#mrbob0822

Hello, Tumblr!

It's...certainly been quite a while, hasn't it? OOF. I really apologize for the unintended hiatus.

I was at C2E2 in Chicago a couple of weeks ago with some updated costumes, and figured I'd share!

Friday and Sunday I wore my Sole Survivor costume from Fallout 4, with plenty of extra weathering and proper strapping since I slapped it together prior to Halloween last year. I made the Dogmeat Heavy Dog Armor for my actual German Shepherd(Caboose), but since he's not a service animal(please don't bring your pets to conventions), I wound up purchasing a close-to-life-sized plush version that the costume *mostly* fit on. The number of people who did double-takes and "thought it was a real dog" was staggering, so I guess I did something right. Also, Sunday of C2E2 is always touted as family day, so the number of kids that came up asking to pet my dog was adorable.

On Saturday, I wore my D&D costume: a half-elven cleric of Pelor of my own design. I adore Dungeons & Dragons, and as an homage to nearly playing with the same group(multiple campaigns) since 2002, I made my first character Robert Moonbrow. I debuted this back in 2022, which revealed some issues with my design, so those fixes were made(mostly reinforcing the straps to prevent stretching and to reinforce the area around the rivets since all of the armor is EVA foam) as well as a heater shield I never got around to finishing, which turned out great, with the exception of being able to see the wrist straps through the foam on the front. On a whim, I decided to enter the Crown Championships of Cosplay this year, ReedPop's costume contest. I had zero expectations of anything, since people have no attachment to original characters other than the person making it, but I worked insanely hard on this thing, dumping probably close to 1,000 hours into the costume overall, and pushed the boundaries of my skillset to make something I was truly proud of out of a love for the fun my friends and I had with our time together. I didn't win anything, but it was genuinely great just to be in the same competition as the others who entered with their insane craftsmanship and attention to detail, and I do mean that, sincerely. We had a great time talking shop backstage during the competition and admiring one another's costumes.

Will I ever compete again? Probably not. It kind of eats up the entire day, and it takes me forever to make a costume in general, much less one to compete with. If I ever did, I might consider revamping my Grey Warden Alistair costume or something, but it's an extremely low priority. At the end of the day, cosplay is just a fun hobby for me, and adding extra stress with competition prep and anxiety kinda sucks some of the fun out of it, even though it was a fun and new(at least at this level) experience this time.

This is the only convention I'll be attending this year, much as I absolutely miss all of my friends at Dragon Con and would love to attend. I haven't been there since...2018? Oof. My friend Darryn said he'll be there in 2025, so I made the promise to him that I'll be there, which means I'll be bringing Alistair, since we became friends by cosplaying the character. I would also love to bring my D&D costume, but it's not exactly a cool and comfortable costume, so I'm going to try to test out its comfortability in the heat by wearing it to the Bristol Renaissance Faire on the Wisconsin/Illinois border at the end of July this summer(Saturday, July 27th is the plan). If you're in the area and want to see it in person or say goodbye to me as I potentially die of heatstroke(kidding!(hopefully...)), feel free! Fingers crossed the weather holds out that day for a solid test.

Anyway, time for me to shut up! Enjoy some additional shots from C2E2 2024:

I'm a D&D nerd at my core, and I've griped about the impracticality of various armor and weapon designs in video games for years, so I decided to roll up my sleeves and design an armor set from scratch(or nearly entirely from scratch, taking design influence from a 16th century Italian cavalry harness displayed at The Met) for my first Dungeons & Dragons character back when I started in 2002, Robert Moonbrow, a half-elven cleric of Pelor.

Shoutout to my buddy Steve at SKS Props for creating what I feel is the best EVA foam on the market. This stuff sands incredibly well, cuts super cleanly(assuming you maintain a sharp knife), and is always a pleasure to work with. I’d honestly use this foam even if I wasn’t good friends with him. If you haven’t had a chance to work with it and are looking at giving it a shot, you can pick some up here. After C2E2 at the end of March next year, I'm gonna take it easy and likely build some Fallout armor for my dog because that honestly sounds like a lot of fun. I'll probably build some basic Combat Armor over military fatigues for myself from the game as well, but let's be honest...no one's gonna care what I'm wearing if Caboose is in-costume as Dogmeat. Thanks for stickin' with me in spite of the severe lack of updates, everyone! I'll try my best to not turn into a cosplay ghost again. Here are some more photos that were taken of me during C2E2:

Image © Baki Hanma(Facebook)

Image © Erik JAWS Photo

Image © Michael LeGrand

Images © miltowncosplay

Images © rladao

Additionally, here are a few detail shots I took after tossing it up onto the mannequin in my office(Sorry, Inquisition Alistair. You get the storage box now):