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

Cosplay Mania: Five and still Fighting

Let me start with an excerpt from a wikipedia entry of the song "Superman" by the singer "Five for Fighting":

The narrator portrays himself as misunderstood and unsure rather than the god-like figure others see; he does not feel as powerful and perfect as people see him, and at the same time believes he is more than simply that heroic, unreal figure. Instead, he describes himself experiencing an ordinary man's struggles to understand himself, to live up to expectations, and fulfill his responsibilities, even while he is aware of how much greater his responsibilities are.

For the last 5 years I've been with these extraordinary group of people who had nothing on their minds but service for others, even when the subject in question is cosplay, a subject people can easily take for granted.

After all this time, I can easily say that Cosplay Mania, the event, can be compared to Superman of this particular song.  It started out small, delicate yet firm in its belief that it could do much good to cosplay enthusiasts.  It came out of the blue, out of the sky, falling in a capsule of ideas that could have exploded on impact or never made it to its destination due to a wayward thought or dismissal of pessimism.  It was unreal, alien, a hobby which came from a different culture (Japan) yet we adopted it and molded it as our own.  The whole Cosplay Mania team, the people behind it, the organizers, marshals and volunteers, were like the Jonathan and Martha Kent of Superman's world - people who believed in old-school values while embracing the new with parental understanding.

But like the song, Cosplay Mania has its own share of insecurities and weaknesses.  But despite all that, the driving force behind it still believed that it was worth all the wisdom it can gather and learn from, and from there, fly off to become an inspiration to others.

I've observed that some people see Cosplay Mania and the people behind it as supermen/women themselves: untouchable, invulnerable, and laden with enough superpowers to decimate any imagined opposition.  They were either admired (and sometimes *shudder* worshipped) like saints or demi-gods, or despised because of it, making their own assumptions to justify their dislike towards the event and the people behind them.  Sometimes decisions are made that aren't very popular, and would endure the storm fed by fear, ignorance or malice.  Thus is the tragedy of being in the spotlight, but like always, we make it a point to simply hold our heads high and aim for something much higher, because we know our actions, and the result of that, will speak for itself.

On a personal level, it has been a struggle to define myself as either the Clark Kent or Kal-El when it comes to helping out Cosplay Mania.  Its a double life I live in, juggling personal and professional obligations while helping out my own responsibilities for the event.  I never intentionally kept my other life secret, its just that I never really talk about it.  Its easier for me to deal with it without the annoying questions that came with the discovery.  But its already general knowledge here in the office when it comes with my hobby, except when you're newly hired.  But apparently I had reached my limits when what I dreaded finally happened: when your job and personal obligations intersect with the event itself.

I've seen it coming actually, three years ago in fact, and that I have been grooming my friend Zaerone to lead the Costume Building Contest, an activity close to my heart.  This was his very first year without me, and I'm glad he was capable of leading on his own, but I really wished he should start finding an assistant soon before all of his hairs turn grey with stress.

Since February I've been helping out Cosplay Mania through graphics productions, although the poster designs for Cosplay Mania and TORCH, I give all the credits to artists Wilson Tortosa and Ruben Devela for the designs.  I simply did the layouts and everything else (well except the huge tarps and souvenirs, where Elben helped me with).  The only thing I wasn't sure of was who made the giant tarp of the TORCH finalists draped over the second floor near the escalators.  But even the demands of the event can make a man weary, especially if I have to satisfy equally the demands of other things like work and home.  These are the times I'm very grateful to friends who are more than willing to lend a helping hand in those times of weakness.

With all these Superman references, the obvious question is what would be Cosplay Mania's kryptonite?  Will it be in a form of a hypothetical Lex Luthor, Brainiac or Darkseid?  No, it's kryptonite would be this picture below.

Without these people (the organizers, marshals, volunteers, sponsors, guests, congoers and cosplayers) Cosplay Mania would be nothing, a dry husk without meaning. A kryptonite that instead of your usual lethal green kind, its the blue one that heals.  We were all blue kryptonites, caring and healing and helping it grow (unless you're the Smallville version, we're screwed, so lets pretend to be the Super Friends version, shall we?).

