#pensacon coverage

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Check out our full Pensacon 2019 coverage, including cosplay interviews, on our website here ↩

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This Death Stranding Custom Built PC Even Includes an Enclosed Bridge Baby

July 28, 2020 8:54 AM EST

Plastic baby doll and heat – what could possibly go wrong?

When Death Stranding released on PlayStation 4 on November 8 last year, players were immediately taken with its bizarre and vast open-world. Granted, there were some who called it nothing but a walking simulator that was bloated, frustrating, and slow-paced where others praised it to the high heavens for its unique concepts, lasting appeal, graphics, voice acting, and soundtrack but regardless, director Hideo Kojima and Kojima Productions produced a unique video game that had everyone talking. One of the many reasons gamers loved Death Stranding was due to freelance porter Sam Porter Bridges and his little “BB” strapped to his chest. So much so that here we can see someone who has build a custom Death Stranding PC and stuck a plastic baby doll inside of it. Why does the idea of heat from the PC and plastic make me so nervous?

Cami Roebuck who is an actress, filmmaker, and artist has taken to the idea of Death Stranding so much that she has built her very own PC to commemorate the game. Straight off the bat, the first thing you notice is that there is a baby inside, obviously not a real child but a plastic doll. Cami has also decorated the case with the Bridges logo with the case looks like mail Sam would carry around. Even though I was initially concerned about the plastic doll melting, Cami has stated that she has made precautions to ensure the doll won’t go up in flames, ruin her PC and burn the house down.

Hi, hi! For everyone who has expressed concern about our sweet little Lou melting, we took precautions to ensure that she wouldn’t! Here’s a lil glimpse at some of that! It has also been run/done some heavy lifting since she was put in and she’s all good! NO MELTY BABY HERE!!!

pic.twitter.com/c8wqXMTL4O

— Cami Roebuck (@CamiRoebuck) July 27, 2020

Cami was able to build her special Death Stranding PC after her boyfriend upgraded to a new set-up leaving her to snag some of the unwanted parts and design her very own computer. If Cami seems familiar to you, it may be because you have seen her in cosplay somewhere. Cami has been invited as a guest to comic and pop culture conventions all over the southeast US where she set up a table, sold prints, signed autographs, and took pictures with fans. Along with that she and her family also sold geek and horror-themed handmade goods from their Etsy store, The MHC Workshop, at these conventions. Throughout her cosplay career, Cami has been featured in numerous publications such as Marvel’s Costober Fest, MTV’s Dragon*Con Coverage, Wizard World Magazine, Cosplay Culture Magazine, and many more. She has also been recognized with awards for her costuming, including Best Comic Book Duo at Dragon*Con, 1st place team-up in Wizard World New Orlean’s inaugural costume contest, first runner-up in Pensacon’s inaugural costume contest, and 3rd place in the legendary tier at the Smite World Championship and HiRez Expo 2017.

Death Stranding launched on PC July 14 and thankfully, you didn’t need a huge monster of a computer to run it. For a modest gameplay experience at 720p/30fps, you’ll need Windows 10, Intel Core i5-3470 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200, 8GB of memory, GeForce GTX 10503GB or AMD Radeon RX 560 4GB, Version 12 of Direct X, 80GB of storage space, and a Direct X compatible sound card. If you want to amp that up a bit and get the ultimate experience, you still don’t need the highest of spec PC. Windows 10, Intel Core i54460 or AMD Ryzen 5 1400, 8GB of memory, Geforce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB or Radeon RX 570 4GB, Version 12 of Direct X, 80GB of storage space, and a Direct X compatible sound card will ensure you get the best out of Death Stranding.

Death Stranding launched on PC July 14 on both Steam and the Epic Games Store. You can also pick it up for PS4 if you haven’t done so already.

This post contains affiliate links where DualShockers gets a small commission on sales. Any and all support helps keep DualShockers as a standalone, independent platform for less-mainstream opinions and news coverage.

