Gaogamon furry accessories in a rush!

Woof and hello~

For Nekocon earlier this year I made a new cosplay, my first Digimon gijinka Gaogamon. I didn't have time to do a WIP post before leaving home so I figured I'll just post it now that the summer con schedule is over!

So, uhh, this is a cosplay that I will improve later on and what I wore at Nekocon is basically the beta version lol. I was short on time when I made all the furry parts (as always :D) and a lot of the clothes are reused from my other cosplays and stuff I already have at home. The new parts are the "furry ones" that help with recognition – the ears, tail and mane.

I started with checking the local fabric store for light blue faux fur but of course there wasn't any available. Or well, there was one with an okay color but it had completely wrong type of pile! It sucks so much that there used to be an Eurokangas in Tornio and Kemi used to have, I think, two different fabric stores but they're all gone now and the only store left is Kangaskukkula in Tornio (and Kangastalo, but that's like almost entirely upholstery and home decor fabrics so it's not so good for sewing clothes). So yeah, finding the right fabrics for cosplay is extremely hard up here unless you're willing to mess around with ordering online or trying your luck at thrifting... or taking the train to Oulu for the nearest Eurokangas. And still I'd consider myself very lucky because mom has tons of fabrics in the attic from back when she had her own fabric store, but even with the "fabric store at home" option I still quite often have to go elsewhere to buy what I need.
So yeah, Kangaskukkula didn't have what I needed for the mane and so I decided to check out Kangastalo just to turn every stone around. They had a few faux furs, surprisingly enough, but mainly black and dark colors. I was feeling increasingly desperate and even considered buying some fluffy pillow covers from there to cut apart, color and piece together but I realized it would become quite expensive because one cover was like 16€ or something and it wasn't very big so I would have to buy multiple. With all fabric store options exhausted I suddenly had an eureka moment – why don't I just buy a sheepskin from Ikea and dye it? It's natural wool and thus, technically, any common fabric dyes I can find should work on it – and it would be cheaper than destroying tons of fluffy fancy decor pillows!
I felt lowkey crazy for even cooking up this idea but it was quite literally the best option I had and so I went over to the local Ikea and walked out with an ULLERSLEV sheepskin (which costs 349 SEK). I tried to pick one that was as uniform and light in color as possible and also with longer pile length and density; there's always some variation in each individual pelt and so I took my time picking a good one for my project.

Once I got home I took an old brush and started combing the fur to mark where I'd cut. You can part the wool anywhere and so it's actually very convenient to work with. I was also surprised how easy it was to cut through the leather on the underside! I made sure not to pull or tug the wool and brushed it out gently to get it to lay in the direction I wanted. One of the reasons why I parted it was to make it easier to visualize where to cut (pins get hidden in the fluff lol) and, of course, to preserve as many individual hairs as possible.

Parted and sectioned out the fur where I'd cut it.

I cut out one larger part for the front and one smaller for the back. I utilized the natural shape of the leather to minimize waste. My front and back pieces are not identical in shape, nor are they symmetrical anyway. I don't mind that and it's honestly not really that noticeable because of the floofiness.

With my pieces cut out (and over half of the sheepskin left for future projects – money worth indeed) I had to dye them. Fun fact: I've never dyed anything before. Needless to say I was extremely anxious about completely fucking up this part! I've kinda avoided having to dye something because I've been so scared of failure lol. I had bought some Nitor allfärg/yleisväri (number 16 for those wondering) in Tokmanni earlier. 

There's no turning back now. #ihavenoideawhatimdoing

I did read the instructions but I figured I couldn't exactly go throw in my dyes into the shared washroom's machine and then some unfortunate neighbor's clothes turn blue lmao. The other option seemed hella inconvenient too because I'd have to boil water and stir it while warming it up and it's not like I own a big enough skillet to dunk my furs in (and the instructions said it needs to be at least 7 liters lol) and just ugh, it seemed way too complicated and made my neurospicy brain spin. So what do I do? I disregard all the instructions and yolo it, of course! xD

Omg it's actually taking on the color!

So I went to my bathroom and covered the shower area with newspapers and threw my two fur pieces into the largest bucket I had. I filled it with hot water from the shower, put in a bit of dyeing powder and held my breath. I had no idea how much dye I was supposed to use because it was a marine blue and I wanted a very light blue shade! I was really worried of it turning too dark (both blue shades available were really dark) and so I was super careful with the dye lol, especially because I didn't have any test pieces.

