These Cosplay Horror Stories are WILD 

The extremely defensive behaviour of the guy, to the point of outrage, makes it seen more like to me that he did or tried to steal something.

The moments I heard the phrase "Purah from tears of the Kingdom" I instantly knew this was going to be a shitshow and started speedrunning the five stages of grief accordingly

Worst con experience? It wasn't for cosplay, just a sci-fi con, as this was 25+ years ago! I went with my best friend, and we were literally the only two in "costume!" while everyone else was in graphic t-shirts and jeans. There were very few younger women at the con (we were both 16, most attendees were 30+). The con was much smaller than we'd thought it would be, and kind of sketchy. We tried to make the best of it... But after a couple hours, we had accumulated a gaggle of men who followed wherever we went, just 'casually' standing about ten feet away, staring and mouth-breathing. We got super-spooked and decided to leave, but we took a wrong turn and ended up going deeper into the hotel instead. Once we hit the darker hotel-proper hallways, I looked back and saw that seven of those middle-aged men were following us. We sped up... they sped up too. We actually burst out of that damn hotel running, with a literal pack of grown-a$$ men chasing us. When we hit daylight, I turned around and screamed, "WHAT!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" and it was like a spell broke. None of them said one word, they just slunk off back to the con. I have never been so terrified.

Having explosive diarrhea while eating chocolate chips with a spoon and an untoasted loaf of bread and blasting tv girl while in full ghost from cod mw2 cosplay is a surreal experience

the pinkamena horror story came off as super sweet but also funny to imagine the bloody psycho girl character who's outfit is drenched in blood talking to this random girl giving her a pad to calm her down

This is accurate for the Belle cosplayer. I was there and I can guarantee that a lot of other contestants were not happy with the way the costume contest was ran. Hopefully it is better for those that go this year. I however won't be there.

My cosplay horror story was that at my first cosplay contest, the sign up person mistakenly placed me in the youth category instead of beginner, and I didn’t realize until I was announced as the 2nd place winner in youth, a 17 year old standing on stage with a 5 year old, 7 year old, and a 13 year old. I felt so embarrassed. :(

I am similar in terms of feeling like I need to stand up when I see bad or unfair stuff happen, then getting completely overwhelmed if the other person escalates, and usually crying. I also cry when I’m angry, which is hands down my least favorite thing about how I react to things. 🤦🏻‍♀️

It took me a few mins to realize you were saying “bought cosplays” and not “bot cosplays” I was like “oh, why wouldn’t they want cosplays of robots?” 💀

the real horror story for the second one is wearing prescription glasses that weren’t prescribed to you. No judgement, I did it once too but if you don’t take the lenses out you can damage your eyes (and it’ll hurt the entire time!)

Thank you for being so open and chill about periods, younger me absolutely needed that and I'm sure a lot of younger menstruating people do as well.

I feel like that older guy would only freak out and scream like that if he was guilty. A normal person would just deny it peacefully and without vulgar language. You did the right thing.

my worst con story is creepy, im a minor and i was cosplaying chiaki from danganronpa and she has a rather short skirt so i had to keep pulling it down every like 10 minutes, i had walked away from my dad and friends to go buy sutff and this guy came over while i was mid buying a cute plush of usa chan and he had reached up my skirt. luckily the booth person saw and called security, im so so glad i was at a safe place

Here's a little mini-horror story of mine!: One time, I was my local comic convention in a cosplay of the demogorgon from D&D. The creature has these flaps on the side of it's head that stick out to the side, and they were covered in a soft fabric. While I was walking through a crowded part of the dealer's room, a guy from the crowd grabs onto one of the flaps and starts messing around with it. My handler tells him to get his hands off my cosplay, but he's still pulling on it. This was the first con I had cosplayed at, so I just froze up with fear and didn't say anything. It took a lot of yelling from my handler for him to let go and back off. It isn't much, but I just thought I'd share!

I don’t get periods anymore because of early menopause, but I still carry period supplies with me in case I encounter anyone else who needs them.

in 2019 we were in a boku no hero group. we go eat to the con's tables and a random guy sits with us and starts chatting as if he was an all time friend; we finish eating, get up, and he asks two girls for a picture, and right after, does a motion of pushing boobs on his chest. worst is one of those two girls was a minor

I've made chainmaille before, and I have one word of advice for anyone who's extra enough to make an entire maille shirt but isn't used to the weight: Aluminum. It's still metal, so it's still going to be heavier than fabric, but it's SO much lighter and easier to work than stainless steel. You have to be really careful if you're making the rings yourself, because aluminum dust is VERY bad for your lungs, but imo for most people it's a better use of your time to just buy the rings pre-made, anyway. Personally, I tend to buy from The Ring Lord, but I'm sure there are other companies out there. I like stainless steel, it's probably my favorite material for smaller jewelry pieces, but it's definitely overkill for an entire shirt unless you're going for hardcore reenactment. At that point you're wearing actual armor and should probably be training accordingly.

I cosplayed Junkrat and i learned my ace bandage binding lesson years before but i used them on my legs as part of the cosplay. I started feeling bad, i removed my wig and chest binder, nothing until i removed my leg bandages. I instantly felt better and a wave of relief hit me. I wrapped them much more lose and felt okay. Be careful with ace bandages but never use them at binding!

