Bronson Lee Ramos’s Gipsy Danger costume has won first place in the Mary Sue and Calgary Expo Ultimate Cosplay contest.
“I found out about an hour and a half ago that I won,” the 24-year-old Williams Lake resident told the Tribune Monday afternoon.
Two weeks ago Ramos alerted the Tribune he’d made it to the top ten and said it would boost the city’s “nerd pride” if he were to win.
With the win he receives two VIP tickets to the Expo, two plane tickets and four nights in a hotel. And he gets to be a guest judge at the costume contests they hold there.
The Expo takes place from April 16 to 19. Ramos has attended the last two years.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Ramos said. “There are big displays from comic book companies, lots of people selling geek-related stuff. They have panel discussions and you can meet celebrities and get their autographs. It’s pretty cool.”
Ramos grew up in Williams Lake and has always loved super hero characters.
In July he decided he was going to build a Gipsy Danger costume for Halloween, based on the character from the movie Pacific Rim.
He began constructing it out of EVA foam jigsaw mats in September.
“I love all the giant robots in the movie, it’s one of the movies I’ve watched a whole bunch of times. I figured Gipsy would probably be the easiest so I decided to try her first and attempt the other ones later if I could get Gipsy done.”
Next Halloween he’ll try another one, but hasn’t decided which one.
Ramos described Pacific Rim as very original.
“I like it because it’s not based off an existing comic strip or book. That really resonated with me,” he said.
For the contest entry, Ramos’s photographer friend Allie Gardner did a photo shoot with him, capturing some nice images, including one of him standing on the Rudy Johnson Bridge that crosses the Fraser River about 30 minutes north of Williams Lake.
When Ramos isn’t being a super hero he works at Save-On-Foods and is apprenticing at a local tattoo shop.
