stuffed stuff: Costume Quest (Wren and Reynold)
created and stuffed: August 2011~Jan 2012

Before PAX Prime in 2011, I made a ton of plushes to give away. You could see the plush madness in this post.

Pre-PAX at home

One of the plushes was for Tasha Harris who worked at Double Fine at the time.

I tweeted this photo from PAX Prime 2011.

She was project lead for one of my favorite XBLA games, Costume Quest (now also magically available for PS3 and PC!). I really love the game and her art style. I liked it so much that I even made a bento of Costume Quest before.

Bento #79: Costume Quest

Anyway, I was going to make Wren and Reynold from the game’s cover art. (like the bento) Wren in a knight costume and Reynold in a robot costume. But I thought two costumes would be a bit boring, so I also picked the French fries costume and the Statue of Liberty costume.

To make patterns for the body, I used a plush Link from “The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker” as reference. Of course, I had to make their head BIGGER than Link. Initially I was going to make the hair more like a helmet made of felt. But I really liked how the front part of Link’s hair was made. So after MANY MANY trials and errors I finally figured out the shape of the hair and lightly stuffed it to give it nice volume.

Much better than a single layer felt hair

Once the hair was done, I cut pieces for their eyes (which also took a while to get to the right size and shape) and glued them on. I was worried that the edge of the eyes would peel off so I sewed around the eyes to reinforce them.

You can see the inner side of the hair from this angle.

After the base body was made I made patterns for the costume by cutting pieces of paper, and wrapping them around the head and body. First I made the inner clothes with stretchy cotton to be worn under the costumes, which wasn’t too hard. I wanted to make the costume easy and simple, so I used felt. It’d be like making clothes for a paper doll, right??

It totally wasn’t.

I realized that the edge of the felt would stretch when you put the clothes on and off. Not good… Then things quickly got a lot more complicated.

For the knight costume (which was the easiest one) I had to reinforce the neck part and the arm holes by sewing another layer of felt underneath. Then I sewed the red lines onto it and attached Velcro on the back. After that I made the helmet, sword and shield. The sword and shield were easy but it took a few prototypes to make the helmet because it had to be the right shape and size to look right when worn by the doll.

The edges around the dark pieces were all hand sewn..

Unlike Link, Wren is right handed.

Trash can lid shield

I'm very proud of this medieval lion logo!

Wren in a knight costume

For the robot costume, one layer of felt was too weak to keep its shape, so I had to double-layer it. Just like the knight costume, I reinforced around the neck and the arm holes. I also had to sew around the edges of the torso so it’d keep its boxy shape. As I was trying the costume on and off on the doll, I noticed that the tiny blue fuzz from felt was getting on the doll’s face. So I came up the idea of putting a thin cotton liner inside. Then I made the antenna with black pipe cleaner and black and red fleece and sewed it onto the head piece. I added a chest plate and wings on the back and sewed Velcro onto the body and head piece.

You can kind of see the lighter blue liner inside.

So many visible sewing lines... :/

Chest plate

And you can't forget the wings on a robot.

Did you know that it's not easy to make hands with the palm side down on a plush doll?

The base of the antenna could be better, but it works.

Reynold in a robot costume

For the French fries costume, I used the robot’s body pattern as a guide, and made the box part of the French fries. Again, one layer was too flimsy so after I sewed the patterns onto the box, I had to add another layer and reinforced the same areas like the knight’s and robot’s costumes. I wish I could’ve found a way to make the box keep its shape without having so many visible sewing lines… Just like the robot costume, I was adding layers and reinforcing as I made it. I definitely need to learn how to make clothes and costumes properly. Making the French fries was super fun though! To finish it off, I sewed each French fry onto the box.

Back - Oh noes the sewing lines!!

Front - Could be boxier?

French fries could be crispier.

French fries

Wren in a French fries costume

For the Statue of Liberty costume, I tried using felt first, but felt really couldn’t have the flowy feeling of the dress, so I used stretchy cotton instead. I made the headdress and the torch with felt. I really like the way the torch came out.

The dress was made with stretchy cotton.

I stitched the side and the top to create the "gathered" look.

Crown

Crown

Wren in The Statue of Liberty costume

At this point, I still hadn’t figured out how to make them hold the sword from the knight costume and torch from the Statue of Liberty. If I used an elastic like for the shield, they wouldn’t hold the sword/torch correctly… So I decided to put a snap on the palm of their right hands, and on the sword and torch. The snaps are visible but I think it works out pretty well.

Oh snap!

Snap in use

The very last thing I did was to sew their noses and mouths on, and glued their pink cheeks on the face. I usually save the face for last because it’s always the hardest to get it right. The thread of each mouth is very slightly loose so you can make them smile or sad by moving the thread.

As you can see, I only made two pairs of shoes for four costumes. And if you’re a Costume Quest fan, you’re wondering where are roller shoes for the robot costume… Before PAX Prime, I made two pairs of shoes, which were just plain black. But after I came back from PAX, I wanted the costumes to be more accurate, so I remade them in two different colors with white soles and added white tips to make them look more like Converse shoes. And then I had to travel back and forth between New York and San Diego for my new job at The Behemoth. I took the unfinished Wren and Reynold with me every time I traveled, trying to finish them little by little. But my tools and fabrics were in two locations, and I just couldn’t finish the last couple of things. I finally finished all the costumes and details when I was in NYC. So my sewing machine was already packed and I couldn’t make a pair of the roller shoes. But I will make them once I’m done with all this moving stuff!

The edge around the white tips were all hand sewn.

Even though I struggled each step and it took a lot longer to finish, it really was so much fun to make and put costumes on and off on Wren and Reynold. I was never a playing-with-dolls kind of girl as a kid but I could totally get into this now.

