Lowcost Cosplay: Anucha Saengchart’s 32 Cheapest Character Costumes

Anucha Saengchart's Low-Cost Cosplay Transformations

Anucha “Cha” Saengchart is a Thai cosplayer who became famous online for doing the opposite of what cosplay usually asks for. Instead of spending weeks and a lot of money building an accurate costume, he grabs whatever is in the room, such as noodles, towels, Crocs, a keyboard or a kitten, and then lines up the camera until the result reads unmistakably as a famous character. Each post shows the household items, the finished photo and the original character side by side.

His project, called Lowcost Cosplay, is run through its Facebook page and became widely shared in the second half of the 2010s. Part of the appeal is the honesty of the joke: everyone can see that the Night King is wearing a keyboard and that Rapunzel’s hair is spaghetti, and yet the likeness still works.

Below are 32 of his transformations, with notes on the character, the source and the trick behind each one.

What cosplay is, and why low-cost cosplay is funny

The word cosplay, a blend of costume and play, was coined by the Japanese writer Nobuyuki Takahashi in a 1983 magazine article. It describes fans dressing as characters from anime, comics, films and games, often at conventions. Serious cosplayers may buy ready-made outfits, commission pieces from specialists or make everything themselves from raw materials, and a detailed costume can take months of work and a large budget.

Lowcost Cosplay plays with those expectations. The skill is not in sewing or prop-making but in seeing shapes: a comb parting green hair looks like the Red Sea, a bubble-wrapped chest looks like a textured suit. It is a form of visual comedy close to forced-perspective photography, where the angle of the camera does most of the work.

The transformations

The Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen. A real tabby cat lies in a fluffy pet bed held up to the camera, while a red wig and heavy blue eye make-up stand in for Helena Bonham Carter’s Red Queen in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland (2010). The cat, unsurprisingly, steals the show.

Davy Jones. A pile of stir-fried noodles on a paper plate, held under the chin, becomes the tentacle beard of the cursed captain from the Pirates of the Caribbean films, topped with a real tricorn hat. The noodles do a surprisingly good job of copying the character’s octopus face.

Ryu from Street Fighter. Lying on a bathroom floor and shot from above, the cosplayer appears to throw a Hadouken fireball, with a toilet bowl of blue water playing the part of the energy blast. Overhead shots like this, where the floor stands in for a wall, are one of his favourite tricks.

Erik Killmonger. Bubble wrap pressed against a bare chest and a heap of dark wig make a rough copy of the textured suit and dreadlocks worn by Michael B. Jordan’s villain in Black Panther (2018). The comparison photo on the right shows how far the idea has to stretch.

Pickle Rick. A green Free Adventure sleeping bag, two paper eyes and a cardboard mouth turn him into the scientist who changed himself into a pickle in a 2017 episode of Rick and Morty. The sleeping bag even has roughly the right shape.

A Jedi with a lightsaber. A glowing tube light held up in a dim room gives a fair imitation of a lightsaber blade, with a hoodie standing in for a Jedi robe. The reference image is a fan-made Star Wars portrait.

A centaur. A photo of a galloping horse on a laptop screen is lined up with the cosplayer’s body so that his torso appears to grow out of the horse, bow and arrow drawn. It is a pure forced-perspective joke that only works from one camera position.

The Genie from Aladdin. A blue towel flows out of a toilet bowl like the Genie’s smoky tail rising from his lamp, with blue face paint and a matching shirt completing the look. The toilet as magic lamp is the kind of crude, cheerful joke that made the project popular.

A grey alien. Baby powder dusted on the nose and photographed in extreme close-up turns two nostrils into the huge black eyes of a classic “grey” alien. It is one of the cleverest images in the set, because it uses no costume at all.

A Dragon Ball healing tank. A bottle of blue mouthwash in front of a phone camera tints the whole scene, making him look as though he is floating in the liquid-filled recovery tanks seen in Dragon Ball Z. A cigarette-packet box and a pillow complete the effect.

Titanic. A computer keyboard sailing on crumpled blue plastic plays the ship, and a doll stands in for Rose, while the cosplayer, with dyed blond hair, poses as Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jack from James Cameron’s 1997 film.

The Night King. Two pale blue mints held over the eyes, white face make-up and a keyboard armour make him a convincing copy of the icy leader of the White Walkers from Game of Thrones. It is one of the more elaborate builds in the series.

Jaws. A plastic water bottle with a shoe underneath, photographed from below, becomes the rising shark from the famous 1975 film poster, while he swims across a sofa above it. It is a good example of how he recreates an entire image, not just a character.

A plane landing at sunset. A desk lamp’s rows of tiny lights become a runway seen at night, and a small prop held near the lamp casts the shadow of the plane. Not every picture copies a person; some recreate famous kinds of photograph.

