Category: Others

Support “Kony 2012” with Miccostumes.com

Sherry

kony

Kony 2012, a film created by Invisible Children, aims to bring Joseph Kony to justice in 2012. The film has been viewed by millions of people on internet since it was released on March 5, 2012. You may already know Joseph Kony, who is the world’s worst war criminal. He is the leader of the lord’s resistance army (LRA), which earned a reputation for its cruel and brutal tactics.

Here you can support “Kony 2012” with Miccostumes.com. Everybody can join in. Each participant will be given a 5% coupon code for their purchase at Miccostumes.com. Besides, one will be drawn out every month to get $60 gift card.

How to Join?

1. Take a photo with the Kony 2012 picture, as this one below:

kony he

2. Share the photo, together with your thoughts about Kony 2012 on your facebook, twitter, blog or other personal sites. (If you do not have facebook, twitter or site, you can send the photo to our email – miccostume[@]gmail.com (remove the “[]” while sending your email), with the title of “Support Kony 2012 with Miccostumes.com”, please tell us your name in the email, thank you.)

3. Sign in at our forum

Reply this post in our forum (of course, you have to register first 🙂 ) with your name and the link of the site where you share the photo. (For participants who send us the photo to our email, please also leave a comment by telling us your name.)

Prize for the Participants

One will be drawn out every month to get $60 gift card. Besides, each participant will be given a 5% coupon code for their purchase at Miccostumes.com.

If you have any questions or suggestions,  do comment below or send us an email at miccostume[at]gmail.com.

Can you really catch them all?

Dan
Ash and Pikachu
Ash and Pikachu

As you can tell by the title, we are going to talk about Pokémon this time.One of 2 of the favorite things my son likes in reference to gaming.

To give you a bit of history, in 1996 this game called Pokémon was created by Satoshi Tajiri for some company called Nintendo. Anyone ever heard of them? Would you believe that this idea originated as a childhood hobby of collecting insects – seriously it did. Makes me wonder why my son likes them so much. Even my wife got on the bandwagon and has a collection of the Pokémon cards with Bulbasaur being her favorite.

Bit of background now on the story. You have a young boy by the name of Ash who’s first Pokémon is a pikachu. This is an electric type Pokémon which will be come Ash’s best bud throughout the series. The other types that are easy to mention are grass, water, fire, rock, flying and ground. In total there are 17 various types and each has there own unique defense and attacks.This of course helps to really widen the field for a variety of battle with them. To help you along with all the hundreds of different Pokémon, you have a Pokédex. Kind of a portable computer database for you to review.

The hard part however, is catching them. You first need to battle the Pokémon and after you tire it out, try to capture it with your Pokéball. Even after a good battle, if they do not want to be caught ‘pop’ goes the ball and out they come. Through all the trials and tribulations of life and Poke battles, Ash finds many friends. On top of all this, he has the uncanny luck of meeting all the RARE Pokémon you can imagine.

Of course where would our heroes be without some villains. In comes Team Rocket with Jessie, James and their Pokémon Meowth. This is not the original Team Rocket, but the more well known by far. They act more like the three stooges than actual villains, but they do put on a good show. They came with the latest gadgets to catch the poor Pokémon. However, in the end, Ash and his group always seems to win.

To think this simple concept has turned into this International sensation.Can’t go to a supermarket, retail or gaming store without bumping into something from this franchise. Even in Japan they got crazy and you can even fly an airplane (747 no less) with your favorite characters for everyone to see. For those who want to stay closer to the ground, they even had trains covered with the characters.

Even at the conventions, you can catch them dressing up as Ash or even Pikachu for that matter. Though, I have seen some really odd versions of them on the intertnet. Catch the Pokémon fever yourself and see if you can catch them all.

btw: To answer the title, there is no freaking way to catch them all unless you have bank to pay for them all!

Hatsune Miku – Singer in a Box

Dan
(concept) illustration by KEI
Hatsune Miku - illustration by KEI

From Ninja, to Pirates to Sailor Moon, where is our adventure of to next. What the heck does he mean by the title? Miku is not a Singer in a box, what craziness is this.

