WampaDude.com - My Wampa Blog

Time for a little Plastic Surgery for the Wampa

2012-02-01T10:34:00.000-08:00

This week I have started the modifications to the Wampa. For the longest time I have been unsatisfied with the bubbly shoulders. This was really noticible in the Adidas photo. So I am working on cutting a football size wedge out of the top of them and much like a tummy tuck, I am taking out excessive foam and fur. I also took out one of the support rings to reduce the size a bit and have a more natural and screen accurate shoulder.

I do plan on replacing the entire structure of the arms eventually, so this little cosmetic change is only a band-aid for now but I think it will be totally worth it! Below is a photo of it just pinned together. You can already start to see the difference below with the shoulder on the left and the shoulder on the right. More pics and updates coming soon when this mod is finished.

2012... this year should be fun

2012-01-31T08:08:00.000-08:00

Like last year I started the year with a State of the Wampa address. So this year should be no different. First of all I would like to recap last year as one hell of a year. We started the year launching the new Disney Dream cruise ship. Took the Wampa to two conventions including Megacon and Motor City Comic Con up in Michigan. Then the Wampa was chosen to be part of the Star Wars Adidas Campaign! So to say 2011 was the year of the Wampa is an understatement in my opinion. But it wasn't all the Wampa, 2011 also brought in a pair of Stormtroopers.Genna and I both built ANH Stormtroopers, a Stunt and a Hero build. I got to participate in my first Star Wars Weekends at Disney. I also was able to be part of a Kelby Training video with Doug Sonders with the Stormtrooper and Daisy Duke with the General Lee.

Also for 2011 our Squad with the 501st grew and met some really great new friends that are begging to help work on the Wampa. We established Wampa Workshops with Brian, Tim, Genna and Mark and it feels good to have some extra help and opinions when it comes to the suit. Along with the Wampa Workshops comes the Sith Lord Workshops. Tim finished up his Darth Maul in the last few weeks, and now I am finally working on Palpatine. As for the 2012 plans for the Wampa, don't expect retirement anytime soon. I will be taking it out for the opening Weekend for Phantom Menace in 3D, but it will be back to the workshop after that. With all that travel in 2011 comes wear and tear and 2012 will bring much needed repair & improvement time. So this year, I am skipping Megacon to ensure a fully working Wampa at Star Wars Celebration VI, which is returning to Orlando Florida August 23-26. I plan on bringing the Wampa out again, have it on display some of the days, and wear it on Saturday. I will be repairing the arms and making them more articulated, as well as possibly a new head sculpt! So, there is a short set of plans for 2012... and I leave you with one more little hint on a costume. Expect a big surprise with this costume at C6!

Star Wars Blu-Ray Wampa Review

2011-09-27T09:37:00.000-07:00

When I heard they were putting in the cut wampa scenes on the Blu-Ray I was excited. These scenes are from the attack on Echo base, which was a sub-plot that was eventually cut from the movie, well to be kind, the wampa looked bad! It is not easy to pull off realism when walking in stilts with arm extensions... yeah I speak from experience. My suit is not too far off of the original full size costume built and I see a lot of similarities in these clips, which makes me paranoid a bit on how mine! I have been pondering a re-work of the arms for a while now to get a more fluid and realistic movement. After watching this video, I am going to start up again on working on the prototype arm that is in the works. While this was a noble attempt, I agree with cutting the scenes. Personally I would have liked to seen footage of the "Bug Eyed" wampa, Story has it that this was their first attempt at building the Wampa, and the body doesn't look too far off from the footage seen above. Which makes me wonder if they swapped the head. This is the only wampa made that didn't make into the original movie, but at least we have stills.

Also, so many people cringe when the mere mention of replacing original footage with CG, but if there is ever a scene I would be an advocate for it, it would be the Wampa scene. Lucasfilm did tweak the swatting arm scene a little bit when you can see the puppeteers red jacket, but there is still 3 different wampas seen in the actual film. Sure they look great in High Definition and I have noticed a few more things about the suit that I didn't notice before, but it would have been nice to see one consistent wampa. Their best chance was to reshoot everything as one costume during the "special edition" but it is too late for that. They could have taken the approach that they did with the Yoda in Phantom Menace and replaced all of these wampas with the one consistant CG wampa, it's ILM in 2011, I am sure they could pull it off seamless by now.

