Tuesday, June 29, 2010

New Joker, Batgirl and Princess Leia costumes

Recently, the following new costumes have arrived: Batgirl - Gotham Girls edition, The Joker and Princess Leia.

There has been much demand for Joker and Princess Leia costumes, in particular the Joker. With that shipment also came another Batman mask, a new Batman belt and gloves for two Batman costumes. In the meantime, one of my Batman costumes got retired.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

New website updates

Lately I have been working on a new details page on my costume renting website. The changes are not live yet, but are part of paving the way to the new layout changes that are being planned.

The new details page will display details about a costume/mask/cape like what the current listing shows, but it will also show details such as popularity as well as current bookings and already has a section that displays thumbnails from the gallery section.

Per costume in the search results list, there will be new links for details, gallery and booking form. Each of these pages will also have those links.

Another new plan for the future is a step by step costume finding system for those people looking for something based on their size and availability with various filtering options to present choices of what they can possibly wear. This in turn then links to the details of the costumes again.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

What to do in a mascot costume at a children's birthday

This is based on being in a mascot costume that does not have a cooling fan inside. Being in a full body covering costume can and will get hot in any case after a while. Having to perform for children, which involves moving around a lot, can cause even more heat issues.

Of the several times that I have been in mascot costumes at birthdays, the activities mostly included being there just for the looks and for photos. At times it was also taking part in games or just walking around as well as handing out gifts. There is of course the risk that younger children can get a fright, so being aware of it and backing back a bit is then required. Worst case scenario and last resort would be to take the head off to show the children that there is a human person underneath before putting it back on. This obviously breaks the entire illusion of the effect. Staying around for too long will also wear off the novelty, plus the extreme heat the whole time inside the costume can cause quite a loss of body fluids through sweating.

Usually for event activities it helps if the event organisers (usually parents), have some plan of what the person in the costume is supposed to do with a rough time schedule. The exact starting time is not always important, mostly the duration due to reasons mentioned above. Events can fall apart if children are doing all kinds of things and due to attention span, it does not help if there is some long or complex demonstration going on.

Finally not to forget, leaving and entering the place where an event is being held without children actually seeing the costume parts. This might cause nightmares for some and is also an illusion breaker.

Friday, June 4, 2010

How to get rid of persistent cigarette smell on clothing

Some cigarette smells are rather persistent on clothing even after a full washing cycle in the washing machine. Same problem with furniture that cannot be washed.

The solution is rather simple and based on the cleaning abilities of pure Alcohol. The process is as follows:

1. Get Vodka (43% Alcohol)
2. Get a bottle to spray liquids like used for gardening
3. Mix 10% Vodka with 90% water in that bottle
4. Spray over the smell affected areas.

The reason for this is simple: Vodka has a lot of Alcohol content. Alcohol evaporates after time. Too much Vokda/Alcohol will leave a smell, hence the severe diluting. This can be applied on car seats as well.