Mercy from Overwatch. Pencil shavings held at the shoulders become the glowing golden wings of the healer from Blizzard’s 2016 team shooter game, with a red swimsuit standing in for her suit. The shavings even have the right zigzag edge.

Thanos. Purple marker on the hand and lines drawn on the chin recreate the ridged jaw of the villain from Avengers: Infinity War (2018). The photo depends on a single, carefully lit close-up.

Jason Voorhees. A pair of white Crocs held over the face, with red marks drawn on them, become the hockey mask of the killer from the Friday the 13th horror series. The holes in the shoes do the work of the mask’s ventilation holes.

Darth Vader. A mass of thick black hair combed forward, with sunglasses perched on top, imitates Vader’s helmet. Seen from behind and slightly above, the shape is surprisingly close.

Cyclops. A hamburger in its wrapper held across the eyes stands in for the ruby visor of the X-Men hero, with a blue T-shirt and a hand-made letter on the chest. The pose, two fingers to the temple, is taken straight from the comics.

Moses parting the Red Sea. Hair dyed green and parted down the middle with a comb labelled “Moses” recreates the great walls of water from the biblical story. This one is a favourite because it is so simple.

Smoker from One Piece. Rolled tubes strapped to the arm and a puff of white smoke imitate the smoke powers of the Marine officer in the One Piece anime. The jacket and bare chest match the character’s look.

Batman Returns. A cat tree becomes a stage for figures dressed as Batman, Catwoman and the Penguin, copying the line-up on the poster of Tim Burton’s 1992 film. Here the joke is in the props, not the costume.

Kuwabara’s spirit sword. A bottle of orange soda held at an angle, with the drink streaming out, mimics the glowing energy blade of Kuwabara from the anime Yu Yu Hakusho. The hair, dyed reddish orange, completes the match.

A red-carpet look. The set starts with a bottle of red soda and ends with the cosplayer in a sparkly red strapless dress, striking the pose of a model in a shiny gown. Playing glamorous female looks is part of his range, and the joke is on his own improvised kit.

A green plastic army man. A safari helmet and work clothes, then a full coat of green and his feet set in plastic bases, recreates the little toy soldiers best known from the Toy Story films. The flat base under the feet is the detail that sells it.

Han Solo and Chewbacca. A fluffy kitten blown with a hair dryer becomes Chewbacca, while the cosplayer, in a brown jacket and grey wig, plays an older Han Solo as seen in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). The kitten’s face does the rest.

A Joseon-era scholar. A desk-fan guard worn on the head imitates the wide black gat, the traditional Korean horsehair hat, worn by an actor in a historical drama shown on the Korean channel KBS2. A pink raincoat and cord make the robe and chin strap.

Rapunzel. A plate of spaghetti held below the face becomes the long golden hair of the heroine of Disney’s Tangled (2010), with a yellow towel tied on top. The noodles are, of course, exactly the right colour.

A Twister ice lolly. A green and white striped towel and pink-dyed hair turn his head into a Twister, the spiral ice lolly sold by Wall’s brands in many countries. Food is one of the most common sources in the series.

Luffy’s giant fist. A magnifying glass held in front of a punch makes the hand look huge, recreating the stretching, oversized fist of Monkey D. Luffy, the rubber-bodied hero of One Piece. The anime panel next to it shows how close the angle is.

Deadpool. A pair of red underpants pulled over the head, with the leg holes as eye holes, becomes the masked anti-hero played by Ryan Reynolds. Crude, quick and instantly recognisable, it sums up the whole project.

Super Saiyan 3 Goku. Bunches of bananas arranged behind the head make the spiky, waist-length golden hair of Goku’s Super Saiyan 3 form from Dragon Ball Z, with an orange towel as his training gi. Lying on the floor and shooting from above lets the bananas stay in place.

The tricks behind the photos

Looking across the set, a few techniques come up again and again. Overhead shots taken while he lies on the floor let him “fly” or throw energy blasts. Extreme close-ups hide everything except the one detail that matters, like the powdered nose that becomes an alien’s eyes. And forced perspective lines up a small object near the lens with his body further away, so that a water bottle becomes a shark or a laptop screen becomes the back half of a horse.

Choosing the right reference image also matters. Each photo is paired with a well-known poster, game screenshot or film still, so the viewer can compare the two at once. Without that side-by-side layout, many of the jokes would not land.

Why the project caught on

Lowcost Cosplay works because it is generous. It never mocks the characters or the fans who love them; the joke is always on the cosplayer’s own improvised kit. It also shows that creativity does not depend on money. Anyone with a phone, a towel and a bit of patience can try the same thing, and many fans have, making their own low-budget versions at home.

If you try it yourself, remember that the camera angle is everything: take many shots, move the object closer or further from the lens, and keep the background plain. And credit the original idea when you share it.

Sources: Photos by Anucha Saengchart, Lowcost Cosplay on Facebook; Wikipedia: Cosplay.