July 28, 2020 8:54 AM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/07/this-death-stranding-custom-built-pc-even-includes-an-enclosed-bridge-baby/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=this-death-stranding-custom-built-pc-even-includes-an-enclosed-bridge-baby

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The Nola Nerd Couple Podcast Episode 6: Pensacon 2017 Wrap-Up

The Nola Nerd Couple Podcast Episode 6: @Pensacon 2017 Wrap-Up

We look back on the wildly successful Pensacon 2017. We discuss some of the celebrity encounters we had as well as some of our shopping experiences. Plus, we take a long look at the Star Wars guests at Pensacon! Here is the podcast: https://nolanerdcouple.podbean.com/mf/web/i78gqw/pensacon2017.mp3   For more of our coverage of Pensacon 2017, click the links below: A look at the Cosplay at…

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Pensacon 2019 Intro Review

Way back in February of this year we attended Pensacon in Pensacola, Florida. Yes, it took forever to get this content out, but we’ve had some major growing pains in the meantime. For one thing, we were just a little ole fandom magazine, The Lemon Magazine, when we attended and now we’re a full-fledged news and media company, so… yeah. Anyway, we had an absolute blast, all of which will be outlined in the posts to follow, but we wanted to give a quick review-y type post for those interested in attending in the future. 

The one thing you really want to know if you’re searching for this convention is whether or not you should fork over the money to attend, right? Well, we can definitely say it was worth it! Every single second was jam-packed with things to do and see. The entire town of Pensacola turns out for this thing and even nearby businesses and restaurants transform. For instance, most within walking distance will change their interiors for the entire weekend into something resembling The Enterprise or Platform 9 ¾. And if that’s not enough, the celebrities that attend every year are more than worth the ticket price. 

Okay, so let’s get to it. First, we were given press passes, but we didn’t get to skip lines or anything like that, so we were treated to the true convention experience. Nothing fancy, which was just fine. We can’t exactly report on what it might be like for you to go if we get anything above and beyond what our readers might get. The only thing that was different was our check-in. It’s in a separate area and the lines for those with regular weekend passes had a pretty hefty line even earlier in the morning, so that’s something to keep in mind when you’re planning. The staff was amazing, though, so while the lines were long, they went fast. Also, if you don’t have parking passes, you will have to pay for something nearby. We suggest taking an Uber or Lyft instead. You’re not gonna want to leave, so it’s fine. You can also get a hotel downtown too, though those can sell out fast. 

Day one is technically Friday afternoon (or Thursday night if you have VIP passes), so not a lot of people attend that day compared to Saturday and Sunday. However, we advise going all three days, if you can swing it. Being there on Friday, when it opened to the public, let us browse all the vendors before the huge crowds the next day. Getting all the shopping out of the way first was nice and allowed us to spend more time in panels and photo op lines the other two days. 

Pensacon has a campus layout. This means that the entire convention is spaced out over several buildings. They’re all within walking distance of each other, as is downtown, so even without a car, everything is completely manageable. We went ahead and started in the main building, the Pensacola Bay Center, where all the vendors are located. This is also where some of the bigger stars are located, and while this place can be a maze, we didn’t have any trouble navigating. Just pay attention to the signage and you’ll be good. 

Because it’s a smaller convention, you could easily walk right up to celebrities’ tables and get an autograph and picture for a fee without much wait. It varied depending on the celebrity and their status, but everyone that attends is pretty reasonable. There were a lot of Harry Potter stars this year, so that was especially fun for us. William Shatner was also there, and his line was pretty long, but even that wasn’t something you might see at the real big conventions, like SDCC or something. Oh, and don’t forget cash. If you didn’t pay for a staged photo op beforehand, cash was key. For most, that we noticed anyway, that was what they accepted. For the vendors, they were more set up to take cash and debit, so just keep that in mind. 

For Saturday and Sunday, there was a lot of walking from one panel to the next. We go into further detail about those in the upcoming articles, but each was very well moderated. Everyone got to ask their questions and was respectful. I did hear of people getting in trouble for recording in the panels, even press, but it was made very clear that you weren’t to do that, so we’re not sure why people still tried it. Regardless, at all the panels we attended, we had zero issues. Everything ran smoothly and on time. We only heard of one panel being canceled, but from what we understand that was due to some outside triggered fanboy threats that, thankfully, never came to fruition. 

Overall, we will be attending any way we can as many years as we can. It was intimate, professional, and had some awesome celebrities and panels. Pensacon even has its own film festival with an award ceremony, though we didn’t have time to attend this year. And before we forget, the cosplayers brought it. We were lucky enough to interview some lovely ladies that attended this year, and you’ll be able to read those later this week too, but every single person we saw cosplaying was incredible. The craftsmanship still has us freaking out! They were all so nice too, and very accommodating of every person who wanted to take a picture, as most cosplayers are. 

