That’s it for the year!

And lo, my con season comes to an end. MegaCon Manchester was the last for me this year, with nothing for the next few months. Plenty of time to rest, recover and start making stuff for next year!

I’ve had a fantastic time with all the events I’ve made it to. MegaCon in January was such a (good) throwback to how earlier cons felt. MCM in May surprised me as how less crowded it felt (and convinced me I don’t need to be there at 8:30am 😂). Fantasy Forest was everything I wanted out of a festival in a forest and of course MegaCon Manchester continues to have one of the best atmospheres at a con. I’m hoping to attend most of these again in 2025 as well as add in a few more. Next years calendar is going to look pretty busy!

Next years events

So far the only event I’ve confirmed is MegaCon London in January, but I there are plenty more I have plans to attend:

  • Secret con! There’s one in march but I don’t think I’ll have the costume I want ready for that. There are others at different locations so I’ll be keeping my eye out for them. Might be a combo of photographer/cosplayer, depends on the location.
  • Either MCM May or MCM October. My preference is for October as it’ll fill in a gap at the end of the year. May usually has the better weather though which still tempts me.
  • Fantasy Forest. I had so much fun there and absolutely want to do it again.
  • MegaCon Manchester. The old fav. It’s got such a great atmosphere, very relaxed and close enough I can get ready at home.
  • Asylum. The big steampunk event in Lincoln, I haven’t been in years and it’s apparently a big birthday celebration for it next year!
  • Camp Cosplay. No one I knew got space in April and so I’m hoping for more luck in September!

I’d also like to get a few more location shoots in so I’ll be scouting out places I can go/stay over to do them.

Next years costumes

I’ve got two costumes (at least) lined up for debut next year. The first is a Legend of Vox Machina Vax’ildan that I’ve bought the pattern for. I’d wanted to make it for a while but couldn’t get myself into the planning head space, so this allows me to skip most of that step. I’m still going to need to scale it, but at least all the bits are there!

Vax'ildan from legend of vox machina drawn in different poses to act as a costume reference for animators

The second, and much, much bigger build is a new Aloy! Forbidden west has a lot of interesting armour designs, but the one that I think looks the best1 is the Carja Behemoth Trapper. It’s such a gorgeous design, with amazing colours, good armour detail and best of all looks comfortable to wear2. I’ve no idea how long it’s going to take and so I’m not putting a deadline on it. I’ve plenty of other cosplay’s to wear and I want this to be as accurate and well made as I can get it!

Aloy in the Carja Behemoth Tracker outfit holding a bow and arrow.

  1. And conveniently works really well for my discovery that laying traps is a solid strategy for taking down heavy hitters quickly. ↩︎

  2. The shield weaver armour is cool in terms of design but really not cool when it comes to how hot it is to wear. ↩︎