Welcome back to our review of Heroes of Cosplay!  I have to admit, after watching this episode, I feel as if they have removed most of the pettiness and drama from the show!  But don’t get it twisted tho, there is pettiness and drama, but we tend to keep it behind closed doors… Among our friends.  So in this episode our cosplayers travel to the great white north to compete, except for Yaya, who is a judge this time around.  Let’s see how things are different!

The episode opens up with a cosplay photoshoot.  Yaya explains on how critical how photoshoots are to a cosplayer’s success.  Honestly, I know popular cosplayers that don’t do a lot of shoots, but your mileage may vary.  Now, Yaya said something that ruffled some people’s feathers, “Glasses take away from the glamour of cosplay.”  Now, I understand where she’s coming from, it can be based on who you’re cosplaying tho.  But if you ask me, I love cosplayers that wear glasses so… Yeah.  So for OPE (Ottawa Pop Expo), this is the list of cosplays that we have:

• Jesse is doing The Mandarin from IRON MAN 3
• Indra is doing Ahri from League of Legends
• Riki is doing Ashe, also from League of Legends
• Holly and Jess are doing Skeksis from The Dark Crystal, but modeled by Holly
• Yaya redoes The Baroness from G.I. Joe

As we see Jesse working on the pewter molds for The Mandarin rings, he talks about how he wants to add jewelry making and metalcasting to his skill set.  Go you.  Meanwhile, the ladies at Crabcat head over to Jim Henson Studios to get a more of an inside view on making Skeksis.  Holly mentions that doing this is an omage to her dad and Jim Henson because they were both big impacts on her life.  Before the ladies leave, Brian Henson gives them a couple of books on art design of the Skeksis.  That’s pretty freaking cool.

But we do run into some cosplay issues.  Riki finds there are issues with making Ashe’s bow.  Evidently the mold didn’t take, so she abandons that cosplay to make Elizabeth from the Persona series.  While she’s working on it, her husband Chris calms her down and gets her focused on this.  That’s really awesome.  We find that as Indra is working on Ahri, she runs into issues keeping the tails up with packing peanuts and PVC piping.  As someone who has worked with PVC piping, it’s not the best to use for support.  Honestly, she should have used fishing wire and attach it to the cosplay and the tails, but that’s just me.

When we arrive to OPE, just about everyone’s cosplays arrive on time.  One of the boxes holding the Skeksis cosplay arrived the next day.  Now, it’s showtime.  The masquerade was hosted by two people, not something you see everyday.  And this time, the judges table isn’t on the stage, it’s located in front of the audience, which is the de facto location.  One of our heroes wins a judges award, congrats to Riki!

Pro: Going north to Canada, cute accents!

Con: The delay on Holly’s cosplay.

Overall: They gave out a “Best Embroidery” award?!

DJ Ranma S

DJ Ranma S is cosplay veteran. He has won numerous performance awards with his friends over the years. He has staffed conventions in the past, ran panels, judged a couple of masquerades, a jack of all trades. He's worked dealer's room too! Running this site is his way of giving back to the cosplay community. He feels that it's his turn to give a future cosplayer their fifteen minutes of fame.

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