Doxy

For the release of the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Irvin decided to expand his HP cosplaying horizons by attempting his first nonhuman character. It was really only a matter of time, since over eight years he was beginning to exhaust the list of human characters. Irvin decided to be one of the titular fantastic beasts - namely, the doxy.

To create the costume required more engineering than cosplay skills, figuring out a way to keep things attached and shapely. For the extra limbs, Irvin repeated the strategy that had served him so well in crafting Ursula's tentacles: filling black tights with air pillows. Onto these limbs, he hot glued socks and gloves to create human-like extremities. There were thin strips of black elastic connecting the fake arms to the real ones, in order to simulate four-armed movement.

Googly eyes were glued onto a black bodysuit that was zipped up all the way, which was an important decision to make. It impaired Irvin's vision somewhat, but was a worthwhile trade-off for not having to apply a ton of black makeup to the face.

The biggest issue was with the wings, were had to be clear and "beetle-like" as described in the books. Thus, any ready-made wings were not viable, since they tend to be solid and glittery, not to mention butterfly-shaped. Irvin had to procure metal wire, bend it into the shape of wings, and cover it in plastic wrap. The metal was attached to cardboard, which was wore through the use of elastic around the shoulders. While the wing construction was effective, it's not durable, requiring a refurbishment of the wings after a couple hours (ie. after every single outing). The metal gets all bent out of shape, but the alternative is heavy wings, so Irvin will just keep refurbishing.

The costume made its debut at TGTSNBN's cosplay day, held the day after J.K. Rowling's screening of FB in Carnegie Hall. Irvin was the only one who opted to be a fantastic beast instead of a 1920s wizard, but Newt was there to put the doxy in his case. The doxy got to flit around and cause mischief all day (odd, how many of Irvin's characters do that!). Eventually wizard Aurors tried to arrest the doxy, but there were too many limbs!

The doxy was worn again that Thursday for when TGTSNBN went to see the movie upon its actual release. Irvin made sure to get pictures with the enormous banners promoting the movie, since that made the doxy to scale compared to the human characters!

Plenty of people were creeped out by the doxy, even though its googly eyes are intended to be quite friendly. But plenty more people were impressed with the ingenuity needed to create an actual fantastic beast!