One of my more ambitious cosplays I'm working on this year is Riku from Kingdom Hearts. Specifically I'm using his look seen in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance for the Nintendo 3DS. At first I was going to attempt at sewing his vest but after seeing it could be purchased from a vendor online, I decided to jump for it. Same with the shoes and wig. Everything had been purchased and is now in my possession. The reason I chose Riku was because I liked his character and Kingdom Hearts is a personal favorite series of mine. On top of that, it's one of my cosplay dreams to do a Square Enix character since they are infamously known for their insane character designs. So...many...zippers 0_0.
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| Silver Wig! |
The wig was the first piece that showed up. This in particular was the best one I could find that matched Riku's actual hair in the game. The vest itself was the next piece and man was I super psyched to see it and actually wear it. The vest consists of the main colors of black, yellow and white. The insignia for the Dream Eaters is shown on the back and the zipper is one of those crazy double zippers with the letter D being shown as well.
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| Sassy Riku...yea i don't know lol |
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| Back of the vest showing the emblem! |
The shoes showed up a few weeks afterwards and these were definitely what I wasn't expecting. I still need to wear them more to both break them in and get used to them. There are no laces to firmly tie it and a mini belt used on top of the shoe to kind of seal you in. The shoe has an entrance from the back via a zipper which is honestly something I've never seen before. It does however look awesome! I should also note that these shoes are what Riku wore in Kingdom Hearts 2 as I couldn't find the exact pair worn in 3D. Hopefully people won't care ^_^.
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| Shoes! |
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| Full outfit! I will be wearing Jeans since it's close enough. |
With the clothing pieces acquired, came the most difficult part that I wanted to take on my own. This being the obvious keyblade Riku uses in battle. After much thought about how I was going to do this, a classmate of mine in school actually recommended having it laser cut out of wood since my school is lucky enough to have a laser cutter. First I went into Adobe Illustrator and traced both the sword and handle from an image found of the keyblade itself. After acquiring the best piece of wood that would work I went down to the person in charge. The laser cutter in the building turns out to only hold pieces up to 29in in length with my pieces (I picked up 2 boards) clocking in at 4ft with 3/4 of an inch thickness.
He then came up with a solution to take it down to a building nearby to have the blade cut with a machine that is definitely big enough for my boards. After many issues and odd problems with the machine, I was told literally that the first board cut had a 50/50 chance of either coming out good or being completely fucked up. Luckily I had a back up board, but thankfully the blade came out amazing and the 2nd board was cut as well looking just as awesome!
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| So beautiful! |
My friend had recommended getting 2 boards and then gluing them both together for sturdiness and weight, however picking up the first blade was surprisingly heavy so I figured one is enough. So why was another blade cut? I at least will have something to use in case I screw up on the paint job. What was next? To the best of my ability I patterned out where the shapes and details were on the blade in pencil. This would then lead to having most of these areas being covered by Worbla which I'm now saving up for. I actually think I came pretty close to what it looks like in the game so I'm really happy with it.
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| Front Side |
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| Back Side |
So what remains now is the Worbla, paint and adding a chain for the bottom alongside the little key ornament which will also be done in Worbla. Originally Riku was planned for PAX East but after much consideration, I decided against it sicne if I did bring him without a completed Keyblade I imagine I might get stopped for pictures but be kinda useless without having his weapon to pose with like a badass. I have the entire summer to work on this and get it right so Riku is set to debut at NYCC 2014 :)
