Cosplayer Spotlight: Mash Up Cosplay UK

Con season is upon us and every year, cosplayers everywhere stand out at conventions. They put in so much effort and time to create their costumes. During con season, I'll be interviewing different cosplayers from all walks of life. They deserve so much credit for their creativity. As I've stated in my last story about cosplay mashups, they are a fun and exciting way to display your creativity to everyone. I want to introduce everyone to a cosplayer who is a master of amazing cosplay mashups. His name is Mash Up Cosplay UK and he's one of my followers on social media. I had a chance and pleasure to interview him recently and share his love of cosplay to everyone.

Texxx-Man Cosplay:How long have you been doing cosplay and how did it change your life?

Mash Up Cosplay UK: Depends on your definition of "cosplay." I’ve been doing "fancy dress," the majority of my life in one way or another, mostly for parties or for Halloween. Always enjoyed dressing up and taking on a character. My first official cosplay was in 2014 and I dressed as Judge Fear from the world of Judge Dredd. I’m still really impressed with the helmet I built for that and still have it. Cosplay changed my life by introducing me to lots of new similarly minded friends and by introducing me to lots of super creative writers and artists of the comic world. Also through cosplay, I found a new way to fulfill my creativity and offered me a fun way to show my creations to the world.

What inspired you to do cosplay mashups?

I didn’t start cosplay with mashups. I did a number of cosplay without that in mind in the beginning, like that of my Judge Fear and Stargate SG1. I can’t remember if there was a particular thing that inspired me to move on to doing mashups, but I do know why I enjoy them more. For me, cosplay is fun, from the researching, designing, building to the displaying, and patrolling. However, I find that mashups have more of my own design within them due to their nature. It’s a character that doesn’t exist, so you have to create it. Of course, you have to research the two or more characters that go into it and take the key defining features into consideration for your mashup, but after that, it’s all that you put into it. Mashups truly fulfill my creativity and I do like being unique. If I come up with a good idea, I Google it first. If it’s been done before, I scrap the idea and come up with something new.

How long do you spend time on each cosplay mashup?

It’s a tricky question to put a time on a cosplay. The shortest was definitely "Negan-Pool," as I already had all the clothing and mask. I just needed to order a foam baseball bat and paint it, so that was about an hour to paint it and done! Then, I have something like my first mash-up cosplay: Judge Mario (Judge Dredd and Super Mario). I researched and designed him for about a month, including time to research materials, suppliers, building techniques, costing, etc. I wanted to do it on a reasonable budget and build as much as possible from scratch, which I did. I learned so many great techniques for cosplay building doing Judge Mario; it was the ideal first mashup. All in all, Judge Mario probably took about 6 months, including that 1 month prep time.

What is the positive feedback you have received from other people regarding your cosplay mashups?

I have received many feedback for my mashups. Some are received more positively than others, as some include more well-known or loved characters. I should also mention that not all cosplayers like mashups. In fact, some do see mashups as an abomination towards a certain character, but 95 percent of people do see the fun side of mashups. The majority of people that find my cosplays online or see me in person are very positive towards what I have created. Some have even asked me if they can interview me!

Who are some of your favorite cosplayers and why?

Other than my friends that I have made through doing cosplay, I would say one of my favorite cosplayers is Lonstermash. He is a Wolverine cosplayer (and really quite looks like him), but he also has fun with it and does Wolverine mashups, like Jedi Wolverine complete with Lightsaber claws or Easter Wolverine with carrot claws! Also, I’m a big fan of "chin beard" of punished props and Evil Ted, both of which are more known for being cosplay builders than actual cosplayers. I think it would be fair to say, but definitely recommended to be following if you want to make great cosplay.

What advice would you give someone who would be interested in doing cosplay mashups?

My advice to anyone wanting to do mashups would be, as I have found out via some of mine, is pick at least one of the characters to be a popular/ well-known character with easily identifiable costume details. For example, Batman’s bat logo, Superman’s "S," Captain America’s shield, etc. If someone doesn’t get who either of the characters you’re trying to mash up, it won’t be as well received. I would recommend researching each character you want to mash up and make a list of all the details you want to include in your design and spend as much time as possible drawing the idea out, so you can get a good idea of how it will look (hopefully). Once complete, ask yourself does this mashup work? I’ve found not all do, which is a shame, because I’ve thrown away many ideas I thought would be awesome, but ultimately, I couldn’t create them in such a way that each individual character was easily identifiable. Above all else, enjoy yourself. Cosplaying is for you, not anyone else. Have fun with it.

If you would like to see more of Mash Up Cosplay UK's creations, you can follow him on Facebook. Just search for Mash Up Cosplay UK and he's also on Instagram, @mashupcosplay.