‘Iron Man,’ ‘Transformers’ take flight from Valenzuela relocation site

AUTOBOT IN PROGRESS Melvino Quijano Jr. (left) and Joseph Galicia with their latest project RAFFY LERMA

MANILA, Philippines–In a not-so-secret base, somewhere in Disiplina Village, a resettlement area in Barangay (village) Ugong, Valenzuela City, craftsmanship and childlike wonder come together to form “Bumblebee.”

The Transformers figure is just one of the latest creations of Joseph Galicia and Melvino Quijano Jr., a tandem of cosplay costume-makers who have been cashing in on a thriving youth craze since 2007, with just a small space as their workshop.

Galicia, 23, would draw patterns on rubber sheets while Quijano, 24, would do the cutting, and from there they collaborate to produce outfits straight out of a cartoon or anime fan’s fantasy.

They discovered that there’s money in cosplay—a colorful, pop culture gathering where participants come as their favorite superhero, sci-fi or video game characters—when they were still residents of Ilog, a squatters’ area also in Valenzuela.

“Life was hard there at Ilog. We just did the costumes anywhere we could because there was barely any space,” Quijano told the Inquirer. There were also times when they had to work right at the homes of their clients in Rizal or Bulacan provinces.

When their families moved to Ugong in August 2012, they set up a makeshift workshop on the pathway in front of Quijano’s home in Disiplina Village’s Building 2.

“We started with cartons. Sometimes we got them from schools, other times we had to buy them,” Quijano recalled. “Back then, we felt like we were just playing.”

But things got more serious when they started entering their work in cosplay contests—and won. Prospective clients started approaching them, some finding them online.

As of last week, they were working on a Bumblebee outfit, which would be flown to Singapore once finished.

Their earlier works—including Iron Man and other Transformer robots—have found their way to cosplays in Australia and the United States. Their biggest paychecks so far have been for two Iron Man pieces ordered by a Singaporean who paid them P50,000.

“Every single project is hard to execute. It can really drive you crazy,” Quijano said. Costumes for which they had already made patterns could be done in a week, but it would take months of meticulous work to produce an “original,” Galicia explained.

They surf the Internet or leaf through comic books to find models. Clients who want to anticipate an upcoming superhero movie place their orders well ahead of the movie’s local release, so the challenge is to make the costume as faithful as possible to the design seen in the film.

“It helps my family pay the bills,” Galicia said. For Quijano, the earnings have put new appliances and gadgets inside his home.

Quijano said they would sometimes see their works in photos posted on Facebook, often without giving them credit. But that’s okay, he said, as long as they make people smile.