Cosplay Feature: Khris Bacho's Den-O Sword Form

Cosplayer Khris Bacho, photographed by Kings Cosplay, discussed his self-made Kamen Rider Den-O Sword Form costume and the process behind it. Bacho said his first convention appearance was at Otakon 2008 as Hei/Li Shengshun from Darker than Black, and that he chose Den-O for this build after previously cosplaying Kamen Rider Wizard at Katsucon, AnimeNEXT, and Otakon 2013, wanting to try a Rider that wasn’t already common at the conventions he attended.

Bacho described building the costume from a partially completed pepakura chest file made by a friend, filling in the rest of the design himself. The helmet was built from cardstock layered twice with fiberglass resin, with a separately printed pepakura pattern transferred onto craft foam for coloring rather than using Bondo putty; the eyepieces were adapted using a stunt-helmet approach with punched holes for visibility. The rest of the suit was built from 3/16-inch EVA foam, hot glue, and Mod Podge, and he modified a DX Superbest Den-O toy belt to better match the show’s actual henshin device; the bracers and shins were made from Worbla, though he noted the material hadn’t worked as well as he’d hoped.

At the time of the interview, Bacho was reworking the Den-O suit to transform between its forms (excluding Wing, Climax, and Liner) and considering an older Super Sentai suit, possibly Maskman or Bioman, for a future build. Asked for advice for new cosplayers, he recommended starting simple, building up skills gradually, doing thorough character research and gathering reference images, and not being afraid to ask for help.