HI all

So Expo was AMAZING and Colin Ferguson was possibly the nicest Canadian I've EVER MET! Now I can't wait for next year. However, there's no way I'm hand-making another costume until I have more free time and a firmer idea of what I want to go as, so I'd like to look at some pre-made options.

I know there's a shop tab up the top, but I added a shop to it a few weeks back and it still hasn't appeared so I'm assuming most of those links are out of date - and there aren't any user reviews of them anyway.

As it's not til this time next year I have to say lead time isn't so much of an issue, but quality is. I'm prepared to admit I would have preferred more photos taken, but my Lady Sif was either a) too obscure b) poor quality or c) both. I'm not dissing the costume; I worked hard on it and I had a ton of fun, but I just feel like the pay off vs workload wasn't quite as worth it as I'd hoped.

So, can you recommend me anywhere to shop? (If it helps, I'm actually looking at either a Fallout cosplay or maybe something from Eureka but I'm pretty open to ideas as I'm still hunting for inspiration.

Looking at the pictures in yur gallery I think your costume looked pretty cool! And you can tell you worked hard on it, you may be right in thinknig that people just didn't recognise you. If you can make your costumes yourself I personally think its best too. But thats just me. There is nothing wrong with buying a cosplay offline.

If you were looking to buy a cosplay from somewhere you could try ebay or cosplay magic. I'm not sure what kindas of cosplays they do because I've never brought one from there but you could always look.

Otherwise if you cant find a costume you want, you could always ask around on this forum, and I'm sure you'd be able to find someone to commission an outfit for you.

But, if you had fun making the costume you made yourself think about makikng something a little more popular and see how that works.

Hope this helps..

Your costume is amazing, so don't knock it!

The issue with London Expo, that even though it's got a big comic book thing to it, it's also a really big con and most people are there for anime/manga so don't know the characters from comics.

You know, unless they're Loki, Thor, Captain America or Tony Stark.

They need a film, essentially, and Lady Sif didn't feature big in it.

Essentially; it's a case you weren't recognised.

But I wouldn't give up on making your own :3 but if you're looking for a good site I've used cosplaytree

It's a fantastic costume. Unfortunately if you want your photo taken lots you have to pick a character who is really well know and easilly recognised. It's a case of deciding how much liking the character versus how much getting a lot of attention means to you (not that a costume can't fulfill both). I do think making is more satisfying than buying but there's always the compromise of buying/ commissioning part of a costume and making some of it yourself (eg. props).

I use cosplaystore.biz for all my costumes, they seem the most reasonable,don't charge for made to measure ,so you can get costumes that fit perfect,plus they deliver really quickly.

I went to MCM as Kato Rumi from Yumeiro Patissiere on Saturday ,considering i only ordered the costume three weeks ago it arrived three days before the show.

It is true that at Expo there is a loot of Anime characters people may not know.

I always try and choose characters no one else is doing (by checking this site for who's going as who. Other wise you may find quite few others dressed like you and you always find someone has spent four thousand pounds compared to your couple of hundred.

I have only been cosplaying since February ,and have had a great time, and have already done six characters.

I remember seeing you at the MCM event, and your costume was amazing there...

If you're looking for a full costume to buy seperately, here's a couple of stores i've had good dealings with before...

Zara - Really good quality items, and damn good delivery times, especially coming internationally to England... good customer contact as well, i've spoken to the people on Skype several times while organising bits and they're always friendly and willing to help.

http://www.zaracosplay.com/

CosplayFU - Again, really good service, and a really good selection of items... sadly their internet site / service is down at the moment, but when it comes back up, i do recommend browsing their store

http://www.cosplayfu.co.uk/

M

Aww, you guuuuys! You're so sweet, thanks for the support! It's much appreciated as I was starting to wonder what I'd done wrong, or not done enough of.

I will look at all of your links for some inspiration - I'm going next October for sure, so it might or might not be in a handmade costume, we will see

I don't buy premade costumes, everything I wear is handmade. I do, however, like making things for others and being commissioned

When the site is back up I can highly say cosplayfu ive had 5 costumes from em 2 of em custom jobs they made specially and ive ALWAYS been happy.

Hijacking your thread but I didn't want to make my own. Just wanted to know if anyone's ordered from cosmates (http://www.cosmates.jp/en/) before I order something myself.

Thanks!

I got my Yasogami High uniform for Yosuke Hanamura/Kou Ichijo (Persona 4) from HelloCosplay. I'd heard mixed reviews but I trusted my friends' judgement more. Good call, since I'm really happy with it all - it was made to custom measurements in just over a week and arrived within two days of being shipped. It's really high quality too ; u;