Fallout is one of gaming’s biggest and most beloved franchises, and for Crazy MCR Angel, the game has changed her life.
She’s a UK streamer and cosplayer who recently won her first Cosplay Masquerade competition at the 2023 Norwich Anime & Gaming Con. But what led to this? How did she go from regular gamer to a rising TikTok and streaming star, with Fallout publisher Bethesda as one of her followers, and finding a winning formula in a competitive cosplay space? Dom Sacco finds out.
Leaving the vault and removing the mask
Just over three years ago, the world faced a new challenge: the pandemic. Lockdowns were introduced, uncertainty set in, and people were told to stay at home.
Many turned to video games and other forms of indoor entertainment, as did Crazy MCR Angel, who took to Fallout 4 in particular. A game about surviving a nuclear fallout by staying in an underground vault until it’s safe enough to emerge, then roaming the wastelands. Not too dissimilar from emerging during the actual lockdowns to the UK streets, then.
“I first got into Fallout 4 when I was going through a bad time – my ex-boyfriend introduced me to it – and it took my mind away from everything,” Crazy MCR Angel says.
“I literally got a PS4 just to play it. So that was fun when I got back in contact with him in January, and I said, by the way, because of you I’m now a Fallout cosplayer. One night he came to drop something off at my door, and I was streaming in my cosplay, and he was like, ‘what the hell?’ (laughs)
“I started making my cosplay during the first part of lockdown three years ago, as something else to do. I started making the vault suit just for fun, then I started posting photos on Instagram in my vault suit and with my helmet on.
Crazy sports some ‘Welcome to the Wastes’ branding in this picture, the name of a Fallout-inspired podcast
“So that’s where it all started. And that’s where my love for Fallout came from. Even when I was studying my last course, I would put the Fallout ambience music on in the background, I just love getting lost in it. Or if I’m going through a rough time, I just sit with my headset on and get immersed in the game and get lost. That’s what I love about it.
“But as something that just started just for fun during lockdown, I never imagined I’d be here winning a competition.”
This recognition didn’t happen overnight, of course. Crazy MCR Angel worked hard on building up her following – and her confidence. Something she found through cosplay and streaming, she tells me.
“[Being Vault Girl or Nuka Girl is] like putting on a completely different persona, and it helps me with my confidence. I also do my Fallout streams in cosplay because it’s something different, and it’s built out this Crazy MCR Angel as a character that I’ve made.”
Crazy MCR Angel
“When I first started posting pictures on Instagram, I kept my face covered,” she says. “Eventually I did a [partial] face reveal in a mask, as I built up from my vault suit to Vault-Tec leggings and top and mask. So I did a half face reveal, then last October I took the mask off fully. I had been streaming prior to the face reveal, then started to stream without my mask on, and people in the chat were saying, “we can see your full face!”
“I thought, I’m not gonna say anything, then I posted on Instagram with my full face, so I took that mask of confidence off, as I’d always struggled with confidence.”
So as the pandemic lifted and masks were removed in real life, Crazy MCR Angel removed her mask of anonymity online, too. And while physical events are now back in full swing, nerves can be normal on a big day.
“Norwich is my third [cosplay] con, and when I was walking from the car park in my outfit, I was so nervous,” Crazy explains. “Everyone is looking at you and that really pushes you out [of your shell].
“So I kind of became ‘Crazy MCR Angel’, that was my gamertag I had for years (MCR stands for My Chemical Romance, the band, not Manchester)! And ‘Crazy Angel’ is one of my fave songs by a band ‘Kill Hannah’.
“I thought I’d run with the name ‘Crazy MCR Angel’ on Instagram, then I started up TikTok, and my little vault boy doll does cooking from the cookbook. That’s become a thing that everybody loves too.”
“I also do my Fallout streams in cosplay because it’s something different, and it’s built out this Crazy MCR Angel as a character that I’ve made.
“And if on Twitch someone in the chat redeems 5,000 points, I’ll wear the helmet for three minutes, and I cannot see in that at all! So the chat likes to redeem it at a really awkward point [while I’m midway through a game]. Sometimes I’m doing a cooking stream and I have the helmet on and I still can’t see what’s in front of me!”
Prior to her Fallout 4 interest and other modern games, Crazy used to enjoy playing classic FPS titles.
“My old favourite ever game is Unreal Tournament,” she tells Esports News UK. “That’s really old school, I remember playing it with my dad on our old computer. I set up Wolfenstein, Doom and Unreal on his new laptop recently.
