‘Tis the season for some of the nation’s biggest and nerdiest conventions.  Tomorrow marks the beginning of E3 at the LA Convention Center, and just a month later, the LACC will host Anime Expo.  If you haven’t purchased your ticket already, now’s the time to take advantage of some last minute savings.  A single day pass currently runs $30 online and $35 at the door, a two-day pass runs $50 online and $55 at the door, and a four-day pass (there is no three-day pass) runs $65 online until July 5th, and will be $70 at the door July 2nd through 5th.

Haven’t booked a hotel room yet?  No problem.  Several AX designated hotels, including the Omni Hotel, Biltmore Hotel, Wilshire Grand Hotel, and soon, the Marriot and Sheraton, have issued new discounted room prices.  For more information, visit Anime Expo’s website (http://www.anime-expo.org/2009/05/29/anime-expo-2009-provides-additional-discounts-for-hotels/).

In true AX fashion, the official programming guide has yet to be posted (and probably won’t until later in the month), but if you’re looking to plan out your gathering visits, Cosplay.com has it’s official AX cosplay gathering list posted and regularly updated.  You can find it here: http://www.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=167513

Admittedly, these gatherings are only really interesting if you enjoy seeing how different people interpret crazy anime and video game designs and bring them to life (or miss the target completely), but one gathering in particular this year promises to be very exciting.  This year AX cosplayers will attempt to beat the Guinness World Record for most video game cosplayers in one place.  The current record is 337, but for a large convention like AX, breaking the record should be a piece of cake.  A lot of thought and planning has already gone into this attempt.  You can follow the efforts of these AX cosplayers here: http://www.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=164635 or cheer them on Saturday, July 4th, from 11AM to 1PM.

See you there!

The air is changing… The breezes whisper its arrival…

Time grows short.

Yes, that’s right, Anime Expo (AX), one of the largest anime (/manga/video game/etc.) conventions in the nation is almost upon us!  If you plan to cosplay at AX and haven’t started your costume yet – better get crackin’!

The vast majority of costumes require more than just cotton or polyester; they require titanium alloys, precious stones, tiny supercomputers, and other impossible pieces to make up a character’s armor and accessories.  But unless you’re insanely wealthy (and probably a little insane), you’ll take the budget route and use tried and true materials, like resin, foam, wood, or clay.

Clay is great for armor details and oddly-shaped accessories – which is the reason I chose it to form the jewelry that Princess Zelda adorns in her Twilight Princess form.  As you can see, it’s definitely not something you can pick up at a store, and if you try to buy a ready-made set online, you’re looking at spending a couple hundred bucks – and that’s just for the headdress!  If you’re artistic or can bribe a friend who is, you’re better off trying to attempt making it yourself…

…no matter how daunting the task may appear. *gulp*

To make accessories like these, you can choose from a variety of clay on the market.  I’m going to focus on two for now – Crayola Model Magic and Sculpey UltraLight.  Crayola’s Model Magic seems like a cosplayer’s dream – it’s cheap (one 4 oz. bag costs around $3.00), it air dries in a day, and it’s lightweight.  But Model Magic requires a surprising amount of extra work to ensure long life of a prop.  Most cosplayers that use Model Magic recommend coating the dried piece with a few coats of gesso, glazing, and/or covering with material to strengthen the piece.  The old (and possibly current) formula of Model Magic also performs a magic trick when paired with metal – it chemically reacts with the metal, producing a brown, rusty goo over time (I learned this the hard way with some ornaments I created years ago and unearthed later).  If you’re making a one-time-use prop and don’t care about durability as much as cost, this is a good way to go.

On the other hand, if you want all that blood, sweat, and tears spent trying to form these intricate pieces not to have been spent in vain, Sculpey UltraLight is a great option.  I stumbled upon this stuff while trying to hunt down some Hearty Clay, and decided to give it a shot.  I love this stuff.  It’s soft and forms easily (a little too easily at times – I don’t think Zelda would approve of my fingerprints all over her jewelry), it bakes well, can be sanded and drilled, and best of all, it’s pretty durable.  I made an extra test piece and when dropped, it bounced and didn’t shatter.  Now mind you, this was a piece shaped like one of the leaves in Zelda’s crown, and not something super delicate, but I was surprised at how well it stood up to the repeated abuse my fiancé and I put it through.

