My Essential Pokémon Cosplay Equipment

Aside from the costume of the Pokémon character that I cosplay, there are two other items that I need when I cosplay a Pokémon character, which most of the time in my case means Ash or occasionally Red. Those two items are the signature Pokémon of the character - which most of the time in my case is Pikachu, used by both Red and Ash - and a Poké Ball. In my early days of cosplaying Ash, I had neither, and although others had no problem recognizing what character I cosplayed and where it originated, I was always queried for both. This became my incentive to have both items.

The current ones I use are shown below:

The Pikachu I use is a doll that I meticulously created based on a papercraft pattern. At the time I created the doll, Pikachu dolls weren't as readily available as they are now, and this was the solution I devised based on my hand-sewing knowledge. It took a lot of time to create, yet I'm still proud to use it, though I need to mend it every so often. On the left side of the photo is the Poké Ball that I use, adapted from a hanging ornament which was nearly perfectly the size of a Poké Ball. The two on the right are the ones that I formerly used, which I had created in the same manner as my Pikachu, but not directly from a papercraft pattern; as much as I liked to use them, somehow they were always off in size - the second to the right was a little big and the rightmost one was a little small. Their only purpose now are for backup.

There are even older forms of these that I formerly used:

Back before I used fabric equipment, I used papercraft equipment. The Pikachu and Poké Ball here are the realized forms from the papercraft patterns, adjusted in size. While they looked accurate and worked well, they were somewhat fragile, so I had to be careful when bringing them to events and using them. It was for this reason that I moved to fabric equipment; another is that since I sometimes perform on stage, with a paper ball (even a plastic one) I wouldn't even consider throwing them the way Poké Balls are meant to be thrown, but with a fabric ball, I can be a little more "reckless".

In the future, I may want to have different Pokémon dolls to suit other characters and especially Red, but at the moment just Pikachu suits me just fine for Ash and Red. I'm also open to other concepts on how to present Pokémon when I cosplay, though I tend to gravitate to dolls because they are easy to make and portable.

I love it when I cosplay Pokémon characters, but I also like that I'm identified for doing so. Thus it is these two items - a Poké Ball and a signature Pokémon - that I find necessary for my Pokémon cosplay. No matter the material, these two items affirm my cosplay identity as a Pokémon character.