I’ve been cosplaying for a couple of years, and it has
gotten to the point that making and focusing on 1-2 new costumes per year had
racked up quite a number of costumes. I used to plan it so that Anime
Expo was the focal point of my “Cosplay Year,” but since the mid 2000s, I
started going to San Diego Comic Con, and it has become the focal point
instead. Anime Expo became a “Trial Run” for whatever big project of a
costume I’m working on.
It's gonna be one of those years I never forget... Get it? Because I'm am elephant, and apparently have to explain my really obvious jokes :-) (This is why we pay him peanuts. -Ed) |
The 2014 “Cosplay Year” to me is not that different. Usually, it consists of 1-2 new costumes, 1-2
comfortable costumes for shopping days, and whatever days are left filled by older/
previous years’ costumes.
This year, the plan was:
Thursday: Russell From
Up, an oldie but goodie since 2011
- A very comfortable and easy costume to wear, perfect for
shopping/swag-collecting day, especially since the costume already involves a
backpack, and things like water canteens and poster tubes can be easily attached
to it. This costume was the “surprise”
favorite costume when I debuted it in 2011. I did not think an 80% from-the-closet
costume would be liked so much. Since
its original debut, I had improved on the “merit badges,” getting rid of mere pins and adding Geek-oriented symbols, making Russell actually a variant
“Convention-Going Russell.” I also found
another pair of shorts that matched the color of my sash.
- Friday in SDCC has traditionally been my “Wear the Venture
Brothers Henchman 21” Day since the Venture Brothers Panel, group photo shoot,
and other things occur on Friday.
However, despite having so much
fun last year (I even won the “Best Henchman 21 Contest” at the panel), my picture ended up on the Venture Brother’s
twitter, FB pages, and official website, and the general public is just
merciless to a big guy, even though his name is Two-Ton 21! I’m afraid I had to
take a break from being 21 for this year.
Then, what is left?
There’s a big Star Wars and Marvel Photo shoot on Friday. I did plan on making an Admiral Trench or
Arnim Zola, and decided on Arnim Zola because it’s a fairly new type of
costume, one that integrates a bit more electronics. Heck, it even has a really large portable battery
for it.
- New materials and more complexity was the lure for this
costume. Maaaaaaaybe, I’m still
proverbially licking my self-esteem’s wounds from being fatshamed as being
too fat to be a character named Two-Ton 21, so my character chose had a bit of
“Path of Least Resistance” built in as well.
I do hope that my motivation was the challenge of new materials, the LED ring, and
the spandex-skinned elephant..
Friday: Golden Age Red Tornado would return from Wondercon
2014
- This is a new costume. I did improve upon the gloves, so
it’s actual spandex gloves instead of oven mitts (the mitts are more
accurate, but made it much more difficult to do things). It’s also a fairly comfortable costume,
despite the foam bucket head. It was
really the utility belt and polyester head sock that made this costume
awesome. The utility belt worked, so
despite having no backpack,, I had room for the important things. The polyester
head sock was amazing in wicking all the sweat I had from that very
closed-off foam helmet, and keeping it out of my face. At the same time, it facilitated cooling when
I had the mask off.
Photo thanks to CosplayersCanada.com |
… but what is that saying?
I think it’s from one of Robert Burn’s poems that we get “The best laid
schemes of mice and men / Often go awry.”
Go awry it did.
By Anime Expo, which was less than a month away from SDCC, I
had all the fabric for both new costumes, Arnim Zola and Brother Warth. All I needed to make were the difficult
parts: Arnim Zola’s Screenface chest armor, and Brother Warth’s head and armor
pieces.
Zola would have been perfect, except the portable screen I was using for Zola’s face did not
arrive until 2 days before I left for SDCC, even though it was supposed to
arrive right after Anime Expo. So that whole costume was out.
I like my costumes to light up! |
I REALLY like my costumes to light up |
I discovered “Retroreflective” material during this
time. My previous problems with my past
light-up costumes were that their lights were only apparent in the dark, or if
you have a specifically-dark parts of the costume to light up (like the eye
holes). There was also the problem of
those LEDs being almost useless when there’s sunlight or the photographer uses
a flash. This retroreflective material glows very bright when a photographer has to use flash.