Well, I decided to find the roots of one of the most famous non-living Singers in the world. Little did I know that this was not all that it seemed. This lovely lady – Hatsune Miku – actually started out as a simple Singing Synthesizer. It was later development into a software called Vocaloid. This is where we get the name of ‘Singer in a Box’. Not only was it produced in Japanese and English, but you can now get it in Korean, Chinese and Spanish.

Vocaloid Group
Vocaloid Group

What was cool with this was that a new character was created for each version. They just didn’t stop at one Vocaloid, but decided to set out to form a diverse group of them. I think this was a smart call as it really showcases the way you can market a product without that much capital. Seriously, so many people have fell in love with these characters, that it just makes one of the greatest promotional series. If you want, you should check out the numerous figures that have been designed and sold of them. Even I want the VN2 version figure so I can start at it’s awesomeness.

Why the heck is Miku sometimes pictured holding a LEEK and carry it around for that matter. Why would this vegetable (sort of spring onion on steroids) be such a draw for this character. I guess it is to whack all the fanboys away from her – LOL.

Now lets not leave out cosplay of Hatsune Miku which has exploded across the conventions. I think this is one character that anyone who saw it would recognize her immediately. You can even check out a great blog review right here of Gloria (Sweet Angel) showcasing one of the many cosplays you can find here.

What’s up for the next blog form yours truely, well lets just say my son will be helping me as you ‘Gotta Catch them All“.

Happy Valentine’s Day :D

Sherry

1

It has been associated with romantic love since the High Middle Ages. Even though the tradition of courtly love has no longer been the theme in today’s era, influence of expressing the love on Saint Valentine’s Day is kept. Everybody, happy Valentine’s Day :P! (picture resource here)

Sailing to the Moon

Dan

Gave you a little hint last month on my Pirate’s blog on what we will be reviewing today. If you couldn’t figure it out, we will be talking about Sailor Moon.

Not really one of the shows I watched regularly as it was more for girls. I did however catch it as it came on with my other ‘cartoons’ in the old days. This has some romance, but there was only one main male character. Luckily however, it is not a harem show as it dealt with the girls and their issues.

Our main character, Serena Tsukino, ends up meeting a cat. Not just any cat, but a talking cat named Luna (go figure). She ends up telling her that she is this great fighter of justice and she is needed to help fight against the Dark Kingdom. What we actually find out is that she was sent into the future by the Moon Princess to protect the Earth. Along with other Sailor Senshi (as well as our Male lead Tuxedo Mask) to help in the battle against these villains.

Besides the Sailor Moon, you also have the ‘Sailor Scouts’ which are named after each of the other planets – Sailor Mercury, Venus, Mars, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, Jupiter and Pluto. This was before Pluto was classified not a planet anymore – but I digress. Now they don’t all come out together, but some are brought in as the show proceeds.

Now out of all these girls, there is only one other hero who just happens to be a male character. I guess you need a ‘masked magician’ to come to your rescue if you are in need. It is funny as he throws a red rose down to mark his entrance. Very romantic and mysterious – wooooo. You get the sense that there is a relation brewing and it does.

Now we switch over to the ‘Dark Side’ and look at the villains of the Dark Kingdom. They happen to be lead by Queen Beryl. They actually destroyed the old Moon Kingdom and want to insure they don’t come back. What they actually want to do is bring life back to Metalia. In order to do this, they need to suck the life out of humans using monsters that are summoned by one of her 4 Shitennou. Of course, Sailor Moon and company are here to stop them and save Humanity and Earth.

Even in the US, this has been a huge hit and merchandised well, but not as much as others. It is funny that I was walking in an Antique / Consignment store and actually found some of their merchandise. Even though this has pretty much ended, it is continually being revisited. There has been games and live action movies which keep this anime alive. I think it really was a great show that made girls feel empowered to be more than they were no matter the obstacles.

This group of characters has been heavily cosplayed for years and for good reason. Everyone wanted to be Sailor Moon as she was the lead. What made this great though, was that f you had a small group of friends, then you could as the team. This really got you some attention at any convention.

As for my next blog, lets just say it is a very famous singer that started only as artwork and a figure.