Beginning January 2020, we will no longer be uploading reviews to FurAffinity. You can still follow us on our twitter, FursuitReview, and/or our website, FursuitReview.com.

We are not shutting down. We still accept any and all reviews (that follow the rules).
The only thing that is changing is that we will no longer be posting the reviews to FurAffinity.

Thank you for your support and happy reviewing!

Edit: We also have a discord server if you prefer that route. One channel is specifically for links to new reviews. https://discord.gg/mep6nUy

- Jyden (admin)

If you're looking for updates or direct contact with us, we are most active on Twitter.
Follow us on the FursuitReview account! We also have more technical updates on our development account, FSR_Dev.
In the case of either of these accounts being compromised for whatever reason, our backup account is Fursuit_Review.

Also note that this furaffinity account does not have all the features and capabilities of our website, FursuitReview.com. Please consider following us on Twitter and/or checking the website periodically instead of relying on FurAffinity.

Remember that your contributions help keep FursuitReview running.
Please consider supporting us through one of the following platforms:
Paypal | Patreon | Ko-Fi
The shinies system has been added to this account if you would prefer to go through this medium for paypal.


View our current supporters here!
You can view even more ways to support us and what we do with the money by clicking here.

Old one was frozen. Support didn't help. Here's the new twitter account:

http://twitter.com/fursuit_review



If we stopped regularly updating the FurAffinity, would you be able to keep up with us via Twitter or by regularly checking the site?

>> POLL <<

edit: To clarify, the reviews aren't actually posted on twitter. The twitter account simply announces when a review has been posted, and links to it on the website.



Happy April!

FursuitReview now has a Patreon: http://patreon.com/fursuitreview
To celebrate, we're also hosting a giveaway. Follow us on Twitter and retweet this to enter:
https://twitter.com/FursuitReview/s.....87890244894721

Thank you for your attention, and happy reviewing~!

Long time no chat, everyone!

There was some interest, so we've created a FursuitReview Discord server! You can use it to contact us directly or to just hang out!

Invite link: https://discord.gg/7SF3uG6

Greetings all!

FursuitReview is mostly active on Twitter, now. We announce all reviews there as they are posted with pictures and links to the website. We can answer questions and interact with the community. If you're not watching us there already, now's a great time to start!

The FSR Dev twitter account is used to announce site updates, though these are generally not done as often, if you'd like to follow this account as well.

We'd also like to take the time to mention that FursuitReview's real home is at the website: http://fursuitreview.com
Our FurAffinity page is a mirror, mostly done out of courtesy. The reviews you get here are stripped down and not formatted as nicely as the ones on the website. We have tons of sorting options and an advanced search, so if you haven't visited the website in the last year you should really give it a try!

Additionally, we'd like to announce a really great resource for finding new fursuit makers: http://getfursu.it
It is still in development, but is already quite useful and populated with hundreds of fursuit makers. If you're a maker and not on the site yet, fill out the form to add yourself! If you're a person looking to see what makers are out there (and if they have any reviews, or if their commissions are open right now) check it out!
FursuitReview is unaffiliated with this website, but our sites link to eachother and it's such a great resource, it's really worth promoting.

Finally, we need to give a shoutout to the Artists Beware community on LiveJournal. Again, we are not affiliated with them but we endorse their use. If you have never received your fursuit, you can't submit a review to us, but you can report it with AB to get the word out there about how some people fail to deliver.
Likewise, AB hosts "client bewares" which are public shout outs to clients who are especially difficult to deal with- a very handy resource for makers and artists alike who want to avoid unnecessary drama.

AB is a heavily moderated community and requires proof of a transaction with every beware. They have been operating for years and are extremely trustworthy. Please put them on the list of sites you check before commissioning (or accepting a commission from) someone.

Thank you for your time and happy reviewing!

Hello! Bornes here.
I am looking for a web developer to go through my work and make it less awful and also future-proof it.
Please note that I am unable to pay you.