To your story at the end if someone walks up to a booth I'm watching for someone else I'm instantly in their face going: "Can I help you with something?" It usually tells them that someone is there. But I know that it's difficult to react in the moment, it sucks that they man was so rude, he was probably guilty given the way he was acting. Edit: This is why I should watch things till the end, you said the exact same thing 2 seconds later. 😂

Hey! I was one of the two Nebraskakon MCs for the cosplay contest. My only insight is that I’ve heard the judges didn’t have prejudging finished by the contest began, and they were judging main stage as well as the hallway contest from Friday. As far as our end though, us MCs weren’t allowed in the discord chat so all we heard for the final 3 hours was “Can you please give us another 10-20 minutes”. To all the contestants from 2022, us Miku MCs apologize from the bottom of our hearts ToT We don’t know why it fell apart either!

similar to the first story, several years ago when I first cosplayed hanayo from love live, I had one guy that was really awkward when asking me for a picture, and even a hug when he saw me later that day. I was with my friend the whole time and he was alone, so I felt okay giving him a quick hug. I even gave him some encouragement in character and he got bright red and ran off. I kept seeing him at local cons over the next couple years, and he’d always recognize me and come over to give a quiet, awkward “hi” and get a hug and a picture. I still see him when I go to cons, and he’s always with friends now and he seems to have really come out of his shell compared to when I first met him. a happy ending, sometimes the awkward guy isn’t a creep. :)

It is so jarring to see my home con mentioned 😳 (nebraskon) I havent been in many years, but the delays and technical issues are a time honored tradition it seems. Way back in the early days (2007-2010ish?) one of the staff was a guy who could play tuba and he would take requests from the crowd to vamp while they tried to fix issues lmao

Cosplay comp horror story time!!! I was in a COSPLAY CONTEST (not costume, rules explicitly said cosplay had to be at least 70% hand made) there was zero performance, the judges would just go onstage to look at your cosplay (zero talking either) so it was just craftsmanship based. Do you want to know who was the only person there with a handmade cosplay? Me. There were about 20 participants. And you know who didn’t even place? Me, in a D&D inspired gown that took me 1 1/2 months to create:) smile through the pain y’all, smile through the pain

Your story had me quaking in horror. I would have absolutely burst into tears too if I was in the same situation. I can definitely understand the anger from that guy and it's completely valid, but the outburst was unwarranted imo. We all make human mistakes and that guy had to know that he looked really suspiscious from an outsider's perpective. I think anyone would have seen that and thought "theft". Sorry you had to go through that.

My cosplay horror story My first international guesting gig was last year at Holiday Matsuri, Florida. I was flying in from Perth, Western Australia. All of my cosplays were in one suitcase. When I got to San Fransico, I found out that my suitcase was lost. I couldn't ask more questions because I had to make my connecting flight - so we collected our normal clothes suitcases, clear customes, then go through security (again), put the bags on the new flight and run to our gate as they were calling our names for the last time... all whilst tears are steaming down my face. I spent the next 5 hours from San Fran to Orlando crying in my seat and thinking up 5-6 different plans of attack as soon as we land so I will be able to wear some sort of cosplay at the con. Once we got to Orlando, I lodged my lost bag complaint and found out the bag had not even left Perth. They said it would be at my hotel within 24 hours - ma'am... we just flew 3 flights and with layovers it was 36 hours. What is this magical route of 24 hours? Sure enough, the bag came 3 days later at 3 or 4am in the morning, meaning I had to judge prejudging in normie clothes and borrow my friend Binkxy's gorgeous Sophie cosplay to wear on Friday (okay, so not all bad) and was ironing my Saturday and Sunday cosplays at 4am in our hotel room. You might ask what my different plans were. They were as follows (in order of sanity to insanity) 1. Get bag sent ASAP to hotel if it could be located 2. Borrow a cosplay off a friend 3. Buy a cosplay at the con 4. Buy a wig at the con and go casual cosplayer 5. Go to the nearest Joanne's, buy a regency pattern and some fabric and make some sort of regency-bound based cosplay - probably snow white or cinderella. The con had sewing classes and I knew there would be sewing machines and basic sewing supplied that I could use. And I know I can make a regency outfit in a day if I push it. 6. Make a sign to wear it saying "Error 404. Cosplay not found."

I'm so hype for snow miku! As someone who also treasures the craft of sewing I really enjoy seeing how you tackle your cosplays

idk if this counts as a "horror story", but earlier this year at my local con, I was cosplaying Tohru from Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid and this one mortal kombat cosplayer got close to me and started ACTING like I was actually Tohru. I humored him a little bit but when he continued acting like that, I gave my friend the look of "help me" and we walked away. He followed us the last 2 booths then we left the vendors area and luckily lost him in the crowd. I feel like many people think because a person is cosplaying, they are also role-playing as the character and I think that takes a bit of the fun out of it.

Regarding judging and delays, in eastern Canada, we generally do the contest on the Saturday and the prize announcement on Sunday, so the judges get the whole night to deliberate. So I've heard of judge deliberations taking 3-4 hours. It just doesn't matter because nobody's waiting on them until the next morning.

OH MY GOSH the nebkon 2022 jumpscare I remember talking to the Belle that was hands down one of the worst ran contests ive seen but she did look gorgeous 😭 shout out to those contestants that was awful

I have been a vendor for a year now. I've been stolen from once. My table assistant and I both saw it from the corner of our eye, but neither of us was certain enough to say anything. Our go to phrase is, "Would you like cash or credit for that?" Because it tells them you saw it, but gives them an out. Maaaaaybe, they accidentally put something into their pockets or forgot they were holding it.