“I didn’t realise Unreal Tournament had a whole esports aspect to it [when I first got into it]. I tend to go towards single-player gaming rather than watching esports, sometimes it’s nice to play with other people, but it’s also good to lose yourself in a single-player game. Fallout 76 is nice because people might drop into your server and you can play together.”
Vault Girl and Nuka Girl cosplays are the bomb
Crazy MCR Angel has two main Fallout cosplay outfits she’s worked on: Vault Girl, a spin on the popular vault boy cartoon character from the series, and Nuka Girl, a mascot for the games’ fictional Nuka-Cola Corporation.
“It’s been nice to build up my Nuka Girl,” Crazy states. “I’ve just put my own spin on it, so I haven’t got the leggings, I’ve got shorts and knee-high socks. I’ve kept my hair colour and my own choices have been welcomed.
“It’s like putting on a completely different persona, and it helps me with my confidence. It’s grown so much, I can’t believe it. The amount of people I’ve got to know from it, and even this weekend [at Norwich Anime and Gaming Con], people have been coming up to me wanting to take pictures. It was nice to see other creators in person too, and not just on the screen.”
Crazy MCR Angel’s cosplay and stage show clearly impressed the judges at the 2023 Norwich Anime and Gaming Con, as she was named the overall winner.
Blending classic elements of the vault suit from Fallout, plus some custom cosplay additions (including her hand-made doll), with a routine that saw her pose to ‘The Wanderer’ on stage – a song in the Fallout 4 trailer – made for a unique presentation.
“I made all of my outfit myself, apart from the Pip-Boy, helmet and the boots,” Crazy says.
“I didn’t think I was going to win. I had a plan in my head, but as soon as I got on stage I forgot everything that I wanted to do! Then I looked down and saw part of my costume had come off, I couldn’t believe it.”
Crazy MCR Angel
“I thought ‘The Wanderer’ was a good song to come out [onto the stage] to, because everyone knows it’s a Fallout song. I was trying to move to the music, but I couldn’t even hear it! I was just too focused (laughs). Then, afterwards, when they said my name and announced me as the winner, and people said ‘that’s you’, I was like, ‘is it?!’
“I didn’t know what to do! I’ve never won anything before, it was the first time I’d competed in this outfit, and I won! Now I get to go to [the 2024 Anime and Gaming Con cosplay finals in] London and I’ve won £100, plus £40 in codes for a future ticket. I literally cried. It’s still sinking in.”
Does Crazy have any plans for her cosplay in the finals next year? Will she go with what’s tried and tested or shake things up with a new outfit?
“They said I could wear the same outfit, but that it’s also good to mix it up, so I could go as Nuka Girl – I also have another outfit in mind,” she says. “So we’ll see how that goes. Engagement with the audience and the outfit you’ve made is important.”
Fallout, the future of Crazy MCR Angel and… Brahmin?
With the next game in the series, Fallout: Nuevo Mexico, around the corner, hype will likely rise for the series in the future. So does Crazy hope to eventually do cosplay or streaming full-time?
“I’d love to have that balance, because I’m self-employed. I know so many evenings per week I can stream and build that up,” she says.
“On Instagram, the official BethesdaUK page follows me, and likes and shares my stuff. I can’t believe that, because they only follow so many people. I was like their 50th follower and they have thousands of followers. So I thought, little old me, with my hand-made cosplay, and they like and share my stuff, I have an (*eek noise*) fan moment!”
“I love Brahmin. My character in Fallout 76 is dressed like a Brahmin (laughs). I keep thinking I should do that as a cosplay: dress as a two-headed cow!”
What about Crazy’s favourite Fallout game, companion and questline?
“I love Dogmeat as my companion, Fallout 4 is my favourite Fallout, I’ve played a bit of every other one, and played 1 and 2 years back,” she replies. “I don’t really have a favourite questline. I started up a new character when streaming and I just get so immersed running around and enjoying myself.
“I love [mutated Fallout cows] Brahmin too. My character in Fallout 76 is dressed like a Brahmin (laughs). I keep thinking I should do that as a cosplay: dress as a two-headed cow!”
Now surely that would be something really Crazy. However, a quick search for ‘Fallout Brahmin cosplay’ on Google (what has my life become) finds no past examples of this. So maybe it’s not such a crazy idea after all.
London 2024 cosplay finals, watch out!
You can follow Crazy MCR Angel on her social media platforms here
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
