PAX East 2011 Cosplay Gallery

Check out the best cosplayers of PAX East 2011!

Ah, the time-honored tradition of every convention where there is a critical mass of geeks and nerds – the fantastic cosplay. I’m not positive what the motivation is for these folks who dedicate such time and ingenuity to crafting a likeness of their favorite character in videogames, movies, TV shows or comics. Is it the necessary attention to detail? Is it the attention that wearing these costumes gets them on the convention floor? Perhaps these uber-fans just want to feel like it’s Halloween all year long.

Whatever the reason, PAX East 2011 might not have had huge numbers of cosplayers like SD Comic Con or even Gen Con did this past year, but it more than made for it in quality. Some of what I saw must have taken weeks if not months of planning and execution.

Here are the best costumes I saw on Friday and Saturday while walking around the show floor at PAX:

The Gears of War gang led by Marcus Fenix certainly wants to shoot that hapless guy being attacked by a ticker, but what’s the priest doing there?

That’s a really hot Chun Li dude. Let’s see some Lightning Kicks, man!

Fire! Fire! Go blue Pyro!

Ok, those demon wings are just awesome.

Unlike so many of the other Links at PAX East 2011, this guy looks like he could actually play the part – if he was a foot shorter.

I’ma gonna win!

PopCap needs to hire these Plants vs. Zombies cosplayers immediately.

The black mage casts NUKE while waiting in line.

Velvet from Odin Sphere actually poses like that quite often – it’s not as uncomfortable as it looks.

Marketing cosplay for a satirical post-apocalyptic boardgame called Inevitable that sounded damn fun.

I’m not sure what the boobalicious girl in the center is cosplaying but the other two are definitely from Gitaroo Man on the PS2.

If your raid wiped on Lana’thel about 4000 times in WoW, at least you can be happy she came to PAX East. Now you can get 25 of your friends together to beat her up.

It was impossible to catch all of the Pikachus at PAX East 2011 so I settled on this one.

You know, it just makes sense that evil Starkiller from Force Unleashed would be praying with a few Assassins.

The Joker and Harley really are a cute couple.

The Doctor from Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood with that whole nose filled with herbs thing going on.

At least this guy is anatomically correct, as Bridget from Guilty Gear is actually a male despite the nun costume.

Isabella from Dragon Age II and Eridan from the MS Paint Adventure HOMESTUCK, together at last.

The cookies were the perfect touch.

Sophitia from Soul Edge (before she got giant boobs) and a Dungeons & Dragons priestess – of course these two are friends. It just makes sense!

It’s a trick. Get an axe.

Dracula Vlad Tepes is so scary that he can appear in broad daylight without sparkling.

These guys are all from the future. I especially like the Mordin Solus mask because it looks homemade.

Hisssss.

Scott Pilgrim’s got nothing on these two.

That is just horrible! Get it?

A steampunk medic from TF2? Genius!