Wren (Candy Corn Costume) - Costume Quest



Cost: $0
Costume Made By: Pan
Costume Received In: January 2017


Pictures




Information

Cosplaying from Costume Quest was something that I had at the back of my mind for several years. I eagerly played both Costume Quest games when they were released. I can remember how excited I was to play Costume Quest in the days leading up to Halloween in 2010 and although it wasn't quite as good, I counted down the days until I could play the sequel in 2014. Both had such a fun Halloween spirit and were easy to play. I'm not a huge RPG gamer, but the Costume Quest franchise is like baby's first RPG and the games were pretty neat. The ridiculous costume transformations in battle were highly entertaining and kept me interested and the games only take a few hours to pass so I really enjoyed them. I didn't think that much about Cosplaying from the games until my friend Pan decided to make the Statue of Liberty costume as a silly Cosplay idea for Anime North 2013. She inspired me to want to Cosplay from the franchise as well, but I was super torn about what to Cosplay. After she had made her costume, other friends of ours also started discussing Cosplaying from the games. My friend Jen made the Space Warrior costume and there was talk about my friend Rin Cosplaying as the Unicorn. Plans for a future group kept coming up and dying down.

The costumes I kept debating between were the Candy Corn costume or the Pumpkin costume. I love the Pumpkin costume transformation. It looks epic in battle and the outfit is pretty simple. It's just black clothes with leaves attached in various spots and a big pumpkin head. The big issue I had was the pumpkin head. You can buy plastic pumpkins and I thought that would be a good base, but I wasn't sure I could find one big enough to fit over my head. I was also worried it would be awkward or heavy. Cosplaying the Candy Corn outfit was a bit of a joke. I often use the nickname Candy Corn for online games and I love candy corn as a symbol for Halloween. Candy Corn isn't the best tasting candy, but it really stands out as a Halloween tradition. The costume is a bit of a joke in the game as it's the "crappy" costume no one wants to be. When you are the Candy Corn in battle, you're a literal giant candy corn and it's a purely defensive costume class. It's super silly, but I got a huge kick out of it. In the end, around the fall of 2015, I finally decided that I wanted to make the Candy Corn costume so I didn't have to worry about a pumpkin head. I made it my mission to hunt down white, orange and yellow fleece. In the game the costume is made out of paper, but for comfort and longevity, I thought a fleece costume would work best. Pan was going to help me pattern it based on the way she made a Gengar costume several years ago with a crinoline under layer for shape, and I was looking forward to working on it in the fall of 2016.

While, I did keep an eye open for polar fleece, but everywhere we went when we looked for fabric throughout 2016 was a big disappointment. No one had the right shades of orange or yellow. The colours were either too dull or too bright. I was feeling pretty defeated and I decided to shelve the costume until I could get the right fabric. I then started working on Madoka over the Christmas holidays and the Candy Corn costume was out of mind for the time being. Around Christmas Pan mentioned working on something for me as a Christmas gift and that it would be a bit late. That was totally cool. I wasn't expecting any gifts and whatever it was I was sure would be worth the wait. Boy was I ever surprised in January 2017 when she presented me with a fully completed Costume Quest Candy Corn costume including dress, candy corn hat and even a handmade bat hair clip like the one Wren wears! Everything looked awesome!

I was honestly surprised by the gift. The last time we had talked about the costume a couple of months earlier, I had asked her about looking for fleece on a trip to Philadelphia, which she usually takes with her family a couple of times a year. I wondered if the fabric stores down there might have a lot more variety of fabric colours vs Fabricland up here. She apparently found great polar fleece options that she bought in Philadelphia and she decided that since she had the pattern for Gengar, she could just make the outfit for me. To get the right shape, I had to borrow her Gengar crinoline and the rest was pretty simple as I decided to dress up like the female protagonist, Wren. I had an old brown bob wig that was similar to Wren's hair style and I even had an old striped purple shirt that was also similar to the one she wears in the game. I paired the outfit with black pants and a pair of white converse like shoes (the same pair that I used with my Zoey costume from Left 4 Dead) and I was good to go. It's a really ridiculous but comfy costume from a game series that I adore. The costume is extra special to me because it was a gift and such an awesome surprise! Truly a treat and not a trick!

We managed to organize a group for a private photoshoot in the fall of 2018. On Sunday, October 21st we met up in a neighbourhood near Davisville station. We had 5 Costume Quest Cosplayers: Pan as the Statue of Liberty, Jen as the Space Warrior, Mackenzie as the Pumpkin, Rin as the Unicorn and I was the Candy Corn. We worked with Elemental and she was awesome to shoot with! We walked up and down a couple of streets and we knocked on doors to ask if we could shoot around decorated houses. Everyone was really friendly and most people thought it was cute to see us out in costume. This shoot got me really excited for Halloween because it felt almost like trick or treating. We found a cool doorway over at the Upper Canada College campus, which we decorated and took some group and individual shots in front of when it got dark. It was a really fun afternoon and evening and definitely a highlight of 2018. I rarely get to Cosplay with friends so this was definitely a fun experience and a great costume and I can't thank Pan enough for making it for me. :3

Events/Conventions this costume was worn to
Private Photoshoot on Sunday, October 21st, 2018

Photo Credits
Elemental


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