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So, I want to cosplay as young Hinata and as Seras Victoria  for FanimeCon 2011 and those require full white contacts [or gray] and red contacts with a small black pupil. I was wondering if I could get some good sites from other cosplayers from where they ordered their contacts or if you have cosplayed as these characters before where you got the contacts for them and if they were good.

I have a prescription for glasses and will have one soon for contacts, so I'm not worried about the new law involving prescriptions.

Thank you!

I can personally recommend this site, eXtreme SFX. Prices are great, and the lenses are comfortable (unless you're not used to wearing lenses at all). On that, I would highly recommend wearing whatever contact lenses you end up choosing at least a couple of weeks in advance of the Con. Trust me.

Coincidentally, I bought red contacts from them called "Dark Angel". I have had them for over a year, I wear them sparingly but upkeep them. They work good as new. Here is a picture with me wearing them. I have blue eyes but the iris is opaque, so it will look the same on all eye colors. These are non-prescription, so I cannot vouch for the accuracy of that.

There are a few reds, but these are the ones that would most suit Seras:
http://extremesfx.com/p-116-dark-angel.aspx
http://extremesfx.com/p-61-red-vampire.aspx
http://extremesfx.com/p-177-red-twilight.aspx  <-- really really popular, but I have heard they don't appear as bright on darker eye-colors.

You can Google and YouTube the color/name of most lenses and find people wearing them on all different colors of eyes.

As for gray/white... it's impossible to have completely white contacts that you will be able to see out of, and 'milky' contacts are extremely expensive, like, $300 expensive. 9mmfx has a few pairs of semi-opaque white, but I've seen most Hinatas go with:
http://extremesfx.com/p-71-manson.aspx (example: http://dawnb359.deviantart.com/art/hinata-cosplay-P-177762011?q=sort%3Atime+gallery%3Adawnb359&qo=3).

Hope that helped some, good luck on your hunt.

There is a problem with that though. It is a Steam game. Even it was up and running, the games running off of PC wouldn't have sound. Therefore, unless one brings their own headphones and have a way to make it a non-Steam game, it probably wouldn't show up on the PC at Fanime. The Nazi Zombie mods on Call of Duty: World at War, on the other hand, is a very possible option.

Oh wow, I totally forgot about that! I assumed everybody's got a pair headphones but the steam thing slipped my mind. I guess that knocks out the plausibility of PC CS and TF2 since I don't think you can bypass either without russian hacking and/or illegal patching as well. :T

Nazi Zombies is a pretty worthy substitute though.

Does anyone know where to buy a magician/tuxedo-type of jacket or get one made? Preferably under $100.

I'm cosplaying as Zatanna from the DC universe and I can't find a similiar jacket, more so, a jacket that would be fitting on me as I am quite petite. ):

The cost will probably be around $90-120, but Fan Plus Friend takes commissions.
You can see examples of their jackets here. I have friends who have purchased cosplay and lolita from them before, so I can vouch for their quality. Everything is lined and sewn very professionally. I would recommend giving them multiple example pictures and being VERY descriptive, because they make -exactly- what you ask them. Measurements are very helpful, too, but they also understand "knee length" or "mid-thigh" and so on, if you don't have an exact inch length but an idea of where you generally want something. You're definitely going to have to give them your actual body measurements, though.
As an aside, you can tell them to combine certain parts of their stock jackets, if there's anything workable there.

Alternatively, you can just buy a stock costume for $50 like this: http://www.halloweencostumes4u.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?ref=google&Screen=PROD&Product_Code=rub889322&Category_Code=super-hero-costumes&Store_Code=hal. I don't know the size chart or the quality of it, but the set is $50, and you get what you pay for when it comes to halloween store costumes...

As a DC fanatic I couldn't ignore your asking for help, haha.

I was disappointed to see the L4D2 tournament held on a console lol. It's kind of ridiculous to get srs bsns about L4D2 nowadays with the comp scene utterly DEAD and a bit of a joke anyway after the L4D(1) comp scene collapsed, but if there's going to be a L4D2 tournament it really should be on a PC with the proper confogl mod. Without confogl, it's impossible to take the game even a little seriously.

But I mean, it might not even be worth it anymore because the competitive L4D2 scene is a niche one anyway. Who knows if there will be a big enough turn out for a tournament for even one or two games. :S

DDR's classic but I would LOVE it if there were an In The Groove machine. Regarding that, will there be machine(s) or cobalt fluxes hooked up to a TV?

Hi! I'm thinking about making a Killer's Kabuto to go with my Solly cosplay. I'm not sure where to start, except maybe getting a cheap plastic military helmet from a costume shop for the base. I've got access to all kinds of saws, drills, and a dad who can use them, so it doesn't have to be made from straight craft store supplies.

A picture of the kabuto:


Thanks in advance for any direction I'm able to get!

I've seen The Pillows a number of times in SF and LA (in '05 and '08 I believe) and they always put on a great show. It would be a dream come true to get them for Fanime '11.

Ah, exactly the info I needed. :] Thanks guys!

How fast do the hotels normally fill up would you say?

I've gone to a fair amount of these, some wildly entertaining, a lot of 'em pretty lackluster.

I find that the dealmaker isn't 100% in information, but if the panel itself is entertaining. The majority of these panels end up as lectures about information that anyone that is curious can google up. Be unique with your visuals, Powerpoints are nice but props are better. Maybe find/make/borrow/steal replicas of good AND bad weapons. Audience interaction is the most important thing about a panel. I attended a panel once that took volunteers to place paper targets on themselves in areas that they learned were zombie weak spots, and then other volunteers to shoot the targets with different types of Nerf guns (shotgun, pistol, rifle, sniper rifle). Needless to say, it was a riot.

As an aside, the word "zombie" itself is EXTREMELY interpretable, so make sure you have clearly defined what "breed", if you will, of zombie you're informing the audience about. It might be interesting if you compare a couple types (e.g. the Green Flu type, your classic Dawn of the Dead zombies, the modern science-gone-wrong type, etc.) when talking about weaknesses and abilities.

I hope this was helpful. Good luck, you'll probably see me there :]

Also, if any of you have ideas on how to construct a Killer's Kabuto, let me know! I'm thinking about attempting to tackle it since I've already got the important prop out of the way.

Returning as the same RED solly from last year. Go ahead and put down Kaizoku (yup, *THE* L4D Kaizoku. I'm half surprised he's not cosplaying a Hunter :T) as RED Medic.