Hopefully you’re not still on the fence because it’s definitely not a con you want to miss! And if you do decide to come in 2020, get your tickets early. They were announcing guests up until the last minute, so don’t wait for your favorites to be confirmed. It might be too late by then. 

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📸by: CPR Photography (Cindy Moon) and Shurett Photography (Sakura Haruno)

Cosplayer Interview @marissamacaroni

How do you decide which characters to cosplay? And how do you decide to change up a costume, like beach babe Harley, or genderbend a character, like Joker? It’s so fun to see all these different kinds of cosplay takes with characters!

I honestly just see a character and I’m like ooo they look cool! And then I’ll do some research on it to see about how I’ll go about recreating the cosplay. For my more original cosplays like the Joker for instance, I start thinking about fun ideas I could do with a male character and see how I can make them look femme. I do A LOT of research and have tons of reference pictures that I use. There’s an entire folder on my computer with different reference pictures for characters I am interested in. Sometimes I’ll try to draw up a little mock up for the character so I have a visualization of what the costume coil look like 

What are some of the challenges in creating your costumes and personas? Is it particularly challenging when you’re remixing a character, so to speak, and not just necessarily duplicating their costume? Why or why not?

I think the biggest challenge is trying to formulate how exactly I’m going to make this new costume. And when I’m doing more of an original design, it becomes even more daunting because I have to sit down for hours and do SO much research just to find out what would look good, what would work, and if it’s even possible. 

Do you prefer to buy or make your costumes? Why? Is it sometimes not really possible to buy your costume pieces because of the types of cosplays you do? Do you ever wish you could just buy a costume ready to go? Why or why not?

I do a mixture of both. If it’s cheaper for me to just buy an already done costume, I will do that. But yes, sometimes I have to buy costumes because it is out of my skill set. An example would be my body suits I wear for Silk. I couldn’t make that myself because it involves 3d printing and that particular type of material is super difficult to work with. I don’t always like to buy a costume that is ready to go because I do like adding my own personality to the character so if I can make it, I would much prefer that. 

Read the full interview here ⇠

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Letter from the Editor-in-Chief

from @robinwritesallthethings

I have a fandom confession. I’ve actually never been to a convention. I know, I know. How can you run a fandom website if you’ve never been to a convention, right? To be fair, I’ve always wanted to go to one. I’ve just never had the money or the opportunity. I’ll finally be attending my first in October, and to say that I’m excited is an understatement. Don’t worry, you’ll be hearing all about it!

The idea of the convention sounds like a dream, doesn’t it? True hardcore, totally nerdy fans in the flesh, all gathered in one place for a weekend of talking about their favorite shows, characters, and fandom topics. Cosplayers decked out in amazing costumes, fandom swag around every corner, and nights spent in hotel rooms with your bestest friends.

Not that it’s not going to be exhausting, I know. I have been to academic conferences before, and I imagine they’re similar when it comes to stamina. A whole weekend of walking around and being excited 24/7 and being barely able to sleep because there’s so much to see and do catches up with you after a while, especially when you’re a fandom old like me. You tend to need a bit of a vacation to recover.

And not that conventions don’t have their own dark side too. Harassment has obviously come to the forefront as an issue that conventions need to solve in recent years, and people are still working out the best way to deal with that. Add in the fact that not all fans are nice or appropriate, especially when around their favorite celebrities, and you can find yourself in the middle of some pretty unsavory behavior. As it is, fandom has no professional etiquette, but it really, really needs some. The problem is just how to implement it.

Because, to me, the biggest difference between fandom in general and conventions is that fandom does not exist in one space. It exists everywhere, and often without rules. While this is great in some ways, it sets us up for disaster in others. When fans suddenly enter a space with rules, they often don’t like being told no, and we definitely need to fix that.

We’ll have more to say about all of this here at The Citrus Scale, especially in the coming year, when we’re hoping to ramp up our convention attendance. For now, I’ll sign off by repeating an old adage that I think can help us set a standard for all behavior anywhere, since there’s no rulebook. Treat others, including celebrities, how you would like to be treated. I think any conventions we all attend will be the better for it.

