#oldtaku cosplayers shout out!

[anna-neko]

When I say am an oldtaku, that is in no way or shape a lie. Not even an exaggeration anymore

how old is this nerd? Old enuff to show up in someone's VHS footage** of an anime con trip

they did a live-stream of some tapes, while digitizing it ... and ... damn! Just, holy fuck

Seeing so many long-forgotten yet still familiar faces, like heeeey this person lives in a whole diff state now. This one does professional advertising. This person not only is a serious adult, but is married with a child!

.... and then u see yourself. In full teen awkwardness, proud of your lil cosplay

**it ain't just ancient, its a literal miracle. The poor cassette was warping with both age & mold. Amazed we could even watch it

[anna-neko]

PREACH!!!!

My very first armor was made outta a deflated ball, cut up Coke bottles, stuffing and fabric

My bestest prop (that got so many compliments, OMG!!) was a bazillion-and-two foamie sheets one gets from the craft store for lil kid Arts & Crafts

My second-best known popular prop was literally a Pepsi bottle wrapped in a pillow, wrapped in cheap sheet of vinyl & ducttape, secured to a mop handle

Outfit made from wrong-side (matte) of super-shiny satin ... because it came in this perfect color & was also cheap for yardage

Shout-out to years past cosplayers have met who did: Rayearth cosplayer wearing cardboard armor covered in upholstery vinyl CLOVER cosplayer with laminated paper sheets wings

you can make things outta anything!! Cheap supplies!!! don't buy those power tools you don't know how to use

Elitism in supplies: Are we still on this? I’m always a little bummed to see the discussion going around the cosplay community where ppl judge others for not using “professional” enough supplies. If you have access to expensive fabrics, laser cutters, embroidery machines (I want one, too!!), and more, that’s amazing, but stop criticising those who don’t.

I made these costumes ages ago, before high end supplies even existed. The eyes on Washu are Mountain Dew bottles, and Seras’ gun is all plumbing supplies. Ifurita’s staff was plastic bottles I cut up, my Draenei bow was insulation foam. I feel like nowadays if I used those supplies I’d be dragged for it, which is so sad.

Please remember at the end of the day we are all playing dress up, even those of us doing it for a living, and tearing someone down over it seems so ugly and unnecessary. Uplifting others lifts you, as well.

[anna-neko]

its always something when ancient nerd footage is unearthed

like daaaaayum, my first con, my first Masq*!

The days when you didn't need to send in a script and pre-recorded audio for approval months in advance. You simply showed up to a con, met some fellow nerds and decided to go on stage together

*one of the most infamous ones no less

Anyway, if memory serves - this skit was about Kuno (frm Ranma 1/2) confusing Touga for his red-haired pigtailed girl. AFTER the shadow-girls did a cryptic intro and all

[anna-neko]

...sorry, every1 probly sick of this, but I still cannot wrap my brain around this very simple fact - when am remembered**

Just.... be me. Pop onto a Twitch to watch some ancient nerdy VHS stream (it was being digitized, and the person threw the gates wide open)

Now important note here: dunno about you kids and your carefully created "brand" on socials (what with adding "official" or "the" etc).... but back in da day of AOL/AIM you picked a weeb-name and that is forever ya damn name on everything since!

so anyway! I pop in, and my screen-name on there is some benign nonsense Them: hey there , welcome Me: <<< ---- anna Them: Annanekochan?! oh shiz me: the one and only!

That very specific combination of letters ain't been used since recorded history doesn't go back that far at least 2002 and holy fuck dude, you remembered me?!?!?! From that freakin long ago!??!!? was ready to straight up start bawling at my screen Is this how the Soap Opera grandmas feel when they are suddenly called by ages-long-abandoned nickname?

Like sure, the East Coast cosplay scene was way smaller then, but even by those numbers the fact am remembered is absolutely making me full of feels over here

**not like, "oh saw you last year" but seriously, we talkin decade+ timelines here. People met me ahlf a lifetime ago and somehow still recall? Positive nerd stories? BLESS

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anyway, perhaps some more history-inclined have heard legends of Man-Faye, or Sailor Bubba .... but are you deep-cut lore enuff to have heard of SAILOR BACON! (or a Dan Hibiki cosplayer snortin pixie-sticks. It was a dumb goof that one time)

[anna-neko]

hey remember that time I rambled on and on about cosplay (as one does) in olden days of pre-SocialMedia and @cosplayinamerica was actually quite lovely about it & put it up on his site!

Who wants to read this oldtaku ramble on

[anna-neko]

now there's some mofo flashback right there!!

People would be excitedly sharing that new ice-skating commercial pattern that would make excellent SailorSenshi fuku, some new lil crafting tips fresh out the hot-glue burn treatment, do post-con reports & shout-outs, plan next con meet-ups (East Coast vs West Coast reprezent!) & future cosplay groups. Like the one year a japanese VN (date sim? card game?) Animal Magnetism was popular for some reason & a group was planned for Katsu. Or the Miyuki-chan in Wonderland group for Otakon ... etc

..... ACP 'workshopped' starting their own cosplayer website for western cosplayers as Japan-side seemed to have so many sites thru the COSP ML and drama? yeah, there were absolutely all sorts of drama too! like whatever dafuq went down during AXNY or when cosplay-fucks kept surfacing to set targets on their next victum (fun fact: i am a literal nobody who at the time only had like 3 cosplays to her name, and was one of the first 5 or 10 cosplayers they made fun of?!?! Damn East Coast cosplay community used to be microscopic it feels like) People would totals do longass posts ranting about it (who remembers "Cosplay Scandal" because apparently that was a thing once)

and the first time (yeah more than once, of course it was more than once) Yahoo dropping mailing lists came up, absolutely someone made a spin-off mailing list for a bunch of people to scramble onto. That list was active for a good year or two

I am frellin ancient and do miss them days

COSP mailing list

This week I been digging around for information on a cosplay mailing list called COSP. At their heigth there was over 1,000 members with 2001 and 2002 their most busiest years. More than a few cosplayer shave told me about the mailing list. Unfortunately in Dec of 2019, Yahoo took down Yahoo Groups which had ben limping the previous decade.

In this diagram, you can see 1999-2001 had the most traffic. Traffic definite got smaller and some thing cause the drop in members. My guess is Cosplay.com and their message boards but that's my guess. By early 2008, it had drop down close to zero.

I am seeking cosplayers who were active in the 1990s in cosplay/costuming. I'm looking for recollection of the mailing list,how they discover fandom, what were the popular websites at that time, how was the online community and lots more questions. If interested, contact me ejen@cosplayinameriac.com