Cosplay is a year-round hobby. The winter is a great time to work on costumes to debut at summer conventions, and it’s also the ideal time to experiment with new materials. Adafruit has plenty of materials to help you add some electronic flair to your ensembles with lights and sounds. Give the gift of costume creativity this season.

1,000 Incredible Costume & Cosplay Ideas: Not sure what kind of materials the cosplayer in your life needs? You don’t have to get specific and go searching for fabric or Worbla; give inspiration instead. 1,000 Incredible Costume & Cosplay Ideas by Joey Marsocci and Allison DeBlasio is packed with photos of costumes and is made to browse through and bookmark new ideas.

EL wire starter pack – 2.5 meter (8.2 ft): EL wire can be used to enhance several types of basic costumes and to construct specific character’s ensembles. Use EL wire to outline fairy wings or shapes like this Marvin the Martian or use it to make a costume replica like a Tron suit. It’s available in pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, aqua, and white, and this starter pack gives a beginner everything necessary to experiment with EL wire.

Adafruit Wave Shield for Arduino Kit – v1.1: If you know anyone who is hard at work on an Iron Man, Transformers, or any sort of costume involving robot-like armor, give them the present of sound. The Adafruit Wave Shield for Arduino needs to be paired with an Arduino to work, and the shield will play up to 22KHz, 12bit uncompressed audio files. Volume can be controlled on board. The kit comes with everything necessary to build the shield. Talk about a fun day after Christmas project! READ MORE.

Costume Goggles: Goggles are never a bad present for someone into cosplay because they’re versatile. They can be used for steampunk costumes, for cyber costumes like the Borg from Star Trek, or for aviator costumes. They can be left as is, modified, and even lit with NeoPixel rings.

Gemma Starter Pack: The small and potent GEMMA is a fine gateway into dabbling with incorporating electronics into cosplay, and this starter pack has it all. It comes with a GEMMA board, four sewable RGB pixels, battery holder and batteries, 2-ply conductive thread, alligator clips, and a USB cable for programming. The inclusion of the board would complement many costumes.

Sugru – multicolor pack: Sugru is a useful soft-touch silicone rubber that sticks to all sorts of surfaces. It molds and sets permanently and can be used for making small props like rings (you can actually use Sugru for metal casts) and for securing pieces of props into place. It comes in multiple colors, and this pack has them all.

Adafruit Audio FX Sound Board + 2x2W Amp – WAV/OGG Trigger -16MB: Want another option to add audio and sound effects to your costumes without using Arduino and a shield? This is the sound board you’re looking for. The Adafruit Audio FX Sound Board doesn’t require any programming and comes with a 2 x 2W stereo class D amplifier. This device is stand-alone and can play high quality sound. READ MORE.

Wire Light LED Strand – 12 Blue LEDs + Coin Cell Holder: Add a little sparkle to any project with a strand of silver wire LEDs. They feature small 1000mcd LEDs that are bonded onto the wires and coated with epoxy, so you have very flexible wire that can be worked into fabrics and even props. You could add these wire light LEDs (also available in white, red, and green) to tulle dresses, wands, swords, and more. You’ll need to get batteries to go with each strand.

Adafruit Holiday Shipping Deadlines 2014

Here are your 2014 shipping deadlines for ordering from Adafruit. Please review our shipping section if you have specific questions on how and where we ship worldwide for this holiday season.

The Adafruit Shipping Department works hard to get your orders out as quickly as we can, but once they’re in the hands of our carriers they’re out of our control.

Carriers have been struggling to keep up with the sharp rise in online orders. Last year UPS, FedEX, and USPS all experienced delivery delays.

So all the Adafruit Shippers say: Please be sure you get your gifts early! Order as soon as you can! Once you place your order we’ll ship like the wind!

UPS ground (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 12, 2014 – There is no guarantee that UPS Ground packages will arrive in time for Christmas.

UPS 3-day (USA orders): Place orders by Wednesday 11am ET – December 17, 2014 – Arrive by 12/24/2014.

UPS 2-day (USA orders): Place orders by Thursday 11am ET – December 18, 2014 – Arrive by 12/24/2014.

UPS overnight (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 19, 2014 – Arrive by 12/24/2014.

Please note: We do not offer Saturday or Sunday service for UPS or USPS.

Thursday, Dec. 25, 2014, Christmas, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
Thursday, Jan. 1, 2015, New Year’s Day, no UPS pickup or delivery service.

United States Postal Service, First Class and Priority (USA orders): Place orders by Friday– December 12, 2014 – Arrive by 12/24/2014 or sooner.

USPS First class mail international (International orders): Place orders by Friday – November 21, 2014. Can take up to 30 days ore more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2014 or sooner, but not a trackable service and cannot be guaranteed to arrive by 12/24/14.

USPS Express mail international(International orders): Place orders by Friday – December 5, 2015. Can take up to 15 days or more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2014 or sooner.

Gift Certificates are always available at any time.

When in doubt contact us!