One of the most recent Krystal cosplayers, Rubiinikettu, has finally had time to do a proper photoshoot in a nature setting. Check out our original coverage of this cosplay!

The photographer, Niinkos took some great shots of Rubiinikettu exploring an apple tree and nearby field, though I'm told there the apples were not yet quite ripe, unfortunately. Check out the gallery at the bottom for all the high resolution photos I was sent.

There are still more photos to be edited from this photoshoot, and Niinkos is working to finish them when she can. The next project for Rubiinikettu will be constructing Krystal's staff from EVA foam. Looking forward to those work in progress shots!

Gallery

Here's a few other shots from Twitter not yet featured here:

• "Oh, hello there."
• Stopping to smell the flowers
• WIP of arm bracers 1
• WIP of arm bracers 2

A little over a year after the newest trailer showing a lot of cinematics and updates to the engine. Very epic, though I had a bit of a hard time following all the action with the crazy camera movements and cuts. Good to see progress, though!

(Language Warning)

Additionally, Esphirian posted an explanation video about the nature of the project, what he's been working on, and where it's going next. Some of the key points are that he is still very wary of Nintendo's ability to shut him down, and so he has no plans at this time to release the game, either as a demo or the final product. That said, he's been learning a tremendous amount and reworking the project to be better and better all the time. When he started, he didn't know anything about programming or the Unreal Engine. Now, just a few years later, he has pretty good dogfighting, hoverbike, and ground combat systems implemented, along with a bunch of supporting systems like character animation, VFX, and optimization techniques. In the near term, he hopes to release some gameplay and cinematic videos, as well as more information on the lore. Oh yeah, that's right, he's already written the story for the game. Lastly, there's a chance that he will be seeking to add people to his team to speed up development, though no word on when that might be.

Follow ongoing development at Esphirian's Twitter account.

Thanks to Esphirian for helping me with this post!

In 2019, I did a big exploration of massive quantities of Krystal fanart, mostly categorizing data from DeviantArt. In the process, for fun, I decided to find the oldest Krystal fanart in the data. The post I made on the subject, "The Oldest Krystal Fanart," chronicled the search. My conclusion was that the piece SD Fox and Krystal by nokitty was the oldest one, dating to November 7th, 2002, a mere one month and 11 days after Star Fox Adventures was released.

However, I was more recently reminded that there was a much older one. One that did not appear in the DeviantArt archives. In fact, it predated DeviantArt itself. If you couldn't already tell from the photo, it appeared inside an issue of Nintendo Power.

Let's set the stage.

It was the turn of the new millennium. E3 2000 had taken place from May 11th to the 14th. For the first time, Dinosaur Planet, along with its two heroes, Sabre and Krystal, were shown and made playable. OK, that's not entirely true. I recently learned that Krystal and other aspects of Dinosaur Planet were revealed almost a month earlier, but that's a story for another time.

Leah, an avid Nintendo fan from Las Vegas, Nevada, happened to catch this coverage, or perhaps she followed Rare's press releases closely. Either way, she must have seen the early sketch promotional art for Krystal, like this one. A reader of Nintendo Power, she composed a letter and submitted it with hand-drawn Dinosaur Planet Krystal fanart on the envelope. A few months later, the November 2000 edition of Nintendo Power (#138) was released and her piece was the first featured letter artwork of the issue.

It's hard to make out, but the postmark date on the envelope is July 26th, 2000. Leah could have drawn it earlier than that, but even with this date, the fanart's creation was no later than 2 months after Krystal's very first possible appearance. It predated the release of Star Fox Adventures by at least 789 days, and the previous Oldest Krystal Fanart by at least 834 days!

Rare was a much more popular company then, and they had a large web presence at the time. It wouldn't surprise me at all to find that there is more Krystal fanart from this period. Does anyone else know of any?

And since I'm asking questions, Leah of Las Vegas, Nevada. Are you out there? Nintendo Power doesn't appear to have ever published what was in your actual letter, only the envelope. What inspired you to draw this fanart? Were you captivated by the world and character of Krystal, even before she became what she is today? Are you still a fan? Did you ever do any other Krystal fanart? Anybody else have more information about this artist? I'd love to know some behind-the-scenes!

You can read this issue of Nintendo Power yourself in these Nintendo Power archives.

Thanks to Sunnyside, Kaddyshacks, and Kaddyshacks' friend for bringing this to my attention. (I should have found this myself. I own that issue. Time do some gaming archaeology!)

You probably remember that Estelle Ellis, the original voice actress for Krystal in Star Fox Adventures, agreed to voice Krystal in Star Fox Event Horizon, a fangame in ongoing development by UndyingNephalim.

UndyingNephalim will be hosting a livestream with Estelle Ellis tomorrow, July 23rd, at 12PM Pacific. I'm told this will be focused on Estelle Ellis' herself, her career and projects, some of the work on Star Fox: Event Horizon, and then Q&A.

You should be able to view the stream in the video above once it starts. However, you should probably view it on the YouTube page itself so you can participate in the chat.

