Remember the iconic castle from the Hayao Miyazaki classic Howl's Moving Castle?
Of course you do!
Well, Sonja Cool from Hopkins, Minnesota made this awesome cosplay outfit based off the Studio Ghibli animated film.
"I worked on the project from January 2014 and finished July 2015," Sonja tells BuzzFeed. "I took a lot of breaks throughout the process."
The outfit cost Sonja roughly between $200-300.
!["It’s a base of chicken wire, 12-gauge wire, with a little bit of mattress pad foam, and then a TON of EVA craft foam," says Sonja. "The houses are made with foam poster board [...] I also used a bit of Apoxie sculpt on the church, and a lot of wood glue to fill in cracks. I bought a largest glue gun I could from the hardware store when I first started, and I’m proud to say I have worn it out."](https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2015-07/15/17/enhanced/webdr07/original-9367-1436994142-3.jpg)
"It’s a base of chicken wire, 12-gauge wire, with a little bit of mattress pad foam, and then a TON of EVA craft foam," says Sonja. "The houses are made with foam poster board [...] I also used a bit of Apoxie sculpt on the church, and a lot of wood glue to fill in cracks. I bought a largest glue gun I could from the hardware store when I first started, and I’m proud to say I have worn it out."
The whole outfit ended up weighing about 30 pounds.
"I invested in a pex tubing cutter so I could add a pex tubing structure inside to support the whole thing."
Sonja also added LED lights to each house.
AND IT BLOWS SMOKE!
"When I was adding the harness, the most important thing was for it to be balanced since it’s heavier in back. Adding the tongue and canisters of compressed air for smoke effects in front really helped it balance out."
"I just wanted to see it happen. I would day dream about the costume walking across stage," says Sonja.
"I decided to step out of my comfort zone and do something crazy that I hadn’t seen someone do before!"
Sonja first wore the outfit at the CONvergence convention in Bloomington, Minnesota., where she won the "Best Master" and "People's Choice" awards at their Masquerade costume contest.
Well done, Sonja Cool!