Lego Star Wars - Wampa!

2011-08-27T08:38:00.000-07:00

The Wampa visits Lucasfilm... sorta

2011-08-08T07:44:00.001-07:00

Well, some call it Mecca (according to an AP article) though I would argue that an invite to Skywalker Ranch would be Mecca.. so this is the Medina for Star Wars fans? So on with the story, enough silly muslim comparisons... thanks AP. So while Genna and I were in San Francisco we got the chance to visit Lucasfilm Ltd. in San Francisco. Some of the props on loan for the Wampa Adidas photo shoot were on loan from Lucasfilm and we got to tag along when returning them.

Unfortunately we just missed our contact and we didn't make it further than the lobby, this was still really cool. We got to see the famous Yoda bronze statue which has a twin over at the ranch and inside the lobby is a pair of familiar characters, Boba Fett and Darth Vader, along with shelves of statues and awards won by Lucasfilm over the years. Believe me, once you have been there you want to head back. It was an unfair tease but we did make it closer than many people have done, so I am happy with that.

For the rest of our trip we got to wander around Downtown San Francisco. It is an amazing city, and there is so much to do. I have been to SanFran once before 23 years ago. As a kid it was fun, but I really wanted to re-experience things as an adult. I am amazed on how much we squeezed into a 3 day trip. We found a full size Starkiller in a GameStop and we had to snag a pic. We rode just about every type of public transportation which is lacking back in Florida. If they had a system like this in Tampa Bay, I would use it all the time. Street Cars, Cable Cars, The Bart, Muni Metro, any visitor can get anywhere they want using these. Here in Tampa there is such a whiny attitude between sports teams because of the Bay in between, public transportation like this would squash that argument, but that is a story for another blog...

Oh and food, there is some amazing food around town. For some odd reason we like to hit up Mall food courts when traveling, maybe it's the variety and fimiliar food. While wandering the streets outside our hotel was San Francisco Centre, a 9-floor mall, which had an AMAZING food court. With the Asian and health concious community in San Francisco, there were so many options. We settled on a Thai place that gave us so much food we couldn't finish.

Yep, we did play the tourist and ride the cable car to Fisherman's Wharf. I was after one thing, nope not the seafood that the Wharf is famous for, I wanted In-N-Out. On the east coast this is what we hear about all the time the Double-Double Animal Style. Freaking delicious.

In closing... Lucasfilm or not, I want to go back to San Francisco as soon as I can.

Adidas Star Wars Fall/Winter 2011 collection featuring the WAMPA!

2011-07-06T07:16:00.000-07:00

The Wampa is featured in the latest promotions for the Adidas Star Wars Fall/Winter collection. We were invited to San Francisco to take part in the 2 day photo shoot that also included a Vader, Hoth Han and a Hoth Luke (seen in the background). When the idea was pitched to Lucasfilm to have a wampa in the photos they originally responded, well there isn't any realistic wampas out there anymore, then the folks at Juice Design presented them my wampa. Lucasfilm loved it and approved the shoot. There is no higher honor for a costumer which many think is an impossible costume to pull off than that right there. Also included in the photo shoot is my handler Genna's Hoth Luke costume and lightsaber.

So why a wampa in the campaign? Well there is a new Wampa shoe coming out! Here is the official description of the wampa shoes:

CAMPUS 80S WAMPA
Inspired the snow beast from the planet Hoth that almost made Luke Skywalker into a meal. The adidas Campus 80s Wampa dresses up these retro shoes with wampa fur uppers made from horsehair, contrast red stitching, a wampa tongue badge, and a laser cut wampa logo.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/07/dress-like-darth-and-han-with-adidas-star-wars-collection/?pid=2150&pageid=69886

I will continue tomorrow with a post about our trip and visiting Lucasfilm!

Another great Wampa Cake!

