Gaining some XP with Marvel. The Marvel Expierence

My 28th birthday was on Monday and in true nerdy fashion I wanted to celebrate it with some of my favorite heroes. I had wanted to check out The Marvel experience at Fair Park in Dallas, ever since I heard it was coming to Texas.  I thought that my Birthday would be a good excuse (like I *REALLY* needed one anyway) to see the interactive exhibit starring the likes of Captain America, Spider-Man, Hulk, Black Widow, Wolverine ,Thor, and a certain billionaire philanthropist. Iron fist and She-hulk also make appearances as well.

The experience begins by allowing you to make your own S.H.I.E.L.D. Identification card  S.H.I.E.L.D which stands for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division (pretty official sounding, huh?) is lead by Nick Fury and often teams up with The Avengers to fight various villains. After you create your badge the computer will send it to the email you provided but you can also buy hard copies of it in the gift shop, I thought this was super cool and probably one of the neatest souvenirs I have ever gotten.

Isn't it awesome? I am  5'1,  so I am really short. the computer screen was actually two high up to take a picture of me. thus, my boyfriend actually had to lift me up ballerina style to take this photo. It says superhuman because Mutant was not an option. My goal is to one day become an X-Men, seriously.

Next you enter a series of domes and are briefed by several heroes. Stan Lee can even be spotted. Once inside the major doom there are lots of interactive activities, like "hulking out with hulk" and posing with your favorite superheroes on the big screen. The Hulk one was really fun because you stand in front of the interactive screen and throw punches as big green, himself. to summon your favorite heroes, you had to stand on mini platforms and make certain poses.

This was difficult because many of the poses required both hands which is difficult for me because I have to maintain balance with my walker.In truth, a lot of the interactive activities were difficult because they were designed for able bodied people in mind.  I could not enjoy the activities like climbing up a rock wall with Spider-man or the Black Widow Agility maze which I totally understand but my walker hindered things like flying with Iron Man and pretty much everything in the interactive area. this confused me because I had read that the Marvel  Experience was accessible. I did however get to do the blaster training which was so fun we did it twice,

At the end of the interactive portion you are given a shield charm fr the wristband you are given  in the beginning. from here, you enter a transport where you are attacked! I thought it was really neat to end the experience with a simulated ride,  However, it would have been super cool if we were given fake blasters in this area. It would have allowed visitors to use the "training" we received and made this part interactive,

This section conveniently lead into the gift shop which had various items featuring the superheroes from the experience but overall it was slightly disappointing for the serious marvel collector, I did however buy a hard copy of my badge, I wonder how many times I will accidentally hand that to someone instead of my ID? It was fun regardless of the setbacks I experienced but it could use improvements to accommodate everyone.

I can feel it in my code....time for an update!

oh, wow. I haven't updated my little part of cyberspace in forever! Lots of things have happened since my last update in march including, summer internships, semesters of college, hospital stays, Disney Vacations and of course conventions and lots of toy buying. I have been meaning to get back into blogging for a while now and wish to share my adventures with you!

 I feel like I should start with a general update and post pictures and slightly embarrassing completion stories of my Vanellope cosplay,  which I did manage to debut at Dallas Comic Con!

This cosplay was the very first costume I ever completed from scratch! It gave me a whole new level of respect for the hard work that goes in to cosplaying. My costume was by no means perfect but I loved the process and the final product. I want to break down the individual pieces before posting the final product. 

Vanellope's hoodie was VERY hard to find. I searched thrift shops relentlessly. I finally found a teal hoodie that matched Vanellope’s but it was a zip up instead of a pull over. Sometimes you have to work within a budget and with what is readily available to you. I used yarn to add the licorice hood strings and embellishments. The flash unfortunately distorted the colors a bit so you may get a better idea from the final product photos.

The Leggings were just as tricky to track down and duplicate. Thankfully, I found a pair of teal/ mint colored tights at my local target. I do not remember the price but I know they were pretty inexpensive. Target is the place to go for Tights if you are looking for slightly oddball color choices. At this point, I enlisted the help of my friend Kat for panting the stripes. This is largely due to the fact that I have very little artistic talent and frankly, she would be painting the tights while they were on my body.  This act of true friendship, resulted in standing backyard on a warm day while singing Disney songs (badly on my part but Kat has a wonderful singing voice) at the top of our lungs. She expertly wrapped the stripes around my legs using a Martha Stewart fabric paint with a small paint roller.  Once the paint dried ( in like 20 minutes) she used a purple sharpie to add detail. Could we have found an easier way? Yeah, probably but where would the fun be in that?

We also coated candy pieces in Mod Podge to add to the wig I bought from ebay but I failed to take pictures of that process. Now, on to the finished product. It was imperfect but for my very first Cosplay it was not Bad! 

The second is my favorite photo because a racer is still a racer regardless of what galaxy she is in. Sometimes you just feel it in in your code!

I have lots of other cosplays planned like Lydia Deetz and a school girl version of Madoka from Madoka Magica. Plus, a blog about my recent trip to Disney World!