We've featured the Fox and Krystal cosplay duo Tom_MJCosplay a few months back when they won an award at the Montreal Comic Con in 2024. I was honored to be able to interview them afterwards and got some insight into their cosplay and future plans. I still haven't posted that info yet, and need a bit more time before I can get that together (thanks for being patient with me, Tom_MJCosplay).

However, a couple of days ago, some things changed for them. They changed their Instagram account address, and created a brand new Twitter/X account for their cosplays. Part of uploading all the photos included a new photoshoot featuring Fox and Krystal celebrating the Christmas holiday together.

Check out more photos:

• A Kiss by the Tree
• Prepared for Battle
• More Presents

As mentioned in yesterday's post, I've reworked my printable Krystal Staff parts to be much more realistic to the games. This was done as part of a commission for KeyBladeSonic, as he was planning a Fox McCloud cosplay. I just wanted to share what they looked like after being fully painted. Pretty cool huh?

This cosplay was worn at Anime Expo 2024. KeyBladeSonic posted some photos of the cosplay on his Instagram. Great work on the cosplay! He admits in the post that the shaft he chose was a little bit bent. I think it was the choice of material used. But as he says, it's all part of the learning experience. He'll be able to swap out the shaft with a different one with no issues so long as it's the same diameter. Photos by jonatcon_photos.

Over the course of 2024, I was commissioned to make another print of the Staff's head and tail (the two tips) for a Fox McCloud cosplay by KeyBladeSonic. He asked for a reprint of my existing parts, the Version 1 Staff Tips mentioned here before. I couldn't resist improving them, however, so I spent a while and created a much more accurate and nicer model. Those are the renders you see above.

This version 2 of the Staff head makes use of a pin and bolt structure instead of glue to secure the primary head part to the shaft interface part. You can see the pin alignment below. The pins provide rotational and structural stability. Into the central hole, I place a heat-set threaded insert so that the shaft interface and primary head part can be attached with a normal bolt.

Here's an example of how it works in real life.

There were dozens of improvements to this version. Not only is it much smoother, but it adds physical structures into the mesh that were previously only indicated via textures, such as the subtle creases to the sides and the implication that the two wings are separate from the internal nub at the center. Also, indentations are used on the bottom to indicate a separation, though the limitations of 3D printing as a single part make this an illusion rather than actual separation. Overall, this mesh is much more accurate to the games than my previous attempt.

After doing extensive testing to make sure the shaft size was accurate, I printed these out and shipped them off to KeyBladeSonic. Here's what they looked like after being printed, but before they were painted.

Like Version 1, these parts are available for purchase! If you'd like a set, you can purchase them for $100 plus shipping. It's a little steep because I put a lot of work into these and each print will require a little customization to make sure that the ends will fit your shaft's specific diameter. There's a special deal though. If you are planning to use these parts as part of a Krystal or Fox McCloud cosplay, they will be available at half price: $50 plus shipping. If you're interested, email me and we'll work out the details!

HopLaud has created a Krystal mod for Marvel Rivals, a popular new hero shooter. This mod works by skinning Black Widow as Krystal, keeping the suit but adding Krystal's head and tail. HopLaud is planning additional changes to the mod including a Star Fox Assault suit, UI and icon changes, possibly voice lines.

The mod is available as a free download on NexusMods.com.

On a day like many others of my college winter break, I pulled the trigger and published the Krystal Archive on January 8th, 2006, after a couple weeks of furious work to build it. At 19 years online today, the site is the same age as Krystal was when she first stepped onto General Scales' Galleon in the intro to Star Fox Adventures for the Nintendo GameCube in 2002. What a ride!

I know it has been quiet around here of late. Real life took precedence over the site work. I even promised to do better last year, but I didn't manage it. This time, it's a little different. Work is not quite as stressful, as I have adapted to my new role. Also, I've committed to posting at least once a day as one of my New Year's Resolutions. So far (other than over the last weekend), I've kept it up and I have no intention of stopping anytime soon. I have more than enough content to post about, with many things stuck in backlogs that I never got around to posting. Get ready for some serious necro-posting! But hey, that's what it takes to be an "archive", right?