Introducing Rubiinikettu, a new Krystal cosplayer. She made her debut as Krystal last weekend at Desucon 2022, a Finnish anime convention. It was a relatively small con, but a few pictures are emerging of her time there. Her costume is very accurate to the games and it's causing quite the stir online.

I got in contact with Rubiinikettu almost immediately and she was kind enough to send me a bunch of details about the costume and her experience. I will summarize what she said below.

She's been reading the Krystal Archive and using it for research during the construction of the costume, especially the 3D models. She got inspiration from other cosplayers, specially Ayano Harumaki and Nyalice.

She loved Star Fox Adventures back in the day, but hated the flying parts. She likes strong female characters in video games and believes Krystal to be a fierce fighter.

Rubiinikettu has been cosplaying for a long time under a different name, hence her skill in creating this Krystal cosplay. She took a long break from cosplay before researching what kind of costume would be a good new challenge. She settled on Krystal as she had never done a fursuit-style head, which was the most interesting part of the costume for her to make.

She began working on it in the Fall 2020, with many breaks and slow progress. She tried many new techniques and fabrics, experimenting until she found the best options. She focused on accuracy to the game, keeping proportions the same and avoiding the toony look that some fursuits can have. The head is carved upholstery foam with fur fabric on top. She used the "follow-me" eye technique, which creates the illusion that the eyes are following the viewer. The hair on the head is a synthetic wig. The ears are more upholstery foam covered in fur fabric. The headband is made from EVA foam and attached to the top of the head with magnets so it can be easily removed to adjust the wig.

The armor pieces are very lightweight and not too bulky. They're EVA foam covered in Worbla for the upper armor. The leg armor is just EVA foam with no Worbla. They are mostly attached with a lot of velcro.

The shoes were a special challenge, Rubiinikettu never having modified shoes before. The feat are made from upholstery foam with individual toes that can move.

The bodysuit is stretch velvet, a material used often by figure skaters. Rubiinikettu used an airbrush to help blend the colors from blue to white on the front. The tattoos are stretch vinyl, and might I add that she got the spiral direction and orientation correct, something many artists overlook. The tail is filled with cotton and has a base made with upholstery foam and metal wire.

The jewelry is 3D printed, made by a friend. The red headpiece was cast in red resin, but the bigger green one failed to work the same way, so it is simply a painted 3D print. The clothes required a lot of gluing and ironing to get the details right.

The biggest problem to solve with this cosplay was making sure the bodysuit was flexible while avoiding wrinkles, especially around the neck. She also had to make sure the shoes were sturdy, but comfortable. Lastly, the eyesight through the head was challenging.

Rubiinikettu became more determined with every new problem and challenge she faced. One problem you might not suspect is the difficulty of getting the kinds of fabric she needed in her country. Much of the fabric had to be ordered from Europe.

She's very happy with the outcome of the costume. She was surprised how many people recognized the character, in spite of being 20 years old. In the future, she hopes to work on a staff prop with LEDs later this year. There were some other details she wants to update, like the buckle ornaments on Krystal's back and tail.

This appearance at Desucon was only the first. She plans to be at more cons and do some photoshoots in the future.

You can follow Rubiinikettu's work on Twitter and Instagram.

Photos by Pixeffect, Niinkos, SampoMoN, and possibly others. Please let me know if I missed anyone or if you find more!

UndyingNephalim has revealed that he has tentatively worked out a deal with Estelle Ellis to reprise her voice role as Krystal in another fan game, Star Fox: Event Horizon. Frankly, I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner.

The details are still being worked out. I'm sure UndyingNephalim will post more about plans in the near future when he has more to share. For now, it's great to see some authentic Krystal representation in the modern day, like with the first major project: The Half Life 2 Alyx Mod.

I go out of town for a wedding and suddenly all this Krystal news! Please stand by for several big Krystal stories.

Coffee Woozel commissioned crispicroissant to make a custom Krystal plush last year. Finally getting around to posting about it.

It's so cute! She has little custom jewelry, armor, and clothing, just like the games. I'm impressed by the detail on this plush.

Etsy user stillustrated is offering one of her Krystal artworks for sale as a holographic poster print. Check out the listing on Etsy to see the full size preview. There are two sizes available: 5 by 7 inches for $7 and 11 by 14 inches for $15.

Tremendouz has created a remix for the Krazoa Palace theme, one of the most iconic and mysterious songs in the Star Fox Adventures soundtrack. Visit the remix page for details about the song, it's creation, and links to download it.

A few weeks ago, I ran across a sketch by artist Pruh that captured my imagination in spite of it's status as but one of many small doodles on a page full of other Krystal sketches. It shows Krystal, with a serious expression, wearing a lab coat, hands in her pockets. Somehow that combination is just epic.

So I contacted Pruh and proposed a commission in which she would finish the art as a colored commission. She agreed, and what you see above is the product of that. This is the full size version without the watermark. Last week, Pruh released a smaller version with a watermark that you might have seen already.

Having looked at it in full color, I've developed a head-canon that this is the version of Krystal that maxed out psychic abilities instead of staff combat. She can probably levitate and can fling enemies around with her mind without needing to move her body.

Thanks again for the excellent work, Pruh!