Wren and Reynold

So where are the little guys now? They’re on their way to Tasha! It’s just a small token of my appreciation for making such a wonderful game. I’m sure she’ll give them plenty of candies to make them happy.

For more pictures of these plush, visit stuffed stuff: Costume Quest (Wren and Reynold) set!

I already tweeted/Google +’ed/Facebooked but I thought I’d give a proper greeting on my blog, so…

Happy New Year!!

I came back to NYC from San Diego early on December 21st, for ONE LAST TIME. During this trip, I have to pack EVERYTHING and leave for New York for real. After we spent our Christmas packing, we went up to Boston to see Derek’s sisters’ family.

His oldest sister has a 3 year old son and 5 month old daughter. And his older sister has 3 and 4 year old girls. They are all super ADORABLE. We couldn’t stay there for too long but they seemed to love our lego Christmas gifts. We got his older sister’s daughters “Creationary“ It’s like Pictionary with Legos. We had so much fun playing it that we’re getting it for ourselves when we move to SD. Seriously, the game isn’t just for kids, we were totally getting into it!

As we were leaving to catch a bus back to NYC, the 4 year old came running and gave us a drawing.

It's a Laputa robot!!

We watched some Laputa the night before and I had drawn a robot on some paper at her drawing table. And she was able to draw this from my drawing! We were so surprised how intricate her drawing was. We’re definitely going to frame this and display it in our new place.

Christine, my co-worker from the Behemoth, was staying at my place for her trip to NYC. We were busy packing so we couldn’t really take her out anywhere but we all went to our friends’ New Year’s Party on the 31st. And on the 1st we spend some peaceful time, packing.

Well, aside from packing, we’ve been also trying to eat out at our favorite places & new places in NYC before we leave. We aren’t stressed out about the move and we’re actually having a lot of fun. But we still can’t help being sad to think that it was our last Christmas, last New Year’s Eve and last New Year in NYC…

Okay, okay. I’m making it sound like we’ll never come back to NYC but we’re actually going to Boston in April to attend PAX East and I’m sure we’ll visit NYC afterwards, but it’s won’t be the same as as living here.

Anyway! 2011 was definitely an amazing year for me. I was given a dream job and a life-changing opportunity. I have no idea what will happen in San Diego in 2012, but I’m sure this year will be even more awesome than the last year.

I don’t know what my New Year’s resolution is though. I always fail to keep my New Year’s resolution and feel guilty about it, so I’m going to make it something like “doing a lot of stuff and have fun doing it.”

Yeah, that sounds good, right?

After I got my job at the Behemoth, I’ve been traveling back and forth between New York and San Diego. I have a fully functional kitchen at my temporary living space in San Diego but Derek (the person I cook cutesy food for) is in New York, and it just hasn’t been fun making character food for myself. :/

But! I came back to New York for the last time before our big move, and I finally had the time to make some cute food for the holidays!

Non-bento #44: Chocolate covered strawberry Totoro
Quick easy sweets turned out to be a time consuming nightmare… as usual. But I somehow managed to make some (with huge help from Derek) and here are some previews of the delicious victory.

Hopefully I can post more photos of the final food later.

Happy Holidays everyone!!

During the last day at PAX Prime back in August, I was asked to stop by at the Behemoth booth. So I went there while Derek was in the line for Uncharted 3.

I got to the booth, was called into the back room and got some big news. Words cannot describe how I felt when I heard it. But maybe Japanese emoticons can. Sorry if they don’t display properly on your computer.

They offered me a FULL TIME JOB as a PLUSH DESIGNER at their office in San Diego! The Behemoth, my most favorite game company in the world whom for years I’ve been making plushes for as a hobby for fun!

(￣Д￣；；< Whaaaaa?

I really thought they were joking at first. And then they told me that they were serious.

∑(〇Д◎ﾉ)ﾉ < Eeeeeeh?!

It felt like a dream because, well, it’s my dream job. Before I started jumping up and down with the joy, I wanted to tell Derek the news and hear what his opinion was, because we’d have to move to SD. So I didn’t give them my answer right then and there, but I’m sure I had a huge smile on my face.

ヾ(=^▽^=)ノ < I will get back to you! (but my answer will be YES)

I met up with Derek after he played the demo at Uncharted 3, but he had to deal with the airline companies to reschedule our flight, so I patiently waited about an hour until he finished. I couldn’t hope for a better reaction from him when I told him the news. He was ECSTATIC. And the whole thing slowly started to sink in.

♪♪＼(^ω^＼)( /^ω^)/♪♪ < w00t!

As soon as I got home to NY, I wrote an email officially accepting the offer before they could change their mind. And I danced a little.

┌|≧∇≦|┘♪♪└|≧∇≦|┐♪♪┌|≧∇≦|┘<omg omg omg omg omg

If you follow me on Twitter or Google+, you probably noticed that I was in San Diego for the past several days. I’m writing this from my temporary living space in San Diego. I came here and started to situate myself in the office and the area. I’ll still have to go back and forth between SD and NYC and deal with the whole move and stuff.

Even the windows are so behemothy.

So majestic

My first stay was less than a week, but it’s been SO AWESOME. Everyone in the office is SUPER NICE. (-waves- (´･ω･)ﾉｼ

This little guy is everywhere in the office.

I have a desk in the office with a super duper sewing machine on it. I’ve already started sewing stuff and I’m feeling very productive. I’ll still be making plush and food in my spare time. So don’t worry, I’ll keep on blogging!

Aaand I finally got them! They fit perfectly.

Just so you know, I’m not working on the games here, so don’t ask me game related questions because I won’t have answers for you.

I’m going back to NYC again, and hopefully I’ll blog more while I’m there!

tl;dr I’m going to be moving to San Diego to work for The Behemoth as a full time plush designer! w00t!

