Now You're Adorable, April Fools!

Hey all! Thanks for entering the "It's Not Easy Being Green" contest. We'd like to congratulate DevilDuckie831! She's won an Elphaba plushie. We must admit, it's a very very appropriate winner. XD

Our next contest will be centered around April Fool's Day, and who better to prank than the biggest baddies we know? For the next contest we want to chibi-tize evil villains, ugly mutants and characters who never smile. Comment on this blog entry and challenge us to find the cute in someone vile, menacing, or super-serious.

Some designs we've already conquered: Gendo, Sephiroth, Khan, Orochimaru, Rorschach
 
-CaseyChu

Con Schedule Update 2!

Okay, so I just updated out Con Schedule page quite a bit!  I removed everything that has already occurred, and then added: ConBust, UBCon, Tora-Con, Anime Boston, and AnimeNEXT.  We're still working on attending even more conventions so stay tuned!

-Matt

Ode to Magic Wings: Best "Company" Trip Ever

Right between where Jenn lives and where I (Casey) live is a butterfly conservatory called Magic Wings. They put the word Magic in the title and somehow I still wasn't ready for the experience I was about to have. It was ignorant of me to think that these people didn't know their own power well enough to just lay it out on the sign.

This place is like, what it must feel like to... man I can't even think of a metaphor. Here, look at this butterfly.

Don't you feel better already? I do

We went to Magic Wings to take pictures of dolls that had a nature theme to them. There are multiple rooms, each of them beautiful, and they allow us to let the chibis go on "adventures."

Link went to save the princess Zelda

Totoro and I waited for a bus.

When the bus never showed I decided to lie down and let Totoro chill on my stomach. From that bench I could see hundred of butterflies fluttering around above me. The greenhouse was in the 80's, so it was warm enough to help all my muscles relax. I was at peace with the universe.

When I finally got back up again, I walked around a bit more. When you're walking you have to watch your feet because there very well might be a butterfly right on the floor. While I was ooking down there, I found this guy.

Internet, meet Randy

I decided this guy's name was Randy and he was going to be my friend. I knelt down to take a picture, but I was using Jenn's iPhone and I had to get really close. He got spooked and fluttered and landed on my hand!

Randy is the chillest butterfly in all of existence. He just hung out on anything we put him near.

Appa got to wake up and smell the butterflies

He even tried to get Jenn to take a break and enjoy his company.

Randy... not too aware of personal bubbles

In addition to butterflies, there are little quails running around. The Chocoborg attempted to assimilate them.

You blend poorly, Chocoborg

And there are clear butterflies there are well. I didn't even know nature DID that.

Damn nature, you crazy. Doctor Manhattan, however, finds your molecules to be beautiful.

I wish I could have taken all of you with me. If you ever find yourself in western Massachusetts, go experience this place. It'll melt every possible bad, uncomfortable or negative thing out of you.

Even Tonberry went light on the POINKS that day

The check out our other picture from our visits, visit our Deviant Art

Genericon 2011 Post-con Debriefing, Wrap-up, and Review: Friday

First, a bit of information about the con. 

Genericon 2011 was held Feb 11-13 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (heretofore referred to as “RPI”) in Troy, NY. For those unfamiliar with New York State, Troy is just outside Albany (the state capital), about an hour north of NYC, straight up the Hudson River. This was its 24^th year; it was our first year in attendance. For reference, we live approximately a 2-hour drive from Troy, so this was an easy con for us to reach (i.e., we didn’t have to scour the Internet for plane, bus, and/or train deals).

Helpful map of Troy, NY, circa 1861. Image shamelessly yoinked from The Cultural Historian's blog.

In a welcome change of events, this was NOT a homecoming con for Jenn. It was, however, a bit of a homecoming for Matt, who lived outside Albany for 2 years and worked in the area for 3 years.

This con was also the first time that we brought the 8-bits. They had previously attended two cons – Bakuretsu Con 2006 and Anime Boston 2007 – but both of those conventions were before we began the doll business, so we were there only as cosplayers/attendees. They grumbled a bit at the prospect of helping haul things around each day, but then, they’re tween boys – if they didn’t grumble, I’d be worried ;-)

Traveling to the con was an interesting exercise in logistics. This winter has been the first time that we’ve really had to contend with car space. In previous years, we’ve been able to use Jenn’s SUV (or Jenn’s mom’s SUV) to drive things around, so packing in a bunch of dolls, display cages, luggage, etc. wasn’t really a problem. Even the first year of tabling ever, when Jenn and Elizabeth took the subway into Boston with all their gear, the girls had less merch to haul and knew how to pack light. However, since Jenn’s SUV went on strike at the end of 2010, we had to use Plan B: Matt’s 4-door sedan.

Pictured: what Jenn's car going on strike might look like.

