With Comic Con come and gone, so too are a number of the attendees and fans, which included some truly talented cosplayers. But more cons are always around the corner, meaning we'll get a peek soon enough at even more talented folks.
The work of one such fan has been making the rounds online lately. There's a good chance you've seen some pictures of an astonishing sword in the style of the Soul Edge wielded by SoulCalibur's own Nightmare, maybe on Kotaku or a few other portal sites.
The sword serves as a central facet to the game's story, cursing any and all who grab hold. Some fighters seek to destroy the sword, others only want to wield it and use its power for their own intentions. However, whoever holds the sword is reduced to nothing more than a shell, through which the sword commands. This is Nightmare to a T, a mammoth monstrosity who's been present in the games in one form or another.
The sword is the design of Casy Kovach, who clued me in a bit on the sword's design, and what went into constructing it.
"I went to my first con back in 2010 with a simple body paint based cosplay. After that I was immediately hooked. I've done more minor props in the past, but nothing like this. I decided to go big this year."
And go big he did, literally. As you can see in the pictures from the making of gallery, the sword stands nearly as tall as Casy, who estimates its weight at around 60lbs. Lifting it alone is a Herculean talent, let alone what it took to design and build it.
"I've been playing the series since Soul Calibur 1, and though I've never gotten great enough to be super competitive, the interesting characters have kept me coming back to the series," said Casy. "I knew I wanted to do a big prop this year, but I'm best at sculpting organic forms. When Nightmare and the Soul Edge finally occurred to me it seemed like a no brainer."
To look at it, it's hard to believe the weapon is made of anything but cursed steel, the grafted skin and broken dreams of vanquished warriors, and children's' tears. Delicious, salty tears. But asking for that at any craft store will net you a lot of strange looks, and probably a call to the police to boot. Casy settled for using "pink insulation foam board, lightweight sculpting clay, Bondo, fiberglass and fiberglass resin, sandpaper, steel piping, power tools, and lots of beer." God bless you, PBR...
The cost of his endeavor? "I bought the supplies as needed over the course of the build. I could probably come up with an estimate, but I'd rather not think about it to be honest."
You can see the amount of detail and attention that went into this sword, showing it wasn't some one shot project all done in a few hours. Casy spent about 7 months of his time on this, showing some serious dedication.
Now, as great as pictures are, there's nothing quite like witnessing the real thing "in the flesh" so to speak...which is oddly applicable in this case. I mentioned more cons earlier, because that's where you'll be able to witness this massive piece of fandom. Provided he feels it's ready in time, he'll be dragging this thing over to one of the biggest conventions in the U.S., DragonCon, which takes over Atlanta, GA later this summer from August 30th to September 2nd.
If that's where you're headed, don't worry about keeping your eyes peeled for Casy and the Soul Edge; they'll be pretty hard to miss.
