Summer of Sonic 2011 - The Cosplay Contest

So here is (most) of the cosplay contest in a huge 22 minute video! I didn't get all of it because one of my camcorder batteries ran out half way through and at one point I thought I was recording and it turns out I wasn't, oops! Either way you can see most of the people that went up on stage to compete for the prize of the 20th Anniversary statue, including quite a few of my mates dressed up as Eggman Nega, Tails and Professor Pickle! The contest was on quite early in the day compared to previous years (about 2:30 in the afternoon) so i think a few cosplayers didn't make it in time to the contest, and there were many others that didn't go up on stage like Ulala and the SegaGaga guy. One more short video to go, coming soon!

Summer of Sonic 2011 - The Cosplayers!

The cosplayers really outdone them selfs at this years Summer of Sonic. There were lots of them and many were of amazing quality and there was a lot of variety in the characters they chose to dress as (no army of Shadow the Hedgehogs this time) including some really unusual ones! I suspect there was so many because they found out that the winner of the cosplay contest would take home of the those not-for-sale 20th Anniversary statues! Mind you, not all of them went up onto the stage, there was just so many! I will be posting a video of the cosplay contest eventually, though it was quite difficult to film this year.

I have dozens of photos I took on the day. I didn't get photos of everyone but to start off here was one of my favorites:

How are ya how are ya how are ya! It's only Wes Weasley from the Adventures of Sonic cartoon! How cool is that? More after the jump!

Here's an excellent Sonic costume that we also saw at the MCM Expo back in May. he had a brown backpack with contained a huge ring that he proudly showed off on stage for the cosplay contest, SATAM style!

Maybe not the most flattering photo (no she's not crying!) but this Tails cosplayer had some crazy dedication, namely because of the incredibly detailed hand made Tornado bi-plane back pack which I got a closer shot of..

Look at that! She kept pointing out all the tiny flaws in the stitching! Shut up, it's brilliant!

Knuckles! The gloves were actual boxing gloves that have been painted white and the spike on the end of them were...tiny party hats, apparently. The magic is ruined! Also check out those shoes!

Metal Sonic, if he was a lady, though who knows it's a robot! Using shades with painted on red eyes, clever!

Amy rose, but not just any Amy Rose: classic Sonic CD/Fighters Amy Rose! That mallet is massive, and made of foam apparently.

A friend from DeviantArt who helped set up that party we went to the night before dressed as Cream the Rabbit, complete with Chao!

..and the winner for most unexpected and probably not recognized by most cosplayer of the day had to be thus guy dressed as taro from SegaGaga! I hope I wasn't the only one there who knew what he was from!

In a close second for that prize however has to be this girl I spotted while queuing up to get my Dreamcast signed by Yuji and Iizuka. It took me a moment but then I realized what she is wearing.. Sonic's "favorite clothes" from the OVA anime! Apparently barely anyone knew what her costume was from and to be honest it took me a moment to figure it out too! Strannnge, isn't it?

Continuing the 15th Anniversary celebrations of NiGHTS we also had not one but a total of three NiGHTS cosplays, including this one of Claris from the first game! There was also a Reala and the girl from the Wii sequel somewhere.

The Ulala cosplayer from last year was also back with a new pink outfit and amazing guitar straight out of Space Channel 5 Part 2, but I didn't get the chance to get a photo of her this time around.

Back to the Sonic characters, here's another friend from DeviantArt in a fantastic costume of professor Pickle from Sonic Unleashed! he even had a tiny sandwich which he clearly disapproves of, and had the voice down to a tee!

Another friend, the one who won last year for his Eggman costume (and magnificent role play of the character in general), came back this year as Eggman Nega from Sonic Rush. Again with the unfortunately named modern characters! First Cream the rabbit now this..

Another DA friend, what do you know? Her first time cosplaying and blimey, it's a full on Tails costume! All hand made and the head was huge and very soft!

You could say this was her rival: another fully suited up Tails costume! This Tails brought along a chopper/masher badnik!

The last cosplay photo I got was of this guy in a subtle Black Knight related costume with a hand made sword and iron glove! I wish I could of got more photos: there was not one but TWO Bark the Polar Bears (from Sonic the Fighters), two Mighty the Armadillos, Black Doom from Shadow the Hedgehog, and many, many more! In the end the winner was a girl dressed up as Sliver the Hedgehog. Well done of her, the competition was crazy this year but it was the crowds cheering that did the judging!