2011-04-18T08:24:00.000-07:00

The folks over at TheForce.net had this cake submitted to them for their Yummy Star Wars pics. This cake was for Adam's 11th birthday. I got to say Adam has great taste in Star Wars Characters! Read more about it and check out more pics on the link above.

I'm Luke Skywalker.. I'm Here to rescue you!

2011-02-22T08:34:00.000-08:00

So the process in ordering parts for my TK armor has begun, and my coping mechanism for my height is to emulate the shortest Stormtrooper there was. Everyone's hero, Luke Skywalker. I know it's a bold move, and the more expensive route. But I think if I want to walk around confident in armor, than I need to do it the right way.

(Hero on the left, stunt on the right)

To most people there Stormtroopers look all the same, but there is a big difference between the armor in all 3 movies, and there were even 2 sets of armor in A New Hope (ANH). In the first movie there was the Stunt troopers and the Hero troopers made famous by the armor Luke and Han wore. Most of the noticable differences were in the helmet. The stunt armor was made from a grayish plastic and painted white, the lenses in the eyes were flat, They had 8 teeth cut out in the frown and the ears had 4 bumps. The hero helmet on the other hand was made for close-ups and was made from white plastic, Luke and Han had smoke gray bubble lenses, only 6 teeth were cut out of the frown which made the mouth appear smaller, and the ears had 3 bumps. There are other subtle differences like the amount of rivits/screws and hand plates but I can't give away all the secrets, go learn about them over at WhiteArmor.net if you want to learn it all!

But when it comes to Luke's armor there is another big difference from the rest. Sure they had to cut his armor shorter in the chest and the back to make up for his height, but the big difference was his belt. We all remember one of the most memorable scenes of Star Wars (yeah, I am dropping the whole New hope baloney, this is what it was called when I became a fan!) It was Luke and Leia's swing to freedom. Luke would never of been able to do that if the ONLY stormtrooper with a grappling hook didn't check up on the falcon.

So with this addition, plus the others mentioned above I am building Lukes armor. I am awaiting shipping on all of these changes and the armor itself. Once I start building I will follow up here on MyWampa. Thanks for reading and hope to see all of you at an event sometime soon in my new armor (and the Wampa too)!

Oh yeah, parts are already arriving! I got my belt and shoes already. Who knows maybe we will have armor ready by Megacon.... then again I really don't want to rush it.

Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper? BS!!

2011-02-09T08:20:00.000-08:00

We have all heard that famous line given by Princess Leia, and it has become a go to insult for all of us short guys out there wearing armor at conventions. So why in the hell would I want to be a stormtrooper?

An odd situation when your other costume is over 8 foot tall, why would you want to dress in armor that is made for someone that is 6-8 inches taller than you? Well it comes down to honor and pride. Yes I have made the first steps into becoming a Stormtrooper, or a TK as we know it in the 501st. I have officially started on my second 501st costume. Last week I put a downpayment on a set of AP armor and purchased the shoes. The week before I worked on modding a Hasbro E-11 blaster to look like the real thing.

Forgive me if I am a bit of a broken record but with the anouncement of the purchase I will give my reason why again. In the 6 months of trooping with the Wampa, I have seen a lot of wear and tear and for a costume that big and that memorable for so many people I want to now reserve it for the most important events. By doing so I would either have to limit myself to only a few troops a year or conventions or I could make a second costume.

While trooping I have met some great friends out there and I have asked many questions like the obvious what should i do next. Sure I had my concerns about my height and other costumes could have fit my size better but the one thing I have got the most was do what is important to you.

I wavered between Emperor Palpatine and various armor sets like an AT-AT Pilot, a TIE Pilot, Animated Clones even the badass Shadow Scout but everything kept pointing back to the classic Stormtrooper.

It was a series of events that led me to this, first of all the history of the 501st begins with their founder Albin Johnson and his Stormtrooper, this was the go to costume from the beginning of the organization over 10 years ago. Second came from reading the boards when I first joined, there was a chance to be on stage with "Weird Al" Yankovic during his songs Yoda and the Saga Begins. This was an amazing opportunity that I had to pass because they wanted TKs and the Wampa is just too big.