The leather took on the dye so well, the heck?? xD

I don't remember how long I kept the pieces submerged but it was a pretty long time, at least 30 minutes? Probably closer to one hour. I kept adding hot water in the beginning and stirring it to make sure it stayed warm and then I slowly let the water cool down. I of course threw in some white vinegar into the mix as well. I kept checking the coloration every now and then and, honestly, I'm quite relieved that the dye worked because I wasn't sure if the natural lanolin the wool is coated in would somehow affect the absorption or not. But yeah, considering how I just winged this while ignoring the instructions I'm actually surprised it worked as well as it did! I ended up getting almost exactly the shade I wanted! Vaihteeksi ei ollut vituiksmän menossa mukana.

I also find it quite interesting how well the leather dyed, especially because the packaging doesn't mention leather at all, just natural fibers like cotton, silk etc. I mean yeah it says "and other materials from the animal and plant kingdom" but I've always had the impression that to dye leather you need specific products meant for just leather. :'D Well, I don't complain, this was a cool learning experiment!

Dyed pieces laid out to dry on my shower curtain rack.

It took quite long to dry (a hairdryer would have been nice..) but while they dried I had time to work on the other parts so it's not like I sat and rolled my thumbs or grew roots next to the Playstation with time running low. 

Once the pieces finally were thoroughly dry I took out the comb again and combed them out. With natural wool you can alter the texture of the wool by combing it! This is actually pretty neat because you can so easily change the look and touch of it to fit your needs and if you want to revert it you can just get the wool wet and it will go back to the original texture. I tested this because I had actually combed the pieces smooth before I dyed them. :)

Natural wool texture to the left, combed to the right.

Gaogamon has these two tufts or tassels or whatever hanging from its mane in the front and I had to come up with how to make them with supplies I already had at home. My last minute solution was to try to dye some white synthetic wefts with markers. I've had some wefts lying around for like, uhh, 15 years? xD
I realized that I have a ridiculously pathetic collection of markers for being an artist – I quite literally only have two blue markers. Heresy! And the other one is way too dark for this project. So yeah, I only had one option and it better work.

White ancient wefts and my one and only light blue marker lmao.

I went through the fibers with the marker and colored them in. It feels cheap but it works! Synthetic wig fibers absorb the ink from markers and the dye "stains them"... or something like that. Whatever the technicalities are behind the process it works. I didn't use any rubbing alcohol or anything else than just the marker, I don't know if there's different needs for different brands or methods or whatnot but I did a water test to check for color bleeding and it didn't bleed at all! I put the dyed fibers under running tap water and rubbed it against some paper and nope, perfect results. Maybe it depends on the wig fiber quality too but I literally used some Tradera (Swedish equivalent of eBay) random hair fashion shop wefts from a decade ago that are of unknown quality and it worked lol.

No color bleed whatsoever. Yes, I was surprised.

In case anyone's curious what marker brand I used it's Letraset's promarkers of the comic art set so yeah, basically markers for doing manga and comics. 

While I like the shade of blue I ended up with by itself I don't like how it's clearly a different shade from the wool, but it had to do for now. Ideally I would have wanted the same shade and I did try to look for light blue yarn before I settled on using the weft but yeah, I couldn't find the right light blue yarn. I also considered needle felting the tufts from the same wool but I didn't have enough loose wool nor the tools to do it. The last time I did felting was like 20 years ago too. :'D

Oh well, back to the weft I had to roll with for now – it was too long and I needed to split it into two pieces. I cut it in half and then cut the length in half too. This was such a messy ordeal and hell to work on. I needed to make wefts out of the loose fibers and I used some kind of universal glue for this (didn't have UHU glue available) and it dried way too slowly! It felt like it took forever to dry, despite claiming to be quick-drying, and a lot of fibers came loose and went everywhere and then I had to discard them, which was really stressful because the weft was rather sparse to begin with and I had no Plan B. Without exaggerating I probably lost half of the total fibers due to the glue being crap and the fibers getting stuck on my sweaty-ass hands when I just tried to manage them. I lowkey suspect I might have palmar hyperhidrosis because my hands have always sweated like crazy whenever I'm nervous, tense, stressed or from temperature shifts, emotions etc... it's a pain in the ass to deal with.

This was supposed to be easy but it was hell.