This was marginally okay for Arisia, as we had fewer dolls prepared at that time and the 8-bits, while traveling with us across the state, did not actually have to come to the con with us. By the time Genericon rolled around, we realized that we had to fit another 100 or so plushies, as well as a weekend’s worth of both clothes AND entertainment for everyone, as well as the 8-bits’ school gear since we’d be picking them up from school and then just leaving. At a summer con this wouldn’t have been as much of an issue, but in February, when everyone’s wearing sweaters and snow pants and big bulky coats, the suitcases fill up a lot faster!

With the help of some vacuum-the-air-out space-saving bags, we were able to compress the plushies down quite far (something I’m sure they didn’t really appreciate, but they survived it with no ill effect), but the car was still very, very full. And because no trip is complete without some kind of logistical curveball, when we picked the 8-bits up from school, Matthew had … wait for it … snowshoes with him. (They fit, but barely.)

Pictured: what Matthew's snowshoes might look like, if they were blue instead of red,

and if we had put them on some stranger's furniture.

The drive out was uneventful, and checking into the hotel went smoothly (once we figured out how to GET INTO the hotel’s parking lot, which was harder than you’d think). After unloading into the room, stretching out from the car ride, and getting Appa into his cosplay, we headed over to campus to get set up.

Settling into Genericon was a bit of a misadventure, but it seemed to be a result of lots of people coming to the con who weren’t actually familiar with the campus and hadn’t oriented themselves prior to arrival. (In fairness, neither had we, but Jenn works at UMass and three of us attended there, so we’re all very, very used to college-campus logistics like parking and internal roads.)As a result, there were lots of people trying to enter the wrong buildings, entering the right buildings from the wrong direction, and asking questions of whatever staff member they could grab hold of … which seemed to only add to the chaos of setting up the con. After a brief bit of wandering the campus center because Jenn apparently can’t read a map, we located the Artists’ Alley and got checked in.

Because no one ever gets tired of seeing Appa in cosplay, here he is again.

We were only open for 2-1/2 hours on Friday night, but it was the busiest time we saw all weekend as far as traffic went. The two people who had pre-ordered plushies from us both checked in before we even had our display set up completely – these were some excited customers! Thanks again to both of you, it was fun to make Ginji (GetBackers) and Kaoru (Ouran High) ^_^ The 8-bits loved the high-energy atmosphere of that first evening, they instantly made friends with our table neighbor, and by the time we got back to the hotel room with dinner, we were ready for sleep!

Hmm, this got long. I’ll make subsequent posts about Saturday and Sunday. Hey, more blogging, right? ^^;

"It's Not Easy Being Green" Contest

Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day! We just did the drawing and we're pleased to announce that hearmesnark has won a Roiben plushie. This is gonna be one gorgeous plushie ^_^

With Saint Patrick's Day coming up, we're announcing the It's Not Easy Being Green contest. Tell us about your favorite characters with green hair, green skin or green outfits and you'll be entered for a chance to win them. Winner announced March 18^th. 

Some suggestions to get you thinking green: 

Mion            Higurashi

Toph            Avatar: The Last Airbnder

Jade             Mortal Kombat

Beast Boy    Teen

CC              Code Geass

Joker           Batman

Piccolo        Dragon Ball Z

Yotsuba      Yotsuba&!

Zoro            One Piece

And plenty of green Pokemon

Wishing we could make every con

Hey all.  I've been exchanging emails with a few conventions recently trying to get details on them in order to figure out where we should be going.  I wish we could go to every convention, but for assorted reasons we obviously can't.  One convention we'll be missing is Jaycon which is down in Elizabethtown, PA.  But the folks I talked to were very nice, and we'd like to help them get the word out about their convention.  So click on the link here in this post, or you can click on the banner on the right side of the page and check them out.  If you live anywhere near them you should go!

-Matt

Con Schedule Update!

Hello all, Matt here.  So, in doing planning for conventions and which ones to attend, and the logistics of said attendance, I found something very interesting.  Jenn had managed to save up enough Delta Skymiles to qualify for a free airline ticket to Seattle from Boston (and back too!)  Conveniently, Seattle is where Sakura-Con is being held.  So, figuring that this was just too perfect to pass up, we booked Jenn on a flight to Seattle for that weekend, which means we're officially going to Sakura-Con!  (Well, Jenn is anyway, we're trying to see if we can send Casey too, but to my knowledge she does not have any secret hidden cache of airline miles.)  I've updated the Con Calendar page to reflect this.  Jenn also filled out the AA application for PortConMaine, so we're trying to get into their alley as well.

One bizarre story about trying to plan for going to these conventions:

In working on going to Anime Central I was looking at airline flights.  I found flights from Boston to Chicago for ~$270, and flights from Boston to Milwaukee for ~$150.  The really screwy thing was this: the flight from Boston to Milwaukee goes through Chicago.  It's even the same exact aircraft for each flight on the leg between Boston and Chicago.  So, you can go farther for less money on the same aircraft.  That just seems really off to me, but what do I know (other than apparently the airline industry has some wacky pricing practices).