We asked 17 people how much they spent on their Comic Con costumes — here's what they told us

• New YorkComic Con kicked off this week at Javits Convention Center in Manhattan.
• Many people dressed up as their favorite characters from comics, movies, TV shows, and video games. 
• We asked 17 people on the first day of the event how much money they spent on their costumes.
• The cosplayers surveyed spent between $20 and $1,000.

Thousands of people converged on a New York City convention center on Thursday for the first day of New York Comic Con — and many of them donned elaborate costumes that they'd spent months and hundreds of dollars creating.

At Comic Con and similar events, these costumes are commonly called cosplays, a contraction of "costume play."

We asked 17 people about their cosplays — who they were portraying, how they put them together, and how much they cost.

Here's what they told us.

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This group of friends traveled to New York Comic Con from Québec.

Mary Chretien, left, cosplayed as Starfire from DC. She said her costume took about eight hours to make and cost $50. Her shoulder and arm pieces are sporting gear, she said. "I just painted it black and put some bling bling on it," she said.

Tommy Bergeron dressed as a character from the Monster Hunter World video game. He made the leather pieces and bought the rest, spending about $1,000 total.