I then ordered a roll of wide blue vinyl, wide white vinyl, and a
smaller roll of traditional retroreflective tape (the size of regular 2-inch
tapes) in case there are minor snafus that need to be covered or repaired.
The Retroreflective Blue Vinyl I was going to use for
Brother Warth’s chest armor originally seemed to adhere smoothly on smooth
surfaces, but I only did my initial tests using small strips of it, so as not to
waste it. The unforeseen problem was a
lot of bubbles and wrinkles forming even when you are very careful in adhering it. This was also another material I had to order
from the internet, so when the first two tries were too wrinkled, I had to stick
with it.
This is why my arm guards were not made of the same
reflective material; my extra blue vinyl ran out, and it would be too late to
order it from the internet. I was also
supposed to have a blue stripe down Brother Warth’s midsection, but there was
not enough vinyl for that one, too; the first two trials on the chest armor ate
up those extra feet of vinyl.
As for the rest of the costume, from the neck down it's just
clothes I already own, or can easily purchase.
For the black parts of the clothing, I already had them for
previous costumes. He wore a black tanktop/muscle
shirt, which I had, and very baggy black pants. For someone my size, finding something
significantly baggy is a challenge. It’s
a good thing that I had the same pants from my Auron costume, which is black
scrub pants that are two sizes larger than me.
By the way, scrubs and scrub pants are AMAZING for cosplay. Not only are they available in so many
different colors, but they come in many different sizes too, and specific ones
at that, taking into consideration not just waistline, but length of the inseam
as well.
For the elephant “skin” on Brother Warth’s exposed arms, and
feet I knew I was NOT going to wear bodypaint, and
a bodysuit would have been a little late to order, especially since I would be a
custom fit. There were these light gray
toe socks that I wore to show his “bare feet.”
Then I added a light gray Underarmour long-sleeve shirt. I also got some spandex gloves from the same
place I got Red Tornado’s purple spandex gloves, but their “light gray” is
significantly or noticeably darker than the almost-matching light grays of the
toe socks and the shirt. I suppose this
is why I should have had a bodysuit or something.
After the light gray stuff arrived, I went to a local
Jo-Ann’s fabric store to match which shade of gray spandex I would be
using. Thankfully, there was a
match. I also got some blue fabric on
sale for his belt. Since things were not
going well already, I decided to get a couple more yards of this light blue
vinyl in case I had to make a non-reflective version of the blue armor from it. Originally, I was just going to make arm
guards from the blue vinyl (which I did), but there’s over a yard and a half of
blue vinyl for that armor.
For the light-up ring, my earlier search for
highly-reflective materials lead me to the local auto store. I could not find large wide rolls of the reflective vinyl that
I ended up ordering online. I did fine,
however, the aisle next to the reflective stuff, which is the aisle for
decorative LEDs. The
amazing thing about some of these LEDs is that they use the same reflective
micro mirrors that the brightest (uncolored/white) retroreflective tape uses,
so the ring would be able to light up in the dark, AND reflect any flash or
sunlight, either way creating a glowing effect.
I found the smallest “String,” which is 2-LEDs, complete with a
“Try Me” button and batteries. I only had to have the LEDs re-sothered to strengthen
it, and I had my light-up Blue Lantern Ring!
I thought that I have developed my skills in making these
monstrous heads from EVA foam ($10 for a
4 ‘ X 4’ mat at Harbor Freight, which is a steal). I had Rocksteady 2.0, Clayface, and Poison
Ivy’s plant, with the latter two also utilizing the stretched spandex skin
look. The construction of the face
involved using a safety netted face shield, so I can see outwards, but no one on the outside can see in to my face. I used the glue gun friendly EVA foam, and
some zip ties to keep some parts
curved. I also used craft foam as a type
of inner skin on top of the EVA foam musculature, so the rough bumps of the EVA
foam layers would not be seen.