The extra pads and tampons in the bathroom is a really cute story. Sucks the entire con was synced that weekend XD

I work in a clothes store (with somewhat higher end items) and so much stuff get's stolen, to the point where I feel like I can barely trust anyone anymore ! It's young girls, groups of men, little old ladies, anybody ! And we're not given proper training on how to deal with them, there's no cameras, no security guards ... we're told to stay safe but to also confront them ?I felt pretty shaken last time I caught a customer and tried to say something and she just denied everything, so I can't even imagine what it must've felt like to have the man screaming ! What i'm told is that basically if someone walks in with the intention to steal, no matter what you do they'll find a way and it's not your fault. I feel conflicted because on the one hand if somebody was stealing tampons or from a fast fashion company I wouldn't even bat an eyelash, but we sell ""fancy"" clothes which to me isn't a necessity, plus it's part of my job to watch out ... In any case stealing from an artist and a small company is just absolutely insane, you're not only stealing the itel but also the persons had work and creative process !! So you did what you thought was best in the moment and who knows, maybe he just hadn't stolen yet and was waiting for a chance ! In any case his behaviour was terrible and he probably stepped in dog poo 5 times after that

honestly, if the guy in the last story flipped out that much he was probably feeling guilty or something

I think this was back in 2016 ish but I was cosplaying as Shizuo from Drrr complete with a full sized prop vending machine. I was talking to a group of new friends after taking some photos and while my back was turned this guy came and grabbed my vending machine and RAN. I chased after him telling him to stop and as soon as I got close he chucked the prop as hard as he could at an empty park table. The top hit the corner of the table and was completely broken. He didn't even apologize and just left. I found the group I was with before ( thankfully they didn't take my phone as we were exchanging numbers). One took a bandaid and put it on my machine but because of how I built it there was no way for me to fix it without taking the whole thing apart. Met some nice people but that jerk really ruined the whole day for me.

I visited a friend for a con in the city she was currently studying at university. We knew each other for many years, planned to go there together. That long weekend was the first time I visited her new apartment, it was a small student apartment, but she and her family are quite well off and we visited each others families often for some days in the years before. After arriving, I opened my bag to get something and my friend saw a package of cookies. She took it and said "oh thanks for the guest present!" - it wasn't, but I was like "doesn't matter, it's just a package of cookies" and if she was happy.. I arrived late evening and we went to bed soon after. The next morning she ate some rice and eggs for breakfast, but I didn't get anything for breakfast because "she is a poor student and doesn't have extra food for guests, sorry". I wanted some tea or water, but she told me, she only has the water bottles she bought for herself and the kitchen tap is broken, so if I wanted something to drink, I have to drink from the bathtub's tap. I didn't get any food or drinks for lunch either and she didn't give me my cookies back, because they were a "present". I didn't bring much money with me because I didn't plan on spending much at the con and usually when we visited each other before, getting food was a given. So, I couldn't buy anything and went to the con that sunday without having eaten for 2 days, drank so less as possible in that time. That weekend was in a heat wave. So at the con, in the time my "poor student friend" was spending hundreds of Euros buying stuff, I had collapsed and spend most of the time in the first-aid-tent, where I got an infusion because I was dehydrated and some cookies. When leaving the con my "friend" was angry at me for not spending time with her and only "lying lazy in the first-aid-tent". At her apartment, she ordered ONE pizza for herself and said I could have some more bathtub tapwater, I shouldn't be hungry, since she saw I had eaten some cookies from the paramedics. Before the pizza was delivered I had packed my bag and left for the train station - one day earlier as planned. I never spoke to her again.

My most recent con I went as Blue Rose from Tiger & Bunny but I couldn’t make her skirt thingy solid and a gust of wind caught it up and I ended up flashing so many people behind me in the cue, luckily my sister's was Luke Skywalker and used their cape to help shield me

I was the Sailor Moon cosplayer at Nebkon 😂

I once almost had heatstroke, I had glued a bunch of brushed yarn to my face and wore leather in the summer heat. At the end of the event my friends were talking to the organizers and I was like IM ABOUT TO DIE WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE

I love seeing all the new crochet things around you. It’s my favorite hobby and so fun to see other people getting into it!

Did you even say that he put it in his pocket? Because all I heard you say was "Sir, I saw THAT." so why would he be showing you his pockets if you didn't say anything about them? The way that guy got so defensive is definitely sus, I'm guessing he was at that con to steal things and he was ready for it, so he may have had some sort of hole in his pocket or a double pocket. Telling someone to leave you alone is not you being a b*tch even if you have to be harsh about it, especially if you have to tell them several times. These kinds of people think that you feeling safe is not as important as him having the hots for you and having his weewee jingle. Some people are aware that they are making you uncomfortable and that gives them a sense of power because your discomfort gets them off.

I was rewatching the first one of these (first video of cosplay horror stories) just today and now there’s a part two? Awsome!! Happy spooky season everyone, enjoy the fall colors while it lasts :)🍂🍁

20:11 I went to a My hero con in my state Texas and I was cosplaying as bakugo and I thought I had started and went to the bathroom and they had bowls with pads and tampons and cups for cosplayers and note that said we love all our cosplayers and wanna help you have a great weekend even if there are accidents, it’s normal and your loved here! I sobbed seeing this. 😭

I was also at 2022 nebraskon!!! What a hellish experience for sure, especially with it being my first time there. I did attend this year as well, and for anyone that didn't, it is 1000 times better. The cosplay director, Chloe, did everything she (they?) could to make sure the contest went smoothly. We had a whole separate green room for before, during and after the contest(which was so much better than just being backstage) and provided water, fidgets, coloring books, and so much more support. I felt so bad for the MCs last year because they just kept getting told "any minute" and it turned into hours. They used a notification system this year to give us more freedom to leave and change, get food, etc if we wanted. Give them another shot next year!

