I went to San Japan the final weekend of August for the second year in the row to support my friends working at Okashi-con. The drive was 6 hours long while also delayed by traffic, and I got increasingly tired and sore as the days passed. Still, I had fun and bought a ton of art and went to panels and the fashion show and mixer and talked to cosplayers and sometimes even ate vegetables! Too bad it was so hot and humid and even raining the last day, but that did not stop me from wearing my cosplays obviously.
As mentioned before, the con itself was fairly pleasant, organized, very inclusive, without the annoying security check at every entrance that causes long lines outside the building. The events were spread out in a large convention center with 3 floors, and hotel halls of also 3 floors, yet the lobby filled up quickly with lines to the artist alley/dealer’s room. I stayed mostly in the Japanese fashion rooms on the third floor and artist alley and dealer’s room, as I haven’t finished Panty and Stocking so I would be lost on the anime side of things where Studio Trigger visited. I arrived Thursday to my hotel after the worst traffic ever, then sewed up the last few bits of my cosplay for Friday, which was bishoujo Starscream!
I am not ashamed of my love for Starscream, although Optimus Prime is my original bias, but the recent movie with Steve Buscemi voicing Starscream had me changing my priorities fast lol. I actually did know of bishoujo Transformers before the Transformers One movie in October 2024, I think browsing through anime figure shop inventories a couple of years ago when they first started releasing bishoujo whatever, but at the time I thought Starscream’s outfit looked tacky and garish so I was not remotely interested and bought danmei nendoroids instead. However, since I am not going to make an actual robot costume, I swiftly decided to try to cosplay her outfit in mid-2025 while hot in my Transformers phase, and fell in love with the design after a second look.
First of all, bishoujo Starscream is a woman of color (based on the original dark grey face of the Generation One character design while most everyone else had lighter tone faces), and I am also a woman of color. My favorite colors are red and blue and her colors are red and blue. She is almost a perfect match in skin tone to me, which you practically never get in most anime style character artworks as they default to a super pale white skintone or a pinkish color like the other bishoujo Transformers. Starscream the robot is a medium height compared to Megatron (tall) and Bumblebee (short), but technically she should be on the taller side, while I am very short, so I could not get around wearing very high heels, ugh. I am just obsessed with her cropped fighter pilot vest and cheerleader skirt (apparently one of the original inspirations for Starscream was a movie cheerleader??? idk!) and her jet thruster heels and her curly braided bob haircut with the little cat ear hair vents, and basically everything about her design lol. Is this a bias? Yes, it’s pure bias, but she’s just that cute and sexy to me, look.
For my reference, I bought all 3 of the Elite Trine bishoujo statues from Kinokuniya (legit) and Aliexpress (not sure if legit). They were expensive even from China, so they better be legit. I also randomly came across a Japanese cosplayer on Twitter who made a very in depth tutorial on how she made her pretty girl Seeker cosplays and that was my other main reference.
https://x.com/lilisyurent/status/1798006524906012833
You would think with a detailed tutorial and the actual statue to look at, the construction process should be straightforward, but I found working with new-to-me materials, aka EVA foam, very challenging. I could not even use the proper glues as they were highly toxic and flammable and I didn’t want to mess with that in my old age. Also I can never style wigs that well. If you read the tutorial, you will notice that the majority of the costume is made from stretch fake leather (a popular material in Japan which is not easy to find in America especially with Joann’s closing halfway through the summer cosplay season) with only the polo shirt and tie and gloves and socks made of fabric. I decided I wanted a breathable natural fiber cosplay that I can wash after I sweat into it so I chose to sew the vest and skirt, as well as the polo and tie out of cotton or poly blend fabric. I miraculously found blue suspenders at the thrift store to make the garter belts, and sourced the garter clips from Daiso boy’s suspenders, the blue gloves and white socks from Ebay, the heels from Mercari (originally beige fabric that I painted blue with acrylic paint). Almost all fabrics were from my scrap bin originally purchased from Joann’s except for the silver stretch fabric for the purse, which I bought at the fabric district in downtown, and the grey polo fabric and I think the red lining fabric bought from Joann’s right before it closed. I bought the thick EVA foam and some thin and thick foam sheets from Michaels, but I also used foam and batting and stuffing scraps I already had at home. For the purse, the zipper was purchased from Etsy, the chain and ring from Michaels and Daiso, and the thick padding was cut from a piece of foam packaging for my computer monitor. The guns were made from foam scraps and dowel rods from my hoard, and the wig was purchased from Ebay and supplemented with Daiso hair pieces. I used a bunch of double-sided tape for smooth attachment as per the tutorial and also wood glue and a little hot glue, though ideally I should have used the recommended barge cement, but I was nervous about it being toxic so I never did.
