Roberto from Futurama Cosplay

Welp, back at it again with another Futurama post! I have mentioned in previous posts that Futurama is my favorite show. Roberto is one of my favorite side characters and "Insane in the Mainframe" is one of my favorite episodes too. I love the funny one liners and the fact that he robs the same bank three times.  I had the idea to make Roberto for a while and had a pretty clear vision of how I would make him. A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into this (literally, cut my hand open and had to get two stitches.) He made his appearance at Denver Pop Culture Con 2019 and was surprisingly a big hit! I wasn't sure of how he would be received since he is primarily in one episode that aired almost 20 years ago but I had never been stopped so much for pictures and sometimes would have swarms of people around me. Anyway, this is a rough idea of how I made him. I tried to take as many progress photos as possible. 

It all started with cardboard! I found a big piece of cardboard in the local recycling bin and since I work in grocery stores I was able to find a couple of cardboard boxes that I would use for the body.  I decided to just start making him and adjusted things as I went on. 

I cut out a rough shape for his face and started to build off of there. I took long strips of cardboard and hot glued them around the face shape. Cut out where the mouth piece would go. I realized that I didn't bend the front part out enough and had to adjust from there. 

I glued the bottom piece on to wrap around the front for the chin detail. I had to fill in where the front bendy piece meets the mouth and the bottom chin part meets the mouth with small pieces of cardboard since I didn't originally account for those pieces. I used the same plastic canvas that I used for Leela's eye for his mouth so that I could see out of it. 

 

The thing I struggled with the most for the head was trying to keep it stable on my head. I found just putting my hair into a ponytail and the back piece I built into the body helped keep it on. It gets a little uncomfortable after a full day of wearing it but it is not that bad. Once I got the head where I wanted it and after a lot of adjusting I glued the whole thing to another big piece of cardboard and cut out around the head to close off the back. I cut out where I wanted the eyes to be so that I could start paper mache-ing it. (I also paper mached the body at this point too) I think the paper mache was my favorite part. I used the flour/water method but I think in the future I will use wood glue because the flour does chip off chunks once it is dry. 

Once the paper mache was dry I primed the head with a few layers of gesso. I pulled the plastic canvas piece out too so I didn't get paint on it. 

Finding the perfect color for Roberto ended up being a lot more difficult than I thought. In my mind I always thought he was a reddish color but he is more of a burnt orange color. I found the perfect color for him at Michael's and bought 4 tubes of it to make sure I had enough. I think it took 3-4 coats of paint to get a nice even coating. 

Once he was painted I added the plastic canvas back in. I used felt to add the mouth detail and hot glued it on. I used black poster board for his eyes. I cut out holes so that I could add lights. The poster board ended up being a little more difficult to get in place but I just hot glued it in and hoped for the best. I used yellow construction paper to cover the holes that I cut in the poster board. I cut out circles and cut off a piece so he looks more menacing. I cut out black squares for his pupils and glued them on to the yellow eyes and glued the eyes to the poster board. 

That was basically how I made the head. That was the most difficult part of the costume. 

For the body I used one big cardboard box and cut out arm holes and a head hole. I cut out the front part a little bit so it looks like my head is sticking out of it since I do not have the same proportions of a robot. I added a half dome shape to the back of the box to match Roberto's. This also helped keep the head stable. For the bottom piece I just used a smaller box that fit over my hips and cut a hole out on the top. I paper mached it. My partner helped me out a lot and primed and painted it for me since I was running out of time. 

 

For the base layer I found a long sleeve shirt and leggings that were similar in color. I painted black lines on them to match Roberto. 

I wore black gloves since I ran out of time to make anything else. I made feet for him too out of plastic bowls but they fell apart almost immediately at the con. The plastic knife was a lucky dollar store find. The money bag was a pillow case from the dollar tree that I rounded off with the sewing machine. I drew the money sign on it with sharpie and stuffed it with newspaper to make it look full of money.  I added tap lights for his eyes and just taped them in at the con. 😂

I spent a solid two months working on this every day after work and on my days off. It is my biggest and most ambitious cosplay I have made and honestly I am pretty proud of it especially since I was working two jobs at the time! I was so surprised by the response and had a lot of fun wearing him. 

