Gears of War Cosplay at Animazement

Animazement is an anime convention that takes place every year in downtown Raleigh, NC.  Even though it’s an anime convention, many fans attend in costumes from video games, movies and comics as well!  This year I decided to wear my Anya Stroud costume to Animazement 2012 for its second appearance.  I was already planning to make some improvements from the first time I wore it, so it was the perfect opportunity to show all of the new work that I put into it.

Epic Games’ Engine Technical Support Manager, Preston Thorne had heard that I’d be wearing Anya. He decided to attend wearing his Carmine cosplay along with his son Brenden as a COG!  Preston was also kind enough to lend me his awesome autographed prop Lancer to pose with.

On Saturday afternoon at the convention we all three gathered together for a few group photos, which quickly turned into hours of us standing in one place getting our pictures taken.  We were overwhelmed with the love and support for Gears of War at an anime convention!  It was especially great to meet local fans of the game who were already wearing a Gears of War shirt or stickers on their cell phone cases.

We were approached by lots of fans who wanted to know about the armor creation process and how they could attempt to cosplay a COG themselves. It was an awesome experience to walk around in costume with Preston and his son!  Brenden holding such a giant weapon was completely adorable.  We made quite the team!

Check out my cosplay page here for more information about my Anya costume and other costumes I’ve made!

All Photography by Jayce Williams (PhotoNXS)