Comic-Con 2016 Cosplay – Unsullied of Game of Thrones

“Do you watch Game of Thrones?” is a question I’ve ridiculously asked people so many times recently.

I love GOT and I’ve always wanted to get a chance to see the folks behind the masterpiece live. I figured the best opportunity to make this happen would be at San Diego Comic-Con where they’ve been paneling for a couple of years now. So sometime in August of last year I signed up for a chance to buy tickets. By the old gods I scored some!

Hyped and all, I immediately started thinking of ways to prepare for my first con experience. Game of Thrones, comics, artists, movies, booths, celebrities, crowds…costumes? Boom. I knew right there and then that I was destined to make (not buy) my own comic-con costume. With my dedication to GOT, I took my SDCC experience up a notch by entering the snazzy world of cosplay.

Cosplaying as one of the Game of Thrones’s Unsullied at SDCC 2016 was a wild, challenging and rewarding experience.

Unsullied Costume Making

I seriously wanted to go all out at SDCC. On that note, I decided to make my Unsullied costume as legit as possible. I figured using materials made of plastic, foam or cardboard was a little lame so I went for real wood, leather and steel for my gear.

Helmet

• Stainless steel mixing bowl
• Steel piece
• Cut-out, 18 gauge stainless steel sheet
• Brass screws and lock nuts
• Baseball helmet padding
• Flat black powder coat

Shield

• Steel saucer sled
• Cut-out 18 gauge stainless steel sheet
• Pathway light shade (for spike)
• Brass screws and lock nuts
• Belt and wooden dowel handle
• Flat black powder coat

Spear

• Wooden dowel (cut into halves)
• Steel conduit tubes (to couple 2 dowels)
• Chiseled wooden spearhead
• Brass screws
• Flat black powder coat
• Flat black spray paint

Leather Armor

• Black leather
• Bag stiffener
• 3M Super 77 adhesive spray
• Leather thread
• Leather needle
• 4-prong punch
• Round drive punch
• Domed rivet setter
• Screw in rivets
• Dome rivets
• Cut 18 gauge stainless steel sheet shoulder pad
• Powder-coated flat black (shoulder pads)

Pants

• Black linen
• Black thread

Sandals

• Purchased from ASOS

Making my Unsullied costume was not a walk in the park. It took about 5 months of pastime hours of research and hard manual labor to complete this slave-soldier gear.

I literally mastered the Unsullied designs. I always found myself browsing images online just so I can fully capture the armor intricracies. I had to regularly watch YouTube videos of the Unsullied and I can’t even count how many screenshots of it I’ve taken on my phone.

As far as making the helmet, shield, leather armor and spear, I managed to use regular and power tools and some machines with the help from staff and other members at TechShop Redwood City (shoutout to Michael, Devin, Christian, Shawn and Brian!). The culmination of all those work nights and weekends of cutting, grinding, drilling, plasma-cutting, bending, smithing and powder coating was quite interesting, but that’s another story. My good friend Crissy gracefully sewed up my authentic diaper pants in two hours. As for those gladiator sandals, they were about $40 on ASOS.

While I don’t really see myself going through all this effort again just to make a costume, I’m pretty happy with how my creative process took place. Even when things were getting really tedious, I still stuck with my plans and certainly got into a lot of situations where I was just winging it. I had so much fun making my Unsullied gear that I somehow just lost track of time.

Cosplay at SDCC 2016

Although I got pretty stoked putting on my completed Unsullied costume, wearing it at SDCC was a whole new ball game.

It was rough. There was nothing convenient with standing in line for 3+ hours equipped with body armor, a shield and a 10-foot pole in summertime San Diego. The steel helmet and shield actually started baking under the sun and the leather armor did nothing to help with the sweat situation at all. The weight of the spear generously provided arm soreness after equipping it for a couple of hours. It was quite a workout going through the convention and hydration was definitely key. In my song, there was no ice but all fire (rimshot).

Well that explains it. Most people avoid these predicaments so I will definitely consider using plastic and foam for next time like a normal person.

Despite all this, cosplaying Unsullied at SDCC was an awesome experience. We made it to the GOT panel! People were smiling, shouting “Unsullied” and stopping to take photos with me and giving me street credit for my work. Passing through crowds was tricky and I’m really proud that I managed not to bash or swing at anybody.

Every time I bumped into someone rocking a costume especially from GOT, I couldn’t help but get warm and fuzzy as I felt the shared interest and dedication. I just wish we didn’t miss the official Game of Thrones cosplay photoshoot on day 3 though. It would have been a lot of fun hanging out with the rest of the GOT cosplayers if we weren’t so much comic-con noobs. Overall, I think we did a pretty good job representing GOT and entertaining fans at the convention.

San Diego Comic-Con was amazing and I’m glad that I marched in as one of the Unsullied. Definitely not the last con I’m attending. I highly recommend that you go and even more that you to come dressed up. When in Rome!