Final day of PAX Prime 2011!!

We’d been eating junky food for breakfast during PAX, so we decided to start the last day of our PAX with good hearty breakfast.

We wanted to go to the panels early in the morning, so we headed down to Lowell’s at Pike Place Market.

My crab omelette - It may look boring but it was filled with crabby flavor.

Derek's Market Breakfast

I don’t care that people say it’s a tourist pit. They open from 7:00AM and my overpriced crab omelet had tons of crab in it and it made me happy! I’ve been to Lowell’s in the past, and the servers were always nice too.

Good bye piggy, see you next year!

After we got back from the breakfast we checked out of our room, checked in our luggage at the hotel, and headed to the convention center.

I wanted to give Hot Dog Fairies to Mike and Jerry, so I got in the line for the signing while Derek went to the Tested.com panel. I guess I could’ve given them more Hot Dog Fairies to give to the other PA staff, but I wanted to see their reaction in person. Besides, I wanted to get my photos of the new Penny Arcade themed food signed.

When I took out the photos of Twisp and Catsby burgers and Twisp and Catsby Pizza, they remembered the last time I met them and gave them the plush of the monster from Lookouts. Cool, huh?

And I gave them Hot Dog Fairy plushes. A rare one and a regular one. They were pretty excited to see them.

Look how excited they are on the inside! (Seriously, they were. This was their "photo for a fan" face.)

There were a lot of people in the line for Mike and Jerry’s autograph so after I gave them Hot Dog Fairy Plushes, I quickly moved out of the line and headed to meet up with Derek.

When I met up with Derek, he told me that he got an email about the cancellation of our flight back to NYC due to Hurricane Irene. Despite the fact that we didn’t attend that many panels, we weren’t able to explore as much as we wanted in the first two days, and this was the last day of PAX, so we didn’t want to waste any time. So we decided to solve our problem about how to get home until AFTER PAX was over.

Metal robot animal thing with a hammer

Female Shepard from Mass Effect

We walked around the Exhibitor’s Hall a bit more and went to give a Hot Dog Fairy plush to Jeff Kalles of Penny Arcade outside the room where his panel was. He was very sweet and charming as always.

Zombies were asked not to dance.

Then we went to see Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub at Band Land where musical guests have their table to sell their merchandise. We wanted to buy the Blamimation DVD and also I wanted to give something I made for both of them.

Charming Scott Kurtz and SAW Babies sock/koozie

Handsome Kris Straub and SAW babies sock/koozie

This is our most favorite character, the sock puppet from the SAW Babies segment from Blamimation. The first version I made for Derek was not accurate, so I decided to improve it.

You can see a full post on this stuffed stuff: SAW Babies ver.2.

After that we went to the Uncharted 3 booth. They told us the wait would be 2 hours… but we got in the line anyway. I wasn’t going to play the demo so I went to the Behemoth booth again, and waited for Derek to finish.

In the line to play the Uncharted 3 demo

We finally decided to deal with our flight situation, which turned into a total nightmare… Priceline told us to call Delta, then Delta told us to call Continental, but Continental wasn’t taking calls because of heavy volume. It was so ridiculous that Derek did a comic about it too.

We wasted a precious last couple of hours of PAX because of this. Before we knew it, it was already time for us to go see the Omegathon final round.

The final round of The Omegathon was to play the Legend of Zelda (the original one) and the person who gets the first Triforce piece wins. The trick was to one person would read an walkthrough and other has to follow and play the game. That sounds like it’d be too normal and easy, right?

But one person just reading the text (and they weren’t supposed to point at the screen) to the other person who have probably forgotten how to avoid/beat certain enemies wasn’t as easy as it seemed.

It was exciting but it was probably the shortest Omegathon I’ve witnessed so far. I wish it were longer!

Omegathon winner falls to the ground from the joy.

We usually rush to the airport after the Omegathon final round/closing ceremony but our re-scheduled flight was at 1:00AM, so we walked around in the convention center until the last minute. We could’ve had nice dinner in Seattle, but we were so stressed out about the flight back to NYC, we just wanted to get to the airport and relax. So we headed to the airport, got there way early, and found out our flight at 1:00AM was delayed and the new schedule was 3:45AM… But we didn’t care. We made it to PAX, we had so much fun at PAX, and somehow we got to reschedule our flight so we didn’t have to stay in Seattle for extra nights!

We ate horrible airport food, took a nap by our gate, slept some more on the plane and safely arrived in NY. We were worried how bad the damage was in our neighborhood or to our apartment on the way back to our place.

But to our surprise, the weather was super nice in NY and there was almost no sign of a hurricane!

Once again, PAX didn’t disappoint us. It was another magical 3 days. Actually, PAX Prime 2011 was probably the MOST memorable PAX ever for me and Derek. Every PAX is amazing. Meeting with PAX staff, game developers, Enforcers, fellow gamers, etc… but this one was particularly special. I hope I can write something about it on my next post!

Derek took a lot of photos with his fancy camera during PAX Prime, so some photos belong to him.
Check out Derek’s PAX Prime 2011 set and My PAX Prime 2011 set for all PAX photos I used for my post!

stuffed stuff: SAW Babies ver.2
created and stuffed: August 2011

I made a SAW Babies sock puppet on a whim back in 2010. But this time, I decided to make it better and give them to their creators, Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub when I saw them at PAX Prime.

The SAW Babies sock puppet is a character from Blamimation (WARNING: contains mature language), a flash cartoon series created by Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub.

There are some original stories in the Blamimations but they also do a lot of parodies of TV shows and films which I LOVE. SAW Babies is definitely one of our favorite parodies. It’s like the horror movie “SAW,” but if Jigsaw was in 5th grade. Unsurprisingly, words like peepee and poopoo make Derek very happy.

