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

What the Internet taught me about Holy Week

Advisory: This entry may contain several Christian references and practices that may be unfamiliar to readers, but are welcome to read and understand.

Holy Week has come and gone, and we are again reminded of how much was sacrificed to save what remains of our faith and continue on learning how to live by it.  But as the long weekend has passed, I have arguably spent a good amount of my non-working 5 day vacation sitting in front of the computer (or cellphone thanks to WiFi) either finishing up other projects, playing games or surfing the internet.  And in the internet is where I would mostly try to figure out the world around me and how things have progressed as time passes by.

I'm sure you've stumbled into this picture before (see left).  This picture and what it triggered has intrigued me for the past two days.  It was spreading like wildfire in Facebook and other social media.  And the comments ranged from pity to fire-and-brimstone flaming.


"Galing mo,,ginawa mong laruan ang krus na sya tumubos sa kasalanan ng tao."

"Oh. Such a disgrace :(" 

"what's great with those pictures? all I can see was full of thrases with people there disrespecting our God. They don't even know what they were doing and yet they are having a good time. Such worthless creatures that doesn't deserve God's Love."

 And this is just the tip of the iceberg.  More so with those posting in the cosplay community where I'm in, and the posts were as unflattering as what I just mentioned here.  Honestly I felt shock when I saw this picture, but kept quiet because I wanted to know how exactly did this happen.  Eventually I stumbled upon the Facebook album where it originated and also read an online article describing the event and eventually concluded that the cross was actually part of a tourist attraction in Angeles, Pampanga for photo ops.

I felt sad how much internet culture has permitted us to spread news like wildfire and post comments without any thought of consequence.  Many have already condemned the woman for violating our religious icon by posing sexily for photos, without giving any thought of why she did it.  Is she even Catholic?  Is she local? A foreigner who knew no better?  Why isnt anyone surrounding her stopping her from climbing up the cross and be photographed?  And why are there several pictures of other people doing the same thing?

Questions no doubt will probably be answered soon, thanks to our local media finally getting hold of the story.  I hear it was already featured on TV.  And the contents actually, in their own little way, lectured to those who callously called the woman a sinner, hypocrite, disbeliever and such, to take time to look into themselves and ask how pure their intentions were in the first place.  Which makes me wonder how selective we are in determining which is considered blasphamous and which is considered tolerable, particularly in the anime and cosplay community.

 Tokyo Babylon Cross Fashion

Cross-motiff gun to destroy a lot of things

Rei chained to cross in sexy dress. Nuff said.

And I'm pretty sure even popular artists are very much into these things.

Or some might call, Gaga on a Stick.

Madonna, obviously not singing "Like a Virgin"

So at the end of the day, I often wonder if i'm the only one who seems strange enough to say that somehow, these images don't disturb me enough to make me go raging over the internet.  Is it because I have a good sense of humor?  A sizable level of tolerance?  Or because I'm pretty much jaded by what's been going on these days?  Probably a little of everything.  But once in a while I always thought that we are all very much human in so many ways, that I am reminded that perhaps God designed us that way, so that in the end we would realize our mistakes and move on to become better human beings.

I think that's a much better deal than being born completely perfect.

Reviving Past Cosplays

Whenever I look back on my past 11 years of cosplay, the thought of reviving some of my past cosplay costumes came to mind.  I was thinking that I should try applying what I know now on costumes that were back in the day, the best effort I could give with whatever budget and material limitations given to me on that particular point in time.

Listed here are my top five costumes I would like to repeat again, this time with better materials and techniques.

UPAME Track 10 Convention Review

UPAME Track 10 turned out ok at the start, although they were late around 20 minutes. Entrance was slow due to the ticketing being just one line. Most of the people who were already inside were there because they bought advance selling tickets. The line snaked all the way almost to the other end of the convention, and was forced to fold the line four to five times to avoid crowding the other already ongoing events such as the World Robotics Olympiad and the Canon Photography Marathon. That was just for those who got inside SMX.

Outside SMX was weirder. UPAME did not have direct control on the decision on how the entrance should be done, instead the security of SMX were the ones who controlled the number of people going inside.

Why so slow?

Robotech and Carl Macek: A small tribute

Carl Macek.

In the anime community he is both loved and hated. He introduced anime in the western hemisphere, and to do so (thanks to western cartoon requirements and standards that were totally different from Japan) spliced and diced three unrelated sci-fi anime into one giant space opera we recognize to this day as ROBOTECH.

Here's a news snippet that i found in Anime News Network:

"American producer Carl Macek passed away due to a heart attack on Saturday. Macek and Beck had co-founded the anime importing company Streamline Pictures in 1988.

Macek is best known for producing Robotech, the 1985 redubbed and edited adaptation of three different anime series — Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada. He also worked on the dubbing of many anime projects from Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years (redubbed and edited adaptation of Captain Harlock and Queen Millennia) to more recently, Bleach and Naruto. His other dubbing production credits include Vampire Hunter D, Robot Carnival, My Neighbor Totoro, and Aura Battler Dunbine. Although Streamline Pictures did not dub the 1988 film Akira, it did release the film in theaters and on video tape in the United States. "