I eventually managed to add the glued self-made wefts onto the original weft rows to get double thickness. Gaogamon has these gold-colored bead thingies hanging from the tufts but at this point I had no time to check stores for suitable beads and so I did a temporary easy-peasy solution and used some golden steel wire that I just wrapped around the wefts until it was snug and stayed in place. I handsewed the wefts to the wool piece – the wool is actually so dense that I didn't even have to sew through the leather to get them secured in place lol!

To make the mane wool piece wearable I made it an over-the-shoulder thing so there's a strap on each shoulder running front to back. It's very simple the design is very human. This meant I needed leather because it would be easy to work with (no need to think of fraying edges) and fits the Digimon aesthetics. My original plan was to repurpose an old worn belt from my late grandpa but my mom wanted it for herself when she saw it (it was still functional, just worn) and instead of the belt she handed me grandma's old handbag and told me to slaughter the carrying straps. Okay mom, if you insist. xD

Handsewed the leather straps onto the wool piece. The thimble was goated.

With the mane accessory done for now I only needed to do the ears and the tail. I originally wanted to use a fluffy fabric for these but of course the fabric store didn't have the right colors and I don't own an airbrush or anything fancy like that so yeah, I resorted to using what I already had at home – which meant a leftover piece of dark blue fleece fabric. I had bought a cheap fleece blanket from a second-hand store earlier that I used for the white parts.

The ears were straight-forward to make, I just measured and cut out triangles of the fleece fabric and then the inner ear parts of white fleece and sewed them together, after painting on the details. 
The tail came with a headache because the more I thought about it the more I realized I had no idea how to make a curled dog tail – I mean, I don't really have any fursuit experience and the previous tails I've done have been much simpler than this (basically more or less tapering tubes lol). Not to mention that this was like the day before the day I had to depart for the con or something like that so yeah, the con crunch was too real. xD I realized I didn't really have time to start drafting impromptu patterns that might not even work and so I scoured the internet in my desperation for any kind of advice. Somehow all the stars aligned and I came across the perfect salvation for my urgency, namely a free pattern online that I could just print out in its actual size. Hallelujah!

Tail pattern by Pseudocanid. You can find it here.

This pattern was such a blessing, it was very simple to make and easy to follow. Of course it would have been even cooler with a tighter curl but I really couldn't afford to be nitpicky at this point and I'm so relieved I managed to make a tail in time, lol.

Tail and ear parts cut out.

Gaogamon's ears have these light blue/white tips that are inconsistent on references and I decided to just paint them on. I had no idea how well fleece fabric takes on fabric paint and so I did a test run first. Turns out you have to be very careful with how much paint you apply because it easily becomes spongy and it also takes forever to dry! I had to apply the fabric paint in a rather thin layer and, just to be safe, I set it with the iron later. I accidentally burned a tiny bit of the fleece when setting the paint so it took on this slight sheen, luckily it's hardly noticeable because it's so small.

Fabric paint testing on fleece.

While doing the painting test I did originally mix in some blue acrylic paint to see how it would behave but I felt like there was hardly any color difference, for some reason, and so I ended up just using white alone because it didn't dry opaque anyway. If anything I'm a bit surprised that the fabric paint didn't dry and leave a crusty surface that would crack and/or flake. Or well, maybe it would crack if I start bending it and had a thicker layer on but yeah, with ears I don't really have to worry about any stress points on the fabric.

Sewing the tail pieces together.

The tail I assembled with the sewing machine. Thankfully the patterns lined up just right despite my worries that something would go wrong. I filled the tail with cotton batting and soft fabric scraps, just like I did with the ears as well.

Tail and ears stuffed.

I was a bit unsure about how to do the base of the tail, aka the part that is against your back. The instructions didn't mention this part and all my previous tails haven't had a rounded base like this. I ended up using the same off-white fleece fabric to make the "lid" and I handsewed a couple elastic loops on it to thread a belt or such through. I couldn't have known at this time but in hindsight I probably should have used something rigid (foam maybe? idk) instead. I didn't catch the issue that this created in time to fix it because I couldn't test wear the tail while at mom's because the rest of the costume was in my own apartment lol. So there were two issues and issue one was that I had made the loops way too big, which made the tail hang and not rest against my back at all. This I tried to fix by making the loops tighter while sitting in the car. Unfortunately this didn't really fix the main problem, just make it a bit less unsightly. The tail was still rather low-hanging and unstable and I think that's because the fleece of the base is too soft and yeah, it gives in too much when the tail is worn aka hanging (aka something pulling on the base fabric, making it stretch), making the tail droop because of a lack of support. I will have to come up with some solution for the next time I wear this costume but it was at least wearable at Nekocon. Twisted around a few times and needed extra safety pins for stabilization but hey, I had a tail at least. :')