Although this clay requires an oven to harden pieces, it only takes fifteen minutes per quarter inch of thickness to bake – much nicer than waiting the twenty-four hours required for Model Magic.  Once the piece has cooled, you can sand it and paint it with standard acrylic paint.  If you don’t sand the entire piece beforehand (I didn’t…), it’ll just require a few extra coats of paint – something you’d want to do anyway, sanded or not.

I haven’t completed my Zelda armor/jewelry yet, but so far, I’m very happy with the results I’ve experienced with the Sculpey UltraLight.  It’s a bit more pricey than Model Magic – it comes in a 10oz package only, which runs around $10.00 – $12.00, but the saved frustration from having to remake your props will make it all worthwhile.

You can find Model Magic and Sculpey UltraLight at most craft stores and online.

Have a safe Cinco de Mayo, Spwug readers, and may you finish your costume BEFORE 3 AM the night before AX!

It’s pretty easy to write a “magical girl” anime.  Take one young girl, add an animal sidekick, some latent magical abilities, a world in crisis, and voila! – you’ve got the basic ingredients for stories like Cardcaptor Sakura, Sailormoon, or Alice 19^th.  Enjoyable as these stories are, they become extremely predictable.  Gee, Sailormoon is really the “Princess of the Moon”!?  Didn’t see that one coming!  But as forgivable as these predictable storylines are, sometimes it’s nice to find a “magical girl” anime that actually keeps you guessing until the end.  I’ve found such an anime in the surprisingly intriguing Princess Tutu.

Now, I know what you’re thinking (because I thought the same thing when I first heard the anime’s name) – “Princess Tutu,” probably the story of a ballerina and her happy, sugary friends who dance ballet in a land of sparkles and rainbows while repelling cute semi-evil creatures with attacks that include words like “dazzling” and “pink.”  But despite the name, Princess Tutu is anything but sugary-happy.  Its story has a good mix of comedy and tragedy, all stemming from its ballet roots.

Tutu’s story borrows heavily from a variety of ballet stories.  Each episode contains themes from a specific ballet, usually reflected in the episode’s title.  The character of Princess Tutu (a.k.a. “Duck”), herself, is a mixture of characters from Swan Lake and The Little Mermaid.  Besides the literary references, the characters also use ballet mime – motions that are like a type of ballet sign language – to help express ideas.  Of course, this is all reason enough to watch if you actually enjoy ballet (like me), but even this can’t compare to the real draw of the series – the characters.

It’s so easy for a series to practically hit you over the head and say, “Hey!  See that creepy guy?  You’re supposed to distrust him.  And that cute girl?  Root for her, okay?”  What’s not easy is for characters to morph over the course of a series so that you experience a whole range of emotions with them – fear, loathing, sympathy, admiration, and more.  In Princess Tutu, the character you trust one moment might be the character you hate in the next.  But no matter how many transformations a character may undergo, they’re all surprisingly believable.  These changes also shape the fairytale previews that open each episode.  What begin as allusions to classic ballet stories slowly turn into the real story being revealed with each passing episode; kind of the way the true story is revealed in the movie, Hero.

Just as the characters and story transition smoothly, so do the story’s settings.  In one scene, Princess Tutu is surrounded by the usual comedic school chums and the hijinks that go with them, and in the next, she is in a more reserved and serious world, mindful of the task she has sworn to see fulfilled.  Nothing ever feels rushed or drastically altered.  The pacing of the series as a whole is done well.  Even the ending is carefully set up, helping viewers to understand and make peace with the story’s conclusion.

For me, Princess Tutu is one of those rare series that has characters that come to feel like old friends towards the end.  They make you care enough to want to know what happens to them next while also not wanting to, to prevent the story from ending so soon.  When even the voice actors themselves are moved to tears at the end of the series, you know you’re watching something that had a lot of thought and heart put into it.

You can find the entire series of Princess Tutu for around $35 to $40.  I highly recommend it.  This way, when you start to experience the inevitable “Tutu withdrawal” that comes with the final episode of the series, you can ease the pain by starting back on disc one… Which… I think I might just do.

Greetings, my fellow Spwugians.

Remember that six-week-long course you were forced to take to fulfill some ridiculous college requirement?  You probably came out of those “how to study” or “find your true calling” classes with an armload of books you never cracked open and only an ounce more useful information than you started with.  What if I told you there was a six-week course that was actually interesting and gave you something useful for your hard-earned money?  If you’ve got six free Sunday afternoons and some extra cash (yeah, I know, I just snickered too) , the makers of Warhammer 40,000 and the new War of the Ring tabletop games have a proposition for you – to join them in the “Games Workshop Academy.”

