Flash Photography: Speedster Cosplay at WonderCon 2015

I spent the weekend at WonderCon, and while I didn’t make it to the Flash TV cast signing (they capped the line 20 minutes before I made it to the convention center), I did make it to the cast and crew Q&A session on Sunday, which I’ll be posting about soon. I also spotted quite a few Flashes, Kid Flashes and Quicksilvers among the cosplayers. (and a Thundra, who I kept trying to figure out whenever she walked by until I finally just walked up and asked her what her costume was).

The full photo gallery is up on Flickr, but here’s a highlight of some of the speedsters who slowed down long enough to be caught on camera:

Flash Beyond (2/2)
Justice League Beyond Flash, Danica Williams.

Quicksilver
Quicksilver in the style of the X-Men: Days of Future Past movie.

Golden Age Flash
Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick, showing off his helmet.

Flash and Arrow
TV Flash and Arrow.

Kid Flash
Kid Flash with a new attitude.

Full gallery on Flickr.

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6 thoughts on “Flash Photography: Speedster Cosplay at WonderCon 2015

      1. Scott Timms

        What’s a good place to buy/make (I use make loosely) a Jay Garrick Flash? Wonder if you could do a “How To” piece on the helmet for the site?

        Reply
        1. Kelson Post author

          There are several ways to do it. I’ve seen people use actual WWI Brodie helmets, metal bowls, and costume helmets. Mine was a paper mache base wrapped in model magic for the surface, built on top of a rubber ball for the central bowl, lined with felt on the inside and spray-painted silver. The wings were model magic on a cardboard base, spray-painted gold. My wife wrote up a how-to guide with photos back in the day.

          A few problems we ran into:
          1. The clear varnish we sprayed on top of it to protect the helmet ended up making it dull, so in the space of a few seconds it went from super-shiny silver and gold to a dull gray and yellow-brown. Not much we could do since we were wrapping it the morning we had to leave for the con.
          2. Even with the varnish, metallic spray paint can fade or tarnish. After several years, those gold-colored wings are now green. I guess there must have been copper in the paint.
          3. Paper mache is fragile. I thought it was being stored in a safe spot, but something must have been pushing down on it, because the wings have broken out of the brim, cracking the hat in the process.

          The shirt’s still good, the pants are off-the-rack, I didn’t customize the belt, and the boot covers are fine (as long as I attach them better next time), though if I stumble on some *actual* red boots in the right size/style, I may want to pick them up.

          As for a new helmet, I picked up a costume pith helmet on clearance a few months ago with the idea of trying to smooth it out, but that’s still a “someday” project.

          Reply
  1. Kyer

    First time I’ve seen a Danica cosplay. Love the Garrick sneakers. 😛
    Please do not rebuild the helmet as DC52 or newer. Seriously, classic Jay helmet should be like Classic Coke. Don’t mess with the formula.

    Reply

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