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Cosplayer Interviews with MarissaMacaroni, AliAbides, and TheCosplayMouse

Author Interviews: @sherlockianwhovian, @findingtallahassee, @distant-rose, and @searchingwardrobes

Also, there will be articles scattered throughout the week as well, including ones like: “The Challenges of Playing in Someone Else’s Sandbox”, “Sex and Cosplay: The Double Standard and the Status Quo”, and “Using Fandom to Teach”. 

Stay Tuned!

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Check out our convention inspired prompt list as we kick off our Pensacon 2019 coverage this week! Don’t forget to tag us if you use any of these so we can read them. 

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Using Fandom To Teach

Written by: @robinwritesallthethings

So most of you probably don’t know this, but I used to be a teacher. Like, a legit college-level English teacher. I taught composition and literature to mostly freshmen students, and honestly, it was a blast. I quit to become a writer because that is my first passion, but truthfully, I still love to teach. Luckily, since I work for The Citrus Scale, I still have plenty of opportunities to do just that.

One of the biggest obstacles teachers face in any classroom is how to connect with students. Especially when you’re teaching something like literature, the first question students have is why do they need this? And actually, I like this question. I think it’s very astute to wonder about the value of what you’re being taught and why, and I was always happy to answer.

This is where fandom can really benefit you. If students are interested in what they’re working with, or at the very least feel like they can understand it, they are far more likely to listen to what you’re saying. In my literature classroom, we studied romance, and we read… wait for it… Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, and Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James. Yes, I broke a few brains with that last one, just for the record. Apparently several of my students had never heard of the Internet, you know what I mean? And yes, someone’s grandmother literally called the college to complain about me teaching Fifty Shades. To her credit, when she found out my plan for it, she agreed with me and withdrew her complaints, which was a better result than I could have imagined.

A lot of people at the administrative level were skeptical of my choices. Even though most of them had never read Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey, they just couldn’t see the value in requiring students to read them. They saw them as...

Read the full article here ⇠

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📸by: CPR Photography (Poison Ivy) and Brie Beecher (Animal Crossing Cosplay)

Cosplayer Interview @thecosplaymouse

How do you decide which characters to cosplay? How do conventions factor into that decision? Are there types of characters or costumes you would favor or avoid for these types of events? Why?

I decide who to cosplay based off of characters I love, whether it be their personality or design. Conventions only influence my cosplay choices if I am not able to bring larger costume pieces with me to a specific convention. I personally recommend easy-to-pack costumes for cons that are not local, but if there's a will there's a way!

What are some of the challenges in creating your costumes and personas, especially since you have so many characters in your repertoire?

Some challenges I come across while creating my cosplays are deciding on the best way to make certain pieces, especially when it is out of my expertise, which is sewing. YouTube is always very helpful, though!

Do you prefer to buy or make your costumes? Why? Are there any pieces of costumes that you’ve found particularly difficult to buy or make? Why?

A lot of my earlier cosplays are mostly hand-made, but I do buy a lot of my cosplay items as well. If I had more time and money at my disposal, I would definitely make a lot more items for my cosplays!

What was your first experience with cosplay? Or have you been around it forever? When did you decide to start attending conventions and cosplaying at those? What was the thought process behind that decision?

About Fall 2016 is when I first started cosplaying. I spent about 50 hours putting together my Isabelle cosplay for my first convention and had no idea what I was doing! I chose Isabelle because Animal Crossing has been an important part of my life since I was about 4 years old. She was my main cosplay until Pensacon 2019 where I started getting more into cosplay and trying new things.

Read the full interview here ⇠

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I respectfully disagree. Your articles have become increasingly negative over the last few months, as if you are discouraging fan creators, making them feel guilty for loving their fandom. You go looking for problems, in a fandom. I take issue with your statement that you are the only outlet that is positively supporting fan creators. You’re a bit full of yourself in that regard. You are definitely NOT the only outlet that supports those of us who create for the fandom community.

We’d like to apologize to our readers for this exceptionally long post.

We literally know of no one else who interviews fanfiction authors and treats them with any sort of respect. If there are other sites or communities, please let us know. We’d love to hear about them! As for the increasing negativity, see below for the actual statistics. You’ll see that your arguments do not hold up. 

