The last time you heard from me was just a few hours before I finished Benni’s costume, filled my suitcases and entered the airplane on the way to LA, Blizzcon and a week full of pure awesomeness! Benni, my husband, Selina, my cosplay partner, a further friend, Dominik and I were ready!
Well, our trip started at Monday, which was really hard. The flight from Nuremberg to Duesseldorf was fine but the one from Duesseldorf to Los Angeles was just awful. At the evening we arrived with almost no sleep and very exhausted at our friends apartment in Downtown, Los Angeles. Jess and Isa were so nice and let us stay the whole week there and so we get the change to save a lot money and got a perfect location to visit some of the nicest places of LA by walking. At this evening we charged our energy at the pantry.
Thuesday was our Downtown day. Selina and I bought a lot of nice nail polish for the next gemstones and I found a lot of awesome stuff for my old Wizard costume in an accecsoire shop. Oh, why don’t we have this stuff in Germany? Little Tokyo was the perfect place for a nice lunch and Downtown was just nice to walk a bit and relax. And then we found our paradise in the Fabric District! A long trip, but a short story: Selina and I found all the fabric we needed for our next costumes and are super jealous of you guys now. In Germany we can just dream about all the stuff we found in just one of these huge amoung of fabric shops!
Wednesday was full of magic, color and happiness. Ha ha, we visited Disneyland and had a really awesome time there. It was just wonderful and especially the World of Color show was one of the hightlights of our trip. If you ever get the chance the see it, then do it! Take a look at this Youtube video and you’ll notice that it’s more then worth it!
At Thuersday I had to seperate from my friends. While they visited the Universal Studios, Benni and I made our way to the G4 cosplay shooting. After many messages over facebook and cosplay.com the moment came, when I meet so many wonderful people finally in person and it was just wonderful! And so was also the result of the photoshoot!
Well, and then the big day came!
Thanks to Cryptzoic and my very nice roommate, Benni and I got a room in Anaheim at the Sharaton hotel and so we didn’t need to wake up as early as my friends in LA Downtown. So 5 am was a good time to start slowly with all the make up stuff and to dress up. Oh, it was pretty weird to help somebody else with his make up, especially because Benni never wore any costumes jet. No wonder that it was pretty new for him and he still had no idea how to “act” as a Nightelf. God, and I was so excited and happy and crazy! To share a costume with my husband was a dream I always had and it was awesome to show him my world. Sadly he was pretty shy and didn’t really feel comfortable, which was the reason why he changed clothes in the afternoon and helped me with food and the costume contest instead. Despite of that, it was an awesome time with him as a Nightelf on my side. I guess, Benni was a wonderful Druid, even it was his very first time!
But it still had one good point: After Benni were in normal clothes he was able to take many photos for me and for you guys. So, just enjoy!
This time I tried to work with purple Kryolan Aquacolor and I really love the result. I looked natural and didn’t need a lot of time for the application. Big like!
Walking in costume was pretty stressful and sadly I wasn’t able to see a lot at Blizzcon. The Opening Ceremony was almost all I saw the first day, but therefore I was able to meet so awesome people like Jo-Jo Chen, founder of Apotheosis Agency, the company I work for.
I also really wanted to try the new expansion, which was playable at Blizzcon, but I just had no time. I also still need to see all the panels and to read all the awesome announcements. To wear a cosplay really is a hard job there!
It was also pretty awesome to meet Christina Estrada, the face of Alexstrazsa in the US and my “Cryptozoic twin” and to talk with her a bit about costume stuff and our shared job.
He he, and I even found the time to sign my name at these huge, colorful wall. Hopefully everybody of you guys made a stop here!
Well, but the most time constuming part was the costume contest at Friday. Everything was just… chaotic. At first I my registration was declined, because my costume was “too similar to my old costume”, which happend to many other cosplayers and seemed just to be a mistake from Blizzard. Then I was able to particpate, but landed on the waiting list, which just made me crazy half of the day. Well, but the Blizzard stuff was really, really nice and helpful and did all to help me and all the other cosplayers with the same problem. At the end it seemed, that everybody got their place in the costume contest and we all were super happy when we met us at 4.30 pm near the main stage. Luckely we all had a lot of time to talk and relax a bit and it was a great change to see all these awesome costumes so close. As always I was a bit nervous to get on stage, but just walking over it is much more easier to do a performace, so it was okay. In addion I planned the whole time to enter the stage with Benni on my side, but like I said he changed the costume earlier. Despite of that, it was a wonderful moment and a great contest and I congratulate all three winners. Blizzard made a great choice and every one of them deseved the price! Congratz, congratz, congratz!