SOS '10 Videos Part 3: The Cosplay Contest

There was just so many cosplayers this year that it was hard to include all the footage of them walking onto the stage to be judged into one video! Thanks Youtube for increasing your time limit to 15 minutes! I did have to cut out all the bits where people had to cheer for their favorites, as well as the part with the top 5 being voted down to 3. Still, you get to see every single cosplayer (bar the winning Rouge from last year who was there but didn't enter the contest) that attended the event here.

If this event was evidence of anything it's that there are a LOT of fans of Shadow, as more people dressed up as him than anyone else. We need more Sonics next year guys! Tomorrow will be our last video: the Crush 40 live performance!

SOS '10: The Cosplayers

There was close to one thousand people attending Summer of Sonic this year. With a fanbase as huge as Sonic's you're going to get your bad eggs and sadly the whole lot often gets painted with the same brush, but when being amongst the awesome people that gathered together for this event the stereotype of Sonic fans being furrie sexual weridos just faded away. You couldn't meet a more friendly, talented and fun to hang out with lot. You can call them nerdy and eccentric all you like but they're having fun and doing no one any harm so there.

Case in point: the few fans that are so dedicated they came cosplaying as their favorite characters. There was a LOT more people dressed in their custom made outfits this year than previously, and there was a lot variety to the characters represented. Let's start with the first one that stood out and i had to grab a shot of pretty much minutes within entering the Pavilion..

Big the cat! She has a fishing rod, a froggy puppet and did an excellent impression of the pointless but lovable character! More after the jump!

Here we have a Maria (one of two!), a Shadow (one of...many!) Blaze (complete with a big old ring) and...I actually don't think taht girl in the red is cosplaying..

This lass came as Knuckles complete with matching red hair and dreadlocks! The Master Emerald, she wants it.

My mate Euan came once again as Robotnik, but this time he took it one step further...and shaved his poor hair off! He still had it when I last saw him a few weeks ago! Now that's dedication! I must say he also does an excellent impression of Robotnik, his voice is just spot on.

Ulala! No, I'm not flirting with her, it's actually a Ulala cosplayer! Who said Summer of Sonic had to just have Sonic characters? Especially when said cosplayer does such an amazing job of it! A guy last year was cosplaying as Purge, a bad guy from the same game and no one (myself included, until I got home when I trigged where I'd seen that hair before). said guy was hear again this year but as another misc' sega character..

Sketch Turner from Comix Zone! Sadly I didn't get a proper photo of him so here's one from the cosplay contest (he is 2nd from the right) which I'll talk about at the end of the article. Not sure why he has green hair, but he even has his pet rat! Not a real rat, of course, he would stink of piss.

From left to right he have that girl from Secret Rings, a Rouge (not the same one who won last year, she was here in the same costume but didn't enter the contest again), the genius addition of Charmy Bee (somehow making the character not seem annoying!), oddly enough the only Sonic cosplayer at the show (with green goggl...er, eyes) and finally it's ...oh it's her again. Stop gate crashing the cosplay photos!

Charmy Bee again because she was awesome and even did some sort of sing song on the stage which was unexpected. Also Blaze again, there was another girl as her though I didn't get a photo of her I don't think.

But the most ridiculous, ambitious and almost kind of frightening cosplay goes to..

..this Sally Acorn. I mean christ, just look at this costume! You will be happy to know that it wasn't a creepy furrie bloke inside it but rather a bubbly girl who seemed pretty normal to me. Major kudos for effort alone me thinks, plus this was the first time someone has come dressed as a SATAM character apparently. Now we need the Bunnie Rabbot, Snivley and Uncle Chuck me thinks! But don't worry, if you really don't like sally Acorn..

..she was later beheaded.

So onto the contest. Because there was so many cosplayers this year they were lined up onto the stage in rows of 6 and whichever two out of those got the most cheers went through to the final five who were Big the Cat, Charmy Bee, Ulala, Rouge, Euan's Robotnik and Sally Acorn. Charmy got third, Big got a very close second and Euan won first!

Last year he was in 2nd, so i guess the addition of shaving his hair, along with a brilliant speech or two about creating a Summer of Eggman, helped him this time. Sadly the prises weren't so hot this time around: Euan won a trophy but none of the runners up got anything unlike last year. For example in 2nd Euan got a bunch of goodies including an Outrun T-shirt which I'm still rather envious about. 

As a bonus here's two over awesome people I encountered while there:

This badass has pimped his wheelchair with Sega logos all over it! Rock on, dude.

There was lots of custom made T-shirt wearers about, and here's a highlight. Only avid ASOTH viewers will get it, and the front has a great Robotnik quote and picture from the same cartoon on it. Another highlight was a blue shirt simply with the words "strange, isn't it?" written on it, quoting the Sonic the Movie anime of all things!