This story caused me a little ptsd from cosplay contests. I was a vendor at a local con. A friend of mine offered to help me at my booth and we decided it would very fun to cosplay as Sebastion and Grell from black butler. It was so crazy busy at my booth my head was spinning. My friend cosplaying as Sebastion would take my fancy candy stand and my business cards and walk around in the less busy moments for promotion and just to get my name out there. After many hours, con goers convinced us to compete in the cosplay contest. Since judging and everything was after the vendor room shut down we figured hey why not. We weren't expecting to win or anything, just really enjoying the company of the other contestants and whatnot. We went into the group category, walked the stage and made up a small skit on the spot. Everyone laughed. Went to our seats to watch the rest and see the results. They announced the winners of the group category, the steampunk ladies. What felt like a million heads turned to look at my friend and I and you could have heard a pin drop. Then this roar of dissatisfaction erupted and the MC was on the microphone desperately trying to calm everyone down. I looked at my friend and told her we needed to go because it was going to get ugly. We ran out of there still not believing what happened. The next day I went back to my booth (my friend wasn't there because it was a half day and I figured it could handle it myself) and all day people were coming up to me and telling me that we were robbed and should have won. I would say something to the effect of thank you that's very sweet but I'm sure those little old ladies did much better. Our costumes weren't sewn by hand (we did a last minute closet cosplay moment) and I'm sure they spent a lot of time putting everything together. The people wouldn't hear of it and insisted that thier costumes were bought from spirit of halloween. Needless to say the years after this my friend and I still cosplayed for my booth but we never entered another competition again.

I wish I heard the advice during the death arcana story before I joined a cosplay contest a few months ago. My handcreme had stained my leggings and I was very awkward about it and used some excuse about it. The fabric also didn't help. Now I am glad to know that if a stain happens, I don't have to be awkward about it.

I had the exact same issue with someone falling in love with my FIRST COSPLAY. It is a blessing I am still doing this because it was an absolutely awful experience.

Ah, this didn't have anything to do with my cosplay, but I remember going to a convention and sitting at a concert with a guy with a FLUTE sitting DIRECTLY behind me, and he was playing to EVERY SINGLE SONG. It was so loud, I wanted to tell him to shut up SO bad.

i had this very awkward kid, my age or younger, who was very much trying to flirt with me in his izuku midorya cosplay. i was cosplaying kim possible and was attending the con with my favorite wing woman, my mom. he didn’t necessarily follow me, but i came face to face with him several times and he just didn’t want to leave me alone… my hero fans, am i right? /j

As someone with a great deal of experience in the retail industry, the best way to deter a possible thief/shoplifter is not to wait until you see them steal something, but to instead become a super-employee. Greet them with intense enthusiasm as if you adore your job, then ask them if you can help them look at something. Keep being super attentive and every time their hand so much as hovers over something, go on a spiel about how amazing that product is. If they try to call you out for hovering, you can pull the card that the customer is the most important to you and you could not handle it if you accidentally ignored someone shopping in your booth (your friend’s booth in this case). Most of the time, if they are a thief, they will walk away because your merchandise is too difficult to steal.

A lot of things happened at cons before but I remember this one time I was walking around at a con in Zelda’s royal dress that me and my grandma worked on during that summer vacation, this guy came up to me and asked me for a picture. He was in a Harry Potter costume I assume? Wig totally messy it looked like it was run over multiple times but I’m not one to judge so I say okay! Without hesitation he grabs me like sort of pulling my clothing or wig towards him (can’t remember which one it was) to make it look like a fighting position, and goes on to point his wand at me for the photo, while swinging his wand into position he sticks me with it in the eye. It was an accident so I didn’t blame him and said it was okay, after that we went on to take the picture in that same pose and I tried my best to look upright on the picture. After I said bye and took in what just happened I felt that odd pain in my eye still. It went away after a while but I hope that didn’t happen to anyone else. At least ask consent if you want to grab me for a pose like that and be a little gentle 😭

This is probably TMI, but I just buy adult diapers if I am on my cycle and going to be away from a restroom for a while. Even the period diapers don't work as well. Assurance (the purple one) is the best. Yes, it is embarrassing at first, but it is more comfortable than leaking all over your clothes.

hearing those con nightmares about the contests makes me feel how blessed we have in my country, its a pretty small one, but has three cons, all different sizes but they all have such good scheduling with the contest that ive never seen any mistake ever, sometimes they even have a timer on stage to show the hosts and staff how much time they can take on different things

To all booths and small businesses, I work in loss prevention and please never accuse someone of stealing especially if you are not 1000% sure you saw them select the item and conceal it. It escaltes the situation immensly. Instead giving customer service tends to spook them as they know someone is watching (like Sarah said). Another tip is to usage verbage that is not the word stealing but means essentially the same thing, people associate steal in a negative manner and changing your verbage can also prevent the situation from escalating

The thing with your last story just feels like you didn't do anything wrong. It's pretty common knowledge to not be so close to something without anyone there, and i feel like even if you had said something before, he just would've yelled at you anyways. He sounded suspicious and to get that mad and immediately angry just says he was totally trying to steal and got caught. If you said something before he probs would've given you an extra aggressive "I'm just looking! i cant look?!" and same outcome. You weren't in the wrong.