Oh, the ears are directly sewn into the wig with a few stitches by hand but my first attempt had me positioning them in a way that seemed okay when not worn but, when worn, it looked so bad I legit cringed when I looked in the mirror. xD It looked like some poorly drawn Sonic OC with horizontal flag pole ears lmao. Needless to say I removed the ears and reattached them on a different spot on the wig. I had to do an "anchor stitch" to lift the ears up (basically a single stitch on the backside of each ear towards the crown of the wig) to get them to look more action-y instead of sad, I mean Gaogamon has attitude and is supposed to look like a fighter, not like the Sorry-oo dog from Moomin!

I have like two photos of this costume and the tail isn't visible on any of them but at least you can see how the mane and ears ended up. 

Gaogamon gijinka v1.0. (photo: Firith)

As I mentioned in the beginning I consider this an early version of this particular costume, meaning I will definitely improve it later; I already know what I'd like to fix and add before the next outing. :D
This was a pretty fun costume to wear although there's a lot of moving pieces and so I had to constantly readjust something lol. I'm sufficiently happy with it for now but yeah, looking forward to fine-tuning Gaogamon over the years because I do have a vision for it!

Thanks for reading!
Shiro Samurai out.

Nekocon 2025 – Team Rocket can't capture Digimons!

Hello peeps!

I was at Nekocon last weekend and now it's time to write my con summary about how this year's trip went. So yeah, Nekocon was held during 19-20 July in the Music Centre (Musiikkikeskus) building in Kuopio, Finland. This is my third Nekocon experience to date, I've been attending it annually since my first one in 2023. :)

Let's get to the summary~

Mine and Firith's con journey started on Friday morning. We had planned to drive down because it suited our plans better this year as we would stay in the south after Nekocon and continue towards Eura and Mericon in two weeks – no point in driving all the way back up and then soon drive down again. 
The car trip down went well and this time we were spared from tractor meetups and other road rage inducing experiences. I did have to handsew the elastic belt loops of Gaogamon's tail in the car though so yeah, the classic last minute fixing happened haha. Somehow I managed to lose my seam ripper in the car and I'm still sad about it; maybe it fell out of the car during one of our many stops because I had it in my lap last time I saw it. It sucks to lose things you've had for a long time no matter how inexpensive it was because it still had some emotional value... and this is the kind of shit I beat myself up over.

We were laughing at silly and dirty town and street names like Alapitkä (hard to translate but if you're dirty-minded it means that you're long down there lol) and Makkaramäentie (lit. sausage hill road)... xD I mean that's how you entertain yourself while on a long road trip, right? Another one is counting yellow cars and coming up with meanings for register plates on passing cars...

You know when everything becomes Pöljä (means something like dimwit) that Kuopio is close. :'D

We arrived at Kuopio somewhere between late afternoon and evening and before we went to our hotel for the night we drove to Kuopio's centrum and grabbed our con tickets in advance from the booth outside the Lumit building, which is part of where Nekocon would be hosted the next day. We had also been tasked with retrieving Sallukka's and Dongrieg's tickets because they would arrive (also by car) much later than us and would thus miss the chance to grab their tickets. I mean no one wants to queue on the actual con day unless you absolutely have to, right?

After we got the tickets we headed to Rauhalahti spa hotel, just like on the two previous Nekocons. We might have cemented this as a Nekocon must-have package because yeah, the spa is included in the hotel price (which is reasonable and comparable to a standard hotel) and nothing is as refreshing as jumping into the spa after a sweaty summer con day lol. And yes, this year's Nekocon was just as hot as last year's and we were positively dying.
We checked in at the hotel and, as cosplayers usually do, our belongings spread across the hotel room like wildfire. We had an unholy amount of luggage with us which required multiple trips to the car to empty it so yeah, there was a lot of stuff. xD I unpacked my cosplay parts and put them on hangers etc on the balcony – I mean we didn't have access to an ironing board so you gotta do what you can to minimize wrinkles lol. We were lucky to have a room with a balcony this time because it meant we had a functioning AC. 
Because we arrived before 9 PM it meant we had time to jump into the spa on our arrival day, which was quite nice after that long trip down. The rest of the night was spent relaxing and preparing for the con morning by going through skincare routines, ditching the beard etc.

