First photo of my Cid Highwind cosplay from FF VII : Advent Children. Taken in the Renaissance Hotel during Anime North 2009 on Friday morning.

Pros :

- The blond color spray I've used on my medium brown hair turned much better than expected. A very good and cheap alternative (7 CAN$ for enough spray to use twice) to bleach and dye, especially for my brittle hair.

- The cloth items (shirt, pants and coat) were easy to find at a cheap price (~45$ total) and reproduced the character's outfit great.

- The spear only took a weekend to craft. Recipe : a hard cardboard tube from a six-feet bolt of cloth, linen straps, a chunk of plastic from an ad panel, a resin/fiberglass car body repair kit, black and gray duct tape, black and silver car paint. The end result got quite a lot of praise and was safe enough for the Weapons Master to let it pass with only a glance.

- The goggles. I wore them for two days without any itching in my coated hair or any headache. A VERY comfortable model, here's the eBay link to their vendor : [link] . Had I wanted to be picture perfect, I would have painted their frame brown, but I didn't want to risk staining the glasses.

Cons :

- The gloves. Kids, remember this lesson : if you want to paint a rubber surface, DON'T FORGET THE VARNISH. Otherwise, like it happened to me through the weekend, the paint will start peeling off at the smallest friction. Having your gloves turn half-green on the second day sucks.
However, kudos to my father for the easy and cheap glove buckles : they're simply dog collars painted in the same brown. Looks great enough on pictures and it doesn't need any sewing skills! The gloves were cheap, too : 4$
construction gloves at Wal-Mart.

- For Otakuthon, I ought to find a "true fake cigarette". Keeping the same two real cigs in your mouth for three days gets more and more disgusting...