I can't fully express how thankful I am for those of you who have stuck around. I want to do right by you by posting more and interacting more.

On that note, there hasn't been a Krystal Archive Podcast episode since January 8th, 2020! 5 years ago!!! That's going to change soon. I'm planning to record a new episode this Saturday and post it when I get it edited. So, here's your time to shine. If you have any questions, comments, or things you want me to cover, please send them in! What were your favorite Krystal events that happened in the last 5 years? What do you hope to see in the future? Do you have any burning questions about the site or Krystal? Let me know! Comment down below with your question or comment, or email me at mrkrystal@gmail.com. Looking forward to read what you have to say.

The Star Fox Adventures voice actress for Krystal, Estelle Ellis, recently ran a successful campaign to create a support plush, designed after her Krystelle portmanteau character (Krystal + Estelle). I have in fact received mine in the mail.

Now, she appears to be working on a second plushie, this one with an extra add-on. Could it be a magnetically attached Staff prop? More updates surely to come on her Twitter/X Feed.

In a "blink and you'll miss it moment," Krystal makes a quick cameo appearance at 1:19 in TerminalMontage's latest crazy video about Crash Bandicoot.

This isn't the first time she's shown up in a video by TerminalMontage. She has also appeared in Vaporwave Dimension - Star Fox 64, Speedrunner Mario vs Melee Fox, and Something About The Subspace Emissary.

Is TerminalMontage hinting something? Could a "Something About Star Fox Adventures" video be on the horizon?

Jacob Sorrells' fan film was delayed and didn't quite make the intended release date of the 22nd Anniversary of Star Fox Adventures. But now, you can watch the film in full.

Jacob used his full body Fox McCloud cosplay along with Krystal's staff and a bunch of lego and plush-based props to recreate several scenes from the introduction to Star Fox Adventures, putting his own spin on some of the scenes and dialog. Pretty much all work from acting, to voices, to editing was done by Jacob. I think there must have been at least one additional camera operator, but pretty much everything else was Jacob.

This is one of the very few live-action Star Fox videos in existence. I hope to see more from Jacob and other creators.

After completing and releasing the previous Krystal mod for The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, AngelTheVixen is at it again! This time, the legendary game is the GameCube version of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess!

AngelTheVixen released a video in this tweet showing Krystal taking out numerous baddies. The tweet implies (confirms?) that Estelle Ellis is on track to provide her voice for the mod as well.

Not much detailed information is available yet beyond the ability to play as Krystal where players would normally control human Link. The game uniquely allowed Link to turn into a wolf. Not a humanoid wolf, an actual feral-style wolf. I wonder if this mod will allow a Wolf Krystal form.

Watch for further developments at AngelTheVixen's Twitter/X account.

This takes a bit of explaining, but dedicated fans have been working for the last few years on decompiling Nintendo 64 games. This means that they take the output ROM data from their games, and using advanced techniques, they attempt the imperfect and artistic task of reverse engineering that back into human-readable code. Once in this form, the games can be recompiled again, this time for any system, not just the Nintendo 64.

This appears to have been what happened with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time a while back with the Ship of Harkinian project. Now, people associated with that project, have done the same for Star Fox 64. Their code has been released at the Starship GitHub page. Using this code and your own (LEGALLY SOURCED!) Star Fox 64 ROM, you can compile the game for your own PC, Mac, Steamdeck, or other system.

The project also supports modding if you know what you're doing. This kind of thing can open the door for full-speed, HD versions of Star Fox 64. Remember, this is NOT emulation! It will play better than on an Nintendo 64 with no slowdowns or incompatibilities due to issues with Nintendo 64 emulators. (Well, that's the theory. There are still many issues on the project remaining.)

Who knows how Nintendo feels about this, but it would be very difficult for them to argue this is illegal, as the project has no copyrighted assets. I think the future of game preservation will have a large wing for things like this: reconstructing the original game's intent by rediscovering the code that made it. What do you think?