For your fifty dollar academy fee (yes, that’s a “5” and a “0”), you’ll be enrolled in a six-week class made up of you and up to five other students.  Each week, you’ll focus on a different gaming-related topic – from figure construction and painting to rules and gameplay of some of the tabletop games the workshop offers.  During that time you may possibly score yourself a free (no slight of hand required) figure or two, and at the end of the course, each student receives a large case to house your future armies or any other game elements.  So sure, sounds fantastic on paper, but is the course really worth the hefty price-tag?

All sugar-coating aside – this academy is not for everyone.  If you’re just curious about model building or painting, you’re better off buying a book or searching for tutorials on the Internet, and spending the fifty dollars on materials.

This class is best-suited for people who are very interested in the Games Workshop games or similar tabletop games, want to know how to get started, and how to build the same awesome armies and terrain displayed on each Games Workshop game table.  The majority of the classes (obviously) are geared towards setting players up with the figures, paints, books, and other tools necessary to play the game.  In other words, in place of that fifty-dollar “Study Skills” book, you’ll be encouraged to buy the fifty-dollar game bible.  If you’re planning on playing the game, you’re pretty set.  If not, as with any other course, you can skip the homework that requires the book, deal with your instructor’s sighs, and move on.

Luckily, in my experience at least, the instructors never force the game on you – they’re more excited to show you how much fun you can have and how you can customize the game to your liking.  They don’t work on commission, so they’re free to treat you like a fellow human being, not part of a quota.  Just as with any other class, the instructor can make or break each session.  I definitely experienced a distinct range with my instructors.  My favorite instructor kept the class light and extremely nerdy, while my least favorite decided to spend most of the time talking (mainly about his awesome painting skills) and only allowed us a few moments of hands-on learning.  My advice is to check out your nearest shop beforehand and get a feel for the people working there.

One last piece of advice – if at all possible, try to take the classes with friends.  Not only will you have a better time (duh), you may be able to score a larger terrain set (i.e. a fort) to share collectively, and you’ll have more freedom over your schedule (i.e. Freedom to collectively postpone classes if need be.  Be advised that if you miss a class, your instructor will insist you make it up at some point during the week!)

My final verdict?  If you’re looking to get into these types of games or want to do something fun and nerdy with your friends, this is a good way to go.  If not, you’re better off sinking the money into materials and scouring the Internet.  I think I’ve learned some useful information from my time spent as an academy student – especially on how to build terrain.  Let me put it this way, if my home someday includes a miniature replica of Rivendell, complete with tiny working lanterns, you know why.

For more information about Games Workshop and their collection of games, visit:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/home.jsp

Sorry, Spwugsters… Life’s been a little hectic for me lately, so I haven’t had much time to write.  But, never fear, I won’t leave you without something interesting.

If you’ve been to any anime convention’s “masquerade,” you know that the skits performed there have the huge potential of being boring, drawn-out, and (the worst offense of all) unfunny.  But the thing that keeps us attending the masquerades and voluntarily suffering through the mediocre and sometimes downright horrible skits are the ones that are done very well.  I have just such a skit to share with you tonight.  From Sakuracon 2009, here’s “Sora the Explorer.”  Enjoy!

I am a collector of fun t-shirts – mainly the kind found on sites like Threadless, Woot, or 80’s Tees.  Most of the time, the shirts I find on these sites are awesome – they form a picture that plays off of a clever phrase or idea very well.  But for as fantastic as some of these designs are, there are others that seem to fail miserably.  This seems especially prevalent when it comes to the designs based on characters from years past.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell which is worse: the current reincarnation (and arguably, destruction) of some of the best ‘80’s cartoons and toys, or the cheesy shirts depicting them.  Now, don’t get me wrong – I own three Barbie shirts, a handful of Disney character shirts, and a couple with Rainbow Brite and She-Ra.  I love sportin’ old school characters.  However… some of these shirts go beyond that old charm and enter that rather awkward zone.

For example, this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle shirt sports the classic and health-conscious slogan, “Drug free, the way to be.”  It’s catchy, it sends a good message to young passers-by, and it brings back memories of the Cartoon All Stars to the Rescue TV special.  I’d definitely wear a shirt like this.  But a Ninja Turtles shirt mixed with the words “Smells like teen spirit” is another story entirely.  Somehow, I just can’t wrap my mind around teen spirit smelling like cheese pizza – especially considering a typical TMNT pizza also contains things like marshmallows and other odd toppings.