6 weeks ago

We began our Relaunch Week as we transitioned from The Lemon Magazine to The Citrus Scale. 

“How Stranger Things Ruined My Life” 

Tone: Positive

Note(s): The title is clearly a joke. It listed all the wonderful ways that the Duffer Brothers and Shawn Levy have taught us that women are allowed to demand more of the media and entertainment they consume.  

“Chaotic Neutrals: The Walking Dead Edition” 

Tone: Critical

Note(s): For the purposes of this exercise, we’re going to say that all critical articles automatically equal negativity. We DO NOT feel this way, nor does any news and media organization, but we talk more about that at the end of this post. 

Then we posted a game, a picture of the prize to win that day, and another game the next day.  

“Please, Sir, Can I Have Some More?”

Tone: Positive 

Note(s): Well, we will preface it by saying that it’s not at all positive if you are a white guy in entertainment who refuses to tell any story that isn’t their own and continually puts women down. If you, Anon, are one of the fanboys who whined and cried when Jodie Whittaker got cast as the new Doctor then #sorrynotsorry. We won’t apologize for calling people out for oppressing minority groups. Not now. Not ever. 

“In Defense Of… Self-Inserts” 

Tone: Positive

Note(s): It is literally “in defense of” self-inserts and authors who write them. The only thing remotely critical is at the end when we stay if you don’t like this type of work, you aren’t obligated to read it. As an overall tone, it is positive. 

“When A Villain Can’t Be Redeemed: A Study In Severus Snape”

Tone: Negative

Note(s): We do not hide our disdain for Severus Snape and his routine abuse of children.

“Adapting Comics For The Screen”

Tone: Informational (Neutral)

Note(s): Again, the only thing that could be considered critical is at the end when we discuss oversaturation in the Marvel fandom and how exhausting such a catalogue of works can be, and that reader/viewer fatigue is very real and you are allowed to take a break if you need it. 

“The Fight Against Fiction Censorship” 

Tone: Critical

Note(s): We discuss how you, as the reader, should be curating your own experience and how characters are allowed to be morally gray. That these characters do not and should not be automatically deemed as representative of writers’ actual views on sensitive subject matters. 

“Get Fridged, B*tch!: The Short Lives of Women in Supernatural” 

Tone: Highly Critical

Note(s): We discuss the fact that in the show Supernatural specifically, most women are killed for the character development of their male counterparts. We point out that this is not okay and leads to the accepted convention that this is good writing and not, in fact, incredibly lazy and sloppy. 

Then we did six posts, in a row, on our Instagram that were silly, funny, or light-hearted, but we’ll chalk those up to neutral even though they’re definitely more positive than anything. We did Signs as Quotes, Kiss. Marry. Kill., The Alphabet Game, and a D&D alignment chart with characters. 

So, at the end of our relaunch week, we were at sixteen (16) informational or neutral, four (4) critical or negative, and three (3) positive, with only one being truly considered negative and not simply critical.

5 weeks ago

We began our Pensacon 2019 Convention Coverage. We featured three (3) cosplayers we met at the convention, linked their profiles, and not one of our questions was negative. Again, we won’t add them to our positive list, but they definitely count as us being supportive. We know we’re not the only who interviews cosplayers in a positive fashion, but there can always be more. We also included four (4) fanfiction authors. There were other informational, infographic, or neutral articles (like interviews), interspersed between these articles: 

“Pensacon 2019 Intro Review” and the “Pensacon 2019 Wrap-Up Review”

Tone: Positive (x2)

Note(s): We had a blast at Pensacon, and will be returning next year as well. All our coverage was overwhelmingly positive. 

“Using Fandom To Teach” 

Tone: Positive 

Note(s): The article states fun ways that you can include fandom in the classroom to help engage the students so they don’t automatically tune you out. It was also a small summary of the panel we saw at the convention, which is clearly referenced. However, all the ideas were original or credited appropriately. 

We also had a TWD Trailer Reaction Video. As far as we know, there’s nothing to be seen as negative (unless we were talking about Rosita). If you really, really tried, you could count it negative though, since every single thing we said it in wasn’t nice to all the characters. For those keeping score, we’re at twenty-eight (28) informational or infographic, six (6) positive, and four (4) critical or negative. 