The first episode of SAW Babies can be seen on Eps.5 of Blamimation! (about 3:42 into the episode)

It’s a sock puppet, so when you aren’t using it, it can’t stand on its own. So we put it over an empty beer bottle so Derek could keep it on his desk. I also wanted to make the second version as a sock puppet so my first plan was to make a puppet, put it over a beer bottle and give it to them. Simple, right? Hmm. Maybe too simple… So I came up with the idea of making it into a bottle koozie. All I needed was a neoprene koozie to keep the bottle cold, and attach it to the puppet somehow. I doodled how I’d make this and realize that the puppet needed to have an opening so you can drink it while holding the puppet koozie. And the plan kept getting more complicated from then on.

Who knew I was going to have such a hard time finding two very simple & good bottle koozies. Not me! Amazon or other sites sell crappy koozies in bulk. They weren’t expensive but I just wanted TWO GOOD QUALITY KOOZIES, and NOT 12 CRAPPY KOOZIES.

Why is it that the one thing you think you can find so easily is always the one you just can’t find ANYWHERE?

My final option was to buy a neoprene bag by Built, cut it into pieces, and make bottle koozies by myself. I had been making many plushes non-stop for PAX Prime and complaining how hard it’s been to find koozies, so Derek decided to go look for koozies all over NYC for me. He found very nice bottle koozies at Paragon Sports. They could’ve been simpler but they were sturdy and I really needed to start making them. While Derek was getting koozies, I went out and found the thickest yarn I could find for the hair, and looked for buttons that were similar to the one from the animation. After I got the koozies, I had to figure out how to make it work.

It was very late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning when I finally started working on the puppets, which was about 5 hours before we had to leave for the airport.

I had bought two socks in different colors. First I cut off the tip of the grey socks, and sewed them onto the tip of the blue socks. Then I cut a slit on each sock, and sewed a zipper on with a sewing machine. The zipper wasn’t the right size so I had to cut it, fold it in so it wouldn’t zip all the way down, and sew it. I had never sewn a sock with a sewing machine before and I was worried that the fabric would unravel so I used the zig-zag setting and sewed it around a couple of times. My god, it was a MESS.

After I finished using a sewing machine on it, it was time for me to pack, take a shower, get ready and leave for the airport.

At the hotel in Seattle, I stayed up at night and sewed the eyes and yarn as hair onto the sock. I can’t remember how many times I dozed off while sewing the yarn hair.

It would’ve been nice if I could put a beer bottle in it, but the supermarket by the hotel had a very limited selection of beers and nothing seemed terribly unique. So I put water bottles in each of them instead.

Sunday afternoon, we headed to Scott’s table first. We waited in the line for a while, and we purchased the Best of PVP and a Blamimation DVD. He was nice enough to sign both of them. When he was done signing, we gave him the puppet.

Scott was very nice and seemed happy to see the fan made SAW babies puppet. He started talking in the puppet’s voice to Kris who was sitting next to him and signing for his fans. That’s right, we got to see SAW Babies live! Well, the roles were reversed but that made it more special. Kris remembered that I had asked him about the color of the puppet on twitter before, so he said “Oh you did it!” with a smile from his table.

Scott Kurtz

We got in the line for Kris’ table. When our turn came, we got all three volumes of the Chainsawsuit comic books, he kindly signed and drew on them. I gave him the puppet and asked him if I could take a photo of him with the puppet. He offered me to be in the shot but I had to decline. I mean, just look how beautiful Kris Straub is. I would never dream of being in this shot.

Kris Straub

I told Scott and Kris that if the puppet fell apart, save the koozie, because it was a very good koozie.

[I will insert a photo of the Blamimation DVD signed by Scott and Kris here later]

I spent way too much time on planning, but I think I spent a total of 4 hours actually working on the puppets. A new record I’m not very proud of. Planning something thoroughly is important, but next time I’d love to spend more time actually working on it… So yes, hopefully there will be a “Return of SAW Babies” in the future…

For more pictures of this plush, visit stuffed stuff: SAW Babies ver.2 set!

You can also check out more stuffed stuff on my flickr.

PAX Prime 2011: Day 2

I woke up at 7:30, sleepier than the day before. Our first panel was at 10:30, so we decided to go out to get a quick breakfast from the cafe near by. Then I finished sewing stuff I couldn’t finish the night before.

Why do I crave for junky/sweet food when I'm sleep deprived and tired?

After the breakfast, we headed to the main theater for our all time favorite panel at PAX.

Make a Strip with Mike and Jerry
It’s a panel where Mike and Jerry make a comic strip live. First, Jerry writes the dialogue, and Mike will draw while Jerry answers questions from fans. I always take TONS of photos during this panel. Literary, hundreds of them. So we can make it into a quick slide show. I love watching someone draw, and also Mike sometimes draws random awesome stuff.

I happened to sit in front of Erika, the graphic designer of Penny Arcade. So I got to give her a hot dog fairy plush! It just so happens that they were selling a PAX exclusive hot dog fairy t-shirt, designed by Erika.

Derek made a video with the photos from Make a Strip panel. So enjoy!

Here are some favorite still shots from the panel.

Jerry types text.

Mike starts drawing.

A fan asks him to draw him and Jerry.

He quickly draws himself on the left, and Jerry on the right. (Took probably about 30 seconds)

And he adds sexy lips and beautiful long hair to Jerry.

A fan asks him to draw Derpy Hooves from My Little Pony.

He starts coloring it in.

And the characters are done!

And he puts the text in.

After the comic is done, he just draws whatever he wants while fans keep asking Jerry and Mike questions. This is Twisp and Catsby!

Tycho makes an appearance.

Yes, Mike can draw whatever he wants.