We all look forward for the next year and what our humble event can do, to provide a venue for creativity for all cosplayers out there, and yet still dependent on all the Jimmy Olsens, Lois Lanes, Perry Whites, Jonathan and Martha Kents and a huge plathora of supporters and super heroes.  A huge thank you and we promise keep on fighting for a better Cosplay Mania for all you blue kryptonites out there.

So unless we turn into some sort of Bizzarro, our quest for flying ever higher will never fade.  So here's to a sixth and beyond!

Its been a while

Its been a while since I last posted.  For the past month there has been so many things I'd like to say about cosplay but I just end up deleting the whole entry because it reads like I overdosed myself in LSD and is now looking for a face to chew on.

But in the end, I realized its just wasn't worth the time to mull over as there are much better things to work on like preparing for upcoming Cosplay Tournament of Champions and Cosplay Mania.  In the end I'm glad I didnt go through my initial foam-in-the-mouth rants as a few days later I read this article by cosplayer Jin Joson called "The Misunderstandings about Cosplay" and my faith is restored.

If you don't know who Jin Joson is, then it's high time that you should go beyond the media drivel of "cosplay gods and goddesses" labels and get to know her, as she is in my opinion the best person to represent the virtues of cosplaying.

A lot of people tend to follow only the surface and never dig deeper as their reasons are never really about the hobby but about other things.  Don't worry, I totally understand that one.  A friend may have invited you to join in without providing any real insight, or discovered your crush has joined the ranks and wanted to be part of it just to be close, or you saw the success on TV and decided its a stepping stone to fame and fortune-- these can be legitimate stepping stones in trying to find out the real core of the matter regarding cosplay.  That is, if you are even willing to take that one crucial step beyond that.  But since not many people are really the research type and are more of "im-just-here-for-the-moment", they probably wouldn't care less about the hobby's core concept and history and just go with the flow and make things up as they go along.  "Walang basagan ng trip".  To each his/her own.

The sad thing about this is that some of the media (traditional and new), in their goal of making things more interesting, make things up and label it as their "their own style" just to make theirs different and yet use the same word to describe them.  Sooner or later, the Apples and Oranges comparison will no longer exist, as the end product will most likely have no resemblance other than the kind that stink.

But I'm just glad that there are still those who do it right.  I was asked time and again that maybe I should be more vocal about my views or even be more involved.  I am in my own way, through this blogs, through the events I help organizing, and by example.  I'm not after sending a loud message for the masses, just a clear whisper for the few willing to listen or having the patience and insight to ask.

GM and Zaku Cosplay Mania X

Finally was able to convert and upload one of the few vidoes I had of me and Ricki's Gundam 08th Team series cosplay last Cosplay Mania X. Ricki cosplayed the RX-79[G] Ground Type GM and me as the Zaku MS-05L Sniper Model. It was fun to see ourselves on video, seeing ...how other people saw us walking and acting like robots. Enjoy!

Thanks to Wilson and Addy for the assistance, and Polidread and Jam for the video!

International Guests to grace Cosplay Mania X

Its been under wraps for months, making sure we are able to pull it off, making sure to make their stay here safe and interesting and absolutely exciting.

The guests were officially announced at Naoko Cosplay Blog. Naoko is Cosplay Mania's official international guest relations officer. Click the link and check out who.

But for me, this is the cosplayer I finally want to meet in person.


Yep, it's him, the guy, the first mecha cosplayer to ever win the prestigious AFA cosplay competition. Mirage_cld in the forums, real name being Clive. With the generous help of Naoko, we were able to invite him to come over and be our exclusive guest for Cosplay Mania. This is also the time I realized how excited i was to finally get to meet him in person, after chatting and communicating with him online for years, not just in the forums, but even as early as the days I was still running my now defuct Geocities-hosted mecha cosplay tutorial website MECHACOSPLAYTIPS.TK. I even invited by Clive himself if i could visit him someday in Singapore with my costume, i guess the tables are turned on me for being too slow, hehehe.

What's exciting was that he wasnt just coming over just to visit, he's coming in costume! Man, to finally find out how he build his awesome creations.

I dont know if im suffering from fanboy jitters, but yeah, i am a big fan of Clive and sure as hell i hope i dont go flipping-over-mental when i shake his hand.

I knew about this for months, now i can finally breath easily and share this wonderful news, not just to fellow mecha cosplayers in my network, but to everyone else. :D

I am so looking forward for Cosplay Mania. How about you guys?