And if you’re curios: Take a look to all these awesome particpants at the Blizzard Costume Contest!
Well, and now keep scolling down!
As always Blizzard showed their awesome real size figures to us.
This year Tyrael was their newest one and was even more impressive than all the others of them. Oh, and by the way: Here you’ll find the construction progress of this awesome piece of art.
The first day was over pretty fast and it was time to relax a bit and get a nice, long sleep. Despite of all the trouble at Friday, Saturday started really quiet and easy going. I had to work at 2 pm at the Cpryotzoic booth but before that I had a lot of time to take some photos, get a breakfast and visit some panels.
The Live Raid was one of the points I just HAD to see. Blood Legion and Vodga gave us an super exciting raid race at Firelands and we had a lot of awesome moments with them. I was a bit disappointed, that Blizzard didn’t add any special boss for this raid, but despite of it was still a great raid.
Time was running and I used the last hours to visit some booths and stop at the Art Panel. Since Benni and I like to draw (Benni more, I less) it was pretty interesting to see how Glenn Rane, Rob Sevilla and Co. work.
Sadly I had no time to try the new expansion, which was already playable at Blizzcon, but I’m a patient girl and just keep playing the Diablo III Beta at home. It’s always good to have some Blizzard stuff on your screen!
The Art Gallary was also one of my highlights and it’s always awesome to see the references I use for my costumes in such a great quality.
… ha ha, especially if you had to work with a picture in a pretty bad resoluion and had no idea what you need to create because you’re not able to see it right. At least now I know that the whole belt of my Wizard costume is wrong!
Well, and that’s all. You’ll find the full gallery here, but as you notice I almost have no photos of cosplayers. I guess, because I’m just used to never take photos of other cosplayers when I’m in costume myself. And so Benni did the same. But the internet, and especially facebook is a great resource to see the awesome results of many, many month’s of work.
After 2 pm you were able to find me at the Crpytozoic booth at Blizzcon. It was not my very first WoW TCG job, but despite of that, I was still pretty worried because my language problems before. Well, but I noticed already pretty fast that everything was okay. All visitors at the booth were very patient and listenend well, tried the game very fast and had a lot of fun to play with me some rounds. Even little children and older people noticted that it’s a really easy to learn this game and were super proud when they bashed all my allies at the demonstration table. Great job, guys! I really enjoyed every minute with you and it was a pleasure to play with everybody of you!
The people at the booth were also just awesome and again it was just amazing to meet all the friends I know just from facebook in person. So it was just a wonderful second day and I was really honored to get the chance to work with all these wonderful people. My biggest wish now is to come back next year and to see them again.
Well, and then the time come, when I had to leave and say bye bye to everybody. At this point I want to thank everybody for all these awesome moments at Blizzcon. It was a big pleasure to meet you all and you guys made my 1000-Dollar-flight really worth it. Ha ha, it was also just awesome that the half of the Blizzcon staff seemed to know me. A weird looking face and the sentence “I… know you from somewhere…”, gave me always a huge reason to smile. So, thanks a lot guys, thanks a lot Blizzard, thanks a lot Cryptozoic! You all made this convention more than awesome!
And I’ll do everything to come back next year! BLIZZCON, HELL YES!!!
Sunday. Me and my friends were all still very exhausted because Blizzcon, but our time schedule was hard and stressful. It was time for the Six Flags roller coaster park. But just all of your manly men, who didn’t wear any costume, who showed off how they will rock the park and how they are not scared… needed a day off!
So only Selina and I had to show how manly we are and drove to the park alone and had an awesome time together. At least our “ladies” got their break and were fit for the next adventure: A trip to the Blizzard Headquarter.
It’s always good to know many people, especially nice and important people. One of those were Jo-Jo Chen and Glenn Rane, who gave us the best holiday final ever!
And Selina, Benni and I saw EVERYTHING! Well, almost. Surely project Hydra doesn’t welcome visitors…
But the rest was open for us: The museum, the theatere, the library, the canteen, the gymn, the core of the core, the OFFICES, the holy temple of awesomeness. We saw everything and I made many, many photos, but sadly I can’t show them to you guys, I hope you can understand.
