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Well, it’s been confirmed that somebody else has already done it: cosplay as the ARX-7 Arbalest from the Full Metal Panic! series. Wow, the entire suit looks stunning. I doubt my first attempt at mecha cosplay will be so refined.

That’s not a Gundam, fellow photographer. It’s made of win. Even better, there’s also a shot of the Arbalest’s archenemy (season one): Venom! A Spanish-to-English (Google) translated thread about both “LSK” and his brother’s FMP! mecha debuts at the TNT GT2 convention (February 2-4, 2008) is here. Seriously, college is holding me back from doing awesome projects, like designing more Tesla Coils; then again, mecha cosplayers are sometimes aspiring engineers, so who says we can’t build a real Gundam with giant rifles and beam swords someday?

In other realms: Burning Fingers (!) and…RollerGundam?

A few of my friends know that I have an account on Cosplay.com (well, now you do too); most of my time there is spent lurking the forums as well as extending webmaster updates for the purpose of promoting Setsucon, amongst other trivial tasks. However, if anyone ever looked at my “Favorites” album, one thing sticks out: the majority of images are made up of mecha cosplayers! Perhaps some of the most impressive costumes EVAR (yes, EVAR ever), I still hope for the day that I can motivate my hands to the point where it’s possible to build a Freedom Gundam…or something slightly simpler…

See, tonight I ran across this weblog summary of a Singaporean cosplayer who built his own full-shielded Gundam Dynames suit and presented it in December 2007. Amazing, no? Look at the last few images and prepare to laugh a little while staying amazed at his handiwork (it’s difficult to imagine giant robots kissing women, but cosplay does let it happen!). Then again, it turns out this man is none other than Clive Lee, a.k.a. “Mirage_cld,” or on Cosplay.com, “Miragestudio.” He has a lot of work underneath his cosplay résumé, and I definitely admire talent like that.

But what does a college student have that can compare to this man’s works? Apparently, he’s 29 years old, and with me being, er, about a decade younger, I still have a while to go: that is, get a supporting job at the least. If this sounds like a RELAy post longing for flight in jets, it should; collegiates (tend to?) study, not pursue lofty purchases/ambitions, and I’m no exception. Fortunately, unlike learning to fly the L-39C, mecha cosplay is actually feasible during an active semester. It’s the deadlines (Otakon 2008, Setsucon 2009, etc.) and a “slight” lack in funding that prevent me from doing so; all in all, though, one might expect me to…one day…say the same words the blogger wrote above: “I AM GUNDAM!”

On a personal note: I still would like to get something mecha cosplay-oriented done by Otakon 2008, but truth be told, it’s a long shot due to possible internships or summer classes. As awesome it’d be to do so, I’m no longer attempting construction of the ARX-7 Arbalest from the Full Metal Panic! series mainly because of the large number of smooth features and difficulty in rescaling the mecha to human proportions; Gundams, with their somewhat-narrower shoulders and less-curvaceous designs (in general) are a better option. Besides, there are far more model kits for the latter – excellent starting points for building a costume version.