Kuopio's Music Centre, aka Nekocon main building.

We had mutually agreed on a no-stress Saturday and that's because there wasn't really any activities that piqued our interests enough to warrant an early morning lol. Although in hindsight we might have been a bit too sluggish to get going. XD We woke up respectably early at around 9 in the morning for being millenials at least and immediately went to the breakfast buffet. Rauhalahti hotel buffet is not as large as on the Sokos hotels we've frequented but it has the necessities eli karjalanpiirakat. 

After we were done eating our fills we went back to the hotel room and we, uhh, were supposed to put on our cosplays, which... well, we eventually did. We just took a reaaaaally long time getting into gear because we were tired and hovering in lazybum territory lmao. I did struggle with Gaogamon's makeup because I had not been able to do any practicing beforehand so yeah, caking my face up took a stupid amount of time. To make it worse I had forgotten my matte eyeshadow palette at home and both my liquid eyeliners decided to be unreliable and randomly start showing signs of dying just now because why wouldn't they? :)) Needless to say I wasn't happy with my eye makeup at all and I will do it differently next time lol. Firith didn't need nearly as much time as me to finish Tanemon's makeup, aside from some false eyelash rage. xD Putting on all my cosplay parts was quite the struggle too because I had so many moving parts (the floofy pelt, long scarf, bandages, boxing wraps etc) and my tail didn't stay secured as well as I had hoped. Had to use a safety pin to stabilize it and even despite that it was still a bit too floppy to my liking. I will have to rethink the attachment method for future use.

Once we finally had our costumes on the clock was something around 3 in the afternoon. Honestly we've probably never arrived to a con this late before, this has got to be a new record. xD It was a very hot summer day and before we did anything else we quickly walked past Lumit to take some proof photos before our faces melted off. Despite our efforts to do more summer-friendly cosplays we were still overheating lol. 

Lumit, the secondary Nekocon building.

Despite the super warm day it was fun to be in costume and we got a couple adorable interactions by the younger congoers. I just wish I wasn't so socially awkward and could manage to say something else than just a 'thank you' when someone comes up to me. :') I always come up with replies in hindsight and after the occasion has passed – one of my useless superpowers lol.

Taisteluturri vauhtikorvilla.

After the minimal camera session behind Lumit we decided to check out the Artist's Alley, especially because we knew that some of the sellers were only there on Saturday and others only on Sunday. Just like on previous years the Artist's Alley was located inside Lumit and inside Lumit were also the video game room, the flea market and probably something else I'm forgetting. Lumit is a separate building from the Music Centre but they're just next to one another so it's easy to navigate from one to the other.

I had one fun encounter as Gaogamon when near Lumit – I spotted a pair of Team Rocket Grunt cosplayers and asked for their picture because they were super cool. While I was grabbing my phone I said something silly along the lines of "I'm a Digimon so I can safely snap a photo without being stolen by Team Rocket!" which made everyone laugh. :'D For once my social anxiety gave way to be a goof around strangers.

View towards Lumit's entrance, general area and AA.

One of the Artist's Alley corridors.

There were quite a lot of artists this year too and some I don't remember having seen before, which is always nice. There was a good variety of items for sale but of course when I'm in the market for pins to decorate my ita bag with that's when most booths don't have pins. How come my luck is always like this? xD I remember years ago pins were super common but now it felt like only a few tables had pins for sale. *sniff* Oh well, I still ended up with a loot haul bigger than what I expected I would find!

View of the general area and AA from another angle.

I quickly checked out the video game room and there was some kind of game tournament running on the big scene I think? I didn't stay to watch though because a new intrusive thought had entered both mine and Firith's brains – what if the Aina Kesä bubble tea stand is out there in the town square this year too? There had been no marketing nor mentions about it on Nekocon's social media channels at this point and so we decided to enter detective mode and go check it out ourselves. 

The video game room. My eyes spy Double Dash...

We left Lumit and walked up the road towards the market square; it looked very similar to the previous years and there were normies everywhere staring just like previous years too lol. It didn't take long before we spotted the boba stand and the next thing that happened was a beeline straight towards it! We also saw some other colorful people who were clearly Nekocon attendants so we definitely weren't the only ones needy of cooling drinks!

