Naked Snake cosplay - by FrankieBello

There are so many amazing Konami cosplays out there; we often find ourselves in awe over the level of their detail, and the passion that has clearly gone into making them.

This Naked Snake cosplay by Alberto “Frankie” Bello, who is from Venice in Italy, is no exception – he has kitted his Naked Snake out with an array of army tools, gadgets and props so as to look identical to the real deal. Pretty impressive! We sent him a few questions about his cosplaying – which you can read below!

Could you let us know when you first got into doing cosplay (have you done any before and are you planning on doing more?)

The first time I saw people wearing manga/anime/cartoons/videogames costumes in 2003 I thought it might have been the beginning of cosplay in Italy. I came to know a whole new world! I started to do cosplay a few years ago, but in a non-traditional way: I am the drummer of the Italian cartoon themes cover band La Mente di Tetsuya, and during our concerts we dress up as famous anime characters (my costume is the one of Master Roshi from Dragon Ball). Then, 3 years ago I got inspired from my favourite character ever Big Boss and I decided to do cosplay in a more conventional way.

Right now I am working on an upgrade waiting the next chapter. Keep an eye on me 😉

How long did it take you to make the cosplay?

It took me about three months to make the costume, starting from my old Vietnam era tiger stripes combat suit that I used to play softair many years ago. Wig, eyepatch, bandana, the Patriot and many other items gave me some issues, but the most challenging part was the harness denominated “STABO”: It is the easiest but the most expensive prop, it cannot be found for sale so I had to make it myself.

Are you a big Metal Gear fan – if so, when did you first play a Metal Gear game?

I’m an unconventional big Metal Gear saga addicted: I stopped playing videogames around ’94 and I bought a PS3 in 2008 then only in 2009 I played for Metal Gear 4 – Sons Of The Patriot for the first time. It was striking, better than a movie and I remember that at the end of the game the story was so touching and the characters so deep, that I cried. So, I thought “ok, now I must play the entire saga”,and I searched for all the previous ones. I played them backwards and now I can only imagine how those who played them in the right order must have felt running into the greatest epic videogame saga till the events of MGS4! Kojima is a genius! However, my favourite chapter of MGS is absolutely the most epic and romantic: Snake Eater.

Any other interesting stories or points you’d like to share?

I cannot go without playing for a long time; I can’t live without Metal Gear! Now I’m waiting impatiently to get my hands on Ground Zeroes and Phantom Pain. Kojima-san is giving a large amount of information about MGS V (the trailer of Phantom Pain is AMAZING), that will be another epic masterpiece.

I would like to thank you and Konami UK for this opportunity to speak about my passion and I’d like to thank some of the guys that helped me in this adventure as well: my big friends Mauro Ridolfi, the great Italian cosplay guru and Alessia “Selene” Merlo for tricks and technical advice; my friend/brother Igor that introduced me into the Metal Gear universe and, last but not least, the great friend and photographer Danilo Olivieri that took wonderful pictures of me as Big Boss.

You can keep up-to-date with Frankie’s latest work on his DeviantArt page here, and you can follow him on twitter too!