At AnimeExpo 2014, twilightproductions was challenged by Topher (the Fox McCloud cosplayer) to do something which was out of her comfort zone and this is the result. The costume relied heavily on body paint, which twilightproductions called "a scary ordeal" for her. She had never done a cosplay that used a prosthetic before either. The shoulder pads were more or less glued to her shoulders which made it difficult for her move around, but all in all, she was happy with the way the cosplay turned out.

Guest post by Brian! Thanks, Brian! Additional photos by doubleedge7.

Check out this huge fan collection. FoxMcCloudFF7 has just about every Star Fox thing I have, times three!

I know some of you prefer to listen to the podcasts, not just watch them. Just for you, I've prepared this special audio recap of the events that took place at Furry Fiesta 2015 in the live presentation. I had to get this out there before recording Episode 36, which will be soon. Then, for Episode 36.5, I have a special interview that I'm sure you've all been waiting for!

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Notes

PS - Our good friend Brian, who you'll be hearing more about soon, has posted his personal recording of the Furry Fiesta panel. It's mostly the same as before, but he actually turns the camera to look at the audience on occasion. You can see what it was like to watch the presentation from the audience's perspective.

This morning, UndyingNephalim posted a new trailer he's been working on. Yes, he's going for the 80's corny sci-fi vibe here. You can see Krystal's new design in there too.

The third demo is available on ModDB. I don't yet know what new features the third demo has, but I'll update this post once I can find out.

Thanks to Leo for the heads up.

To tide you over until we can finish editing the Furry Fiesta footage, Ayano was kind enough to send photos of the Assault suit and gatling gun. As mentioned earlier, Ayano had to leave the gatling gun in Japan due to airport security concerns. So enjoy these photos and video. Also, look for the little easter egg in one of the car photos.

Artists are starting to make their choices known in the form of art. Technically, this isn't one of them, but it's just so cute I had to post about it. Later on, I plan to post some of the legit Krystal4Smash art. As for this one, the art is originally by ukalayla, but someone on KnowYourMeme made it into a ballot image.

Ayano sent me a lovely drawing of Krystal from Japan's Nintendo Dream magazine, dated February 2006! It was drawn to celebrate the new year by Takaya Imamura, who is responsible for many of the Star Fox characters of old. In it, Krystal is wearing a haregi (a Japanese festive kimono dress). Enjoy this little piece of obscure Nintendo history. The in-context picture is below.

As mentioned in the previous post, Nintendo is actually legitimately taking suggestions for Smash Bros. DLC characters! (I know, I can barely believe it either.) Every entry will be seriously considered by the team, so your suggestion for Krystal needs to be serious as well. As a sample, here is what I submitted (or tried to submit, the site appears to be taking a pounding right now). It's short and to the point due to the 500 character limitation.

One thing I want to stress above all others is this: when making your suggestions, please be positive! Talk about the advantages Krystal has in and of herself, as well as how she is differentiated from other characters. Speaking negatively against other choices as a way of making Krystal sound better is not a very friendly tactic and probably won't win you any respect from the developers. After all, the other fandoms want to see their characters too. We should be happy and supportive of their efforts as well. We're all gamers! We should be friendly to each other as we are (virtually) smashing our opponents off of stages and into bottomless pits.

Vote 4 Krystal in the Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot!

The live-feed is online now! I'll be watching, and I hope you will too! If any relevant news pops up during the presentation, I'll post it below.

Updates

• Nintendo is doing more DLC characters for Smash, Lucas was just revealed.
• Iwata is asking for character suggestions!!! Smash Bros Fighter Ballot coming!
• No Star Fox, looks like. :( E3 can't come soon enough!

Alright, it's over! Time to go vote for Krystal! Be sure to mention some of the reasons she would make a unique and interesting new fighter:

• Capable of staff-based and gun-based combat
• Popular female character
• Telepathic character
• Previously popular request for Brawl
• More Star Fox representation while avoiding clone characters
• Finally, a Star Fox character with a Final Smash that ISN'T A LANDMASTER!!!

Here's exciting news that I've been holding back for a few weeks due to non-disclosure agreements. However, I now have officially received permission to reveal that I will be taking on a new role in the Star Fox fan community. To my shock and pleasant surprise, Nintendo contacted me in March to request that I act as an official fan liaison for the Star Fox series. Apparently word got around to the higher-ups that I was both a long-time Star Fox fan, and technically competent in the game development space, given my previous job at Electronic Arts and masters degree from DigiPen.

What does this mean? Well, it's my job to act as an intermediary between the development team working on Star Fox and you guys, the fans. I'm to gauge what the fans are looking for in a Star Fox game, both the upcoming Wii U game, and future Star Fox projects (which I unfortunately cannot talk about, but rest assured, Star Fox is not going away anytime soon.) As the Wii U game nears release, and during post-release, I will also be summarizing the Star Fox community's reactions, comments, complaints, etc. across all social media platforms so that Nintendo can best understand their hits and misses with hardcore fans and newcomers to the series alike. Historically, Nintendo has had a very secretive and disconnected modus operandi when it comes to fans. I guess with their recent interest in the mobile games space they're also taking more direct steps towards social media as a communication interface between creators and fans.

The part-time job doesn't begin until after E3 2015. Until then, I'm looking for what you want to see in the next Star Fox games, and also what you don't want to see. Leave a comment and tell me how you feel! Oh, and before you ask, no, I don't know if they'll be talking about Star Fox in the Nintendo Direct later today. They didn't tell me about it, so there may be little to no Star Fox talk in there. Again, I'll be operating in a semi-outsider, contractor-style role here. There are probably a lot of things in the development process that I will learn about the same time as you guys. On the other hand, NDAs are very strict, so there are hard limits on what I can say regardless of what I know. Please understand.

Update
Good news! I got permission to post a video about this new fan liaison role.