i have a good one, i made an entire cosplay from scratch bc the character is basically a fan redesign and this cosplay happened to have four arms. two were my real arms and below them were the other arms i had spent HOURS working on, keeping in mind this was back when i was a jobless teen so i had to make my stuff slowly overtime whenever i happened to get some pocket change left over from my parents or use stuff from my house. so i couldnt afford to just go buy mannequin arms and made it all with materials we had which were expanding foam craft foam and a little bit of eva foam some wire and some plush stuffing. they way i constructed it was pretty ingenious and they looked far more realistic than mannequin arms or just a sleeve full of stuffing which was the way most people had done that character but since this is a horror story and im focusing so much on how much i was proud and loved that part of the cosplay you can imagine how this will go. First off i spent the whole first day waiting in the same spot for someone and missed all the panels i wanted to go to because they underestimated how long it would take them to get there and while a bit upset this was a very small con maybe only a couple hundred attendees so it wasnt the biggest deal but since i stayed in the same spot all day i decided id wear the costume again the next day to actually like get it out there and meet people. bad idea. the next day the attendance doubled in size and while still not even breaking 1,000 attendees it was packed since the con space was just a hotel lobby and a couple hallways with rooms for panels. possibly the worst day to wear a big bulky yet fragile costume. most people were really good about moving and i just went sideways through the crowds but there were a couple times when i was just out of the crowd off to the side chilling that people walked up and just started touching my arms without asking. one person came up and went "how do you do" and violently shook the arm and after they did that it didnt hang right on my for the rest of the con, some people who tried to mess with them were kids but their parents were around usually to say "hey dont touch that you didnt ask" and i was okay with people touching them! they just had to be gentle and careful since they were made to look at and hang below my first set of arms not to actually do anything or have a function. not to mention i wanted them to be light so i wouldnt hurt my arms with the fishing line that was connected to my actual arms. and then it happens the worst thing possible. im walking through the crowd again and as im slowly and politely making my way through the crowd and thanking people for letting me through, and some guy not even in cosplay comes barreling through the crowd like he owns the place and is looking annoyed at people not moving and i tried to move out of the way for him since he was about to be in my space and before i could even take a step in the right direction to get out of his way he just continues pushing his way past me directly into one of my arms and as he does theres a very loud snapping noise. like were talking people looked over bc it sounded like something fell. and this sidewalk gum of a person has the audacity to turn around and give ME the dirty look as i was sitting there with my mouth open looking at the arm that he just snapped in half like me being in his way was more offensive than him ruining the costume i spent forever making. and then he just SCOFFED at me and turned around and kept walking. after that happened a lot of people came to try to help me with my arm but it was broken at the elbow where it was just wiring so its not like i could just wrap it up in cosplay repair or something if it had been on the forearm or upper arm. the last day of con i couldnt wear the costume and i was so sad about it. and like i said since i was a kid i couldnt remake the arms on that for a long time because i couldnt just fix the broken arm it needed a new connecting wire running through the whole thing which was impossible since the parts for the arm were already glued to the foam and it would damage the arms to remove it. i eventually remade the whole costume since i had outgrown it but it took years for me to do it for various reasons, main one being i was so upset i had spent all that work on it and it was broken that i didnt even want to touch the project again for a while. eventually when i remade mine i made it 2 pieces of eva foam and pretty much all stuffing in a shaped form so that way if anyone ever ran into them again they would just flop back into place and im glad i did because when i wore that one to a different large con that year it was happening all the time. i understand people being in a rush and being oblivious but im begging grown adults to please make sure they arent decimating cosplays and props when they decide to go shoving their way through crowds

A con experience I will never EVER forget that one time I got to accidentally hit someone in the FACE with a shoe. It was a small con, like a picnic cosplay meetup?? If I can call it that? Anyway, I was wearing a Mukuro Ikusaba cosplay from danganronpa and I apparently thought that wearing platform boots was a good ideea. I'm talking about thoose specific gothic platform sneakers, bonus points cuz they didn't even fit my shoe size so they would constantly fall when I walked or did anything at all.😭 Here in my country (romania) we have a specific dance called "hora" where everyone holds hands and dances in a circle. A few of my friends were dancing to that so I thought why not participate aswell. I don't know why I thought this was a good ideea...it wasn't. We all began dancing and I could allready feel my left boot slowly fall off my foot. Literally a moment later I saw my shoe just fly away and hit a Venti from genshin impact cosplayer IN THE FACE. He was practically in front of me and my boot went direcly to his face. Now just imagine a peacefull cosplay picnic where cosplayers are dancing and then out of nowhere a goth boot hits Venti in the face...I wish I could make this up. At that point I rushed to the Venti cosplayer to apologise, he was fine and just saw this as a funny experience and we even became friends after that😭 Sooo uhh moral of the story, if you want to make cosplay friends at cons just hit them with a boot 👍(pls don't do it ) The actually moral of the story is cosplayers PLEASEE PLEASSE wear comfortable shoes at cons and cosplay meetups, you may never know when your shoe falls on someone's face

What they teach in retail is to be obnoxiously friendly and helpful to suspected 5 finger discounters. Really freaks em out and you have an excuse to be up in their face.

This set up is so cute !! And I'm so excited for another one of these cosplay story videos!! It's how I first discovered your channel :D

while working markets I usually clock where my neighbors have their business cards, so I don't freak out when people take those in their absence ( definitly happened once lmao) but I fully feel the paranoia in these situations! The "don't worry, they'll be back in 10 minutes." is usually effective tho and mostly only leads to pleasant conversation! Good tips all round :)

