This was my first "joke" costume. A costume that's only purpose is to make people laugh. I got the inspiration from the Mountain Dew knights I saw at Otakon '05. It made me think of what sorts of other things one could make a costume out of.

It only took about 3 or 4 hours total, but that didn't stop me from running out of time and not making as much as I had hoped. (like, shin guards, wrist guards, a helmet, etc.) But I still like how it turned out. So far it has proven to be my most comfortable costume, looking how in 30 seconds I could take it off so I could play DDR or sit down. (Yeah... I couldn't sit in my costume.)

I went through many designs and eventually settled on a design inspired from Bankotsu from Inuyasha. I liked the look of one shoulder armor. I made the frame out of posterboard and the armor attatched to the shoulder peice with brads so the shoulder could move. The things on the hips were neat 'cuz they were made of strips of cards taped at one end so they were real flexible and flowey. My favorite part is the sword. The prototype sword was pure cards and scotch tape and wasn't very sturdy, so the final draft was built around a broomstick painted gold at one end. (That proved to be a problem when I had gold hands and a faded handle at the end of the day... O_o Gotta re-paint it.)

Overall it was a really fun costume and I have more planed. I want to make a new costume based off the armor from Mulan because it's simple and nice looking. But first I need to carefully peel off each individual card because they're actually not mine! XD All the hole punched cut up face down cards are, but all the cards that are face up I'm loaning from a friend; including the shining celebi, shining charizard, lugia, ho-oh, and all those super oh-my-gosh-whatever-you-do-don't-bend cards. (Well, not really, she said I could do whatever I wanted to them, but I want to be a good friend and not ruin them. ^_^;;)

I'm counting it retired because I'm making another card costume. I had to butcher half of this costume to get some cards for the next one. :/