Minnedosa cosplayer immersed in fantasy

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This article was published 06/04/2023 (1093 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Randy Collen has always loved using his imagination.

From the age of 13, the Minnedosa resident has been an active player of Warhammer, a tabletop miniature medieval fantasy war game that was first published by the Games Workshop company in 1983. Comparable to other tabletop games such as Dungeons & Dragons, players take turns moving their model warriors across the playing field and simulate battles, the outcomes of which are determined by a combination of dice rolls and simple math.

Now in his thirties, Collen’s love of Warhammer hasn’t faded, but his love of cosplay — the practice of dressing up as a character from a movie, television show, book or video game — has flourished in the past few years. When he attended Comiccon in Winnipeg for the first time in 2021, Collen chose the event — a fan convention for all sorts of science-fiction and fantasy works — to flaunt his creativity. He ended up winning best in show for his costume.

“Before that, I’d done lots of handmade Halloween costumes,” Collen said.

Also a member of the Strathclair Drama Club, he has been making costumes for the characters he has played with the theatre troupe as well.

Now, Collen has the chance to win big in a cosplay contest called Cosplay Star, put on by Star, an American celebrity tabloid magazine based in New York. One winner will be selected to take home US$10,000, a two-page feature in the magazine, and two three-day badges to Rose City Comic Con, in Portland, Ore. The contest is raising money for the Starlight Children’s Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 1982 that provides hospital wear, games and deliveries to hospitalized children.

Collen has entered his Warhammer costume into the contest, which took him between 500 and 600 hours to create. If he wins, he plans to spend some of the prize money on helping his dog overcome some recently diagnosed health issues.

“My dog needs surgery,” Collen said. “He had a twisted stomach, so I had to go in for emergency surgery, and then they found that one of his tendons is about to tear, so he needs to get surgery for that as well. It’s going to be expensive.”

But even if he doesn’t win, Collen said he’s always happy to immerse himself in the world of cosplay for the joy of getting to meet with other like-minded people who share a love of using their imaginations to celebrate their favourite works of pop culture.

“I’ve always been fascinated by it, from the outside looking in. You can dress up with whatever your favourite fandom is, and it’s a wonderful community. The people are all incredibly supportive, not just the Winnipeg Comiccon community, but also the online communities have been fantastically supportive of each other. It’s a lot of fun.”

Aside from the Cosplay Star contest, Collen is looking forward to this year’s Comiccon in Winnipeg, which is happening from Oct. 27-29 at the RBC Convention Centre. He’s even thinking about building a new costume to debut at the event.

He’s also excited to see how many young people are using cosplay as an outlet to express their creativity and individuality.

“It used to be far less socially acceptable — you’d just see the ‘nerds’ doing it. But now, it’s become a cool thing to do, to be a nerd, which is kind of nice. It wasn’t like that when I was growing up, that’s for sure.”

The Cosplay Star contest wrapped up on March 30, and as of press time, Collen’s final placement in the contest was not known.

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