If I haven't scared you off, here's the info:

FSR is run on WordPress on a shared server. You'll need familiarity with:

- Wordpress
- CSS
- PHP (optional but excellent)

FSR is running on a child theme with tons of (pretty bad) CSS modifications. It also has a bunch of custom functions and shortcodes that are also probably badly written.

There's a lot of notes, so it's not as awful as it could be, but it's not as thoroughly documented as it should be.

Other than that, I've got a couple problems that'd be nice to fix. And if you're a fan of the site then any improvements/suggestions will be welcome (if we can implement them). This is not meant to be a permanent position but if you want it to be it might work out that way.

If you're interested or you have any questions, please shoot me ( Bornes ) a note through FA or DM me on Twitter (CityFursuits).

Thanks for reading.

EDIT: It's probably worth noting that I don't have any version of the site that isn't live and online. So that is, uh... A limitation.
(code for I'm a moron and dont know how to do that, sorry)

Here's what we were waiting for! We hope you like it!

FurAffinity Specific Notes
We updated all the FSR links. If you click something and it doesn't work, please comment here about it so we can fix it.


What's New for FursuitReview.com


New link structure!
This means ALL old links are broken. If you'd like to link to a review, you will have to find it again for the new link. Apologies! Short URLs should still work. If they don't please contact us

New Review Form!
We've totally revamped the review form! Easier to get to, read, and use. It's part of the website, no longer ugly, and has more options. The majority of the questions are the same, but we added some new ones and changed wording for a lot of familiar ones. If you've sent in lots of reviews before, take note!

New Review display!
Reading reviews has drastically changed - for the better, we hope! Comparison of important data about the reviewer and the maker, such as: prior experience with fursuits, if deadlines were missed, on-time, or done early, type of commission, species, date the item was made, etc. This information is side by side on larger screens.

Images look and function better! We've introduced a lightbox for all images, so you will stay on the same page while viewing them. We've also made it so if there are 2 or more images in a line, you can view it like a slideshow instead of clicking them all separately.

The rest of the review has an improved single page layout. No more tabs! Question and answer display has also been visually improved with many wording updates. All of the old reviews (excepting the really old "grandfathered" reviews) have been converted to this new layout, but you won't see all this layout has to offer until new reviews using the new review form start coming in. =)

Subscribe to comments!
Automatically receive emails when someone replies to your comments, or change the selection so you're not subscribed or subscribed to everything by default. You can also subscribe to comments on a particular review without commenting at all! =)

New Menu.
A lot of things got moved around- we hope it isn't too confusing! There is also a separate, further simplified menu for mobile users.

Maker Pages function differently.
Our old setup was very confusing to navigate. It has been simplified and should now be easier to find a maker's reviews and their information!

New categories!
Sort reviews by new categories like: padding type, style, species, and shipping origin in addition to all the old categories too!

Contact Forms.
No longer do you need to rely on ye olde mailto links.

Glossary.
A lot of people who find our site are unfamiliar with the furry community. We decided to add a bunch of common words and abbreviations to help them out!

Informational Articles.
Technically we had this before, but it was sad and neglected. Now it has 2 great new guides: How to buy a fursuit and What makes a good review photo. Check them out!

Many small changes and improvements.
We tried to make everything easier to read, use, and pretty to look at. Hope it worked!

New Twitter account.
You've always been able to watch @FursuitReview for new reviews. But now there's @FSR_Dev for site news/updates if you're interested in that!

HELP US OUT!
With a new site, we will have growing pains!

Please contact us if something doesn't work or look right!
- Links are broken
- Display errors / unintuitive design
- Comments / suggestions / criticism about the new site design
- Informational article, glossary, or FAQ addition requests

All old reviews were converted to the new format. Sometimes, there was a lot of guesswork as to how that review should be categorized. Please contact us or leave a comment on a review if you feel it should be categorized differently.
It is also possible they were converted incorrectly - we believe we caught all the mishaps before the new site went live, but if you come across something weird in a review, please contact us or leave a comment about it on that review!

