WonderCon 2023: ‘Life saving’ cosplay emergency repairs out in full force
Imagine: you spend hours meticulously stitching each piece of fabric, gluing on every button or cutting out cardboard for the armor of your cosplay and the second you step into the Anaheim Convention Center, something snaps. Worry not, there are cosplay fixers who can help.
They go by many names — cosplay fixers, cosplay repairers, cosplay rescuers, cosplay medics all dedicate their Cons to quick-fixing any costume mishaps for cosplayers using tools like super glue, needle and thread, double-sided tape, and more.
“Someone asked yesterday [for eyelash glue] and I went ‘Oh dang it, I should have that,’ so I went to Walmart last night and got it,” Brendan Bertges said. This is Bertges’ first year fixing costumes, he has a flag saying “FREE Emergency Cosplay Repair and Assistance” glued to a wooden stick he strapped to his large blue backpack filled with tools.
Bertges, who lives “just down the road” from the Convention Center, has a background in costuming, both making cosplays for people, cosplaying himself and doing quick-fixes on costumes while working for Disney for six years.
“Working for Disney set me up for the nitty gritty of fixing something quickly,” Bertges said. All three days of the Con he will be there to help and educate people who may benefit from a tip or two.
He spent some of his time walking through the large exhibit hall, but as he walks outside toward the entrance where floods of cosplays are talking photos in front of the Convention Center’s fountain steps, he stumbles upon Bryan Mero, dressed as Fix-It Felix from Disney’s Wreck it Ralph.
Mero has a similar flag sewed to a wooden pole on his backpack full of tools. A young cosplayer dressed as Johnny Joestar from Jo Jo’s Bizarre Adventure is struggling to keep her silicone horseshoe on her cap. Initially, Mero tries to sew it on, but he struggles getting his thread through the tiny needle hole.
Bertges is quickly to volunteer his battery powered, portable hot glue gun.
“Maybe you should sew it just to reinforce it,” Bertges tells Mero. They’ve never met before, but their plan of attack is formed quickly.
By the time that’s finished, more cosplayers have already formed a line begging for fixes. Some are simple — regluing some buttons or cutting off the tips of gloves so a cosplayer’s fingers can be exposed. Other times it’s more difficult.
“Most of the time I can fix it, usually a major failure if I can’t,” Mero said. Mero, who lives in the Sacramento area, started attending Cons behind the booth desks as a graphic novelist for a series he wrote for his children called “Spirit Knight” in 2008. His children, two boys and a girl who are now adults, used to attend the conventions with him and began an interest in cosplay.
Mero, whose day job is in IT, learned how to build their costumes. After years of being an exhibitor, walking around the floor, he decided he wanted to give back.
“The culture, the people, I love being around it,” Mero said. “And the community really embraced me. Usually people don’t ever want you touching their costumes, but they have a lot of trust coming up to me and asking me to fix things, maybe it’s my dad face.”
His first fix was a woman’s sandal at San Diego ComicCon last year. They were in line and the woman tapped him on the shoulder. Her sandal strap had snapped just as she got to the convention so he got down on his hands and knees to glue it back together.
“Cosplay is so universal, people can be 5 or 85,” Bertges said. “It can ruin someone’s day to have their cosplay fall apart.”
Noah Aguilar is attending this year’s WonderCon in his homemade Spider-Man: Homecoming cosplay. The eye socket of his mask, which he had used hot glue to put together, had separated.
Mero takes out his super glue to fix the mask. The humidity, body heat, or a person’s sweat, Mero explains, can sometimes cause hot glue to falter, which is why super glue can often be better.
Aguilar lives in south Riverside, but frequently attends WonderCon and has been coming since 2015.
“This guy is the real hero,” Aguilar said of Mero. “Just like getting food and water, which everyone should do at the Con, when something happens, boom, he’s here.”
The sentiment is echoed time and time again by grateful cosplayers.
Larry Fisk also made his own costume, this year coming as Batman. He began regularly attending Cons last year and came to Bertges for help with his mask and looking to secure his homemade body armor. Bertges takes out a rolled up Velcro strip to keep the armor from slipping off Fisk’s shoulders.
“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this,” Fisk said to Bertges after his help.
“[The service] is a live saver,” Fisk said. “I was panicking when my mask fell off, but I was so happy when I saw him.”
Sometimes, Mero will check in on cosplayers he’s worked on before later in the day to make sure everything is still OK.
“It may not be a permanent fix, but you’ll have a good Con,” Mero said.
Both cosplay fixers use social media — Mero on his SpiritKnightCosplay Instagram account and Bertges on his DisneyBrendan Instagram account — to let people know where they’ll be throughout the day in case they need help.
They accept tips or donations, but never expect it from people they help.
“I’m just doing this because I want to help people,” Bertges said. “It’s nice to help people with the stuff I bought, carrying a heavy back pack [all day] is grueling.”
Mero hopes to get a group together for future Cons where they can coordinate and work together to go out and help. Sometimes he’ll go hours without needing to help anyone, other times like Saturday morning, it’s one fix after another.
“It’s amazing to be able to just love on people and give back,” Mero said.
“Is there a summoning card? I might need you in the future,” a cosplayer dressed as The Deep from HBO’s “The Boys” asked when he saw the fixers.
Both men handed him their cards.