The milkshake that brings all boys to the yard.

The sellers were super friendly and the drinks were yummy! Apparently this year there was a 10% discount for everyone who had the Nekocon ticket (which is a band on your wrist) instead of last year's version that had the discount for those who were dressed up. I mean this year's is more fair because not everyone cosplays or dressed up all fancy at cons so why should the casually dressed be excluded from a Nekocon collaboration? 

After we had finished our drinks we decided to go back to the hotel so that we would have time to invade the spa before it closes at 9 PM. 

This day was a rather quick run at the con but that's mainly because we arrived so late and only checked out Lumit and the town square; we had agreed on saving the Music Centre for Sunday instead. No need to rush when it's a 2-day event and especially because Nekocon had little to no must-see activities and so we were free to schedule our time how we saw fit. This chill approach allowed us to make sure we had time to make use of the spa facilities which, truth be told, is probably 50% of the reason why we attend Nekocon at this point. x) And the bubble tea stand is probably 30% and the rest is Nekocon itself lmaoooo.

Höpsöt päänahat roikkumaan feat. Wario-lippis.

We yeeted ourselves out of our costumes, showered and then hurried to the spa. We cut it a bit late but still had roughly one hour of pool time so yeah, it worked out. Might have consumed a hamburger at some point too. That was in fact my second chicken burger in a row, I couldn't stomach the thought of a third one for the remainder of the trip lol.
The rest of the night I think we lazily watched the first Lord of the Rings on television and inhaled a bag of chips.

On Sunday morning we did better. Or well, we woke up roughly the same time as the day before but we didn't idle for as long in the hotel room after breakfast. My cosplay for the day was also a lot easier to put on so that played a part too lol. I debuted my Revolutionary War America cosplay from Hetalia that I've had near-completed for years, oops. I was expecting this costume to be breezier to wear than Gaogamon but in hindsight I'm not sure if it was any lighter at all. xD Well at least there were less moving parts so I had an easier time moving around without constantly having to adjust something!
This time we didn't have same series cosplays like our Digimon gijinkas on Saturday – Firith did an Espeon gijinka and borrowed my old ears and the red forehead gem. I was a bit nervous before the trip because in my bathroom cabinet I have a bunch of unmarked sfx liquids and I wasn't entirely sure which one of the bottles was the spirit gum but yeah, luckily I picked the right one to take with me and so we could glue the gem without having to use eyelash glue as a substitute or some shit.

Once we both had our costumes on we, once again, drove to Nekocon. Firith's car was parked in a shadeless spot on the hotel's parking lot so you can imagine that boiling hot out-in-the-sun-all-day car smell when one opened the doors, it was like stepping into a sauna on wheels. xD The AC couldn't start up any sooner!
We arrived at the con in a much more reasonable hour of the day than on the day before. But before we entered the main building we pulled out my trusty old camera and did a quick mini photoshoot near the vegetation. Because there's only two photos I'm not going to post them separately but instead add them to this summary. 

Cosplayer: Shiro Samurai (America)

Photographer: Firith

Photo editor: Shiro Samurai

I'm somewhat relieved I managed to repair the ahoge because it had been crushed during transport. For once it was useful that I had packed with me all kinds of repair kits just in case, hah.

Once we had taken turns photographing each other's costumes we finally were ready to step inside the main con building. The Music Centre held within it the Dealer's Hall, Artisan's Alley, organization booths, panel rooms and cafeteria and basically everything else that wasn't in Lumit. We did not explore every corner but from what we could see it seemed like almost everything was placed in the same way as on previous years – as in the layout was super familiar. I'd say it works so why change it? What I don't like though is how horrible the indoors air quality is in the Music Centre, it has always been bad (even during the old Animecon days) so I've come to expect it but yeah, it very quickly becomes suffocating and especially upstairs in the Artisan's Alley where there's massive glass windows.

Artisan's Alley upstairs.

Cutest birbs made by momomaumau!

I was quite surprised to have some people come up to me and recognize that I'm from Hetalia, especially as its glory days are long past. The interactions were wholesome and lowkey adorable and I was so relieved to have nice interactions because I was mentally prepared to get cancelled lmao.

I bought a few more things from a couple artisan tables and we also browsed the dealers both in the upper floor and on the main floor.

Merchandise seller upstairs.