Then there’s this ThunderCats shirt, which seems to have fallen prey to the evils of incompatible words and pictures.  Lion-O’s catchphrase, “ThunderCats ho!” is a classic, but… when these words are joined by Cheetara’s picture, the meaning of the phrase changes significantly.  No lady appreciates such language – even if they are part cat.  If Cheetara were real, I’m sure such a marketing mistake would cause the designer to become her new scratching post.

I hardly think I need to explain this Strawberry Shortcake one.  “Strawberry fields forever?”  I don’t remember new or old Strawberry Shortcake episodes including drug use – or featuring Strawberry covering old Beatles songs for that matter.  Somehow, I picture the Peculiar Purple Pie Man being more likely to do both of the aforementioned activities than Ms. Shortcake.

I’m sure the design concept brainstorm for this Cookie Monster t-shirt was amusing…

“I did it all for the cookie, for the cookie, so you can ta-“

“Dude, stop.  It’s ‘nookie,’ not ‘cookie.’”

“… Seriously?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“……   DUUUUDE!  I just got the BEST idea for a shirt!”

Yeah…

But above all, this Full House shirt makes me want to facepalm like no other.  Besides the fact that the phrase “in da house” hasn’t been popular in at least a decade, the idea of playing with the dual use of “DJ” to mean “Donna Jo” and “Disc Jockey,” and placing her behind turntables is just a bit much.  Maybe it’s because it’s hard to picture a Full House character playing anything harder than “Jesse and the Rippers’s” brand of love ballad.  Or it could be because Everywhere You Look is probably impossible to remix well.

So there you have it.  Just a small sampling of t-shirt fail.  If you come across anything akin to these cotton catastrophes, by all means, share them!  Wearable they may not be, but amusing or at least worth a good shake of the head?  Definitely.

(Do not adjust your calendar, it’s still Monday.  Your regularly scheduled Scott and I decided to switch places for a week.  Er… article-wise, not in the Freaky Friday sense).

When I was in elementary school, I was made fun of a lot – mainly because while the majority of my female peers were spending their money on the latest Teen Beat and trendy accessories, I chose to invest my money in more important things – like Barbies, Ninja Turtles, and Lego playsets.  And after awhile, I decided to keep my buying habits a secret.  But years later, something wonderful happened.

Nostalgia happened.

Suddenly, the world decided, “Hey, these fandoms are freakin’ awesome and if you don’t agree, you can kiss my ass!”  And I rejoiced.

If you’re like me, and enjoyed (or still enjoy) collecting Lego playsets, you’re really going to like something I discovered (a little late) this past weekend.  Two words – Lego keychains.

Sure, you could have one of those “normal” keychains with the emblem of your car make’s company or one imprinted with the name of some location you visited this past summer, but why settle for something so trite when you could have a Lego character dangling from your ignition!

Lego has taken the same character figures from a variety of their playsets and turned them into some of the most unique and fun keychains around.

But which Lego keychain is right for you?

If you’re a Star Wars fan…

…there’s the obvious,

or you can allow your keys to turn sith with other members of the Dark Side, like Boba Fett, Emperor Palpatine or a Storm Trooper.  Of course, if you prefer your keys become stronger with the Force, there’s Yoda, Obi Wan, or R2-D2 (to name a few).  I came very close to getting one of these, myself.  The Storm Trooper is especially awesome.

Aside from Star Wars characters, there are favorites from Indiana Jones and Sponge Bob Square Pants, a pirate, dwarf, police officer, rock monsters, and the oldest of the oldskool, the Lego block.  Even the famous block has been upgraded, and comes in standard colors, more exotic ones like pink or lime green, and for those that like their old skool with a side of flashy, there’s a light-up block.  Each keychain features a character or block and a small white Lego logo tag.  I had the worst time trying to choose just one, but in the end…

I couldn’t resist this guy –

(I couldn’t help it!  He’s so ridiculously happy!  You can’t be mad at the person riding your bumper or the douche who just cut you off with him around!  …Right?)

One word of caution – although these are children’s toys and should stand up to normal wear pretty well, their painted features + metal keys ≠ getting along well.  To help your character have a longer relationship with your keys, take some glossy clear scotch tape (i.e. this) and cover any areas you don’t want scratched off.  I’m not sure how well the character arms and hands will stand the test of time, but they seem nice and tight, so they should be okay.