He he, but awesome is really not the right word for it. We saw artworks in progress and met the people who bring WoW to live. I got the change to speak with Wei Wang, the creator of the Wizard artwork I used for one of my last costumes and saw something I really, really want to cosplay in future. The security center was also no secret for us and well… did I mention already, that we saw everything? Thank you so much, Glenn and Jo-Jo, this was really an epic tour and propably made our guild members super jealous, ha ha!
Well… like I said: PURE AWESOMENESS!!!
And yes that’s all. We left Los Angeles at 6 pm at Monday and had a nice trip back to good old, cold and wet Germany. My suitcases are still full, the flat needs to be cleaned and the boring daily life is waiting for me. Well, maybe not. A cosplayer’s life is never boring!
A cosplayer’s life is full of creativty, fun and adventures. A cosplayer’s life is full of conventions, awesome friends and huge pain but also success moments. A cosplayer’s life is just awesome and I enjoy every minute of my life.
New cosplay ideas are in my mind now and projects need to be startet soon, the WoW TCG World Championship is waiting for me in Rotterdam next month, some conventions are still waiting for me and many messages need to be answered. So, even if I’m back in Germany I’m not bored and and already looking forward to every upcoming day. At the moment I’m still pretty exhausted, but I know that the adventure will never end. Because I’m a cosplayer and no exploding expanding foam can stop me now! :)
actually it’s the 4th pic ;)
Great costumes as always. This is too funny tho, I know the guy in the background of the second pic in this post. I hung out with him at Disneyland after the 2010 Blizcon :)
Ooh thanks! I can use these so much :D Do you mind if I include them with a house download and give credit? Or would you prefer it if I made it necessary to download them here?
Thanks a lot, guys! It’s always so wonderful to read your awesome comments! I’m so thankful to have such readers! :)
And sorry, I’m too scared to post more pics. I guess, I’m not allowed to.
Do what ever you want, Paladino and thanks a lot for the link! :)
Gretgins from Brazil!
I am have a blog called http://www.paladinodocerrado.com
a friend say about you blog and cosplay in blizzcon 2011!
I take 2 photos and link a you blog! That’s ok?
Nice cosplay! You can win!
I think need 2 ranks, male cosplay and female!
Is a too hard choice the top 3
Great pics! Please post more photos of your visit to Blizzard’s headquarter. Especially anything to do with the Diablo series.
Thanks.
It was so awesome to see you there. And I bragged to my friends “seeeee thets the girl from Kamui Cosplay I told you about!!!” Haha.
Grats on the costumes, they look really amazing. We had to travel all the way from Europe too to get to Blizzcon, it was our second time there and we had lots of fun :) I hope you will go next year too ^^
kamuiiii!!! ich les deinen blog schon länger und das war wieder ein super artikel!!! das ist ja irre da drüben !!! endlich hab ich dich auf der blizzcon bühne gefunden XD SUPER GEIL!!!du siehst wie immer klasse aus!!! kann noch viel von deinen tutorials lernen !!! DANKESCHöN DAFÜR und für die tollen bilder und dem bericht der con! ^,^
-Kumiko-
Thanks soooooooo much,g uys! :)
It’s a facebook link. Maybe you need to be signed in to open it. I checked it and it works.
Your link for the making of the Tyrael statue is broken. :( Where did it lead to?
You look amazing. Thank you for sharing your adventure!
Der Costume Contest sieht aber auch als Zuseher irgendwie immer ein bisschen… chaotisch aus XD kann mir aber vorstellen dass das nicht so leicht zu organisieren ist! Ich finde es sooo mutig und toll von dir dass du teilgenommen hast! Auf so ner großen Bühne zu stehen…. wow! o.o Aber dein Kostüm ist deifnitiv in der obersten Liga mit dabei und hätte ebensogut gewinnen können :D War sicher eine knappe Entscheidung ^^
btw… Soooo viele Sylvanas Cosplays o_O wow! XD
Muss hier nochmal sagen dass ich dich seeeehr beneide um deinen Beruf und dein Talent ^^ Was du machst ist wirklich großartig und inspirierend… ich hoffe ich schaff auch mal mein Traum-Cosplay zu machen ^_^ Auf jeden Fall ist es immer wieder ein Ansporn deinen Blog zu lesen und die tollen Kostüme zu sehen!