Now he starts drawing Gabe...

...with a super buffed body...

...in a speedo...

Oh wait, this is more accurate...

Gabe, the super hunk

Penny Arcade Robot

Pouncing on the unsuspected victim, Tycho...

Or is he happy to see him?

Gabe skateboarding, because he's cool.

And someone FINALLY asked Mike to draw a  Hot Dog Fairy. The thing about the Hot Dog Fairy is that Mike doesn’t just draw it but someone has to ask him to draw it.

It's rare that he colors a Hot Dog Fairy.

It didn’t end up being in the final comic though, but I’m glad that he took it out. the Hot Dog  Fairy should remain PAX exclusive! After the Make a Strip Panel, we headed to the next panel.

Irrational Games Panel with Ken Levine and secret guests
We were really excited about this panel because we knew that they would be revealing the voice actors for Elizabeth and Booker from Bioshock Infinite. And Ken Levine is always very entertaining to watch. The voice actress for Elizabeth is Courtnee Draper and the voice actor for Booker is Troy Baker!

The entire panel was very interesting but the best part was the video of their recording session for a scene in the trailer. It’s where Elizabeth tries to bring a dying horse back to life with her “power,” and all of sudden, they’re on a street in 1980′s. Both panic, and return to the original world. Booker starts yelling at Elizabeth out of confusion. It’s a very emotional scene for both characters, and that’s when the master of directing, Ken Levine, comes in. In an effort of bringing Courtnee’s emotions to the max, he starts “degrading” (yelling and cursing) at her as a character with the help of Troy Baker. It was the most hilarious recording scene I’ve ever scene. You can tell that they’re all serious, exhausted from the intense sessions, but just hearing Ken Levine going at her was pure gold. Ken Levine also said that the session sounded so intense that the staff outside the studio got worried that he might hit her.

I’d love to embed a video but it includes mature language, so I’ll post a link HERE to the part of a video I’m talking about. If you’re interested in how voice actors work, I suggest you watching the entire panel.

After the panel, we headed to the Behemoth booth to play their Chonku Chonku machine. Chonku Chonku machines are basically Gashapon machines (Japanese coin operated vending machines). You could purchase Japanese yen at the booth, and play it to get figures!

I brought my own Japanese yen for this!

I got four figures but I'm still missing some.

Then we went to the Bastion booth to give plushes of Pyth to the good people of Supergiant Games. You can read about it on stuffed stuff: Plush Pyth ver.2.

We had some time for dinner this day, so we headed down by the market.

With a little help from our android phones and yelp, we picked a French cafe/bistro called Le Pichet.

The food was DELICIOUS!! But the service was… not so much. They weren’t rude, I guess. But they weren’t friendly either. Derek even did a comic about the waiter who seated us. Also our waitress knocked down my beer bottle on the table while she was serving the appetizer. Some beer was spilled over the table, she wiped it, and put the bottle back up. But that was it. She proceeded like nothing happened. I didn’t even get a nice ” I’m sorry” (I think I heard “Oops”). I felt stupid saying “That’s okay” before I realized that she wasn’t even going to apologize. They were very lucky that the food was good  and I was in “vacation mode.” Also they seemed like they treat regulars and non-regular customers very differently. So yeah, we are NOT going back there again.

Assorted meats

Onglet grillé et ses haricots verts au beurre Maitre d’Hôtel (Grilled Northwest Grass-fed hanger steak, green beans tossed with butter, shallots, parsley and lemon, crispy fried onions)

Poisson du jour poêlé, sa crème à l’homard et frites (Pan roasted fish of the day with fava beans, shallots and tarragon in a lobster cream sauce and pommes frites)

After we had dinner, we went back to the hotel and headed to the next panel which was conveniently held in the hotel we were staying.

After Hours with Scott and Kris
Their panel is famous for… a lot of things. At PAX East 2011, their panel went on for 4 hours. That’s 3 hours overtime. Basically they’d drink and talk on stage. People go to their panel to enjoy watching them get drunk. At PAX East, there was alcoholic whipped cream, guys from Supergiant Games as guests,  Scott’s super wasted brother, and drunk calling Kris’ brother on stage.

It was a bit different this year. One major change was a lot less alcohol. They started off their panel saying that they wouldn’t be wasted this time. We all thought they were joking but unfortunately it turned out to be true. They were still hilarious though. They had Mike from Penny Arcade as a guest, and showed a clip from a new episode of Kris and Scott’s Scott and Kris Show.

And for some reason, the panel turned into “let’s slap & punch each other.”

This is a video of Scott’s brother slapping Scott in the face.

And this is a video of Scott’s brother punching Kris in the arm, and Mike punching Scott in the arm.

It all started when Mike mentioned that Scott would occasionally punch him in the arm and it would really hurt. Scott said that he and his brother would hit each other in the arm growing up.

There was a film crew for their show, Kris and Scott’s Scott and Kris show. They shot some footage of the panel and the panel was over without any drunken incidents.

After we got back to the hotel room, I started packing our stuff while watching the news of Hurricane Irene on the TV. We kind of knew it would affect our flight back to NYC, but we were having so much fun, and so tired, we really didn’t think of doing anything about it until PAX was over…

Derek took a lot of photos with his fancy camera during PAX Prime, so some photos belong to him.
Check out Derek’s PAX Prime 2011 set and My PAX Prime 2011 set for all PAX photos I used for my post!

I woke up at 7:00 AM, a little sleepy but already super excited. So he could take photos of the plush, Derek made an awesome set-up by the window using only a pillow case, toilet paper and band aids. I’m very proud of him for pulling this off and I loved how the photos came out! Thank you, Derek!