I wore him at Colorado Springs Comic Con as well with my partner as Fry. We happened to run into another Fry! haha. 

Hey Red!

I hope this helps in your quest in making your own Roberto cosplay or maybe helps give you some ideas on how to make another cosplay!

Follow me on instagram for more up to date posts and things I am making @cherelledx. 

More Futurama posts!

Leela Cosplay

Bender tile graffiti blanket

Mars University Sweater

Crochet Frank the Bunny from Donnie Darko Amigurumi

A few years back I crocheted a Donnie Darko amigurumi. I had intentions of making a Frank but took me a while to get to it. I crocheted his base last year but got stuck on his bunny mask. I put off finishing him for over a year and finally got around to making the mask. I used this pattern here for his base. I used a pet brush to comb out the yarn once I was finished to give him that fur effect.

I used two different colored safety eyes. One brown one for his regular eye and one black one for the shot out eye. I used red puffy paint for the blood around his shot out eye. I sewed his mouth by pulling yarn through the back and around the front where I wanted it to be and then putting the yarn back inside. I just tied it in a knot and called it good. For his hair I used longer pieces of yarn for the top and filled in the rest by sewing it in.

For the mask I crocheted a piece that would fit around his head. I brushed it out to give it the fur effect. I drew a template of the bunny face and then cut it out of felt. I glued the eyes, teeth, and nose/forehead piece to the base. I painted it with silver metallic paint and added details and dimension with chalk pastels.

I think that is basically all I did to make my Frank. I'm not 100% happy with him and it is not my best work but I think overall he looks pretty good!

Leela from Futurama Cosplay

I mentioned in a previous post that I really love Futurama. It is my favorite show of all time so when I started getting more into cosplay Leela was an obvious choice. She dresses like I do normally so I figured she wouldn't be too difficult to put together. 

For her outfit:

This one is easy. I already owned the white tank top and black leggings. I bought a purple wig off of Amazon. I bought a pair of black boots from Payless (RIP) and painted the boots grey. I taped off where I wanted the boot strap details.

For her armband:

I used the pattern for the thing she wears on her wrist (haha) from this website here.  I cut it out of foam. I cut out the design on the arm band to match Leela's in the show. I primed the foam with watered down white glue and painted it a teal color. I cut another piece of foam that I had primed and painted dark blue. I just glued that on the inside of the arm cuff where I cut out the design. I used velcro to secure it on my wrist.

This thing has seen better days. It has been to 4 cons in 3 different states.

For her eye:

I used plastic canvas that I believe is used for cross stitch. I cut out a bean shape with eyelashes on it. I used black felt for the pupil and eyelashes. I glued those on with hot glue. I tied thin elastic to it so it can go around my head. I have a rough pattern I drew that you can find here.

That's it! Leela is pretty easy cosplay to put together but I thought I would share my own interpretation of her. My partner bought me Nibbler so he's a perfect addition to the costume.

If you have any questions feel free to ask me. I am normally pretty quick to respond. Follow me on instagram for more up to date posts and pictures @cherelledx. 

Princess Carolyn from Bojack Horseman Cosplay

I started watching Bojack Horseman in 2017. I instantly fell in love with it. I think it is a very smart, witty and real show and the characters are awesome even with all their flaws. My partner and I were deciding on what to dress up as for Halloween in 2017. We landed on Bojack Horseman and Princess Carolyn kind of by accident. We put both the costumes together in about 2 days and used a lot of materials I already had laying around. I think all of one person recognized us on Halloween. We've worn them to conventions about 3 times by now and they always get a good response.


