PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) — A woman balanced a toddler on her hip while standing on the porch of the Jump’n Jellybeans daycare on a recent Thursday morning. She stared at what was walking down the sidewalk on the other side of Portsmouth Boulevard.
So did the toddler. Then he leaned forward, frantically waving an outstretched arm at the slow-moving creature.
It was Bumblebee, the bright yellow, friendly, talking robot from the “Transformers” comic books, TV show and movies.
Aaron Jackson, the 24-year-old inside the Bumblebee costume, saw the toddler and knew he’d accomplished what he’d set out to do that morning: Make people smile.
Sometimes two or three times a week, Jackson steps out of his Portsmouth home and walks the boulevard dressed as the Marvel character Black Panther or as the Android phone logo. Or as Pac Man or the Cookie Monster. No matter the getup, Jackson always waves and acknowledges — depending on the personality and mannerisms of the character he’s portraying — anyone who takes an interest.
This Thursday, Bumblebee glimpsed the toddler’s waving arm through his visor. He stopped. He whipped around to face the little boy and waved. He waited a few seconds for a few cars to whiz past.
Jackson then bent his knees, stuck out his chest, throwing one arm up, Bumblebee’s fake plasma cannon thrust forward.
“Pow!” Jackson said softly, inside his hot helmet.
He kept the pose long enough to give the toddler a good, long look at what a Transformer looks like, defending humanity from the bad guys.
The boy beamed. His smile was visible across four lanes of traffic.
Jackson started his costumed walks in 2020. He’s loved comic books since childhood and recently built up a collection of costumes to wear to comicon events. He started wearing them for the non-cosplaying public because he wanted to bring cheer to the quarantining city in the midst of the pandemic. He liked the costumes. He assumed other people would enjoy them as well, even if they weren’t into fantasy conventions.
Dropping his pose this morning, Jackson left the toddler and continued walking east.
Sometimes, he’ll turn right on Missy Elliott Boulevard moving toward the Rivers Casino, make a couple laps around the parking lot and go back home. The round trip is about 3 miles, but its worth it. He enjoys seeing some of his colleagues at the casino where he works and entertaining them with his vestments as they head in for a shift. Other days, he doesn’t make a right, but instead, Mickey Mouse or Teletubby turns left in the direction of the nearest Super Walmart — a 5-mile round trip.
Still eastbound, he waved at approaching cars. Drivers honked back. A grinning driver of a Canada Dry cargo truck slowed down to 3 mph to snap a picture with his phone. Jackson posed.
Jackson’s friends thought he was crazy when he started his walks. But in 2021, he turned his jaunts into a business, giving his number out to people he met and he began booking children’s parties. He rebranded himself and his new enterprise “The Mysterious Cosplayer.”
He’s appeared at over 50 children’s parties and other events at the rate of $225 an hour. His friends no longer think he’s so crazy.
Jackson saw a woman walking out of BJ’s Fragrance Oils and Sports Shop motioning at him.
“My business is brand-new,” Francis Bullock said. She asked him if he ever did advertising gigs.
Jackson gave Bullock his number and kept ambling.
Two women in a truck slowed down and delayed their right turn onto Portsmouth Boulevard to wave as Bumblebee approached. An Austrian Shepherd thrust its head out the passenger-side window and, looking thoroughly perplexed, tilted its head in confusion.
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