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Cosplay is short for "costume play." So just what IS the difference between a cosplay costume and your run-of-the-mill Halloween get-up? While both of them involve dressing up as a character from a book, movie, or video game, a Halloween costume expands that into just about anything, including a bottle of ketchup or your favorite candy bar. It is something fairly casual and meant to be for fun. It can be cheaply made, have fake muscles, and quite possibly a lot of velcro.
A cosplay costume, however, tends to be a little bit more on the serious dress-up side. In cosplay the goal is to do your very best to look as authentic, accurate, and immersive as you possibly can. Not only do you want to look the part, but you want to act the part as well. Cosplayers tend to put a lot of time and money into their craft.
Tuesday, March 19th
Halloween Costumes is the overall best place to buy anything you need for that Comic Con coming up. This retailer has a ton of five-star ratings from its customers, and their support team does everything they can to get your items delivered on time. A bonus is that you don't have to wait for overseas shipping. We absolutely love Halloween Costumes for cosplay and we think you will too.
Bad Wolf Costumes is a small shop on Etsy that does handmade costumes. Even though the selection is low, if this is the kind of cosplay you're looking for, we highly recommend checking them out. The reviews are glowing.
CosRea is a great choice if you're looking for more affordable options. Most of the accessories come with the costumes and there is free shipping over $100. Standard sizing is available, but so is no-charge-added custom made. CosRea gives you lots to love.
Sim Cosplay is definitely a costume store to check out. They have a large selection, custom sizes available on some costumes, reasonable prices, and a decent return policy. Customer feedback is very positive as well, earning this retailer a strong ranking among cosplay costume stores.
Halloween Costumes is the overall best place to buy anything you need for that Comic Con coming up. This retailer has a ton of five-star ratings from its customers, and their support team does everything they can to get your items delivered on time. A bonus is that you don't have to wait for overseas shipping. We absolutely love Halloween Costumes for cosplay and we think you will too.
Champion Cosplay has a huge selection of very well-made cosplay costumes. The downside is that shipping is on the pricey side. Returns are a bit of a hassle as well so make sure you are very careful when ordering.
Pro Cosplay has some extremely happy customers, but also some unhappy ones. The positive reviews and very realistic looking costumes outweigh the negatives we found though. Do be sure to leave yourself plenty of time to get your cosplay into your hands though.
Herostime has a huge selection of costumes, especially for Spiderman. Their website is just average, but customers seem happy - and it's a plus that this cosplay costume store offers free returns for items that arrive damaged. Most of Herostime's costumes are of the spandex jumpsuit variety, but if that is what you're looking for, this might be just the place for you.
EZ Cosplay is another store based in China with a really large selection of cosplay costumes - especially anime. While their site isn't the best-looking, it's still fairly easy to navigate and their prices are reasonable. If you haven't found what you're looking for elsewhere, EZ Cosplay might be a great place to check out.
Role Cosplay does have one thing going for them - the fact that you have 30 days to return your costumes, even if something just doesn't fit. Otherwise, their site isn't very professional and is hard to navigate. If you can't find what you're looking for elsewhere then go ahead and take a chance on Role Cosplay. Otherwise, you might want to stick to a higher-rated option.
There is nothing like being able to wander around dressed as your favorite movie/TV/anime character. If you do it up right you might even have photographers wanting to take your picture. Some of them may even be willing to do some pretty neat composite work on the image and let you have it as well. Because cosplay is all about looking as realistic as you can, you want to make sure that you get a costume that could pass as screen-accurate.
A lot of cosplay stores are based in China - most, in fact. That's why shopping online is a great way to go about finding the next character to dress as, for taking part in your next Comic Con. Since there are so many to choose from, how do you know what to look for? Keep these things in mind as you shop:
To help you get the best look available, TopConsumerReviews.com has evaluated and ranked today's most popular online retailers of cosplay costumes. We're confident this information will make it fun to get the whole vibe you're going for!
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