I've been cosplaying for 10 years now. :3 It's one of my favorite hobbies. I have friends who have been into it much longer than I have.

Basically for me, and for people who are older who are into this (also along the lines of sci-fi / fantasy / and replication costuming) it's all about recreating the costume of a character you are fond of. If not the character, but the costume itself. It's also about making the costume really well, putting a lot of time into it, as well as creating props and what not. There's also a lot of people who make and design original costumes too.

People don't wear them in their bedroom, or in their house. Sit there all day in the costume and pretend to be the character. I'm sure there ARE people like this, but 99.9% of the cosplayers I've encountered make costumes for conventions and other such events exclusively.

Another big aspect is competing with said costume during what's called cosplay contests or masquerades. Basically, you'll have your costume judged by a panel of judges for how well it's made and how accurate it is to your character. Your skill level also plays a part. I wouldn't compete against someone who has made their first costume because I have a lot more experience. Most are set up fairly in this way.  Then you go on stage and either do a performance (otherwise known as a skit) or do a walk-on (just walk on stage, pose a few times for the camera) and then go offstage. After that awards are presented.

I never get in character. Barely even for photos. The only time I do is if I'm on stage for a skit... which is rare.

I've been running cosplay competitions (masquerades) at various conventions for 5 years too! I think I find it more rewarding to appreciate other people's hard work and see them win than competing myself.

My problem is that I always wait till the last minute to make my costumes and they end up rushed and not polished... but here's some of mine!

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(I'm the one in blue)

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(one of my "i made this in 3 days" costumes lol)

A few when I was heavier. I've lost about 50lbs since then.
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I paid... $30 for Masquerade.  She DID come with her original ribbon, comb and clipping from her back card. But I neglected to notice she came from another country when I BIN'd.  She's a lovely pony and she's staring me in the eye right now, so I don't regret it.  But... I just felt silly! I pay more attention when I find ponies on ebay. :p

My husband claims that he "hates" them, and sighs when he walks in the room and sees ponies EVERYWHERE. Like "Look at this display! Look at it!" But it's in good humor.

He teases me about it.  Then I chase him with ponies. It's pretty funny!

Generally, he's supportive of it, as long as I don't do anything too silly.

I found a wave 1 Applejack and Twilight Sparkle with their forelocks. I also found a Blossomforth which has been kind of scarce lately.  I'm wondering, do you think that it'll be worth keeping them around MIB for awhile and selling them off later? I'm debating on if I should keep them or give them away at the next Pony panel I do at an anime convention. @_@

I've had this happen on a few ponies of mine! ;_;  What I did for one, (who was already mostly cut to begin with by some previous owner at some point) was remove the head entirely with a knife. Then I heated up the neck plug area with a blowdryer. Then YANKED at the plug portion stuck inside the neck (the smaller circle). You might have to pry something in there too. But I eventually got it out.  Then I glued it to the neck of the pony, matching it up.

Yeah, as far as I know, it's March 9th. Went to McDonalds today to check and they still had Starwars and... build a bear I think? :<  I asked the employee working the counter and they said they didn't have them yet.

Here's a pony I did a partial rehair on:
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Her pink was already all chopped almost down to the holes. But the yellow had been hacked away and a good portion of the blue had a chunk taken out of it.  Anything that wasn't already super short, I snipped short with scissors.

Then I got a mug of boiling water from the microwave. Dunked the head in to soften it up.  Then slip some long craft tweezers (needle nose plyers work too) and just grab and pull in the short areas. You'll see the hair start to pull out bit by bit. When it becomes difficult, redunk and start over. Make sure you leave anything that is still at it's length uncut.  You'll see if you start to pull the longer hairs that some of it goes in. Just pull it back out. It's too long to be pulled all the way out with ease anyway!

To rehair, start from the beginning and just start filling in the plugs using whatever method you are comfortable with.  To secure it, just put in a bit of glue. I use fabric glue... namely because tacky glue isn't water resistant and will come off with water. Fabric glue stays!

Let the glue dry, re-attach and style your pony!

You'll also want to trim the hair to match the length too!  Make sure that when you cut you just don't make blunt chops across. It looks very choppy and doesn't blend well with the pony's hair. I cut close to the length and then make small snips in the same direction the hair is going... easier to show with a diagram!

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You can always use a blowdryer too! That softens the vinyl up pretty quickly without getting it too hot! :3