For her outfit:

The yellow cardigan was a lucky thrift store find. The teal dress was a lucky Target clearance buy. The dress isn't 100% accurate but it is pretty close. I glued yellow fish that I cut out of felt onto the dress in a diagonal pattern to match her pattern on the dress. The belt I already owned. I bought pink fuzzy gloves from the dollar store. For her shoes I bought black pumps and painted them red with red leather paint. I wish I would have taken more pictures of all of this but when I was putting this together I was just in the zone and completely forgot!

For her necklace:

I used yellow ribbon for the choker part that I just tied around my neck. The jewel part is made out of perler/melty beads. I glued an eye pin to the ribbon and to the charm that I made and used a jump ring to connect them.

This is stained pink from all the pink body paint (haha)

For her ears:

I cut the ear shape out of craft foam so that there are two connected. Then I wrapped the ears around a headband and glued them together. I primed the ears with glue and painted them pink. I added the black lines with sharpie.

Makeup, hair, and turning yourself pink:

The first few times I wore this costume I did my makeup and hair. I am not the best at makeup or hair to be honest. I painted my face and exposed skin with pink water based body paint. Used purple eyeshadows to give myself a smoky eye and used black eyeliner for a cat eye and whiskers. For my hair I gave myself Princess Carolyn's signature hair bump and sprayed it with pink hair spray. I never could decide which way to wear my hair. For turning my legs pink I dyed white tights with Kool-Aid. There are plenty of tutorials on how to do color something with Kool-Aid. This method works really well and I've even been able to wash them!

This is what the white tights looked like before. 

 

At one of the conventions I went to I saw some other Bj & PC cosplayers that had made masks for themselves. I decided I was tired of doing my hair and makeup before the con and that I would make my own mask. I used the Paper Mache baloon method. I followed a tutorial pretty closely that can be found here.

Make a balloon base. Try it on. Look like Mysterio. 

I added the details with cardboard and attached them with masking tape. I used thicker cardboard for her ears and thinner cardboard for her hair and fur. Then I covered all of that in paper mache. 

 

After the paper mache dried. I primed it with white Gesso. Then painted it pink. Cut out the eye holes. I added the details with black sharpie and a white acrylic paint marker. I added black pipe cleaners as her whiskers and just hot glued them on to the mask. I can't really see or hear out of the mask so I carry it around with me at cons and if somebody asks for a picture I will just put it on then. 

That's how I made my Princess Carolyn costume. I hope this helps if you are on your own quest to making your own PC costume. If you have any questions feel free to ask. I am normally pretty quick to respond. Follow me on instagram @cherelledx. I post more up to date pictures and progress on projects there!

The IT Crowd Cosplay: Moss & Roy

The IT Crowd is one of my all time favorite shows. When my partner (Devin) and I started dating he had never seen the show before. I told him to watch it and he instantly fell in love. It is one of the shows that we constantly quote from. Last fall we went to Santa Fe Comic Con for his birthday. I wanted to make a new costume but didn't have a lot of time. I had the idea to dress up as Moss & Roy. This is essentially a closet cosplay. 

I got all of the stuff for Moss at the thrift store. Luckily it was around Halloween so they had a lot of costume items out. I was able to find the afro wig for pretty cheap. The wig was really easy to style. I just parted it where I wanted it and then just pinned the back down so it wasn't totally round. I bought the shirt, tie, and pants from the thrift store. The watch we already owned. The glasses are my real glasses. (haha)

For Roy we had to decide what shirt from the show to recreate. We decided on the Space Invaders shirt because it is the shirt he wears in the first episode and the one he has in the opening theme. We just printed it on fabric transfer paper and ironed it on a plain black shirt the day of the con. I bought the army green jacket from the army surplus store. We printed a sign out on computer paper and called it a day. 

Every time we wear these costumes they always seem like a big hit. We've worn them to three cons at this point. It is always fun to see people's reaction to them. Most people will recognize me as Moss first and then when Devin shows them the sign they get more excited. Moss & Roy have turned into our favorite casual, easy day cosplay. 

"Couldn't we just have hidden behind those bins?"

Check out my instagram for more up to date posts and things that I am currently making @cherelledx and check out Devin too @lyn2win!