- Padding / Species / Currency / Shipping Origin / Style (realistic, toony, etc.) is incorrect or missing
- Review answers to certain questions seem to lack context or appear completely wrong for some reason (probably posted in the wrong area)
- The rating displayed at the end of the review doesn't match the rating in the title and/or the rating category the post is in
- Images in the review don't have a lightbox or don't have the slideshow options if there are 2 or more images in the same line

Some Clarification
These are not specifically related to the update, but they came to our attention during the rebuild, so we felt we should touch on them:

We are an entirely new site, by new people - not related to previous review communities.
FursuitReview started in 2015 on Furaffinity and made an independent website shortly thereafter. It is unrelated to other places with a "fursuit review" name or theme, and does not share any of the staff/moderators those communities had or have.
We noticed there was some confusion in thinking the people who had run other groups (e.g. fursuitmakerreviews, fursuitcritique, or facebook groups with similar names) had simply changed names/location.
This is not the case: FursuitReview is totally new!

The rules we started with aren't the rules we have now.
When FursuitReview first started, we had a lot of rules. We've simplified and shortened the list over time, and our current rules should be easy to follow and understand.

The main confusion points seem to be:
- Ownership time.
You must have worn your item 30+ hours OR owned it for 3+ months, whichever comes first.

- Reviewable items.
You can review anything bought directly from the maker as long as it is furry-related in some way and you think you can use our review form. This means you can review things from Etsy as long as the Etsy store is owned by the person who made the item!
If you have something you're not sure counts, you can always contact us before submitting your review. However, we encourage you to submit the review anyway! As long as it follows the rules, we'll make a new category for it if it doesn't fit in any of the current categories.

That's it!
We hope you enjoy the new site!


Greetings all,

A recent update broke some code on the current site. It is most notable on the maker pages. It is not a simple fix and rolling back the update would lose a few reviews, so it was decided we would leave the site a bit 'broken' for now. Apologies for the inconvenience.

The rebuild that was made possible with the help of the donators to our KoFi is currently behind schedule but I'm still fairly confident the new site will be released by the end of January 2018.

The current website is still usable and still accepts reviews if you want to get them in, however, a newer, better, easier review form is in the new site rebuild if you are willing to wait to submit your review.

Additionally, a new twitter was created if you'd like to follow updates on how the site rebuild is going: http://twitter.com/FSR_Dev
Some screenshots have been posted already. =]

Thank you for all your patience and support!
~ Bornes

With the end of September comes the end of the fundraiser.
Thank you everyone for your support!
Although the goal was not reached, the add-ons necessary for the site rebuild were able to be purchased with the funds that were raised!

Even though the fundraiser is over, FursuitReview will continue to accept donations. Thank you so much!

The site rebuild will begin on approximately the 15th of October. During this time, the site will still be available to use. I cannot accurate estimate the completion and release of the rebuild, but it be before the year is over.

Thank you all, again, and happy reviewing!

[Donators, be on the look out for emails around the 15th of October.]

Greetings!

FursuitReview (FSR) is currently running a fundraiser until the end of September to help pay for the rebuild of the site! The goal is 350 USD. You can donate through our Ko-Fi page, directly to the paypal email bornesfur at gmail dot com, or by buying things from the Amazon Affiliate links at http://store.fursuitreview.com ! Thank you for your consideration!

FursuitReview began in August 2015 on FurAffinity. A website quickly followed, but wasn't noteworthy until its first redesign in 2016. Since then, the admin, ( Bornes ) has learned a lot and would like to redesign the site again.

Your donations will pay for:
- The last 2 years of hosting
- The current year of hosting and the next 5 years of the domain name
- Payments made to developers for various things over the last 2 years (most notably the review form and advanced search)
- Purchases for the redesign:
- - Paid version of the current layout
- - Paid version / upgrade of one of the key plugins the site uses (Content Views)
$350 pays for only these things, and does not account for my personal time. If the goal is surpassed, it will be considered to pay for this.