Third was meeting our buddy HYPER at Celebration V. His only set of armor is a TK but he customizes it and makes it his own, with his Beach Trooper and his Luchador Trooper. He ended up on stage introducing George Lucas for the Main Event.

Next came the announcement of the Disney Holiday Parade, they wanted only clean TKs, and if we want to do Disney Star Wars Weekends you need a non-EU costume that can march in a parade and although the Wampa is from Empire, it is not very friendly to marching in parades... are you seeing the pattern here?

Fritz in his TK armor

But the moment of truth came from trooping with Fritz, a fellow short guy like myself who was trooping in the Pinellas Park holiday parade as a TK. When seeing him in armor, I knew that I had no more excuses. I had to do a TK. So here I am about to be another guy mocked for being too short to be a Stormtrooper, but will love every second of it. I will post progress pics up as soon as I get my armor in!

State of the Wampa Address....

2011-01-28T10:01:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I updated the site but I needed to step back for a while. The 6 months that the costume has been around, it has gone through some great times and some rough times. Just like any large costumes there will be some damage control going on and boy has there been some.

In October I took it out to some costume contests to help recover some of the cost of the suit. I did walk away with $600 but also came away with lipstick stains on his arm and butt! I learned not to take it out with drunk chicks!

In December we participated in the Pinellas Park Holiday Parade. To be safe, I opted to stand in the back of a pick up truck without the stilts on. Little did I know it would lead to big black streaks across the fur from the Rhino Lining. It has been a long process to get this out, and I don't know if I will ever get it ALL out, but it is looking better. Thanks to suggestions I have been using dish soap and a bottle brush. It has taken off some of the yellow and brown paint, so I will probably need to repaint it once I am done.

(cleaning the arm, before and after)

So, on to plans for 2011. Our big trip with the Wampa will be to Motor City Con, where we have been invited up by Great Lakes Garrison to the Detroit Metro area to participate in their annual convention. We get to reunite with one of our favorite troopers HYPER!

I will be making my first appearance at MEGACON in Orlando in March and might even be able to convince the wife to let me go to DragonCon in Atlanta.

As for the suit and trooping, I have always considered on keeping the Wampa as a specialty costume for big events, but in order to do that I would need a secondary costume. Within the next week I will be placing my order for TK (Stormtrooer) armor and should have some armor for events like Walks, Hospitals, Star Wars Weekends and other troops that I can't do in the Wampa and by the end of the year I should have my Palpatine in my collection of costumes to use!

We were pirates at the The Disney Dream Christening!

2011-01-28T08:55:00.000-08:00

The 501st was asked to help launch with the christening of their latest cruise ship the Disney Dream. 66 of us dressed as pirates and acted out a skit with Captain Jack Sparrow.

This is the amazing thing about the 501st. Although it wasn't an official event for them, Disney thought of us to be their crew of pirate baddies. Not every day you get a chance to be part of a 700 person cast with the top brass of Disney right there in the crowd. I could not pass this once in a lifetime opportunity.

There was a lot of secrecy when it came to this event. We got very little info from Disney and that was understandable given the surprises involved in the show (like Jennifer Hudson's appearance). We had no idea what we would be dressed up like. Were we going to be Capt. Hook cartoony pirates, are we going to be generic Disney pirates, or dirty realistic Pirates of the Caribbean pirates. We lucked out and got the PotC costumes, and boy was there a variety. My costume was interesting and a little miss matched. I had the shirt and pants of a deckhand and a long captain jacket. I had to find a belt and hat from the extras table. Genna had a wig that more resembled Joan Jett than a pirate wench. Others actually involved fruit with their outfit for comedic effect including Duck and his pirate pear!

Our task was to run on stage carrying props, mine was a black pirate flag, and pose while we got audio cues from Capt. Jack, which most of the time we couldn't hear, not until we saw the video did we finally get the plot. We would laugh at his jokes, point to the ship and then change positions. Then throw little foam doubloons to the crowd and then duck for cover from him firing his cannon. At the end of the finale we would also come out with a big ladder and do our cheesy hand waves with the music and then pose as they cracked the giant bottle against the ship. Now we aren't really in the video because we were all the way on the far right side of the stage but it wasn't really about face time on tv or for the cameras. It was more to say to the grand kids that you helped launch a cruise ship.