Awesome setup for a photo shoot

We had bought peanut butter and bread the day before, so we ate peanut butter sandwiches for the breakfast. (It was a great time & money saver while attending a convention.) The keynote was from 10:30 AM, so we left the room around 9AM to get in line early. When the hotel elevator doors opened at the first floor, Dan Paladin of the Behemoth was standing in front of us! He was also attending PAX Dev (two-day event for game developers before PAX) this year as a panelist, so we talked about that for a while. PAX Dev sounded very interesting, but unfortunately it’s only open for actual developers and students studying to become developers.

People lining up for Halo Fest. Yes, Halo Fest had its own building.

Thumbs up to you too!

When we got to the main hall theater (it was at the Paramount theater this year), we saw Robert Khoo, looking sharp in his suit as usual with a tablet in one hand and a blackberry in the other. I didn’t want to bug him too much so I ran to him and gave him the very first Hot Dog Fairy plush. He gave me a very friendly “Hey Anna!” We chatted very briefly, and I wished him the best of luck on PAX. There are no words to describe how amazing Robert is.

You gotta have a real tank to promote a game called "World of Tanks."

The people in lines at PAX don't complain. Because they're just so excited be there. Also Enforcers kept us entertained us with mini-contests, quizzes and give-aways while we wait.

Cardboard tube samurai cosplayer

A fortune cookie in a swag bag?

HA!

Lime, the color of power.

Enforcers

The Keynote by David Jaffe
You may know David Jaffe for his glorious success from the Twisted Metal series and God of War. Or perhaps his VERY out-spoken and don’t-take-any-crap -from-anyone attitude. I have never heard so many profanities used in a speech in such a public setting. It was almost like watching stand-up (in a good way). No slides, just him talking. He talked about the video game industry, success with the Twisted Metal series and God of War, Sony, lawsuits, his family, etc… He didn’t sugar-coat anything. Everything he said, though it was loaded with profanity, showed how honest and passionate he was about his work.

I particularly like the story about the time they made a Twisted Metal themed ice truck for E3 one year. He said that the truck reeked of gasoline and he was really scared that it’d explode and he’d be on fire. And that because he was known for saying/doing extreme things, people would think it was all an act.

Also he explained why he curses so much. When he was still in elementary school, he jumped off a swing and broke both of his wrists. This happened on April Fool’s Day… His teacher didn’t believe him for about 20 minutes, and he started cursing at her like a sailor because he was in so much pain.

You can see the video of his keynote speech HERE. (the whole hour and a half)
*WARNING: Very mature language*

Penny Arcade Q&A with Mike and Jerry
Right after the keynote was the Penny Arcade Q&A. We always go to their Q&A. There are always lots of “I love what you do!”, “What should I do with my life?”, “Thank you for Child’s Play (the charity to provide video games to kids in hospitals)” Even though I can predict most of the Q’s Jerry and Mike’s A’s are always very entertaining.

Every day I'm hustlin', Every day I'm hustlin', Every day I'm hustlin'...

Unfortunately the most memorable moment came about 40 minutes in to the Q&A. One guy gave a super long backstory as a precursor to his question. For three and ah alf minutes he talked about being a conservative Star Trek fan,  and then asked them if they could introduce him to Wil Wheaton so Wil Wheaton could introduce him to Felicia Day. And he closed his speech with “Please consider Ron Paul for the president for 2012.” Mike and Jerry were actually amazed by it. Jerry described it as “watching a Youtube video live” which was probably the most accurate description.

Mike eating chocolate a fan gave them, while Jerry answers a serious question from a fan.

You can also watch the Q&A HERE.
*WARNING: Also some mature language.

After the Q&A, we headed to the convention center to get in the line for GTTV panel.

Spotted an awesome Portal cosplayer

Wheatley

Portal gun

Companion cube

Big Daddy (Seems like it gets super hot inside. He was taking his helmet off.)

GTTV: Bonus Round with David Jaffe (Twisted Metal, God of War), Ken Levine (BioShock) and Todd Howard (Executive Producer for Bethesda Game Studios). Hosted by Geoff Keighley
We went to this panel to see Ken Levine but unfortunately I can’t remember much about this panel that much except how Todd and Geoff were constantly picking on David. It was kind of funny in the beginning but it got annoying and made me uncomfortable to watch. I thought I’d see more professional discussion.

We <3 Ken Levine on the left, Todd from Bethesda on the right.

Also with the whole lawsuit of Bethesda against Notch (the creator of Minecraft) going on, it just made me think of Bethesda as a big jerk. If you’re interested in what the lawsuit is about, check out Notch’s blog.

After the panel, we headed to the exhibit hall. It felt like each booth was a lot taller than last year. Skyrim (the Elder Scrolls V) had a gigantic life-size (?) dragon statue. And also a game called Firefall had a large carpeted area with walls of monitors, smoke machines and lasers shooting around.

Gabe and Hot Dog Fairy

At the Prototype 2 booth, you could take a photo of you kicking a helicopter.

Firefall statues

Wavy tube guy from the Gunstringer, I think.

First thing first, we went straight to the Behemoth to drop off some of plushes and we walked around the Exhibit Halls to check out other booths. Here are bunch of photos Derek and I snapped while heading out the Exhibit hall.

Gears of War 3 - Marcus Fenix statue

Nun Attack

All I know about Firefall is #1. The logo looks like Starcraft. #2. They have a LOT of money.

Rayman Origins

Skyrim - Life-size (?) dragon

It was ridiculously huge.

Magic the Gathering

Prey 2

RAGE

Songbird from Bioshock Infinite was there again.

Bastion

Assassin's Creed Revelation

Wildstar

Nintendo

Spiderman and 007 Goldeneye Reloaded

Star Wars Kinect - Apparently you can be a Rancor and mess up Mos Eisley.

"RAWR!!"

