Forged in foam
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Despite moving halfway across the country, Holt
continued his love for costuming, travelling to sci-fi
conventions wearing the Star Trek Borg costume that
he’d continued to wear throughout the 2000s, and
attending Halloween parties. It wasn’t until some
time in the 1980s, after being approached at a
Halloween party while wearing the Borg costume,
that Holt realised there was money to be made in
costuming, opening up an incredible door of newopportunities. Holt was told that his Borg costume
was so incredible that he should consider entering
into a local bar’s Halloween costume contest the next
year, and they give away cash prizes for contest
winners. Holt entered the contest the next year with
his Borg costume, and won. He states that when he
realised there were prizes to be won, money to be
won, he began to get more creative with his craft.
One of his bigger and more elaborate cosplays was a
Star Trek Klingon. Holt had honed his skills quite a bit
more by that point, and the facial prosthetics were
praised as looking ‘movie quality’.BECOMING A CRAFTSMAN
Since then, Holt has gone from a novice costumer
making costumes of plastic, leather, and fabric, to a
master EVA foam craftsman and cosplayer with
numerous awards, conventions, cosplays, and happy
students to show for it. Holt states that while he
loves cosplaying, it’s actually his love of teaching
that keeps him going and wanting to learn more so
he can share his love and knowledge for cosplaying
with communities throughout the world. Holt travels
frequently, attending three to five conventions a year
to showcase his makes, act as a guest panellist, and
hosts workshops to teach EVA foam cosplay
creation. Creations for his workshop business called
‘Forged in Foam’, range from making a shield over
two days (three hours per day) to something as big
as making a Starship Troopers costume over aRight
Bruce has come a
long way
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Protecting humanity
from bugs in style