4 weeks ago

We began our Marvel-themed month here. Honestly, we’re getting tired of linking most things, so here’s how Marvel month stacks up. 

There were eighteen (18) informational articles or infographics, eleven (11) interviews, four (4) playlists, and two (2) games. This leaves us with thirty-five (35) neutral articles. 

“AUs Becoming Original Fiction”

Tone: Positive

Note(s): This article featured information on how to possibly transform an AU fanfic into original fiction, if you so desire. It included examples of popular fiction that had done just that. 

“Faithfulness in Adaptations”

Tone: Neutral

Note(s): We list the ways why it’s okay to like both and that one isn’t superior to the other. 

“Being First Doesn’t Mean Going It Alone” 

Tone: Positive

Note(s): It was written shortly after seeing Avengers: Endgame and was a glowing recommendation of the movie due to the girl power scene. However, upon further reflection we realized that thirty minutes of representation in an almost three hour movie isn’t as good as we thought it was and several other things caused the movie, as a whole, to miss the mark. As it relates to this article, though, it was positive. 

“The MCU and Buffet-Style Representation”

Tone: Critical

Note(s): We criticize Marvel’s lack of representation and how they are continually putting down any fan interpretation that sees a character as homosexual. We do end it on a positive note by saying we’re going to hold out on passing final judgment since they are promising to do better soon. We’re middling at best here, so we’ll say critical. 

“In Defense Of… Steve Rogers’ Happy Ending”

Tone: Critical

Note(s): We simply state that Steve is allowed to be happy and that him being miserable shouldn’t be his only real characterization or arc. 

“The Importance of Fan Service” 

Tone: PositiveNote(s): This one is about the importance of fans feeling like valued members of their community by original content creators, and how it only adds positively to the overall experience of fandom. 

“Rule 34: The Rise of Super Sex” 

Tone: Informational 

Note(s): It doesn’t take a stance either way regarding how we, as an organization, feel about this practice, though it could be seen as more comedic since there are many, many sex puns. 

“The Squick Factor: WinterPrincess” 

Tone: Critical 

Note(s): We break down a controversial ship in the Marvel fandom and explain why it shouldn’t be seen that way, based on the arguments given from inside the Marvel fandom itself. 

“Trope Scope: The Isolation of Being Super”

Tone: Informational

Note(s): We explain the lonely superhero trope and how to use it in your own writing. 

“All the Feels: Standing Up For What’s Right” 

Tone: Positive

Note(s): It’s called ‘All the Feels’, so… yeah. 

“Get Fridged, B*tch!: Marvel Edition”

Tone: Critical

Note(s): Again, we take a stance against using women as plot devices to further male character development. Marvel has a lot of characters, so it was easy to come up with examples. We’d like to note that we defend Stan Lee in this one as he wasn’t for fridging Gwen Stacy. 

“You Need To Calm Down: And Other Advice From Taylor Swift” 

Tone: Highly Critical

Note(s): We wrote an article in response to another from Hypable.com, where we defend binge-watching television, new or old, and list all the ways it isn’t a bad thing. As always, the responses and points in this article were well-researched and thought out. 

“Women Behaving Badly: Why the Movie Hustlers Is Important” 

Tone: Positive

Note(s): We can’t wait to see this movie and talk about why showing women doing the same thing as men, even if it isn’t prim and proper, is a good thing and helps us gain more equality in entertainment and in representation. 

“#NoHomo YouTube Video” 

Tone: Critical

Note(s): We take Marvel to task over Avengers: Endgame and we still have no desire to apologize for it. If you’d like to know why, please watch the video linked above. We can also send the talking points, if that makes it easier to follow. 

So, at the end of six weeks, which brings us to today, we were at sixty-three (63) informational or infographic, twelve (12) positive to ten (10) critical or negative. 

If you came to a different conclusion, we’d love to hear your reasons as to why. However, all we ask is that if you want to make accusations about our overall tone, you be able to back it up, as we did. It seems to us, and anyone paying attention, that we are overwhelmingly informational first. The problem seems to be that any time we are remotely critical of a character, original content creator, or a fandom, we are marked as negative. Which, frankly, is not true. We are a news and media organization. We are allowed to interpret things in a light other than positive. We will continue to bring our readers as much fandom-related content as possible and we promise to be truthful and to never sugarcoat anything. We also pledge to be respectful always. 

