Travis Touchdown
No More Heroes
Worn at
Featured in
Printables
Project timeline
- c. 2008: I see a copy of Nintendo Power #223—with No More Heroes as the cover story—on the magazine shelf at the library. As a Nintendo fan with strict parents, I'm slightly scandalized (and intrigued!) by the existence of Wii-exclusive M-rated games. At this point I have little interest in the game (and am still several years from "becoming a cosplayer"), but something about "that video game with the guy who looks kind of like me holding a fluorescent tube lightsaber" sticks in my brain.
- January 2017: Travis Strikes Again, a revival of the long-dormant No More Heroes series, is first teased.
- c. March 2018: TSA:NMH promotion begins to roll out. Among the wave of announcements is that a figure will be made by Molecule8. Though this figure never materializes (and, indeed, Molecule8 collapses under waves of controversy not soon after), the figure's listing includes two pieces of concept art that were invaluable to me while I worked on the cosplay.
- May 26: I buy a used copy of No More Heroes, posting on Twitter that the purchase is for "cosplay research".
- July 4: Using my health insurance stipend, I buy a pair of yellow-lensed prescription aviators to wear when cosplaying Travis (and Kazuhira Miller).
- August 2: I buy a ticket for PAX West, giving myself a deadline for finishing the cosplay.
- August: I recruit my craftsman father's help in turning my childhood toy lightsabers into a Beam Katana—we work on it together and separately throughout the month. Humorously, Dad keeps calling it a "laser gun".
- August 11: Unable to find a purple leather jacket (at least, none that aren't blatantly "Joker" branded), I purchase a black pleather cafe racer jacket and purple leather paint. During slow periods at work, I trace the tiger in Illustrator (using the excuse that I'm teaching myself the program).
- August 20: I make Travis's "Death Drive" belt buckle out of modeling clay.
- September 2: I attend PAX. Only knowing that Suda51 was scheduled to make an appearance the day before, I assume he won't be present and pass on the long line at the Nintendo booth for the TSA:NMH demo in favor of exploring the floor—however, near the end of the day, a fellow attendee informes me that Suda is indeed still at the show so I hustle back to the Switch demo area. Not only do I get to briefly meet Suda (who declares my cosplay to be "sugoi" as he autographs my badge), I get to cut the line for a quick play at the demo! certainly one of the high points of my cosplay career.
- September 16: I finish No More Heroes.
- January 19, 2019: Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is released. I dress up like Travis to pick up my pre-order, and rope the cashier into recreating a shot from the NMH1 opening with me.
- January 22: I finish No More Heroes 2: Desparate Struggle.
- April 26: I finish Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes while waiting in the lobby of a movie theater to see the midnight premiere of Avengers: Endgame. When we are let into the theater, light mood music is playing before the lights go down and trailers begin—in a truly bizarre bit of serendipity, one of the songs played is "DND: Do Not Destroy"" from the first NMH game.
- May 24: I remake the power glove's sleeve with more detail and some buttons from a (third-party) NES controller.
- June 11: No More Heroes III is announced. The trailer reveals Travis wearing a new red jacket.
- c. August: I thrift a different lightsaber (Hasbro C-086E) and make a second version of the beam katana. The hilt is now much shorter—as it turns out, a little too short to grip comfortably.
- January 20, 2020: A friend helps me style a new wig for Travis (replacing the $5 greaser wig from Value Village). We end up going for the 1–2 fauxhaux style.
- October 13: A "Travis" Mii Fighter costume is added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
- November 4: I buy a red leather jacket for an NMH3 cosplay.
- January 23, 2021: I recreate the NMH3 broken star in vector format for (eventual) printing and transfer.
- February 6: I finally begin working on customizing the jacket, finishing on the 27th.
- May: I am commissioned to customize another NMH3 jacket.
- August 18: I make the NMH3 joycon-style power glove.
- August 27: No More Heroes III is released. I dress up like Travis to pick up my copy.
- September 24: Taking advantage of model rips, I create a more accurate template for the NMH3 power glove.
- March 2022: I remake the NMH3 power glove, following my template.
- March 21, 2022: I tear apart the beam katana (again). Although I remake the top emitter, I don't quite finish a v3 and the pieces remain in a bag for years.
- April 19: I remake the belt buckle, again providing a template for fellow cosplayers.
- November 2024: Application acceptances are sent out for the Kill or Be Killed fanzine.
- January 11, 2025: I begin the process of making a new Blood Berry beam katana. I'm working nearly from scratch, only reusing a few elements from the original; after the current-gen releases, I now have access to high-quality models rather than a few low-res sketches and low-poly models and can more clearly interpret how the sword is meant to look. Notably, it is no longer built around a lightsaber.
- February 6: This third beam katana build is finished.