After we were done we got, I got to see one of the funniest moments of the event. Redboy down in Everglades Squad has been begging to wear the wampa. I thought he was just crazy enough to try on the wampa stilts. I have seen many people try my stilts on for the first time, and they get wobbly kneed and give up after less than 5 minutes... Redboy was no different, in his own words, he fell in slow motion! Once again, I think I proved the point that noone is crazy enough to wear the Wampa other than me.

Introducing The Jolly Wampa - The Official WampaDude Logo

2011-01-28T06:33:00.000-08:00

For a while I felt that I needed a brand for myself and this roller coaster ride that has been my experience with the Wampa and the 501st. I have seen many individuals withing the group marketing their alias with patches and shirts and since the Wampa seems to become a popular costume, I felt the need to come up with a symbol that represented myself and the costume. In the past years my logos revolved around the simple pirate jolly roger design. The TampaBayDrunks logo consisted of a skull and cross beers and for some reason this never clicked until the pirate event we attended for the launch of the Disney Dream.

So here is the design, a Wampa skull and cross bones dubbed the Jolly Wampa. I pondered changing out the bones with lightsabers, blasters or something a little more Star Wars but when it came down to it, I settled with the bones when one of the scenes has him gnawing on a big bloody leg bone of the Tauntaun.

I have had a few people already say they would buy anything I put this logo on, and here are some lofty ideas including a shirt, a patch and for some reason I like the idea of it as a biker vest logo. I plan on trying to submit them to the daily t-shirt sites first like TeeFury and RiptApparel and may consider doing a run of the patches for conventions and on the boards.

A new trick up the Wampa's sleve - The Arm Amputation!

2010-10-28T07:13:00.000-07:00

Coming soon for Halloween I am working on a new feature for the Wampa costume for when I am in costume contests.... The Arm Amputation! As a veteran of high stakes costume contests I know that it takes both size and surprise to win over a crowd to win. The beast won over $3500 in contest money and to help fun future 501st costumes I want to take the Wampa out to a few.

The issue is, unlike the beast which was an original character with spikes and mean looking, the Wampa is a specific character. Not everyone knows the reference so to them it is just a big abominable snowman. So to win over those people you need to wow them. So adding a theatrical effect like being able to chop off it's arm. To really sell over the crowd I added an additional surprise... Squirting Blood! Well it's just water but when your not expecting it (just think those 4D movies at theme parks) it really gets your attention. That is the goal, make the suit interactive with the crowd.

I needed to develop a quick release so i could keep the arm on until I needed to drop it. I did this by using a rope and pulley. The arm joint is held together with eye bolts and a heavy duty clip. I added the pulley to the clip and tied off rope to the other eye bolt. Inside the grip of the arm is a snap hook zip tied to the PVC. When I want to remove the rope I just squeeze the snap hook and I can either drop the arm or hold it until I am ready.

The red muscle is my old technique of paper towels, batting and latex around a long sleeve red t-shirt. I had an old modified bug sprayer which we used to dispense shots of alcohol at events and I used this inside a big chunk of meat that has the sprayer tip coming out the end of the bone, The trigger is hidden inside so all I have to do is squeeze it. I left the back end unmodified (look hard enough and you will see the cuff of the sleeve still on it) so if needed I can detach the hose and clean out the system. The jug can clip on to the framework inside the body of the suit and the hose leads down to the meaty bone. When I drop the arm, which my handler will be playing along with a lightsaber and holding onto the hand so it isn't a hard fall, my arm should slip out exposing the meat and I will ham it up turn to the crowd and give them the big surprise!

(Read More)

Total cost of this mod using mostly left over supplies $9.44!

Wish me luck, I will be attending 2 high stakes costume contests this Halloween. If I win one (or both) you will soon see posts about my next costume coming sooner than later!

