About ten years ago my youngest son developed a severe tremor in both hands which made it all but impossible for him to do complex craft projects.

But at the same time he’s a Lego God and an avid gamer (he can thrash me at *anything*!). & he LOVES his pop culture!

So when I started attending Australia’s pop-culture event ‘Supanova’, I realised he’d love it too. That night I threw something together, gave him a raygun, and off we went!

Welcome to Geek Heaven, kid!

I know these guys. (I *think*)

Kasper was 14 at this stage.

Then he met Link – and an idea is born!

So, come next year … There was a new Link on the block!

Kasper has low muscle tone, so everything has to be very lightweight.

The sword is a very light timber, plus some plywood, low-density craft board, a bit of leather, and even some ordinary printer paper.

The shield is thin plywood, plus craft-board, leather, rope, costume jewelry, paint, and the caps off champagne bottles. OH THE SACRIFICES I HAD TO MAKE!

As it was, he could only carry it for about 20 mins.

This is my best work. Out of all the cosplays I’ve done; THIS:

On our first attempt, the ears were elasticated straight onto his head. he hated it!
So the next year I rebuilt the hat entirely and fitted the ears directly to it using strips of leather.
Ditto the golden hair at the front, which literally *are* strips of leather.

“Remember that you’re *Link*. – Be heroic!” (Nailed it)

We sometimes get blurry photos.
Just par for the course when you have the twitches.

Next up: “Dad, I want to cosplay as a Lego character!” … “Oh – kay …”

This took a LOT of time, especially the two-way sword holder – which probably took longer than both the katanas combined.

The katanas are made from strips off horizontal blinds, other timber strips, bits of vinyl floor tile, leather or gold fabric, and champagne corks on the tips.

(Notice a theme developing here?)

“Steampunk? No worries, mate. I’ve got heaps of that!”

Supanova 2015, Brisbane.
I took Kasper and his friend, BOTH DRESSED IDENTICALLY!

(This is one of *my* cosplays, BTW. Doing double duty.)

“Dad, I want to do ‘Starfire’ next.” “Sure, what’s he look like? … OH!”

Supanova 2016, April.
[This photo by fellow-steampunk Andrew Dore.]

I built the entire costume, except the wig. (Kept the skirt long – you might notice. And yes, he was wearing my bra.)

I wanted to support him entirely. If he wanted to do a female character, FINE! (And anyway – I did a female character 2 years earlier. It’s all cool in our house.)

[Yup, that’s me in the pink. I *always* do pink! Besides, a super-hero needs a super-villain to battle. I invented ‘Zoot Sucker’.]

Do NOT mess with the Teen Titans! (Especially *this* guy.)

On to Robin of the Teen Titans, swinging to the macho side after being ‘Starfire’. (That cape wasn’t easy!)

And after the battle – a Romantic Interlude:

Since we still had the Starfire Costume (and no: he wasn’t going to ever wear it again), I realised I could set up this little scene.

Here’s my boy, dating himself!

2017, Gold Coast Supanova, Australia.

This year he chose “Red” from Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen.

(Well; that was his 5th choice, because he wanted to do the most difficult things you can imagine – e.g. Captain Falcon from Super Smash Brothers. I had to be honest – they were too hard for me to make.)

Red meets Moon, for some Pokemon whomping!

At the convention for five minutes and we meet this lass doing “Moon” from Pokemon Sun and Moon. Was that a photo-op, or what?

That bring us up to April, 2017. I wonder what next?

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