The craziest costumes spotted at Comicon
Comicon took over the Metro Toronto Convention Centre this past weekend, letting the city’s comic lovers, gamers and animé addicts gather under one roof to meet celebs and play one massive, three-day game of dress up. The most intense cosplayers showed up in outrageous outfits that would put any Halloween get-up to shame. Here, a few of the coolest, craziest and spookiest looks from the convention.
Karen Lalonde
15, Student
Who are you dressed as? A griffin
How much did your costume cost? $525
“This costume interested me because it’s so different than what you normally see. I made the paws and feet; the rest I bought off a Facebook page.”
Asha Tanner
18, Fast food server
Who are you dressed as? Raikou, from Pokémon
How much did your costume cost? $400
“Raikou is my favourite Pokémon; I took a liking to it when I was younger. It’s a powerful character—all about the sky and thunder. The outfit took me 100 hours to make, mostly out of EVA foam.”
Amy Ovans
20, High-pressure welder
Who are you dressed as? Psycho, from Borderlands 2
How much did your costume cost? Under $100
“I play Borderlands 2 a lot. I love the storyline, the characters and the graphics. It took me a couple weeks to make this, but it didn’t cost much. The contacts are a bit blurry and they hurt. The light sort of blinds me.”
Vanessa Roberts
19, Student
Who are you dressed as? Ayase Eli, from Love Live!
How much did your costume cost? $90
“I play this character a lot; I’m known for it in the cosplay community. In the animé, she’s a really strong female character. She also has a really touching backstory. I bought the costume and then customized parts of it.”
Ash Gagnon
16, Student
Who are you dressed as? Lie Ren, from the web series Rwby
How much did your costume cost? $50
“My friends wanted to do a group costume as a joke, and I was down for this character. I really like him: he cares a lot about other people. My mom helped me sew this jacket out of four pieces of fabric. The pants are from Giant Tiger, and I painted the boots. It took about a week.”
Dan Mackenzie
23, Student
Who are you dressed as? Hinata, from the animé Zettai Kaikyuu Gakuen
How much did your costume cost? $80
“I’ve been interested in the show for a while, and it’s fun to play Hinata. He’s fun and exuberant, which is something that I’m not. I bought most of the costume.”
AJ Ling
19, Student
Who are you dressed as? Kurapika, from the manga series Hunter x Hunter
How much did your costume cost? $40
“Hunter x Hunter is one of my favourite animés. I made the cape a few years ago, so I already had most of the outfit, and I bought the wig. Kurapike has a really interesting past: his family was killed, so he’s very moody.”
Victoria Truong
17, Student
Who are you dressed as? Tharja, from the video game Fire Emblem
How much did your costume cost? $20
“Tharja is a little crazy, which reminds me of myself. But she’s also sweet, caring and helpful. Plus, she has a cool outfit. I was sponsored by Nickelodeon Costumes, so I didn’t have to pay for most of the costume. I made the crown and book on a budget.”
Marisa Cesar
22, Barista
Who are you dressed as? Shiro, from the manga series Deadman Wonderland
How much did your costume cost? Under $100
“I’m obsessed with Shiro. She’s super-sweet but also has an alter ego—she killed one of the series’ main character’s classmates but doesn’t know she did it. This was my first costume I made, about two years ago. I crafted the neck piece out of papier mâché.”
Melody
16, Student
Who are you dressed as? Hanayo Koizumi, from the animé Love Live!
How much did your costume cost? Around $100
“I love the outfits she wears. She’s an admirable person: shy but willing to try new things after some encouragement. I can relate. I borrowed the costume from a friend who spent at least $100 on it.”
Hannah McCarthy
22, Student
Who are you dressed as? Ellen Ripley, from the film series Alien
How much did your costume cost? Around $50
“Ellen is such a cool, strong female character—and such an iconic woman in action films. I bought the jumper and sewed on the patches. The flamethrower was made out of a water gun and other found objects. It took about four hours of spray painting.”
Amelia Mesich
16, Student
Who are you dressed as? Illyana Rasputin, from X-Men
How much did your costume cost? Under $20
“Illyana is really empowering. She’s someone who just resonates with me. I hand-stitched the costume out of an old track suit, because I don’t have a sewing machine. I’m on a budget so I tried not to spend much on it.”
Steven Anbarsoun and Neffy Avese
26, Dairy clerk; 21, videographer
Who are you dressed as? Bank robbers from the movie and video game Payday
How much did your costume cost? $0
Anbarsoun: “To be honest, it was just a simple costume that we were able to pull together last minute. We already had everything lying around. And Payday is an awesome movie.”
Avese: “You should have seen people’s reactions when we put the masks on in the mall. It’s kind of fun to mess with people.”
Sandra
49, Cake decorator
Who are you dressed as? Steampunk theme
How much did your costume cost? $500 to $800
“I love the Victorian style, especially because we don’t dress like this these days. I made the whole costume. It took me about a month.”
Maxx Wilcox
16, Student
Who are you dressed as? Nora Valkyrie, from the web series Rwby
How much did your costume cost? $90
“Rwby is one of my favourite shows and she’s my favourite character. She’s just so happy, fun and carefree, so it’s fun to pretend to be like that. I made everything from scratch except for the boots. I stayed up until 4 a.m. for two weeks straight.”
Andrew Bell
23, Power line technician
Who are you dressed as? A St. Patrick’s Day theme character
How much did your costume cost? $10
“This is a mix of my Jinx costume and my party gear for later today. It took all of a few minutes and $10 at the dollar store to throw together. The gun took a whole day to make, though.”