Uncharted 3

Star Hawk

Twisted Metal

We headed back to the Behemoth, and we were checking out the mini games they released in the Mac App Store. That’s when someone called my name. It was Meggan and her boyfriend, my blog readers! She wrote on my Facebook page that she’d be at PAX but I had no idea what she looked like. They’re also big fans of the Behemoth, and we happened to be the Behemoth booth at the same time. What a coincidence! We chatted for a bit, and they told me that they only could get the passes for Friday. We had VIP passes and two extra regular three-day passes, so we gave them our three-day passes. You need all three days to absorb the awesomeness of PAX! Everything worked out perfectly!

The Behemoth brings people together!

Player selection screen for Battleblock Theater

Love this new display case

Life-size Castle Crasher knight

He could totally take down the life-size dragon at the Skyrim booth.

A tube filled with squishy chickens

Uncle Sam wants you to play Battleblock Theater.

People sitting on Kirbys. Not. Cool.

Then we headed to our next panel!

Blamimations Panel with Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub
Any panels with either Scott Kurtz or Kris Straub are guaranteed to be funny. And when they’re together, they’re unstoppable. They the new Blamimation episode (we had already seen it but still enjoyed it.) And some audio from the future Blam.  I don’t know how to explain them and their work with my poor vocabulary. So you should just check it out for yourself. You can watch all Blamimations episodes HERE.

Unfortunately you can't really tell how sexy they are from this photo.

Who knew you have to see the screen to see what's being projected.

Their panel was so funny this guy grew horns.

OMG Kris Straub is intensely looking at us!

By the time their panel was over, the exhibit hall was closed and the exhibitors’ mixer was going on in the exhibit hall. They have a buffet and drinks so the exhibitors can mingle together. We were going to eat out, but ended up eating there and hanging out at the Behemoth booth. Too bad we didn’t take any photos because we had so much fun! After the dinner, we headed to the concert.

Friday night concert, Video Game Orchestra, McFrontalot, Metroid Metal
We’ve been huge fans of VGO since we saw them for the first time at PAX East 2009. Unlike VGL (Video Games Live) where they play pretty much exactly like the original music, VGO makes unique arrangements. They played songs from Chrono Cross, FFVII, Metal Gear Solid, and many more! McFrontalot also collaborated with VGO which was awesome. We stayed for Metroid Metal but I fell asleep towards the end. No offence to the band, but with only three hours of sleep, the loud guitar became like white noise and the room was dark.

VGO

MC Frontalot

Metroid Metal

I think the concert ended around 1 or 1:30 AM and we went back to the hotel. After the power nap at the concert, I was ready to sew again! I sewed the rest of the eyes onto Pyth and worked on the plushes for the Behemoth. I think it was around 5:00AM when I finally went to bed. I don’t remember exactly because I passed out.

Spartan statue at night, on the way back to the hotel

Derek took a lot of photos with his fancy camera during PAX Prime, so some photos belong to him.
Check out Derek’s PAX Prime 2011 set and My PAX Prime 2011 set for all PAX photos I used for my post!

PAX Prime 2011: Day 0

It’s that time of year again. Well, it was!

Derek and I don’t take vacations much because we’re homebodies by nature. But twice a year, we book a catsitter, get plane/bus tickets and reserve a room at a fancy hotel so that we can walk around in a crowded convention center and stand in line for panels or to play video games all day for a three-day event called PAX Prime/PAX East. And we consider PAX our ultimate vacation.

For this PAX Prime, I decided to make as many as plushes as I could to bring. Starting several weeks prior to PAX, I sewed and sewed. I spent almost all day every day sewing. I thought I had enough time to finish everything but as usual, I thought wrong.

I stayed up all night the night before we left for PAX. Before that I had only 2 hours of sleep in 2 days. I still couldn’t finish some stuff, so I had to pack my sewing kit in my suitcase. I was paranoid that the airline losing my suitcase, so I filled two carry-on suitcases with plushes, and put all our clothes in the suitcase with my sewing kit to be checked-in.

We left home at 5:30 AM, got to the airport, checked in, and headed to the gate. I had a bagel at Smash Burger, which was tiny and burned to a crisp. But I wasn’t going to let anything spoil my pre-PAX excitement.

After boarding, I pretty much fell asleep right away. I woke up after an hour or so and realized that the plane hadn’t moved… The reason was unclear, some said something about the weather, some said the runway was crowded and we were waiting our turn. We were allowed to get off the plane, and we waited by the gate. With Hurrican Irene approaching, I was praying that the flight wouldn’t get canceled.

A recycle bin sympathizing with the delay of our airplane

This isn't me. But I looked as sad as this man did.

Fortunately about two hours after the initial flight schedule, we got back on the plane and departed. Hooray!
Did you know that Continental Airlines DO NOT give you any snacks on a 6 hour flight from NY to Seattle? No pretzels, no chips, NOTHING, just beverages. Because we didn’t. We usually pack a lot of snacks, but this time we decided to travel light. It turned out that they only have meals which you have to pay for. Oh and the TV is also not free. Instead they have a DirecTV preview before takeoff and soon after it expires. So we chose to STARVE ourselves rather than paying for their already crappy service. Thank you Continental Airlines, you made me realize how I should have NEVER cheated on JetBlue. JetBlue, I love your free blue chips, free TV, and free sleeping kit for red-eye flights.

I was waiting for a snack. I had even save space for one.

Our travel companions did not approve of Continental Airlines.

Anyway, we got to Seattle around 2 in the afternoon, and checked in at Sheraton. This year, the hotel key was Mass Effect 3 themed. (Last year was Dragon Age 2, the year before that was Dragon Age)

It's always fun to read the PAX banners placed all over the area.

Actually this long line for checking in at the hotel was moving very fast.