If there are any other concerns, we urge you to send them to our ask box as this anon did. Understand, though, that critiquing us does not mean we will blow up, act foolish, or remain anything other than responsible fandom members. We have receipts to back up everything we do, so don’t assume we’ll take accusations lying down either. We welcome all criticism and will apologize where necessary. This just wasn’t one of those times. 

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Photo Cred: CPR Photography (Judy Hopps Cosplay) and Marcus Hurston (Sarah Sanderson Cosplay)

Cosplayer Interview @aliabides

How do you decide which characters to cosplay? You have so many!

Typically, there are a few factors that influence which characters I cosplay. Some I choose because I absolutely love their personality, movie, show, or comic. Other times, if I have a group of friends that want me to cosplay a theme with them, I will pick a character they need or that I like the most to match their theme.

What are some of the challenges in creating your costumes and personas? You have a lot of anime characters in your repertoire. Often, those characters have wild and intricate costumes because they’re animated. Do these types of characters present an additional challenge for you when making costumes?

That’s a great point to bring up! Most of my characters are animated, so sometimes I need to deal with figuring out how I can adapt their portrayal to fit some of the boundaries imposed by reality. There are two specific cosplays that come to mind when I think of costume challenges. My Tomura Shigaraki consists of a multitude of hands that appear to be holding on to his body by themselves, with one grasping his face. Trying to figure out how to make lightweight and realistic hands was a challenge in itself, but attaching them was a new level.

My first attempt for the body-attached hands was to attach them through velcro directly to my sweater. This worked great, until I tried to maneuver the dealer hall of MegaCon and had so many people bumping into me and tearing pieces loose! I was able to repair them all thankfully, but I am still looking into ways to create sturdier connections. The hand gripping the face took a bit of brainstorming, but once I thought of hiding clear elastic in the wig to wear it like a mask, it was a breeze! I had a lot of people stop me and ask me how I did that part. My Evelynn from League of Legends also presented me with a bit of a challenge, as she has two large “tails” to her outfit. I had thought they would stand on their own with very thick, sturdy wire, but it ended up pulling on the rest of the costume and dragging awkwardly. To make the “tails” look like they were holding themselves up and free to move on their own like when she is in animated form, we connected the tips of the “tails” to my wrists with gold chain. This made it really easy to walk around and strike amazing poses!

Do you prefer to buy or make your costumes? Why? What parts of costumes are hard to find if you choose to buy? Was there ever something you had to make because you couldn’t find a version to buy?

I’m pretty balanced in the making vs. buying costumes since my skills are still very novice. I definitely find that I carry more pride in what I make myself, but most of the stuff I buy I am still altering in some way. I like to perform a cost analysis before starting a new cosplay to see if it would be financially smarter to buy and modify or make everything myself. I feel that there is no shame in buying a costume, because it is still up to you to alter and properly...

Read the full interview here ⇠

[the-citrus-scale]

Pensacon 2019 Wrap-Up Review

If you can’t tell, we had a blast at Pensacon 2019! There were Harry Potter, Gilmore Girls, and Walking Dead actors to hang out with all weekend. There may have even been a certain boy band member that our CEO is still freaking out about! Overall, this is the one to beat for us, so let’s just take a second and go down the list of what makes an awesome convention and where Pensacon exactly stacks up in each category.

Community is a big thing to us here at The Citrus Scale, so it makes sense that it would be first on our list when judging a convention. Pensacola, Florida knows how to have a good time and Pensacon weekend is no exception. It’s smack dab in the middle of downtown, and with its campus approach it puts you right in the action the whole time. As we’ve already said, all the nearby restaurants pick a fandom and show off their decorating skills. There wasn’t one restaurant or business we walked into that wasn’t ecstatic to see cosplayers and con-goers. Yes, it’s because of the money, but we’ve been to plenty of events where surrounding businesses want the fans to stay in their building and not venture out. Pensacon isn’t like that at all. Everyone is so welcoming and friendly!

The guests are next up on our list and we have to say for something that is dubbed a ‘small con’, it doesn’t feel like that when it comes to the lineup. No, Chris Evans isn’t likely to show up at Pensacon, but at the same time, the sheer amount of celebrities that do make up for things like that. Also, William Shatner was...

Read the full wrap-up review here ⇠