What will happen if the goal of $350 is not reached?
The site redesign will still happen, but it will be much slower in happening and the new layout will pull forward focus on donations and advertisements. Donations will not be refunded; any amount helps, even if the goal is not reached.

Currently, there are 2 out-of-the-way donation buttons on the site and one out-of-the-way page dedicated to Amazon Affiliate links. If the fundraiser fails, Google Adwords will likely be incorporated into the new layout as well as more focus on Amazon affiliate links surrounding reviews.


I can't/don't want to donate. How can I help?
You can click on our Amazon Affiliate links at http://store.fursuitreview.com and buy those items, or any other item on amazon within ~20 minutes of clicking one of our links.
You can also tell all your friends about our fundraiser on all your social platforms to get as many eyes to view this as possible!


What does the site redesign entail?
The reviews are basically transferred to a whole new site that is built again from a base WordPress installation. I do this because I want to integrate the following things, which really is much easier (but still ridiculously time-consuming) by just starting over:

- Incorporate tags which will allow you to sort things such as:
- - What country the maker is in / what currency they use, species of fursuit/part, deadlines met: yes/no, reviewer has prior exp with fursuits: yes/no, payments in installments: yes/no, etc. (suggestions welcome)

- WAY BETTER SORTING. No more individual pages, it will all sort in the page while you're looking at it via filters. This is the main reason for the redesign. I cannot make an FSR-specific example, but here is a demo. The entire site's layout will be redone to work with this new functionality.

- Review viewing restructured so you don't have to click through all those tabs. (Also the removal of "maker Response" tab if there is not actually an official maker response)
- FAQ and all informative articles/posts rewritten or deleted
- Category pages will be merged with maker pages instead of the confusing thing we have going on right now (current confusion ex: maker page vs. Category page)

- The advanced search will be either deleted entirely or hidden. It will be replaced with a query search (similar to how google works) so it is less confusing.
- Pretty links enabled (no more ?p=## links)
- General site optimization and improvements (mainly for speed and ease of readability)


Additionally, these are planned features but are not guaranteed to occur:

- Subdomains for every single maker, e.g. makername.fursuitreview.com. Currently this is only done on request and only one maker has requested it. I would like for it to be automatic for every maker as they are added to the database. Due to number of subdomains required, it may not be possible with my host provider at the pricepoint needed.

- Restructuring of how things are categorized. I would like to shift to "This costume contains: [parts]" instead of the generalized "fullsuit, partial, other stuff" thing I have going on now.

- Writing more knowledgebase content (such as how to buy a fursuit, fursuiting 101, etc.)

- Actual forms for contact issues instead of forcing mailto links.

- Review form rewrite/recode

- Better news distribution system and actually using that distribution system, instead of relying on FA Journals

- Better comment system on website (suggestions welcome)


"Since you're redesigning the site, I have some suggestions..."

Suggest below in the comments! OR use this to submit your suggestions/complaints: https://goo.gl/forms/IeclcQ3VoUj7gGoJ3 (no email required)

Otherwise, if you'd like to ask something in private, the quickest way is to email contact[at]fursuitreview.com , but you can also note Bornes (the admin). Direct messages to the FursuitReview twitter are answered by either myself or a helper that wishes to remain anonymous, but if you would like to reach me ( Bornes ) specifically, you can direct message my personal twitter, CityFursuits.
But again I stress that emailing will give you the quickest response. I am also the only one who looks at the email.


Thank you for all your support (monetary or otherwise) and happy reviewing!



PS: FursuitReview will continue operating as normal and you can continue submitting reviews!

EDIT:
Fundraiser extended to end of september.

Greetings all,

If you have been waiting for your review to be posted, it is likely contact[at]fursuitreview.com has emailed you and the email wound up in your spam folder.

