Racers, Start Your Engines! Nearly 200 Cosplayers Gather for the Biggest April Fool's Cos-Prank
Collage made by Gaius Cosplay
Oh no! Looks like the Koopa Troopa army is at it again!
Some of you may have noticed an invasion of Shyguys and Shygals all over the internet today. It was no sheer coincidence! It was one of the several cosplay groups that got together to do a themed event for social media this April Fool's. Nearly 200 cosplayers participated in the 2019 Shyguy group- double that of the Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy prank from last year! The event went down under the tag #shygalgang this time around, and several shenanigans ensued!
Even these good doggos showed their April Fool's spirit!
Left: adventureswithavalanche poses with shelbyeileencosplay in this pic by nicknewton07
Right: beggingfortreats got dressed up too! Photo by bombchellecosplay
"Oh no, I'm late!! Which way is it to the race track?"
All of us were terribly lost for HOURS, looking for the way to the starting line so that we could race in Mario Kart! It seems like someone forgot to give us the correct address, so some of us ended up at the wrong game entirely, like laser tag, or skee ball! We could have just stopped to ask someone for directions, b-b-but... we're way too shy to do that! No way!
Right: shirleysurelycosplay sure looks shy as Shyguy in this photo by danielle.jpg_
Safety in numbers! Shyguys start searching for the starting line together!
Eventually some of us Shyguys were able to find each other, and tried to congregate and find the starting line together. That seemed to be more successful, but it still seemed like we were all ending up at different tracks! No matter how hard we searched, we figured we would all be late and miss the race for sure...
"Whoops? How did we end up at Peach Beach??" These fantastic cosplayers in Hawaii may have ended up at the wrong track, but honestly, not a bad place to get lost!
Cosplayers, from left to right: Ohnuggins, Maad.angxt.cosplay, Angelpillbug, Cruxguts, and MiguelMoralesPhotography who normally was behind the camera, but stood in for this shot!
Pic snapped by the_mick_ella
"In the name of the Mushroom Kingdom, I will punish you!"
Shyguy was a fantastic choice for this prank, since so many pieces could be found in closets, off Amazon, or easily made on short notice! Plus with so many possible color variations, we all had freedom to be a little more creative with the design, compared to the strict uniform code of Nurse Joy and Office Jenny! Some cosplayers even went all out to do their own crossovers, like a Sailor Moon Shyguy!
Cosplayer notgrima is looking absolutely magical in this shot taken by helixdigitalphotography
Organized by Gaius Cosplay again, cosplayers collaborated with local arcades, go cart tracks, and photographers to come up with some bright and colorful results! Popular locations included spots like Dave and Buster's, or other more local arcade venues!
Right: yfotography snaps a pic of surelyshirleycosplay and adelyndawn as a bystander gasps! :o
Though other members of the group had to shoot on short notice, so they had to get creative in other ways, like setting up studios in their homes, or taking creative selfies. Some even did some edits like adding stickers to their pictures, or straight up placing themselves onto a Mario Kart track! No matter how you got your pictures done, it's obvious that everyone had a blast with this, and the masks really helped bring out our goofy side!
Right: catloaf_creations edited in her own personal racetrack! VROOM VROOM!
The more the merrier! Spread the word!
Every year, the group grows larger, more diverse, and more creative. Because it can only spread by word of mouth, it's a bit difficult to get every cosplayer ever involved without essentially broadcasting what the prank is going to be! We want it to be a surprise to some people at least, haha! But the more the merrier!
Cosplayers left to right: tehblitziest, catsnbootzncats. technicolorcosplay, meeversdesu, charles_degrooty, notgrima, inthesilvershadows, lilbatcosplay, maretcos
Photographers: cocorecho, helixdigitalphotography
The group is simply intended as a fun gesture, and open to anyone (you don't even have to be in the Facebook group to join in!) so hopefully next year it will grow even bigger and better than ever! Or on the flip side, maybe we will start seeing multiple groups pop up, like the Star Wars and Steven Universe groups that came out for the holiday too! After all, the cosplay world is BIG, so there's room for multiple pranksters here. ;3
Cutie akakioga taking a not-so-shy selfie with haileyscosplay
Thanks to everyone who participated! There's SO many people involved this year, that the length of the list rivaled the length of this blog, so here's a link to a Google Doc with their Instagram usernames! Sorry, links not activated on the list, but please check them all out if you get a chance! If a name was missed or misspelled, please let me know, and it will be added/edited ASAP!
Photo by burressproductions with rthetagrey as the left Shyguy, and myself on the right!
Mega thank you to The Web at West Chester, Ohio, for allowing myself and some friends to do our photoshoot there so last minute! Be sure to check out my photos from the shoot here!
What kind of cosplay pranks do you think would be fun to do in 2020?
It's a milestone year, so we gotta make it BIG! Leave your ideas below!
