (or slabs, depending on how long you let it burn before tossing it around).  Jewel was immediately addicted to them, and Rotch swears to it like manna from heaven.  Im not a big fan of burned rice slabs so I opted for the softer Indonesian food, which unfortunately slathered in super hot spicy sauce.  And to make matters worse, all of their canned softdrinks were bland! Its because the Singapore government regulates the sugar levels of the food they consume, which includes Pepsi products. Either way I was meant to be doomed in this culinary challenge.

Anime Festival Asia 2011: Day 1 (Nov 11)

It's been a week since we got home and until now I still don't know how to start writing down the experience without being tempted to type everything down in CAPSLOCK.  It's been a whirlwind of an adventure from start to finish.

Me and my wife Jewel had been playing around the idea of traveling to Singapore last May, just when Cosplay.ph's Tournament of Champions was gearing up for its debut on June.  We thought this year would be the best time to do it since we would be witness to our first AFA event with following our Philippine Representative for their Regional Cosplay Competition.  Cosplay Mania, Cosplay.ph's annual cosplay-centric event, will become the final showdown for TORCH finalists, with the winner to be sent to Singapore.  Three months before AFA, we decided to do something radical for a change: why not cosplay in Singapore, and in mecha of all things so we can show our support for the Philippine Team and show the other ASEAN cosplayers talented Filipino cosplayers can be.  Our choice of cosplay being Custom Zakus from the Gundam UC universe will be foretold in detail in another entry titled "Pretty fly for Mono-Eye: The making of Zaku cosplay", so for now this entry will be about our experience in AFA in general.

All we need now are zombies! 

We're way too early

My stuff on our way to Customs

Her stuff at Changi Airport in Singapore