It seems gmail goes through phases where sometimes it does not go there, and other times (such as now) it does.

Apologies for the inconvenience!

Thank you for your attention and happy reviewing!

EDIT 29 July:
The spam filter issue has hopefully been fixed permanently. But if you have submitted a review at any point this month and have not seen it posted yet, you should check your spam/junk email folders to see if you missed a question from contact[at]fursuitreview.com

EDIT2:
If you have submitted a review at any point in time and it was never posted, we still probably have your review on file! Please email contact[at]fursuitreview.com with some basic details to help us find your review.
(maker, fursuit name, email you used, anything you can remember should help)

Hello all!

Just reminding you of http://fursuitreview.com - the official website of FursuitReview.

If this account or FA ever goes down, the site is up-to-date with all submissions and WILL remain active for as long as there are reviews to post!
Additionally, you can check the following places for the latest updates: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Reddit.

FursuitReview also runs /r/fursuits for off-topic chatter if you just want to talk!

Thank you for your attention and happy reviewing!

~ Bornes

We have reached 1000 watches on FA! Thank you for your support!

I would also like to take this time to announce a new feature that was pushed not too long ago, the Fursuit Gear store. It is an amazon.com affiliate store with hand-picked fursuiting supplies. If you buy anything through here, a small royalty is given to fursuitreview.com.

I pay for fursuitreview and manage it by myself. I have kept the costs relatively cheap, but that also reflects in how the site is made. I would like the site to pay for itself one day, but I recognize that may not happen for a long time.

If you are thinking of buying some fursuit-related gear for yourself or others over the holidays, please consider using the Fursuit Gear store. If you would like to donate directly, you can use the paypal donate button at the bottom of the about page.

If you can not or do not want to do either of these, consider spreading the word around about FursuitReview.com's existence! We are over one year old now, but we are still quite new over the grand scheme of things. =)

Thank you, again, everyone!
This resource has been, and will continue to be, a labor of love.

---

^{_{If you're interested in cost breakdown & future goals:
entire first year of fursuitreview: $100
new review form + other misc. things: $130
After that is paid, a future goal is $60 for some new sorting features.
Theoretically, that all should cover the next 5 years.
And that does not account for my time.}}

Hello all,

I am looking for any good informational videos, submissions, articles, etc., about fursuiting for beginners.

Things like:
- How vision works in a fursuit head
- First-time fursuit buyer help (or how to determine if you even want a fursuit in the first place)
- How commissioning a maker works, or should work
- Guide to basic fursuiting accessories (underskins, balaclavas, etc.)
- Anything that really could conceivably fit under "Fursuiting 101"

Could you share some of your helpful resources?
Remember, this is geared toward wearing and/or buying a fursuit and not making one.

Thank you and happy reviewing!

Apologies for the delay!

Here's what's new.

For Everyone:

- NEW RULES. Please check them out.
- Visual improvements with pretty much everything.
- Categories now listed under review dates for most review listings.
- New category: Year Made! Sort by year the item being reviewed was made. http://year.fursuitreview.com
- New FAQ.
- New comment system on the website.
- New subreddits: /r/FursuitReview and /r/Fursuits for off-topic chatter.

- Maker pages are treated differently. There is now an information box that contains aliases, websites, social media, etc. There is an "update?" button that directs to email. Anyone can update maker contact links. Example.

For Makers

- Get your own http://makername.fursuitreview.com url that links to reviews for you. Click that link for more info.
- You can now give an "Official maker response" to a review. See here for more info.

For Reviewers

- NEW REVIEW FORM. Same questions, different/better presentation and easier to use for everyone.
- You can update/change past reviews. More info here. This also takes place of what used to be called YR+LTR.

In addition
This is not new, but you should check out the list of short URLs for easy linking to others! =)

Please email or comment any links that are broken, or if something is acting fishy. Everything should be running a whole lot smoother, but it is possible something was missed during the update.

