This weekend I entered my Melon Lord cosplay into Y2Kon’s first ever cosplay contest and I’m pleased to announce that I took home the gold! (Metaphorically.)
A Crazy Idea
On the morning of Tuesdays, September 5, 2023, I woke up with a ridiculous but impossible to ignore idea. With Y2kon, a nostalgia-fueled convention geared towards cartoons of the 2000s, coming up at the end of the month announcing Michaela Jill Murphy (voice actress for Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender, as one of their guests, I wanted to through together an ATLA cosplay. While I did not want to try to make a Toph cosplay and deal with her wig and the “blind” contacts, I did think of a very unique character that I could throw together and make for a funny experience: Melon Lord.
Melon Lord was perfect in that I already had so many of the materials handy. I had the base for a melon-shaped mascot head, red velvet fabric, and orange fabric. After throwing the fabric over my dress form and confirming that yes, the colors—while not perfect—did work well, I decided what had to be done.
As I made it, I realized I could enter it into the cosplay contest as all the pieces were made by me, with the exception of the petticoat which I added last minute to give my “rock” skirt more volume. I applied online for the contest before getting anywhere near the end of constructing the costume.
Arriving at the Contest
The con—like the contest—was very small and intimate. (But funnily enough not the smallest convention I’ve been to. That honor goes to Wowcon Beyond which is held at the Dallas Public Library.) With the exception of the scheduled panels, you could see everything you wanted to in about an hour. Understandable given it is its first year. But this small size did lend itself to some wonderful interactions with the guests where we didn’t feel rushed or like we’re being herded like cattle to move onto the next attendee.
But I digress. Back to competing.
After convincing friend Panda Blossom Cosplay who was cosplaying Katara to also compete, we went to prejudging at 2:30pm on Saturday. We were ushered into the main events room and told to just sit and wait. The contest itself would start at 3pm. By 2:50pm, the contest runner started directing us to line up backstage. Confused, I asked if there was going to be prejudging. They replied, “Only five craftsmanship showed up and there wouldn’t be time to do it so it’s just going to be sight-judging.” I tried not to make a face but I’m pretty sure I did lol Okay, that’s fine I guess. I’m not typically a fan of that style as it feels more like a popularity contest and I like being able to talk through my construction process, but what can you do?
Then, a few minutes later, the same runner asked out of the about 20 of us total, who made over 50% of their cosplays. Five of us raised our hands and were told to wait in line. It turns out the judges did want to talk to her, which was a relief.
Taking Inspiration from Work
I typically lay out a build book in InDesign and have it printed off at FedEx before any competition. For this contest, I did not have time. I did, however, have time to throw my process photos and some construction ramblings into a blog post. I figured I could show it to them on my phone. And then, inspired by QR codes I keep having to create for my day job as a graphic designer, I decided to make a QR code that would link directly to the blog post. I saved and favorited it to my phone so I could easily bring it up.
I spoke to the judge’s as quickly as I could, highlighting the reusing of old materials and improvements of techniques (zigzag stitching seams on my old 2019 cape vs french seams for the new 2023 robe). I worked from head to toe, starting with the mascot head, then the scarf, robe, and finally my rock skirt, which is arguably the most unique piece when compared to other Melon Lord cosplayers online. They seemed to really love my clean seams on my robe and the rock texture I incorporated into the skirt and were surprised when I said I had done all the rocks the day before the contest (which was true).
When asked if I had any last things I wanted to mention about the cosplay, I blanked, pretty sure I had covered anything. Then, I remembered my blog post and quickly scrolled through it to show them before showing the QR code. They excitedly scanned it and looked at the build after I left the table. I honestly might incorporate that to my build process from here on out instead of dealing with paper. (It would also mean forcing me to do my build post in a timely manner, which is good!)
A Gremlin on Stage
With prejudging done, I told the runner that Panda Blossom and I would like to have some space between us because we want to film each other’s walk-ons. They were gracious enough to accommodate that and put me at the very front with Panda a few cosplayers behind me. I got up there and made a fool of myself to make the audience laugh and had the time of my life, then took my mascot head off quickly so I could film Panda. Then, I watched the rest of the contest back stage through little gaps in the curtain.
“They’re not first place; they’re Melon Lord!”
It took no time at all for the judges to finish their deliberating after our walk-ons, likely because there were so few of us. After judges awards were announced, they announced the top 3 prizes. Panda Blossom’s Katara won her 3rd place! And I have to apologize because I didn’t retain the name of the cosplayer, character, or even fandom that won 2nd place. All I know is their cosplay looked really nice!
Thank you to @cutiefacemcbeauty on IG for the above photos!
Naturally, Panda and I had to go tell Michaela about our wins! She was gracious enough to let us take a picture with her and our awards.
Conclusion
Overall, I had a blast at this tiny con and contest. There’s something about smaller cons that lends itself to better connections and time with people. It was so nice just getting to chill and talk to people without having to worry about when the next event is or running around to find everything.
Thanks everyone for your support on Instagram and Twitter as I worked on this cosplay! It was a lot of fun to both make and wear, to the point that I’m debating bringing it to Anime Frontier in December!
Ashweez Cosplay 
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