DIY: Riddler Cosplay

I'm a fan of Villains and one of my favorite Villains has always been Riddler. Mostly the 1960's version which his AMAZING riddles that for some reason Boy Wonder was always able to answer.

"What's Yellow and Writes?...

...A Ballpoint Banana"

So naturally he was one of the characters on my list of cosplays to create.

Step One: Planning

As always gather reference images and break down the parts. Work out what needs to be Made, Bought or Modified.

• Hat

• Wig

• Gloves

• Belt

• Stockings

• Shoes

• Dress

• Cane

Step 2: Dress

Decided that I could reuse the same pattern from the DC Bombshells Batwoman dress to make my Riddler. Just needed to swap out the colours and ignore the lettering and symbols.

So bought some fabric from Spotlight/ Lincraft. I used Chino Drill in Green and Purple. (The underside of the skirt and trip are purple.) Also used the purple for the belt piece. It's literally just a tube of fabric with 4 press studs. I used nail polish on silver press studs just so they'd blend in with the material better. Painted the studs before attaching them to the fabric, because I'm clumsy.

Step 3: Accessories

Shoes: Shoes were purchased from Kmart for $8, they're my fabourite White canvas shoes. Which I Painted bright green with acrylic paint mixed with fabric medium.

Use masking tape over the rubber soles and remove the laces. then you can paint on the majority of the shoes. If you do get paint on the rubber souls you can easily wipe it off with a slightly damp cloth. The eyelets where your laces thread through can be wiped with a bit of tissue to remove any paint that's there.

Once the paints dry. I usually allow 24 hours just to ensure the paint is dry. Hit it with a blow dryer to make sure the paint sets into the shoe. (as per instructions for my fabric paint medium)

Had a look online for a fun way to lace the shoes tat isn't the standard way of lacing. this is a sort of Lattice Criss-Cross pattern. I like the White laces but I've since found some purple laces that I think may look better.

Hat: Finding a green bowler hat is tricky if you're not in March and leading up into St. Patrick's day. But I did find a black bowler made with a satin material.

So firstly I had to remove the black satin bow ribbon that the hat already had. Then the trick here was 3 coats on top and underside of the hat with a Fabric paint. (I used the Tulip brand Soft matte in leaf green).

It's still a little streaky in places but it got the job done for the most part. So I'm happy with it.

I measured out a length of Purple Ribbon that was a little bigger then the size I needed for a hat band then using double sided tape attached to the ribbon first in spot that would fasten to one spot on all four sides. lined it up and attached it overlapping the ribbon slightly at the spot that would be just off center of the front facing side.

Next cut a smaller length of ribbon to use as the bow and a piece to fold over that. Fold the First piece so that the end meet in the middle. stick down with double sided tape. Then fold the smaller center piece over the middle to cover the join and stick down. The attach the bow to the hat over where your hatband overlaps on itself.

I'm a big fan of double sided tape as I feel it's easier to use and less messy compared to hot glue. Also I'm clumsy so inevitably will burn myself with a hot glue gun.

Cane: The cane is a thing of beauty I got the top part 3D Printed (cost me $40 from Chris over at Combustible Props). This then needed to be sanded and sprayed with primer filler spray. Repeating the sanding spraying process until it's mostly smooth. then Can go over with a layer of Gold acrylic paint.

For the Staff part I made a trip to Bunnings and picked up a piece of PVC pipe and some plumbing fittings. The plan was to cut the piece of pipe in half and have it go back together again using the screw in plumbing fittings. This way I could make the prop easier to transport. I picked up 4 Adapters and an end cap.

PVC pipe is fairly slippery so you need to sand the pieces so that the paint will stick to it. I cut the piece of pipe i had to the length I needed and then cut that in half so that I had two pieces. I used e3000 to glue the fitting pieces into place on the pipes and into the bottom of my question mark topper. Once the glue had dried. I used a little bit of green stuff (it's used to fill gaps in Models when you're working with miniatures) just to fill the remaining gaps and try to make the joins look a bit more natural.

With the pipe glued and sanded down. Placed some Masking tape over the thread parts of the fittings. (both the outside and inside parts) and then hung them from my clothes line. It was a little tricky but it did the job.

Applied two coats of primer filler spray. Waited for it to dry completely then painted with the same gold acrylic paint. My paint was a little thin so it took 3 coats, and it's still a little patchy in sunlight. Coat all the pieces with a clear glossy coat of paint then make sure it assembles.

As you can see the paint did chip in a couple places and the threads were a touch snug when screwed together. I used some vegetable oil to make sure that it screwed in better but I'm still tentative about forcing it all the way so I plan to go back and paint the top part of the threads with the gold paint just so that it doesn't show bright white in photos. But for the mean time I just make sure to hold the staff in that spot when taking pictures.

Stockings and Gloves:

These were just bought at a dollar store. I couldn't find the shorter length Purple gloves so I bought a pair of matte purple full length gloves and then just scrunch them down. As I planned to use the gloves for another cosplay and didn't want to cut them.

I found the stockings at a costume store but the only option available was the black and purple striped. they worked fie for the Impact Comics Festival here in Canberra. But I did find some plain purple ones at a dollar store in Melbourne when I was over for PAXaus2019. So now I have options.

The Wig is the same wig I use for my Mario Tennis Daisy, as it seemed to go with the character look. I did also consider a black wig or even my natural hair, but the Auburn won.