ughhhhh the second story is relatable mann so basically i have an albeit very recent yet very similar experience because my school held a contest, *supposedly* based around fashion, modeling, recycling and craftsmanship. the event's entire theme is basically "reduce, reuse, and recycle, but make something fashionable out of it". naturally, i joined the contest with my classmate (she's the model) and got to researching and designing something we could make. if we win a place in the top 5, we will have a chance to join the intercampus contest where we battle against other branches of the school. i came up with a dress that she can actually wear made out of reused paper, old bedsheets and an old corset because the dress/gown is gonna be heavy and will have a pretty dramatic train. due to my minimal sewing knowledge, i tried making it so that the dress is properly supported and wearable enough. the design is basically a million little paper fans hotglued to the skirt of the dress and the bodice will be origami roses made out of magazines that me and my classmates worked on together. good thing i made a base for the dress because the guidelines of the contest *explicitly* said that "no base lining = disqualified". they also made us an advocacy about recycling. immediately, we encountered a problem with funding because my classmates didn't give us enough funds for it, it's supposed to be funded by the class, not just the people wo would make the dress and the designer. but yeah we were able to finish the dress nonetheless, and it looks beautiful but it's kinda heavy because of all the paper stuck to it. other than the dress, we also made a headdress to go along with it. the day of the event comes and we were nervous af. i wore an improper lolita coord (no petti because it's hot) that kinda matches my model's dress because the JSK has roses on it. we practiced modelling a bit, because the designer will walk on the stage as well and answer some questions about what they made. fortunately, my efforts at least paid off because we won as top 4, but what's not great is the one who won top 1. like i mentioned, the contest has guidelines we had to follow so we're not disqualified, and the people who won first place didn't even have a lining for their costume, didn't use reused or recycled materials (they just basically used new paper plates not USED ones), the dress didn't fit, held only by STAPLES and generally just looks like crap compared to the others who won. not to boast but i feel like we did a better job lmao. so since we won a place, we joined intercampus and made some changes to the dress (it's allowed) and fixed some stuff along the way. intercampus event comes, and i saw a lot of really amazing costumes made by amazing designers, like one person even had chrismas lights on the costume. idk if they're all reused tho, but they looked really well put together and durable. so what happened to the first place winner of our school branch? well they basically used the same dress and added more paper plates. still no lining, still held by freaking staples. the only other thing they added is a headdress, which looks fine i guess but compared to others, you WOULD THINK that it would easily be outshined by the other costumes. but no. they STILL WON. we also won but i feel like the costume with chrismas lights and won a lot of awards is supposed to be the winner, not them bruhh. idk what exactly happened with the judging system of the contest, but i know they aren't experienced enough to do judging or biased af, because there's no way the clout chaser won it all man. i feel really bad for the other models and designers who obviously put more effort to their craft than the freaking paper plate dress that's falling apart on the stage and didn't win. that's when i realized, i shouldn't have joined because they already knew who's gonna win. it's all part of the plan.

This was about 15 years ago, my best friend and I made 2 full fur suit Mokonas complete with 4 foot long ears for Kimoricon. Because these were the XXX-Holic Mokona, we had earrings on those ears made with the cardboard tubes from the inside of ribbons and glass cristmasballs painted on the inside. The costumes themselves were basically giant hoopskirts that were attached to bike helmets, all balanced on our heads. To say we didn't have great mobility or disability was an understatement. Because we were staff at the Kumo and knew the Cosplay chair, we found out they were a little light on skits for the cosplay contest and decided to join on a lark, throwing together a dance routine at the last moment to Lady Gaga's bad romance. Because we were part of the contest we had to go to pre-judging. Judging went fine, but as we're leaving one of the balls from the earrings hit a table and shattered. A few hours later the other Christmas ball broke on the other costume. Luckily we had a car and some amazing friends who helped out. We found plastic Christmas balls to paint. And we were able to fix up the costumes in time for the contest. Except, while we were dancing, the new ball on my white Mokona costume few off and because the paint wasn't dry at that time, it left metallic red paint all over the ear of my white Mokona. To say it was a stressful day is an understatement. But, we had a great crafty friend who had some felt, so we were able to put a bandaid over the paint stain so they could still be used for cosplay chess. We left the earrings off for the rest of the con, oh and we won Novice group for the costumes even with all the problems. And the next year, we just left the earrings at home.

Okay I did throw up in a hotel after partying to hard and it was all over their carpet floor and the cleaner dude who came in to clean it up was very nice and understanding though this was in Las Vegas he probably sees it everyday I did pay him $20 because I felt BAD

I was cosplaying Meidri from Interspecies Reviewers. Despite a guy following me around for an hour it went perfectly fine and I had a lot of fun! But I had made the bird feet from boots with high heels and craft foam and could not sit down on the floor without taking my shoes off completely, so I didn't really sit down at all. I don't usually wear heels. My feet hurt really bad all day long but when i took them off at home all of my toes and the balls of my feet were completely numb. It stayed that way for about a week and the numbness turned into tingling that only disappeared after a whole month. I'd say that was some pretty bad nerve damage! The year after I brought a small camping chair and sat down a lot!

Man if that bookstore contest was more like a decade back (rather than just a few years) I'd say it had to be Tokyopop running an event like that lol.

I don't really have any cosplay horror stories yet cuz I'm a younger cosplay (thankfully) but my first time doing a homestuck cosplay i sweated off my body paint and broke one of my horns lol

On the note of the last story, you rock. I've done many trade and craft shows over the years and having that experience, you nailed it, it's as simple as just saying hi when they walk up. You let them know even though it's unattended, the booth is on lock. You should always ask a neighbor to watch the booth if you step away too, even if you say nothing else to your neighbors. I've never personally seen any instances of something like this but still, it's always better safe than sorry.

Even if your comment to the old man wasn't exactly the best, he didn't have to go off like that- it made him extra sus, like he had something to prove.

Omg I waited to watch this video and didn't realize my story was in it! I'm the pinkamina cosplayer haha 😅

that thing about wanting to stand up but also hating confrontation is so real, i’d love to tell my teachers that they’re wrong but if any of them even slightly raise their voice, even at someone else, I’m a teary mess, even if i know I’m right

I worked in a small hotel for a few years. Poop in places other than the toilet was at least a weekly experience. They were probably thankful they at least cleaned it up themselves

Those are quite the horror stories. And I'm so excited for Snow Miku 2023! She is actually on my cosplay list and I don't even know where to begin with that cosplay since I want to make it not buy it. It's probably selfish of me to hope that you'd one day do a cosplay I wanted to do so I'd have a guide/tutorial to doing it myself, but I can't contain my excitement! I can't wait to see how yours turns out!

I love the layout and your makeup is so adorable! 🧡

Man for the dude to react that aggressively, he surely had a guilty conscience. Also supeeeer hyped for snow Miku!!! Btw, smtg I think every cosplayer should invest in is a neck fan. They look sleek and don’t stand out much (unless you’re like a hillichurl or smtg idk 😂), pretty sure you can also wear them with a fur suit too.

