SL Comic Con Cosplay Contest

Photo we took at the prejudging

Salt Lake Comic Con is the third largest con in the US.  The cosplay contest equally as large. I entered my Sanctuary Base Space Suit  last year and didn’t make it to the stage round, so I was really thrilled this year when my Missy/Cyberman made it past the prejudging (done the week before) and onto the big stage.

The cosplay contest was on the final evening of the con and we had spent all day at the con so by the time the contest rolled around we were already pretty exhausted.  The cyberman isn’t very user friendly to wear (you can really only wear it for about an hour before it’s too much) so we didn’t wear it to con that day.  So that meant a long walk to the car to get the cyberman (which fills a large lawn bag) and then a long walk to a bathroom to get the thing on.  It was comical really.  My daughter would hand pieces of her Mandilorian over the stall to me and then I’ll hand back pieces of the cyberman over the stall wall to her.

Then the nervous standing and waiting.  It’s fun to talk to the people around you and look at their amazing costumes, but also a little intimidating because they all look so good.  But there is a feeling that you’ve found kindred spirits because you have so much in common.

Waiting for the contest to begin.

Then comes your few minutes on stage, they play the music and you have about a minute to pose and smile and move in a way to show your cosplay in the best light.   My daughter and I didn’t practice in advance (we didn’t really know what to expect) but we came up with a little skit of sorts where the cyberman walked in a straight line and Missy danced around him with her umbrella.   I have no idea how it looked or if it worked but people clapped and told us we did a good job (the contest is online somewhere but I don’t have the guts to watch it). 

In the end we were called up to receive an award and I was totally shocked!  There were so many good costumes there, I didn’t expect to win anything.   Then the awards for our category were called – Third, Second, First, and my name wasn’t called at all. So I thought that it was probably a mistake.   But then at the very end we were called to the stage and given the “Judges Choice” award.   We took a bow at center stage and everyone clapped.  It was really fun and a thrill.

 

Here is a collage of some of the other people who we were competing against that day to give you an idea of the amazing talent.

 

Missy Goes to SL Comic Con

I had a fabulous time at Salt Lake Comic Con.  I dressed all three days as Missy.  Missy is a great character to portray and I had a great time wearing her skin for a few days.  I ended up alone for one of the days and it might have been one of my favorite days because it forced me to meet and talk to new people. I even had lunch with someone (another cyberman builder) who I had only met online.

Jenna Coleman was one of the guests and I waited in line to ask her a question.  When I made it to the microphone she called me “Missy” and told me I had a great costume.  The camera panned to me and the entire audience (5000+) applauded and cheered.  It was amazing, and I was so happy to be able to ask Ms Coleman my question.

Bolstered by that experience I also asked questions that same day of Felicia Day and Christopher Gorham (who I was able to meet later in person).

I took hundreds of pictures with people, half of which thought I was Mary Poppins. I even had one father ask me to discipline his children (?).  If they called me Mary I’d be sure to smile in the photo, but if they knew I was Missy I was able to scowl, smirk, and I even got to kill an Osgood or two with my device.

It was also really great to spend some of the time with my teenage daughter, who had made her second ever cosplay.  She also got stopped for a lot of pictures and had a really good time.