Thank you everyone for your constant support and happy reviewing!
~ Bornes

Small news:
There is a big update planned. Lots has been done already but it is taking longer than anticipated. Because of this, I've gone ahead and finally updated the review labels and system on FA and the review form (so new reviews will have them automatically). The new rating system will not be live on the website until the larger update.

Unrelated, grandfathered & YR+LTR Review forms have been taken down. If you have already written a review somewhere else and would like to have that review posted on FursuitReview, please paste the relevant answers into our general form where appropriate and put the date of the original review under the “review date” question.

Now for the meat of the journal:

WHAT SORT OF QUESTIONS WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE ON FOLLOW-UP REVIEWS?

The confusing "YR+LTR" acronym is gone and they will just be called "follow-up reviews". They are reviews that take place some time after the initial review (originally 1yr later, but that's up in the air now). No one has submitted a YR+LTR review, but they have been a part of FursuitReview since its inception.

Shortly after the large update (hopefully this month but could be as late as August), I will be writing the first follow-up review so you can all see it in action. However, I've been wondering just what sort of questions is everyone wondering for long-term fursuit owners?
What do you want to know about a fursuit that has been in use for a year or more?

This is the current form (clicking submit won't do anything). For those without the time to go through that, the questions are:

How many hours have you worn/used the item(s) since your original review?
What do you normally do with your item(s)?
When/how often do you wear it? Where and how do you wear it? Do you do any activities such as dancing in it?
How is it stored?
How often is it washed? How is it washed?
General wear and tear declaration.
Have you contacted the maker for any repairs of your suit? How did that go?
Did you contact someone other than the maker for repairs? Why? And how did that go?
Overall satisfaction with how your item has held up over time?
Overall satisfaction with customer service involved with any repairs?
Has your personal opinion of your suit changed in any way since your last review? Have your opinions changed over time (at no fault to the maker)? Did you notice things you didn't notice before that impact you now?

The current YR+LTR form has a lot of small questions that 1.) I'm not sure are really relevant, 2.) Hard to quantify and 3.) could be consolidated.
The original plan was for them to be an entirely separate type of review. But the direction I am headed with them now is to be an additional tab on a pre-existing review on the website. (Like how you can click on Head, tails, etc. There would also be a "follow-Up" tab).

This means the content should be fairly concise.
I'm just not sure what is important to ask. Anyone have any ideas?

I have thought about "Please write about any differences between how you think about your fursuit now versus what you wrote in your original review" as being the only question, but I think that may be too open and not encouraging for follow-up reviews.

Also, how long do you think should be required to wait between a general review and a follow-up? Is one year too long, short, just right?

Related, the general fursuit review form is also likely to be rewritten (for clarity only- most of the questions will remain the same). If you have any specific comments or criticisms regarding the general form, you could voice them here as well. The only change currently is a new 30+ hour wear time requirement (won't take effect till the site update).

As always, thank you for your time and support and happy reviewing!

~ Bornes

Aloha April FursuitReview fans!

It's been a great month and we're happy to celebrate our 9 month anniversary!

Here's the news:

- We quietly rolled out FursuitReview.com to replace fursuitreview.khat.us. The khat.us link will always work so you'll still find places that link you to it, but the main site is now a much easier to type fursuitreview.com. =)

- New rating system labels! [POS] for Positive, [OK] for Neutral, [NEG] for Negative. All of the reviews and documentation have been updated on fursuitreview.com. Everywhere else will only have the change for newer reviews.

- Twitter, Tumblr, and FaceBook have new and/or better automated postings of fursuit reviews that link to the website and not the FA. Twitter and Facebook still have people behind them, but the workload has been significantly lessened because of this (Tumblr is 100% automated and will continue to be). Still, the preferred method of contact is by email.

- The Makers page now has a search bar at the top. It will pick up any aliases a maker has and display the correct page associated. Helpful if the maker you want to find has gone by a lot of different names and Ctrl/Cmd + F has failed.

