I don’t play many video games at all, but I LOVE Borderlands 2. It’s got humor, it’s got feels, and it’s got really cool female characters. After cosplaying as Tiny Tina in 2015, I decided to be Gaige the Mechromancer for the 2016 Too Many Games con. Then my boyfriend said those fateful words: “Wouldn’t it be cool if you went as Gaige and I was Deathtrap?” My response was, “That would be really hard….. but I can’t turn down a good challenge..” Thus began the arduous task of making my boyfriend into a robot. ::sigh::
Recently I’ve started to pay more attention to where things come from, and I had already planned to use mostly thrifted and recycled items for my Gaige costume. So I resolved to make Deathtrap out of boxes. So many boxes. Between my family and friends, I soon had more used boxes than I even needed!
I started both costumes with a hand. Deathtrap’s hand was boxes, hot glued, zip tied, and duct taped together. Boxes from frozen gluten-free waffles, boxes from Oreos (not gluten-free!), boxes from Amy’s organic frozen meals. Did you know duct tape peels off cardboard like it is its job? I didn’t. I wound up hot-gluing the edges of the duct tape back onto the cardboard. I strategically cut boxes and reshaped them to make them into specific shapes. The light on Deathtrap’s head is a blue battery-operated tea light candle glued to a headband. The “flame” at the bottom is a blue fiber optic lamp. Anything else that was not a cardboard box was a plastic bottle.
I made Gaige’s robot arm using craft foam that I cut, painted, and glued to an elbow-length (shoulder-length on me because I’m short) black satin glove that had lost its mate. The shoes were cheap ankle boots that I painted to look like high top sneakers. The top, hoodie, and skirt were all made out of thrift store items. The goggles were sunglasses attached to a thrift store belt (and for some reason the belt took FOREVER to drill through, as did the plastic sunglasses. WHY?), covered in Paperclay, and painted. The chain belt is made of a thick craft foam, linked together with brads, with a foam belt buckle hot-glued on. the choker is a piece of the same belt that I made the goggles with. the tools are all made of layers of cardboard taped together. If you look closely, you can see that I even made the bolt earring Gaige wears.
All in all, it went well. I was working til the day before the con on it, and it was well-received, even though Deathtrap got a little mangled on the way there! I fixed him up for some nice portraits in front of a quarry, and photoshopped Rick’s bottom half out to make it look like he was really a floating torso robot. I’m pretty happy with the way the pictures came out.. it kind of looks like if an indie band made a low budget, Borderlands themed music video.
angie schlauch illustration & design 