Somehow, with a lot of determination and dozens of hours of work and trial and error and so much blood/sweat/tears, I finally had a wearable cosplay in hand and an okayish looking prop purse and wig. I took photos just for my own personal pride in my bathroom, uncertain if I should wear it outside due to my elderly body. But then I was like… the world is getting pretty shitty, why not wear it outside before I lose any chance to wear it at all? And also, compared to the other bishoujos, Starscream looked a little squishy in her belly, so off to San Japan this costume goes!
Friday after brunch, I put on the Starscream cosplay and walked across the street to the con. I met several other Transformers fans in the artist alley who said they were going to be wearing bishoujo Transformers on Saturday, and I gave out trading cards and button badges with my Transformers fanart to whoever stopped to talk with me. A handful of fans, mostly dudes as far as I can tell, took photos of me, and I got my yearly praise for my cosplay haha. Overall I felt very gratified for taking a risk to wear a fragile costume to a big con, despite my wrecked feet (I was wearing heeled loafers for both cosplays to save luggage space, but no extra padding or socks). Of course I was masked the whole time at the con, but the buildings were air-conditioned so I didn’t feel too stuffy. I changed out in the late afternoon to a Liz Lisa dress for evening events and dinner.
Saturday I rewore my Sakizo Three of Spades White Rabbit with the Alice’s World tights from 2 years ago because that was a beautiful handmade costume that needed to be worn again. This time I remembered to wear padded socks with the tights, but it was still uncomfortable with the corset and heavy wig. Thankfully I was mostly sitting down the whole day attending the J-fashion panels and such. I don’t think anyone took photos of me in my Sakizo cosplay, but I took photos all day long of other cosplayers during my quick run to the artist alley/dealer’s room, and also the fashion show. I changed to another Liz Lisa dress for dinner.
Sunday I checked out of my hotel room while in my Alice in Wonderland coord and attended the Japanese fashion mixer for brunch from noon to 2pm (see previous post for the full report on J-fashion events at San Japan). Then I changed to more comfortable clothing to make one last round in the artist alley to actually buy the stuff I had my eye on before heading back. I stopped in Austin to eat dinner with friends before continuing to home and was thankful for Labor Day Monday off so I could recover.
I washed and rewore this cosplay for the Transformers cupsleeve event (with a few additions and wearing the original blue heels and the fabric cuffs, also with my new bob haircut instead of a wig) in November this year, however the wood glue dissolved in the soak so I had to make a small repair. For further repairs if I ever have free time, I would take apart the purse and sew the interior zippered part properly and reglue it back together with barge cement. Also, the foam in the shoes tore a little at the cupsleeve event, so I would remake the grey foam pieces from fabric and interfacing or felt and somehow sew it to the shoe, not sure how though. I may remake the ankle cuffs for the third time, or at least repair the foam band part that is too fragile. And also I don’t like the collar of the polo, but idk how to fix that. However, I seriously doubt I will be wearing this costume again, unless I go to TFcon which is unlikely due to work schedule, or if we have another Transformers meetup before the next cupsleeve event, but I would just wear casual clothing to that.
Even if I never wear Starscream again, I am super proud of how accurate I was able to get this cosplay despite having never worked with foam seriously before, and I felt so cute wearing it out and getting recognized and having the chance to yap about Transformers to other fans. I am deeply grateful this Japanese artist decided to give bishoujo Starscream a darker skin tone (as they should!) so I actually felt represented as a Southeast Asian and confident that I looked less-ghastly, as I do with all of my cosplays of characters with darker skin tones lol. I learned a lot from this construction, and I’m excited to use those skills for new costumes although mostly because I have scraps left over that need to be used. What Transformers cosplay should I make next???