Your story is the reason why im always so careful at booths. Ive been told I look suspicious by my friends before and I've been watched pretty closely at a few cons so now im kinda over dramatic when grabbing things especially cards so they dont think im stealing.

A fairly recent horror story: I was at Magfest last year for the first time. It’s technically a gaming con, but I saw this as an opportunity to finally make a cosplay that’s been on my mind for years-Luna Motthews from Monster High Boo York Boo York. I hand painted my skirt, styled my wig, did colored contacts for the first time. I went all out. One thing that I didn’t feel comfortable making were her wings. I’ve made wings in the past but I’ve always had bad luck with them. So I asked my friend who has a history of making really good wings (she’s made Vriska’s wings from homestuck, Lumine’s wings from Genshin, wings for a love live cosplay) because I knew she’d do a good job. I commissioned her and they were beautiful. Everything was going great for the beginning of the day. I noticed that the wings hung pretty heavy on my back, so they started sagging, but they still seemed sturdy. I went to a western animation, photo shoot, and they lasted through the whole thing. Then we went outside to take pictures and that’s when I noticed that it was really windy. Everything went fine though. The wings were great. The costume looked great. The photos were good. We went back inside and I spent the next few hours indoors because of the wind. I also walked in a cosplay contest that day as a non-judged participant, just to introduce myself to contests in a low stakes environment. Eventually I got hungry and this is at the Gaylord convention center meaning that it’s right on the water. It was crazy windy at this point, but I needed to go find my friends because I wanted to get something to eat. As I was walking I noticed that my wings were being pulled back by the wind and eventually I heard this horrific snap. I check my wings with the help of my friend who I was walking with and I find that one of them has completely fallen off the base. And another one of the wings is also coming very loose very close to falling off. I take the wings off and I put them under my arms and I run back into the convention center. The whole time, the wind dragging me and using my wings as an anchor. It felt like it took forever to get to cosplay repair. But I did and I present my wings. The person behind the desk does not know what to do with them. They’re offering to try to fix them but I honestly don’t trust them at this point to not make them worse so I take the wings back and I struggle back to the car in the parking lot to put them in the trunk. Then I sat in the car for a while, crying with my friend as I mustered the courage to go back to the convention. I felt like the whole day was ruined, but then I kind of talked myself down and I went back to the convention without the wings. I still had a cute bag with an eye on it that matched the pattern on the wings, so I still felt like I was on theme and the costume still looked really good even without the wings. I wasn’t comfortable the whole day anyway, so I just kind of looked at it as an opportunity to be comfortable for the rest of the day and actually have fun with my friends. So my bad luck with wings persists. And this isn’t part of the main story but the next morning I woke up and found that someone had attempted to make a purchase on Amazon with my debit card and that’s when I found out that somebody at the convention while I was in that cosplay skimmed my card somehow. So someone was walking around with my card information so I had to get my card frozen and use my mom’s card that she had on the same account.

I wasn't even there but I'm 100% sure that dude stole something. Bc i used to work at cons, and I've seen people stealing stuff just like this. If he was wearing something with long sleeves, i bet it was on his sleeves.

I'm so excited to see you create a snow miku cosplay!!! You've been a huge inspiration for me since I started sewing this year and watching your strawberry miku videos made me inspired to create 2019 snow miku some day! Three cheers for the fluffy era!

Part of why I don't enter as many contests now is because of how much of a time sink it is and its a 50/50 gamble on if we'll even have a comfortable place to set up camp away from the eyes of others. I have had similar horror stories of long "half time shows" in a mecha costume and they had us in the audience! That one also was like 2-3 hours late on just starting. If contests start offering free weekend badges for masters level I might get back into it but I am kind of over paying to lose most of my Saturday like that and instead do photoshoots and hang out with friends.

I worked lost prevention for years (I would not wish it on anyone), but extreme behavior like that tells me he took something. People who do those jobs look out for two types of people. Overly friendly and overly upset. Part of my job was to coordinate people too and I had one gentleman (who I wasn't thinking was doing anything wrong) got upset at the amount of greetings he was getting from staff. I looked him dead in the eyes and said "I was just doing my usually round of greetings, but you seem really upset, is there something you want to tell me?" He walked right out the door because he knew.

Stopped at the second story because I really wanted to comment here that I discovered by your videos that it seens contests over here in Brazil are totally different. We usually have three categories, one just for showing your cosplay, one for performance, and some cons even have a fun-performance category, and we actually don't have this 'HAS TO BE HANDMADE' rule in none of them. We can enter with handmade cosplays, with pre-made cosplays, ali express cosplays, anything. Also, usually we pay cosmakers for sewing or making a prop or wig here, and for everyone is totally fine. As well as buying cosplay from other cosplayers, and entering contests with them because 'well, I payed for it, it's mine now'. I guess the only contest we have here that we have the handmade rule, are for trying WCS. I just needed to say that I'm have such a huuuuuuge cultural shock with so many differences from your contest to ours! I guess if our contests were like yours, no one would actually go to most of our small cons.

I know that this is an older video and it's not cosplay, but I have a story to share: Back in college, I volunteered at a convention that was all about movies, cartoons, videogames, and general nerd culture. One of the things that we were warned about was to watch the displays of props and stop-motion animation puppets, as many of the objects there were expensive and/or irreplaceable, and not all of them were behind glass. I'm also a bit of a stickler for the rules, especially when my grade was on the line. So I was near the displays when I saw two people pointing to the puppets on one of the displays. This wasn't one of the big company displays (we had an actual, real, it was used in the movie model of the Corpse Bride in another display!) but still, you know, I was on the lookout, when I see one of them grab one of the puppets and move it. I was immediately like "Excuse me, please do not touch the items on display." And like, I didn't shout, but I do have a 'teacher voice' that I use when I need people to listen to me and take me seriously. They looked at me funny, then raised their badges. It was an expositor's badge. This was THEIR display. And here I was, barely out of my teens and sternly telling them to get their hands off the items. I apologized profusely but they took it with good humor. They also said it was ok and that it was nice to know that we were taking safety seriously! I have more stories from that convention but that one is still mortifying to this day, lol.