Who’da thunkit, huh?  Now you can have your nostalgia and use it, too.

Lego keychains are available here: http://shop.lego.com/ByCategory/Leaf.aspx?cn=286&d=228 or at a Lego store near you.  Other varieties (including Harry Potter characters) can be found on other toy sites or eBay (they’re a bit more pricey).

WARNING: This post contains SPOILERS for Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy XII, and Prince of Persia (2008): 

When I first heard that the latest Prince of Persia installment was going to feature an entirely new prince and his new love interest, I was kind of pissed…  Just who was this n00b with Vincent Valentine’s claw and what was he doing taking the place of a character I had grown to love over the course of several games!?  And how dare they replace an archer with what looked like your typical female mage!  Needless to say, I didn’t have very high hopes for these newbies.
 
But after finishing the game, I’m completely floored.  Not only are the new prince and Elika well-designed characters on their own, they make up what I consider one of the most believable and enjoyable video game relationships I’ve seen.  For two characters that had the seemingly impossible task of replacing beloved ones favorably, they’ve easily cleared that hurdle in my book.
 
In most games, the relationships aren’t the star of the show, but for many story-driven games, it can become the well-designed cherry on top or something that can actually take the viewer out of the story momentarily by its unbelievablility.  Imagine Mario and Princess Peach in place of the prince and Elika, and you’ve got a ridiculous comedy rather than a serious story.  And no wonder; they would fail two of the three criteria I find most important for creating a believable couple:  physical compatibility, communicative compatibility, and proven devotion.
 
Obviously, Peach and Mario can’t really be tested using this method, because they’re not meant to be taken seriously.  But sometimes, story-driven games can have pairings that seem just as oddball.  Take for instance Meryl and Johnny of Metal Gear Solid 4 fame.  I know I wasn’t the only one staring at my TV in disbelief when they somehow fell in “love.”  Let’s see how well these love birds stand up against my little believability test, shall we? 
 
Physically, they work together pretty well.  It’s not uncommon for physically strong women to fall for… shall we say… less physically-inclined men.  Nor is it unusual for an older woman to be in a relationship with a younger man.  At first glance, Meryl and Johnny seem like a new-age couple.  As for devotion, Johnny’s continued service to Meryl and her dedication to his safety are both good indicators.  But how well do they communicate?  For the majority of the game, Meryl’s conversations with Johnny are pretty limited and are mainly geared at getting him to man-up.  It’s only at the very end of the game when any romantic feelings are discussed, and they basically amount to Johnny being a Meryl-fanboy and Meryl being so despera- er… elated at this newfound attention that she proposes (or accepts Johnny’s semi-proposal of) marriage.  In real life, this relationship would probably have about as good of a chance as a celebrity marriage.
 
Sometimes, some of the most interesting potential relationships never even get off the ground.  If you know anything about Final Fantasy XII, you know there’s the roguish self-proclaimed “leading man,” Balthier, and a couple of lovely ladies named Fran and Ashe, among the group of rag-tag heroes journeying to save Dalmasca.  Although Balthier doesn’t get tied down to any one girl in the game, most pair him with Fran, citing the fact that she is his number one confidant and she’s smokin’ hot… y’know… despite the fact that she’s a rabbit.  But really, she’s the sexy Chewbacca to Balthier’s Han Solo.  They’re a great pair when the world (or universe) is in crisis, but beyond that… eh, not so much. 
 
Balthier and Ashe, however, are a bit more believable.  Besides looking pretty hot together (you know he’s enjoying that hand on Ashe’s waist), and helping one another through various scrapes throughout the course of the game, the two share the most meaningful conversations in the entire game – in fact, they’re the only conversations that really show much character depth. 

This one cutscene says a lot about the two.  Obviously, this isn’t enough to build a true romantic relationship with, but it’s a solid foundation, showing that the two are able to trust one another with the secrets of their past, and are able to comfort one another.  Already, I’d say these two would have a much better shot at lasting love than Meryl and Johnny.
 