- Short URLs! You thought the last update had short URLs? FursuitReview.com makes them better!

about.fursuitreview.com - About page
all.fursuitreview.com - All reviews listed on FursuitReview
fa.fursuitreview.com - FurAffinity page
faq.fursuitreview.com - FAQ page
forms.fursuitreview.com - Review forms page
makers.fursuitreview.com - All makers reviewed on FursuitReview
news.fursuitreview.com - News page
price.fursuitreview.com - Fursuit reviews sorted by price
rating.fursuitreview.com - Fursuit reviews sorted by rating
rules.fursuitreview.com - Rules page
search.fursuitreview.com - Advanced search page
time.fursuitreview.com - Fursuit reviews sorted by completion time

- Last but not certainly not least - quite possibly the most important update:
THERE WILL BE NO UPDATES OR SERVICES FOR THE FIRST HALF OF MAY - AT LEAST THE FIRST 2 WEEKS, POSSIBLY LONGER

The site will still be up and viewable, but emails will not be answered and reviews will not be posted. There's only one admin of the website currently (me) and I will be on an internet- and work-free vacation in May.

Thank you everyone for your continued support and HAPPY REVIEWING!

~ Bornes

"You get what you pay for" is not an excuse for bad craftsmanship or lack of professionalism. A reviewer is writing about their experience, and what they may think is acceptable for the price they paid may not be the same as what you believe is acceptable. That is okay.

There are many ways to phrase "you get what you pay for" without belittling a reviewer or fursuit, and most comments have been reasonable in that regard.

But recently the line is being tread quite closely, so please think about your wording when saying things like this, or your comment may be removed.

Thank you.

EDIT: To clarify.
A comment will only be deleted if it puts down the buyer or the fursuit. If your comment is phrased in such a way that could be interpreted as "You should've known better than to expect something good when you paid that price," or "Why are you complaining? I would've killed to get a fursuit that cheap," then that comment is against our rules and it will be deleted.

Aloha all!

First I'd like to apologize for taking so long to decide. Thank you to everyone who applied!
The winner is Kuhori !

And these are the ads created:

For FA: http://i.imgur.com/clIcaej.jpg

For elsewhere: http://i.imgur.com/LVEHbBw.jpg

It will take some time before the new featured submission and/or Profile ID goes up as I need to get some info from Kuhori. =)


Happy reviewing!

~ Bornes

EDIT: And they're up!

Hey all,

Just wanted to make a quick journal to let you know that the fursuit contest is closed and it's going to take a while (possibly all week) before a winner is declared.

Just wanted to get the word out so you knew it wasn't forgotten.

Thanks!

~ Bornes

*****
http://fursuitreview.khat.us
*****

WHAT'S NEW?

EVERYTHING. Whole new layout! New menus! PRETTY THINGS. Updated to the 21st century!

NEWS, ARTICLES, KNOWLEDGEBASE.... and COMMENTS

They probably won't be seeing much use right now, since we're still mainly on FurAffinity. But if FA ever bans FursuitReview, the "News" section will be replacing the journals.
"Articles" are those one-off write-ups that're rare, like that "Did You Know? The First Fursuiters" post.
The "Knowledgebase" is currently just links out to helpful places, but some time in the far future, it may expand.
Comments are currently ONLY allowed on news and articles, and are closed after 30 days. Comments will expand to fursuit reviews only if the FA goes down.

SORT BY FURSUIT COMPLETION TIME

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Have you seen this image? After seeing it again today, I decided to do some research. What I found was extremely interesting. I decided to share. This type of journal will not be common on FursuitReview. ~ Bornes

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THE FIRST FURSUITERS
_{The History of Panto Animals}

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The vintage photo of a man in a dog fursuit has made rounds around the internet in furry communities, primarily on Tumblr. It has been called the first fursuit, Paleo fursuit, Ol grandpappy fursuit, among others. The image, of a Mr. Fred Conquest, never has any captions with it stating where it comes from, however. After being left to scratch my head once too many, it was time to figure out the story behind the photograph.