Amazing photo from Celebration V

2010-10-21T12:06:00.001-07:00

Check out this photo from Ayaz Asif, it is simply amazing! Check out more pics over at ayaz.com

501st Troop Report - The R2-D2 Droid Phone Release Party

2010-10-06T11:33:00.000-07:00

We were recently asked to help with the Verizon R2-D2 droid phone release party. They went all out with spotlights, free pizza, free Chick-fil-A and they even brought out the cow. There was a light turnout but this was another great time to bond with the new family that is the 501st. This was also the first troop testing out the new shoulders on the wampa. They felt great and the posability with the fans was really improved. The night ended with one of our very own 501st members winning a new R2-D2 droid phone!

Next troop: Star Wars Grand Florida Alliance at Emerald City

Ever wonder what a Wampa skeleton looks like?

2010-10-05T11:49:00.000-07:00

Check out ILM's halloween party invitation with the skeletons of many of our Star Wars favorites.

My Wampas: The Galactic Heroes Wampa

2010-09-28T09:08:00.000-07:00

Well once you have a full size Wampa living in the garage, you tend to collect others, so here is the first of a series of posts about My Wampas. This was actually my first Wampa. I had a bunch of Star Wars figures as a kid but never had a Wampa .

Since I have 2 small boys the current line of regular sized figures tend to be a little complicated, then again I let them play with my old Kenners. Luckily for me Star Wars has the Galactic Heroes line where they can't lose the guns and they are stubby and easy for little hands. Last year I actually found the Battle of Hoth play set at Kohl's on discount and could not pass it up. I was still in the planning stages with the Wampa suit, but I was thinking ahead knowing that my kids would want to play with one of their own. As for the Wampa itself, I was surprised to see the red staining on the chest and he is quite yellow proving that Wampas like to roll around in their own filth. But paint jobs aside the play factor is great. He has a big bone in one hand which the kids like to beat the rebels with and a "swatting" hinge in the other hand.

Wampa vs. AT-AT... my money is on the Wampa!

Included in the set are all the Hoth favorites including a Luke with a TaunTaun which my little one loves to battle with the Wampa. This month we added AT-AT to my Hoth figure collection for my son's 2yr birthday. It came with a AT-AT driver and a snow speederbike. Included with the other set was a General Veers who fits right in. Another fun feature is a string that feeds through the center of the belly where you can have pilot Luke rise up and drop his bombs. Fortunately for me they were giving away these away free at CV so I have hours and hours of role playing time ahead for my kids!

Star Wars Celebration V Exclusive - The Plush Wampa

2010-09-19T09:58:00.001-07:00

Still available at StarWarsShop.com is the limited edition Plush Wampa With Reattaching Arm. I almost bought one of these until I found a smaller one at a dealers table, though I still might get one before they run out. They are limited to 1980. (the anniversary of Empire Strikes Back!) We got to play with some of these at ICEBAR where they named him Wally and some fans posed with theirs and the big Wampa. So if you want a huggable amputee pick up the the wampa!

Wampa Sighting - Alecia Strikes Back, with Wampa Peeps!

2010-09-19T08:26:00.000-07:00

In her continuing story about her Empire Strikes Back themed party, Alecia has made these Wampa marshmellow peeps using ghost peeps and a little bit of icing. Among her other great creations was Bossk Balls, Boba Fett Quiche, Tauntaun Bons and more fun themed food. My favorite a how-to turtorial on making a Luke Skywalker Piñata complete with velcro hand that you can whack off the Darth Vader blindfold and Darth Vader lightsaber piñata stick!

Check out the Alicia Policia blog by clicking here or the photo above.

Improving the Wampa - My Handy Cooler

2010-09-17T05:54:00.000-07:00

While making the body, I installed a large computer fan in the top of the hump to circulate air in the body cavity, but ran out of time and money before SWCV to figure out a cooling system for the head. Today I made my first step towards making the Wampa suit an easier costume to wear. From the recommendation from my buddy Bossk down below (actually a fellow 501st member) I picked up a Handy Cooler. He let me play with his cooler and after being in my suit it felt great. He has one mounted on his costume and the company claims up to a 30 degree drop in temperature for 30-120 minutes depending on the humidity. Even if it is 10 degrees it will be an improvement.