As someone who judged frequently in the early oughts, it's kind of nostalgic to hear that as much as things have grown and changed, some things are still exactly the same. XD

Snow Miku!!! I absolutely love watching your vids while working on my own costumes, can’t wait to see what comes next!

I've been to Nebraskakon a few times, the space it was in when i attended was a MESS to navigate, and the whole con was incredibly Liminal. 3 hours to judge doesn't surprise me at all

Nebkon mention! Nebraskakon was my first con back when Attack on Titan was really big. It's in a Waterpark hotel. It's also, not great! I was dressed as Hanji and got this really fancy harness that I've was super proud of, and this 12-14 yr old girl grabbed me and asked to help her put together her harness. I being 16 was like, "Okay!" But her harness was completely different from mine. So after puzzling with all these loose straps for way too long, I spotted some more AoT cosplayers that were just chilling, but had the same type of harness. I swallowed all my social anxiety, went up and cheerfully asked if they could help. They just stared at me and didn't say anything for slightly too long and went, "No." So I was like, "Oh okay........" First convention, literally the only thing I knew was "Everybody is super nice!" After that I realized all the AoT cosplayers were like, glaring at me? So much so my friend also noticed? My only guess is people hated Hanji? Or thought it was weird I was wearing a wig despite already having long between hair? It haunts me to this day. I still cosplay though!

I’m SO EXCITED for your snow Miku 2023 !!!!! I’ve been in the process of making a snow Miku 2024 cosplay and am loving it so far so I’m so glad to see you do another snow Miku at the same time

i will say, some people aren't able to use the period cups i can't even use tampons 😢

Minor one in the grand scheme of things Took a photograph of a cosplayer with my camera. They insisted I show it to them. Showed them the blank back panel where there was no screen. They snatched it out of my hand, and popped the back open - expecting the screen to hinge out or something. The camera was made in 1986. They were surprised at how blank the film inside was.

Thanks for putting such good subtitles in your vids sarah!!! love your content

My first con was in the small town I used to live in. I was personally invited by the organizers because they knew me (I was apart of the public theatre). It was also my first cosplay! I did Brittany from pikmin 3. No wig because of the short notice but I did make 2 cupids grenades and her lil backpack. Also painted some boots.. won 2nd place in the cosplay competition! Anyways, I spilled Doritos on the CARPET and broke a book shelf… I really hope they invite me back next year….but they probably won’t 😭

(a little context for this: i have cripplingly chronic pain and an autoimmune disorder). this july i went to Anime expo in LA, and so much went wrong on the second day i was there. 1st of all, the hotel that i was staying at, the workers were on strike. they were protesting and while doing so, breaking city noise ordinance codes. i was awake at 4am, so i was very tired while getting ready for the con. i cosplayed kokomi from genshin, and the wig kept sliding off my head. i went back to the hotel after only about 2 hours, because my chronic pain had me hunched over almost in tears. after resting for a while me and my mom wanted to go get sushi and go back to the con. the restaurant was right next to the con, so i went in cosplay. we had dinner, and it was just okay. we only got about 2 or 3 things each, and it somehow ended up being almost $250. we started walking to the con, the only thing i wanted to do was go to the exhibit hall and maybe artist ally. we walk to that end of the con building, exhibit hall is closed, artist ally is closed, and all interesting things to do are closed. so now im sad and we start walking back to the hotel, and my back is killing me again. when we get back, i break down in tears for so many reason. the biggest one being, i was still hungry after spending an arm and a leg on food. the rest of the trip was fun, but that day just kinda sucked.

i lovee how ur energy and attitude keep it light!! maybe an uplifting con story vid could be cute?? im sure a lotta people have lovely stories too!! my favourites are from when i was cosplaying madoka ultimate version- with the big white dress and wings, and at mcm london someone asked me to hold their kid for a photo ((a lotta people just thought i was a princess-- which is cute!!)) after taking the picture, the parent took their kid back and smiled at me saying theyre happy they got a photo of their angel with another one :'')) same con my wings brushed against someone in the hall and they quietly exclaimed "her wing touched me-- i feel so blessed"-- i'd love to hear other people's happy or cute con stories!!

THATS MY FAVOURITE SNOW MIKU EVER IM LITERALLY SCREAMING AAAAAAAAA ive rewatched the strawberry miku series 5+ times now,,, IM SO EXCITED FOR MORE MIKU COSPLAY CONTENT

God I love your channel. You inspire me to craft and cosplay so much, so happy to have been around this pong. Keep up the good work, you're more appreciated than you could ever know.

Every time I think I miss cosplaying, I watch videos like this 🤣 Reminds me of why I quit in the first place.

whoa! 11 minutes ago, you are a big inspo for me to start creating my cosplays myself and thank you for making videos sarah! you are extremely talented and very kind for sharing tips!

Something I’ve learned through doing cosplay and theatre, if there is a piece that makes sense to not have connected to everything else (ex. a jacket, scarf, socks) don’t connect them, because at some point you will be waiting for an insane amount of time and you will be glad you can take something off

The aroace panic at coming in contact with someone crushing on you is so real, like it’s only happened to me a couple time and it always shocks me how much it freaks me out 😅

perfect timing for a video as I'm having cosplay withdrawals bc I'm abroad and left all my stuff at home also TIL sharpies wash out from clothes better than copics, the wig dyeing story exactly happened to me while cosplaying Hifumi from hypmic tho at least it was my own jacket and I managed to save it

haha the sam winchester pic, love the images behind you during the storytelling!!