There are plenty of game relationships that work well – Sora and Kairi of Kingdom Hearts, Rosa and Cecil of Final Fantasy IV, and Rufus and Alicia of Valkyrie Profile 2 to name a few.  But I would place Prince of Persia’s newest prince and Elika among the best of these relationships.  Physically, it’s very easy to see that they work together.  They have a similar disheveled-yet-sexy appearance, they’re both athletic, and their fighting abilities complement one another perfectly.  However, the area they really excel in is communication.  The first prince and Fara had good conversations towards the end of the game, but nothing on par with those of the new prince and Elika.  Aside from discussing their newest mission objectives, the two talk about their pasts, their ideas, and share silly quips.  Prince of Persia’s writers have truly created conversations that by themselves weave a rich storyline.  They also explain why both show the ultimate in devotion at the very end of the game.
 
This is your last warning – major ending spoilers ahead.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
 
So you’ve just spent hours and hours solving puzzles, fighting strange creatures, traversing the land, and locking a seriously insane god back into his tree-prison-thing.  Elika shows her devotion by giving up her life – partly for the good of the prince, partly for the good of the world.  It’s one of those selfless princess things.  The prince could’ve said to himself, “Well, that’s an honorable way to go,” “She was good company while she lasted,” etc.  But what does he do?  He goes and destroys everything you’ve just completed, because world peace doesn’t mean squat without Elika.  It may not be as selfless or honorable, but I think it’s freaking awesome.

Top o’ the evenin’ to ya, Spwug readers!  And Happy St. Patty’s Day!

(Are you wearing green?  That’s okay.  I won’t tell.)

Ah, holidays.  The merriment, the festivities…

…and THE CAKE!

Yes, ten out of ten cake-a-holics agree, cake makes a holiday fifty percent more awesome.

There are two kinds of cakes in this world – the kind for eating and the kind for marveling at.  If you’re a fan of Food Network (like me), you’ve probably seen many of the latter kind on Ace of Cakes.  These aren’t like those character-shaped birthday cakes your mom used to make – we’re talking edible masterpieces.  The master bakers/artists use everything from fondant and fudge to rice cakes and wooden rods to construct some of the wildest cakes ever imagined.

Haunted church with zombie bride, groom, and an assortment of costumed cats?  No problem!

Giant rubber duck with lipstick and heavy artillery?  Charm City Cakes has got you covered.

But Ace of Cakes isn’t the only place to find some tasty, towering works of art.  A few weeks ago, I beheld the wondrous site where cakes are either awesome or just plain awful – “Cake Wrecks” (found at http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com).  The majority of these cakes are decadent disasters featuring misinterpreted messages (i.e. “(picture of Olympic rings here)” spelled out in frosting) or are for unusual occasions (i.e. “I Quit!” cake), but the blog also boasts some of the most amazing and detailed cakes ever made.

There’s my personal favorite, 50^th Anniversary Barbie, the cake.  Imagine a larger than life Barbie flawlessly made of chocolate cake and fondant.  Impractical?  Yes.  A little creepy…?  Yes.  Major win?  Hell yes.

Do you own a cape?  Secretly wish to be a part of a fellowship?  This Minas Tirith cake is probably right up your alley.  The amount of detail in this cake is incredible.  It looks like part of the Warhammer Lord of the Rings game sets, not something you can actually eat.  Talk about a tasty siege…

Maybe you’re the nostalgic type.  Maybe you’ve got every DVD set of your favorite old shows and cartoons, and want something more.  This Fraggle Rock cake might be just your style.  I especially love this one because of the characters.  The artist captured the look and spirit of each of the characters perfectly – not an easy feat when working with fondant and frosting.

For the extremely nostalgic and engaged, this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cake might make an excellent addition to your reception.  I especially love that the cake topper has husband and wife ninja turtles.

And finally, for the engaged gamers of the world, behold the sheer amounts of detail and awesome in this Super Mario cake extravaganza.  Apparently, the couple who commissioned it took their cue from this famous Mario cake, and ran with it!  I love that so many elements and stages are represented – and the kissing Mario and Peach figures are a romantic touch.

Seeing all of these cakes really makes me want something like them for my own wedding cake someday.  Knowing the future groom and I, our cake would most likely have something to do with Final Fantasy.

For more crazy cakes, visit the Cake Wrecks blog.  Be sure to check it out on Sundays – that’s when the latest in amazing creations are posted.

Have a safe and happy St. Patty’s Day!

Howdy, Spwug readers!

Today I wanted to do something a little different – something that would poke a little fun at one of my favorite game series and might liven your otherwise boring day at work.

And thus, my rpg-a-riffic mad lib (or “MadLetter” according to the site I used) was born!

Follow the link below, type in your answers, and have fun!

http://iwiletter.com/madlib.html?code=djGfH1Ad