The final touches included finding a place under the costume
(which is unseen from the outside)to anchor the spandex skin, glue gunning it
(spandex also works and sticks very well to glue from a glue gun and EVA foam,
but it leaves the spandex looking a shade darker, so I keep those glued parts
out of sight). I also covered the horns
with white reflective vinyl. His
earrings were some cheap brass rings I saw at Joann’s for some other purpose,
but it was on clearance.
Finally, I was able to make his eyes and face tattoos, since
they were smaller, from the retroreflective tape, which had those little
mirrors. This made these parts highly
reflective, in effect making Brother Warth’s eyes and tattoos glow. Well, his tattoos don’t glow, but I liked
that effect when I watched that episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, when
they watched the play and the actress playing Aang had practical effects that
made his airbending tattoos glow.
But, oh wait!
By the time I had finished the head, it was time to go to San Diego already, so I figured I would just finish the arm guards, belt and the Blue
lantern symbol on his belt buckle in the hotel.
Again, things go Awry!
The grommets I was using, for some reason, were not setting. I used the setter before, and
it worked perfectly. It might also be
the fact that I was at a hotel without any heavy-duty work table that I couldn't get a lot of force behind my hammer.
I had to improvise and use some glue form the glue gun to secure the
grommets that worked to tighten my arm guards.
It was not the best choice, since glue does not really adhere to vinyl.
It at least adhered to the metal on the grommets, and it worked
surprisingly well.
The fun part was the Blue Lantern belt. I did not have time to re-shop for a nice
round tupperwear to make into the belt buckle, so I had to take one from my old
stock of rejected tupperwear. The thing
was 4 inches in diameter, but also 2.5 inches thick, and when I would turn
sideways, or walk in the buss, it would
snag on things. The Blue Lantern
Symbol was also done by hand, so it’s all sorts of uneven. This part, I will definitely have to redo
before the next time I wear this outfit.
And now, for the convention!
Since my Arnim Zola was no longer an option, I had changed
my SDCC costume lineup with Russel for Thursday, Brother Warth for Friday and Saturday, and Golden Age Red Tornado on Sunday.
I was fortunate enough to have thought I would use Brother Warth for a
night event, so I had an extra underarmour undershirt, and toe socks.
When Friday came, the aforementioned snagging onto things
was starting to trouble me, but thankfully, that only happened in the shuttle. As I got off the shuttle, I realized the
other more important problem I had not thought of…. pockets! Sure, the black scrubs have a pocket for my
wallet, camera, and cell phone, but my
water bottle, which I needed since I was sweating profusely in that foam
elephant head, had nowhere to go. I also
had a hard time taking pictures and talking on the phone as my camera and phone
were in an inner layer of the costume, covered by the blue cloth for the belt.
I went through the day pretty good despite everything, but
one time, after I took a break, my light-up ring, which had a circuit that
connected to a button on my palm BROKE!
That was it, I cannot do the costume until I fix things.
I still spent a couple of hours with my broken ring, and
that’s why the picture I actually have does not have me showing off the
light-up ring. When I got back to the
hotel, I realized it was no use to bring this costume to the nighttime party I
was attending, so instead I enlisted the Red Tornado’s help, and used that one
instead. Thankfully, I had an extra undershirt for that one, too - always plan ahead, kids.
I came home very late that Friday night, and that fatigue
was compounded by having to do laundry, since I already used up the extra stuff
for Red Tornado. It’s ok, I reached the
point that evening/dawn where I probably would not be able to sleep and get
revitalized anyway, so I just stayed up.
I was able to wear the Red Tornado for Saturday for the DC Photoshoot
instead.
Despite the problems that plagued my costume creations, I think the convention went really well. Thank god I was prepared to fix my costumes on the fly, and had enough costumes that if one failed, I wasn't stuck with it for the rest of the con.
John Garcia is a college professor of English, Literature, and Popular Culture. He has been going to conventions since 1998, and cosplaying since 2001.
Despite the problems that plagued my costume creations, I think the convention went really well. Thank god I was prepared to fix my costumes on the fly, and had enough costumes that if one failed, I wasn't stuck with it for the rest of the con.
John Garcia is a college professor of English, Literature, and Popular Culture. He has been going to conventions since 1998, and cosplaying since 2001.
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