Construction Details:

10-16-2007: A character I've loved for a long time, the anime is also one of the few Gonzo titles I truly liked. So it was a no brainer. My main convention costume of late 2005-2006. It's sort of become my hallmark costume. I'm proud of it as it's the first "true" costume I've made, and not just cobbled together from trips to the Goodwill. While I list it as finished, I do intend to spruce it up now and then. Mainly the cuffs, which I may redo. I hope to make a cloak, cane and get a top hat to go with it. As far as the cloak goes, credit is attributed to Hellrazer for the lining material, though I haven't purchased it yet. Thanks for the heads up though. It's greatly appreciated. I'll go without the makeup on smaller cons. Applying it can take over thirty minutes. I started with creme based and now use water colors. Getting even coverage with light blue is quite a challenge. The difference is evident in the photos. The icon for this costume is with the initial creme makeup. Sadly, it wasn't actually a foundation, which later explained all the difficulties. When I switched to aqua paints, I got one too dark. I'm told reaction during my Fanime Masquerade debut was "Now that's BLUE". At SacCon, I countered it with the earlier creme on top. It created a neat two-tone effect which, while anime inaccurate, did give a sense of realism. That combination earned me the comment by one of the staff as, "The best Beast coplay I've ever seen". My friend pointed out in hindsight that after he said this on announcing my award, I should have exclaimed, "Oh my stars and garters!" ^_^ By Yaoi-con 06, when my main avatar was taken, I'd finally gotten the right shade of blue. Coverage is still a bit of a problem, but unlike the creme, I can wear it a lot longer. At Fanime 06, I was in makeup for over twelve hours. An impossible feat in the old creme.That, combined with knowing how to remove it properly, has severely increased my frequency of using the makeup. I may make a new version eventually. The suit was purchased at the Goodwill for about ten bucks. While absolutely perfect, it is unfortunately 100% wool. This makes it rather hot in the sun, since it's also black. This limits me to cooler weather and evening wear, though it's not too unbearable as long as I stay out of the sun. An unfortunate mishap also occurred to the pants. It was forgotten that they were wool, and, thinking we'd washed them before, heavily damaged them in the wash. I've managed to stretch them back out a bit, and cut down the resultant frizziness, but they're not the same. Finding matching pants is difficult, as the jacket has a slight peppered look to it, and matching the hang of wool with anything else is nay on impossible. Though I'll keep looking, and other than being a bit tight, the original pants still work. This does motivate me to switch the jacket over. However, the flames are glued on, so everything would have to be done from scratch if I switched to a new suit. Most likely though, I would create a new version for summer use out of more breathable material, and use the current version during the winter cons. Even if the never version is better all around, this costume's too important to ever truly retire. I know I probably don't have one of the best Monte Cristos, but I'm proud to have one of the first. 4/15/2010 Update - As of the 13th, work has begun on refreshing the old count in prep for an appearence at the 2010 NorCal Cherry Blossom Festival. While the current suit is going untouched, the cloak is being constructed, as is the cane. The cloak will consist of a poly/cotton blend of black for the top from Walmart (sigh...), with the lining most likely a suitable brocade. I've also purchased a patterned material to possible enliven the cloak a bit. The cane is being constructed per the work of another that I found through Google. The base will be a 4' pool cue, possibly cut down to 3'. Sculpty will be added to finish the top. Eventually, i may cast the top in plastic. I may still refresh the cuffs. I actually still have all the left over material from five years ago. Even enough to redo the flames if need be. Though this would wait until Fanime.

Sorry, you must be a registered user of and logged in to view and add comments. Either log in or register now!