There were some Nekocon promotions. That Blastoise thou.

We didn't attend any activities or panels today either and so we mainly just browsed all the shops. If I had unlimited money I would have bought a lot more stuff but I don't and so I had to limit my spending sprees. That Blastoise plush made me feel hyper nostalgic though because I have a very similar one but the old-school version from the late 90s or early 00s when it had leather cannons; I still have it somewhere and it's super precious to me (Blastoise was my very first favorite Pokémon) but the leather has degraded a bit over the years. :'< I was tempted to buy the new one so I could have tortoise twins from the past and future lol. Maybe next time!

Dealer's Hall main area.

This seller had a lot of retro stuff that made my geeky heart tingle. ;_;

There was a kimono/wafuku shop in the Dealer's Hall too!

I don't think I have so much more to say about Nekocon, I mean I didn't really spend that much time at the con itself and what time I did spend was spent browsing and buying stuff. :'D I don't feel like a con trip has to be filled with activities to be worth it, I'm very much content just supporting some artists etc and seeing all the wonderful cosplayers while enjoying the atmosphere. Of course if there hadn't been such a summer heatwave I probably would have spent more time indoors or well, at least in the video game room hahah. 

During the con's final hour we went to get more boba!

All in all I'm happy with this year's Nekocon and I would definitely return next year, unless something unforeseen happens like Firith's car dies for good. The weather was perhaps a bit too hot for my liking but hey, we Finns from the far north shouldn't complain because half the year is winter and darkness! 

Thanks for reading! Mericon is coming up soon so that's where I'll be heading next~

Nekocon 2025 cosplay lineup!

 Hello frens!

Nekocon is right around the corner this weekend aaaaa and yeah, I know, this cosplans post is a dumb amount of late. I would have liked to publish it sooner but I swear my plans were changing every second day, no joke. I just could not settle on what to cosplay for the longest time because I wanted something new but also something I wouldn't boil to death in. We've been having crazy warm weather lately and apparently the Nekocon weekend will be warm too and well, I don't want to be miserable during one of the highlights of the year lmao. :'D I really need to make more summer-friendly cosplays... 

After a lot of back-and-forthing I think I've finally come to a point where my plans won't change anymore. *crosses fingers* It's not the first time I'm very last minute with cosplay plan reveals but better now than not at all!

Let's goooo~~

Saturday

Image source: Digimon wiki

Character: Gaogamon
Series: Digimon

I've always been a Digimon fan, I just haven't cosplayed from it yet – which actually is kinda weird when I think about it. As a kid I never really understood the "you have to choose one" rivalry between Pokémon and Digimon, I genuinely enjoyed both? Over time Pokémon won the mass appeal and Digimon got stuck in an underdog kinda position but honestly, the original Digimon anime went hard because it had a more dark and mature story that hit some really deep themes (especially when you consider it was a kids show) compared to Pokémons episodic and light-hearted animation. 
But yeah, it's about time I showed this long-running franchise some love and ever since I saw Gaogamon in the Digimon World: Next Order video game I was like hell yeah! 

I'm reusing bits and pieces from previous cosplays for this one (happened to have stuff with fitting colors..) combined with some newly made props to make it recognizable. :3 Obviously I'm making a gijinka, not a fursuit. xD A fursuit would be cool though but I have no experience how to make one so it ain't happening in two days lol.

Sunday

Character: America (Revolutionary War)
Series: Hetalia

I've had this cosplay lying around since early 2021 so maybe it's time I finally debut it lololol. I figured it was technically one of my lighter cosplays lighter than 3+ layers of lined kimonos at least and, although I don't have the shoulder/cross belts, the costume is still complete enough to be wearable. I don't have any kind of props for now but that's fine since America will be my chill Sunday cosplay. 

That's it. These plans should be final unless something unforeseen happens. It's a bit amusing that both of my costumes have the same color palette with blue, red and white – that wasn't intentional at all. xD

Oh, and I should maybe mention as a sidenote that it's been like 10 years since I watched Hetalia and it's just a silly gag show to me that I originally watched because one of my big interests has always been history and world history happened to be the basis of the show (regardless of how accurately it portrays things). I don't think of myself as part of the fandom, the show was amusing at times and a bit questionable at others but left no big overall impact on me; I'm mainly cosplaying from it because some outfits are cool-looking – just like with any other anime I casually consumed lol.

See you at Nekocon, meow!