Cosplay Station review!
Maybe you’ve heard of Cosplay Station. Maybe you haven’t. But if you are in the latter, let me briefly fill you in on them. Cosplay Station has been around since 2009 and they’re known for their more expensive but much higher quality cosplays, especially the ones that are custom-made. They’re also known for their amazing wig styling. I myself have commissioned a ton of wigs from them. And if you’re from Canada, you’ll be happy to know that while their costumes are made in China, the head office is located in Toronto, Ontario!
If you want to learn more about Cosplay Station and how they got started, click here to listen to my interview with Sunny, the owner and founder of the store.
So I may be a little biased because I’ve worked and bought a lot of stuff from Cosplay Station. But since you guys are interested in knowing how Cosplay Station is, I decided to write a review anyway.
If you’ve followed my blog for a while, then you’ve probably seen my Marth cosplay. Well here’s a little reveal: Cosplay Station was the ones who made that Marth cosplay for me! I paid top dollar for that costume to be commissioned. Was it worth the money? Let’s find out
In this next edition of reviewing costumes, I am going to discuss my Cosplay Station review of my Marth Fire Emblem cosplay. I will give you the details on the price, quality and what I like and didn’t like about it. To summarize, I paid almost $400 CAD for the costume to be custom-made and it was worth every penny.
Even though it was made several years ago, my Marth cosplay still holding up to this day! Read why Cosplay Station makes such great costumes.
1. Price
Let’s start this review with probably the most interesting part about my Marth cosplay: the price. As mentioned earlier, instead of buying this as a stocked item, I got it completely commissioned from scratch. At the time, I wanted to cosplay Marth for Anime North and wanted to look as fabulous as possible! So I decided to go all out with my Fire Emblem cosplay. In total, I spent $375 CAD on my Marth cosplay.
Because it was going to cost a lot of money, I decided to book an appointment with Cosplay Station to work out the details of the costume. We would figure out how to make the costume and I would decide which materials to use for each part. For example, for the armor I could have used foam (cheaper) or Worbla (more expensive).
Also because I lived in Toronto and Cosplay Station was located in the same city, I was able to do this appointment in-person! When I was with Sunny, she thoroughly explained how my Marth cosplay would be made, and how much it would cost.
It was a great process that showed me where my money was going. I knew it wasn’t going to be cheap but that’s okay; I was focused on a high-quality cosplay.
Score: 4/5
2. Design
You would think that a complicated Fire Emblem character like Marth would be difficult to make. It probably was! But wearing the costume, it honestly isn’t too difficult to put on. Again, the costume is custom-made, so I feel like my version of Marth has never been made the way it is.
Let us break it down. Note that I didn’t include the tiara, the wig, boots or pants because they were not included with the costume:
- The inner gown is beautiful. I don’t know what it is. Either the solid blue color, or the way the gown is cut in the middle. The gown is so nice and definitely the highlight of the costume. The gold stripes in the middle of the costume make it stand out as well.
- The cape. Wow! The cape was the perfect complement to the gown that already looks good on its own. The cape is blue on the outside and dark red on the inside. The fabric is very thick and the colors really stand out. On the back of the cape, there is a logo printed. Unfortunately, since the source photo was blurry, we weren’t able to get a detailed logo done. But it was still printed on the cape and it still looked great!
- The emblem. So for Marth, he wears this emblem that looks more like a red button. It’s okay in my opinion. I’ve worn the button for years and it’s still holding up. But I feel it could have been designed better, rather than a simple pin onto the cape.
- Gloves. The gloves are likely made of polyester and they’re very comfortable to wear.
- Brown waist belts. The brown waist belts were also made of polyester. This was an oversight on my part. I should have asked for this to be made out of leather; that would have made the costume look better. But the polyester belts worked just fine.
- The armor. Last but not least, we have the chest and shoulder armor for my Marth cosplay! The coolest thing is that I wear a small top with button connectors attached to it. So if I want to put on the armor, all I had to do was press the armor onto the button and it would connect. This was a really cool design and it was so sturdy that the armor never fell off!
Overall, the design of the costume was just awesome.
Score: 4/5
3. Quality
With me getting this costume made specially, I would expect it to be durable. And when it comes to quality, Cosplay Station did not disappoint! The fabric they used to construct my Marth cosplay was top notch. The gown and the cape are really sturdy while also being breathable, meaning I didn’t get too sweaty when I had to wear the costume in hot weather. Well, maybe except for Otakuthon but it was really hot that year!
The gloves and belts have held up for a very long time. Not one single rip or cosplay malfunction with them.
As for the armor, I’ve had a bit of mixed results. On one hand, the foam armor itself has not fallen off or rip apart. It’s still holding up! But on the other hand, the details on the armor have started to come off; the gold stripes in particular have become unglued over time. I did apply some glue to keep it intact, but it’s definitely not looking as good as it used to.
The red pin has also had some issues as well. The “ball” part of the pin fell off one time, but I was able to glue it back as well.
Other than that, this costume is very high-quality. To put things in perspective; I’ve had this Marth cosplay for over 7 years now and it’s still holding up to this day. That just shows the insane quality of materials that were used to make this costume!
Score: 4.5/5
4. Shipping
When it comes to shipping, this was a very unique situation where I was able to pick-up my costume! So I don’t think it’s fair to give a shipping score this time.
But to summarize really quickly, the costume took about 1-2 months from the time I went in for the appointment, to the point where I came back to pick up the costume. I did emphasize that I needed it for Anime North, so the people at Cosplay Station ensured my cosplay was finished in time.
Score: N/A
5. Size and fit
Other than a couple of accessories, my Marth cosplay fit really well! The reason for the accurate sizing was simply because I actually got my size and measurements taken. When I visited the store for the appointment, Sunny used a measuring tape to precisely take all my measurements, including:
I am glad I got an accurate measuring of my proportions. To this day, I still use those measurements whenever I buy a cosplay from other stores. My size hasn’t fluctuated too much over the years, so it’s more or less accurate today.
With that said, there are a couple of things that didn’t fit perfectly. The brown waist belts were a bit too big, so I ended up having to wrap them around more than once to compensate for their longer and bigger length. The gloves/gauntlet was also a bit too big, so it didn’t look as nice as it should. Gauntlets are meant to be tight-fitting and sturdy. But because they were bigger than usual, it didn’t look that way.
With that said, other than those two things, everything else fit just fine.
Score: 4/5
6. Cosplay Station Review – Overall
To this day, my Marth cosplay is still one of my favorite cosplays I’ve ever done and for good reason; Cosplay Station made me a very high-quality costume that has stood the test of time. I always enjoy cosplaying as Marth and I got so many compliments from people at conventions for the costume.
Commission-based cosplays always have their time and place. This was the rare occasion where I decided to splurge on cosplay and it was worth every penny!
However, even the owner (Sunny) advised me not to spend so much on cosplay too often. I will head her advice. 🙂 As I always mention as well, cosplaying can get expensive.
I hope you enjoyed this post. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below!Overall: 9.5/10
My name is Roger Senpai. I’m a cosplayer that’s been in the community for well over a decade now. I’ve traveled all over the world to Anime and Comic conventions and hosted my own cosplay events. Now I’m writing articles for new and experienced cosplayers like you to help inspire, save you money and improve your cosplays!
