Nintendo's Royals: Princess Peach and Ganondorf

TR's Rockin's second Cosplay Journal - TR Rose and Concolor

Ever since A-Kon, I've been hit by what some people call "Post-Con Depression". After scrambling to create costumes for Star Wars and A-Kon, suddenly I feel empty, like I should be working on something new. I'm getting pretty good at DDR, but you can only exercise for so long before you wear out. I need a new project. Looks like the perfect time to start on the next set of convention costumes, which Concolor and I came up with on the drive back from Dallas to El Paso.

Since I was a little girl, I wanted to be Princess Peach (or Princess Toadstool as she was called back then). I would run around my yard, jumping and pretending I could float like she does in Super Mario Bros. 2. I made a sign for my (shared) room that read "Princess Toadstool's Room". Needless to say, you can guess who I always played as in Mario Kart and Mario Party. I was astounded by the number of Mario Bros. running around A-Kon - about a dozen Marios, a respectable number of Luigis, and at least one each of Wario, Waluigi, Toad, a Poison Mushroom, and Lakitu. But no Peach! My mission was clear: I would be Peach for the next convention.

Aside from Marios, the convention was also filled with Links and Zeldas. One cosplayer had five different-colored Link tunics, and he'd swap them out every few hours. One Link had a Navi on his shoulder, one was Shadow Link, and there were a cute pair of Young Links as well. So Concolor decided that he wanted to dress as Ganondorf for the next convention (Ocarina of Time Ganondorf, not the overweight Wind Waker version). It seems like a lot of work, but he was able to pull off the Entei costume. Although they're hardly couples costumes, it looks like we're going as Peach and Ganondorf for the next convention (probably A-Kon again next year, but possibly something sooner). Thanks to Super Smash Bros. Melee, the three-dimensional trophies provide excellent views of the characters' costumes from any angle.

With the imminent release of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, as well as a slew of new Mario games coming out within the year, I'm sure people will have no trouble recognizing us. I've learned from A-Kon that the more well-known your character is, the more people you'll have wanting to take your picture. And after all, isn't showing off your costume half the fun? The only problem with this is that being "on" for so long can become tiring. There are times we just wanted to look around at things, but we kept being stopped by hordes of fans who wanted us to pose and say the motto. Truth be told, we were dressed as Team Rocket for much of A-Kon because the costumes were simply the most comfortable (despite itchy wigs). Raichu and Entei had trouble sitting down because tails and spikes got in the way. Entei was unbearably hot. Raichu's ears hit into everything. Ed was comfortable, but the top was very short. Lt. Surge wasn't recognized by many people. We need to make relatively comfy outfits that are still recognizable, but have personalities a bit more understated than the flamboyant and energetic Team Rocket.

I've decided to make Peach's standard two-tone pink dress (as opposed to the more elaborate but less well-known SSBM version), but spruce it up a little with fancy trims and ruffles. Hopefully I can reach a compromise between the two styles to make the classic Peach dress but with some of the SSBM flair. I'll be looking through Halloween costume patterns and modifying some kind of Cinderella or princess pattern into the Peach style with the puffy sleeves, scalloped neckline, and big skirt. For the hair, I've decided against trying to cut and style my own for the convention. Instead I'll have to acquire a long, wavy medium to dark blonde wig (read: not platinum blonde like Chi from Chobits). I'll either style it myself, or find a salon to cut and style it for me. Not quite sure how I'll do the crown and jewels yet. It would be great to win the lottery and have someone custom make the crown with real gold, sapphires, and rubies, but I'm not holding my breath. For a more practical solution, I would like to do the crown out of thin metal and dremel the shape, but I don't if that will work. I'm looking for a pair of large round earrings (like my green ones for Jessie), which I'll paint with some kind of glittery aqua paint. For props, I plan to make a pillow-like Mario 2 "smiling veggie" and carry a frying pan (my favorite Peach weapon from Super Mario RPG). I'll probably find a cheap, lightweight pan at a discount store like Dollar General.

Concolor's Ganondorf will be based on the Ocarina of Time version, except with the addition of the cape from SSBM. His plan of attack is to start with the boots and work his way up. I've suggested a non-shiny fabric paint for the tribal-looking designs on the costume's fabric parts. I think he's going to use a leather-like fabric to make the armor plates. He wants to make the golden studs light up, but I think that would make Ganon look a little swishy, or at the very least too electronic. We might try dyeing his own hair red, and possibly using some kind of fake long-pile reddish fur for the monstrous eyebrows and sideburns. We'll also need to pick up a large nose appliance (like my elf ears) because Ganon's got quite a schnoz - although not quite as large as the pig snout he had in the old 80's Zelda cartoon. I don't know what kind of sword we'll make - it will need to be con-legal, but I'll need to replay parts of OoT to see exactly what the weapon looks like. I remember it being big, but that's it.

Obviously, there's a year until the next A-Kon rolls around, but you never know what might happen between now and then. I want to get started right away (at least to get my mind working on a new project). Besides, we might have to order fabric online to get exactly what we need, and that takes time to ship. I'll update this page every time these new costumes are worked on.

Additional reference pics:

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http://arcentral.net/pics/Ganondorf_w_sword2_sm.jpg
http://coco.raceme.org/videogames/zelda/images/ganondorf.gif
http://home.student.uva.nl/joseph.lai/games/gifs/ganondorf.gif
http://www.sennyu.net/sen_scans/SMallstars_19.jpg
http://www.sennyu.net/sen_scans/SMallstars_22.jpg
http://pocket.pl/nowosci/nintendods/2004/pazdziernik/princess_peach.jpg

SSBM pictures taken by TR Rose.

Mario DX sprites ripped by ProMan1
Mario RPG sprites ripped by Tonberry2k
Super Mario All-Stars title graphic from The Spriters' Resource