On Sunday, July 13, 2025, William Osman threw a robot cosplay contest at Marina Green in San Francisco. The contest was to promote the annual Open Sauce convention, the maker / youtuber event that he throws in the SF bay area.

This madman decided he needed one more project to dominate his time before his convention, so he designed and built a huge robot head on the back of a flatbead truck. This head would be the focal point of the contest, and likely also the focal point of Open Sauce.

First prize: $1,000, last place: $200, also Open Sauce tickets ($200 value) were up as an additional prize.

The contest was announced just four days before the event, so if you wanted to bring a good costume, you had to start building immediately.

I got a message from my old costume-contest friend Scott that his son heard about the contest and wanted to wear Scott's aluminum Starstream Transformer costume! They were coming!

I knew I would be in San Francisco that weekend, so I made a plan to show up! No costume for me however.

On the day of the contest, Mary and I headed out to the park, stopping for some sandwiches. We got word from Scott that the contest had been delayed an hour til 3:00pm. Suddenly we were not in a rush. We made our way to the park and spotted a knot of people with some sweet robot costumes. Although the contest judges had not arrived, it was good to see that the event was already gathering momentum.

Because there was a cash prize for "last place", there was an incentive to slip into whatever shiny crap you have around the house and make your way to the park.

Ryan in the aluminum skyscream costume!

The time had hit 3:00pm and we got word that the contest had been postponed until 4:00pm. The robot head and Safety Third crew was still en route.

Normally an annoying bit of news, but in this situation, we couldn't expect any additional amazing costumes to show up. I liked Ryan's chances!

With one final delay, the truck and the whole gang arrived at 4:20.

A flatbed truck with the immense robot head made its way to the Marina Green parking area! It looked great!

William posing for his Wired cover.

"He looks worn out", I said, knowing that he had just spent four sleepless days building this head for his event.

"He always looks like that", replied Mary.

He did have a big smile on his face though! This was really happening, and it seemed as if the whole event had just been a dream five days ago.

Soon, the head was unstrapped and began moving on the truck bed. The antennae were attached, the head spun around and the eyes started wiggling.

And it started speaking!

Kevin directed all the robots to the front of the truck, so they could be judged!

Soon, Will was interviewing each robot, asking about their construction and themes, but Ryan in the Starscream left very little doubt about which was the best robot costume.

Ryan won! Congrats Ryan and Scott, for another successful costume contest!

The contest was a success for many, as William chided everyone who was not in costume and gave out Open Sauce tickets (a $200 value) to almost everyone in a robot costume!

What a wild day in San Francisco! Thanks for making it interesting Will!

Open Sauce is Saturday and Sunday, July 19-20th, 2025 at the San Mateo County Event Center. See you there!