Animal History Daily says this about about Mr. Conquest:
Fred Conquest, like many others, worked full time as an animal actor. In the image to left he appears as Mother Hubbard's dog, but equally he was at home as a goose, cat or in 'a skin' as a one-person donkey or cow. Although a pantomime horse is popular today (think Dobbin from 'Rentaghost' et al), the Edwardian stage was almost devoid of horses - there were more camels than horses in an old panto store. According to 'It's Behind You' website, London once had an entire shop devoted to the panto animal - 'Theatre Zoo' in New Row, Covent Garden. Here you could hire any creature - you had to book early for Christmas.

American English uses the word “pantomime” to refer to miming, but in British English, it is something entirely different. The art of Pantomime began in the 1870s in England. Known as Panto for short, it is a type of performance that primarily tells childrens’ stories with a musical and comedic lens.

Many of these stories included animals. When using real animals were not feasible, people acted in their place. The role of an animal was called a “skin role” or “skin part.” What we know as a fursuit today was then called a pantomime or panto animal, and sometimes just a “skin”. The people who were in skin roles were called animal actors, animal performers, or animal impersonators.

Fred Conquest, who first inspired our journey through fursuiting history, is actually a part of a large family of animal actors. The IBY site has this to say about Fred’s brother, Arthur:
Arthur Conquest comes from a long line of Animals- Born 1875-1945. Son of Theatrical family-George his father was theatre manager and had excelled in skin parts - monkey, octopus, even a porcupine were among his roles. Of his three sons, Arthur specialised in skin parts, his finest role being Daphne the Chimpanzee. His Brother Fred found fame as Goose in Mother Goose and brother George as Dame. Fred and George took over the running of the Surrey Theatre when their father died.
That passage accompanies a photo of Arthur playing Priscilla the cow: http://i.imgur.com/IEbTu3H.jpg
This is an especially interesting photo to look at, because it shows a one-person quadruped, which were briefly mentioned earlier. The photo is cited as being taken in 1910 or 1911. What a far cry from the quadsuits we know of today!

This article states that panto animals became particularly popular in the Edwardian Era(1901 – 1910), but they continue to be relevant today. The author remarks:
I enjoyed my five years in “Skin” roles, and have nothing but full and total admiration for anyone sweating and gasping in a skin- they have the power of magic in their grasp- done properly and with conviction that collection of fur or feather can, in a child’s eyes become real. Done properly when Daisy is sold at market , sitting out there you could get a tear in your eye- the scene stealer can be the craftsman who can make that costume live. Last year at Wolverhampton the guys in the Cow Costume did just that- they created Panto magic!

Pantomime shows still occur across the UK and Europe today, but they never really took off in the USA. Since the panto animals were used in mainly comedic shows, it is not surprising that “skins” have deteriorated in quality over time. Most panto animals today look cheap and unlife-like, meant specifically to be an anthropomorphic animal to be laughed at. But they can still be used in serious respects sometimes. TV Tropes states that the LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring used a panto horse in some shots. Although in this case, it is more likely that the horse was primarily animatronic rather than the traditional type of panto animal.

Having now been educated about the history of the panto animal, some questions still remain:

- What makes a panto animal different from a mascot?
- How did the mascot community break from the panto community?
- We have many fursuiters today that are exceptional pantomime performers. Is it possible that fursuiters could enter the panto community as a specialist and bring modern-day, exquisite fursuits, further into the public eye? ^{_{(This subway advert says maybe!)}}

Some fursuit makers have worked with the film and performance communities, but on the whole, it may be that many of those looking for panto talent just don't know modern day fursuits and their performers exist.

Who knows what the future will bring!

Fursuits have a unique and very interesting history! Hope you enjoyed reading about it, and happy reviewing! =)

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^{_{If you wish to reproduce this article anywhere, please credit Bornes or FursuitReview . Thank you.}}

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