He was super wired and ready.

"I'm Commander Shepard. And this is my favorite hotel on the Citadel."

I took all my plushes out as soon as we got into our room so they could breathe.

Thanks again to Continental Airlines, we missed the lunch hour for most restaurants. We were lucky that Lecosho was serving lunch, exceeded our expectations and filled our stomachs. Great service, super friendly waiter and delicious food! Their happy hour menu was very reasonably priced and great for sharing.

Lecosho Steamed clams

Lecosho Bread

Lecosho house-made sausage

We also ordered entrees. My salmon was absolutely delicious! And so were Derek’s pork chops. I’m not good at describing delicious food so there are photos!

Lecosho Salmon

Lecosho Salmon

Lecosho pork chops

Suffering from food comas, we crawled around the area trying to pick up some magic potions (a.k.a. hard liquor) but we failed. We were tired, so we gave up and picked up a bottle of wine and went back to the hotel.

Very BioShock-esque

Gum Wall by Pike Place Market

Ewwww

I LOVE this place.

I started sewing almost immediately after we got back to the room. Sewing “10s” onto the Hot Dog Fairies (see stuffed stuff: Hot Dog Fairies) and touched up other plushes. Then via Twitter, I found out that neither Tim Schafer nor Tasha Harris was going to be attending PAX Prime. Bummer! Because I made Costume Quest plushes for them, hoping that I could give it to them in person. They were excited to see a photo of them in progress though. I told them that I’d mail them to them later.

Wren and Reynold from Costume Quest

I think I went to bed around 4:00 AM. Yup, I was about to start my first day of the three days of PAX with 3 hours of sleep…

Derek took a lot of photos with his fancy camera during PAX Prime, so some photos belong to him.
Check out Derek’s PAX Prime 2011 set and My PAX Prime 2011 set for all PAX photos I used for my post!

stuffed stuff: Plush Pyth ver.2
created and stuffed: August 2011

On my blog, Twitter and Google+ I already raved about how amazing the XBLA/PC game Bastion is. I also made an item from the game, a “Plush Pyth.”

Plush Pyth ver.1

The staff at Supergiant Games (the dev team who created Bastion) seemed to love the plush. I asked them if they were going to be at PAX Prime, and Jen the lead (and only!) artist for Bastion replied that they all were going to be at Warner Bros, booth. I just couldn’t miss an opportunity like this! So I decided to make a Plush Pyth for each staff member, all seven of them! After making 15 Hot Dog Fairies, making only 7 plushes was almost a relief. Still, there was a lot of cutting, and sewing of the same pieces over and over.

I made the first plush in a super rush, and I wasn’t in love with the fabric I used. So this time, I upgraded it by using cotton velour instead of fleece. I LOVE cotton velour. It’s so soft and strong. The only thing was that when I cut the fabric, tiny fuzz would fly around. It wasn’t as bad as the fuzzy fleece I used for the Shark from BattleBlock Theater, but it was still annoying when it got into my eyes and on my face. Regular fleece is definitely the easiest to work with but it can get dirty easily. Also cotton velour is lightweight, so it takes less stuffing than fleece to look stuffed, and it also can hold its shape very well.

Looks like velour but feels light and soft like cotton.

I followed the exact same steps as I did for Plush Pyth ver. 1. Fortunately, I had white and pink cotton velour, so I used them for the horns and nose. If I were super picky I could’ve used lighter pink, but I was in a rush so I used what I had. After I stuffed the head and body, I sewed the fake stitches and sewed the two pieces together.

After all the sewing was done, I spray painted buttons for the eyes and let them dry. I wanted to make sure the paint was absolutely dry, so instead of sewing them onto the plushes at home, I decided to finish them at the hotel when we got to Seattle.

Pre-PAX at home

Friday, the first day of PAX Prime 2011, we walked by the WB booth during the day, and made sure that the Supergiant Games guys were there. On the same night around midnight we came back from the concert, and I started sewing the eyes onto the plush. I also thoroughly checked to make sure there weren’t any holes or threads coming undone on each Pyth. I think I went to bed around 4:00 am.

We woke up at 7:00 am. Derek “McGyvered” a set-up for a photo booth right in our hotel room. He was very proud of his set-up. I was too tired to actually check the photos then, but after we came back from PAX I was pleasantly surprised that the photos looked really awesome. I’ll probably post the same photo in my PAX Prime posts, but I’m posting it here too.

Photo booth created with a pillow case, toilet paper, and band aids!

On Saturday, we headed to the WB booth, and got in the line to buy the OST. When my turn came, I asked one of the staff (I think it was Gavin Simon… sorry if I was wrong!) if he has seen the Plush Pyth I made. When he said he had, I took out a bag of Plush Pyth, and handed to him.

Greg Kasavin: Writing, Design

Jen Zee: Art

Gavin Simon: Engineering, Design

Logan Cunningham: Voiceover, Greg Kasavin, Jen Zee

The reaction I got from the staff was totally amazing. Jen immediately said “You’re AnnaTheRed!” and gave me a big hug. Not only that, they gave me the OST and Bastion posters! I chatted with Jen, Logan (the narrator) and Greg (writing, design) for a bit and found out that Logan lives in Brooklyn too! Jen was especially excited to see the plush, which totally made my day. Also it meant a LOT coming from an incredibly talented artist like her. This is exactly why I make plush. To see my plush meet the creator of the character I made a plush of. I know that my plush will be well loved.

I cannot wait for them to release some concept art for Bastion, so I can make more of their beautiful characters.

Thank you Supergiant Games for creating Bastion and giving me inspiration for me to create!

For more pictures of this plush, visit stuffed stuff: Plush Pyth ver.2 set!

You can also check out more stuffed stuff on my flickr.