Just like Bossk, I got the tube attachment which they market for baby strollers. He uses it to mount the cooler in a secure spot inside the costume, than direct the air where needed most. The Wampa head was made a bicycle helmet which already have holes for ventilation. When I built up the foam, I left open channels to let any heat escape. These already look like they will be a great way to get air into the head also. I have tested using 1/2 vinyl tubing going into the head and it seems to make a difference. And that is only blowing in room temperature air. The end result for this is to try to keep the head on longer, and keep the illusion alive!

I should have this mounted by the time of the next troop and I promise I will give a follow up to let everyone know how it worked. If it works great I just might replace the fan in the hump with a second unit and point the hose down into the body right on my back.

Photo by Andrew Siguenza

If the Wampa was a chess piece....

2010-09-16T16:01:00.000-07:00

He would be a KNIGHT! Well according to LEGO builder Brandon Griffith of Los Angeles' Lego User Group LUGOLA. Check out this awesome custom LEGO chessboard over at MAKE Magizine

Verizon Droid R2-D2 Phone Release Party with the Wampa!

2010-09-15T11:58:00.001-07:00

Meet the Wampa, Anakin Skywalker, IG-88, Darth Vader and more when the 501st & Rebel Legion helps launch the Droid R2-D2 in Florida. Wednesday Sept. 29th at Verizon on Park St. in St. Petersburg, FL

Costume contest wins a FREE R2-D2 Phone!

Wampa Sighting - WAMPA CAKE!! Complete with a bloody arm!

2010-09-15T07:08:00.001-07:00

Found this great Wampa cake over at the Alicia Policia Blog where she plans on posting a series of crafts based on Empire Strikes Back. The cake is made of her Mom's sour cream pound cake recipe, buttercream icing for the fur and to top it off, strawberry preserves when you slice off it's arm!

My Son's 2nd birthday is coming up in a couple weeks. It is very tempting to try to do something like this, though I got a feeling I can't top this cake. Great job Alicia and to all my readers, keep up with her site to see her other crafts!

My Wampa is talked about on the Sarlacc Pit SWCV Podcast

2010-09-14T13:18:00.001-07:00

In their review of Star Wars Celebration V they gave a top 5 costumes they saw. Guess who made the list!!!

Here is the discription of their podscast:

Welcome to "The Sarlacc Pit"! Here you'll find episodes of the official podcast of GalacticBinder.com - the fan's Star Wars podcast. Come join us as we digest the latest news and happenings from the Star Wars universe. The focus of the podcast is to help, "...bind the galaxy together..." so if you want to come on the show to promote your Star Wars website, a Star Wars event or product... or if you're a fan who just wants to talk Star Wars... then we want to hear from you!

I love when people talk about seeing the Wampa, just like a fish story, it seems to grow in size every time they tell it. The Sarlacc Pit is a new podcast and worth a listen, click their logo above to subscribe on iTunes!

My first set of photos is up on Flickr - Wampas at SWCV

2010-09-13T08:26:00.000-07:00

How can you go wrong teasing a Gallery with Wampa Girl... I could have put any of my pics there but I know my viewers! Up first is a 100 photo set of all the various Wampas at Star Wars Celebration V. Click on the pic above to check them out.

Speaking of Yetis, here is a classic clip

2010-09-12T12:02:00.000-07:00

I figured just for fun I would post this classic WCW clip with the Yeti. If you want a size comparison, my wampa is slightly taller than this guy. I was a watcher of WCW and don't remember this happening but you can see why they don't exist any more!

The Wampa - A Space Yeti?

2010-09-12T11:22:00.000-07:00

A while back ago when first researching for the Wampa I came across this fun site I Love The Yeti. Any time a big white hairy creature is seen in pop culture, crafts or wherever they love to share it. There are some crazy yeti costumes including our Wampa buddy Jay Bleu.

So now that My Wampa costume is established, I figure I would submit my suit to their site to share with the fun. In return I got a great post from them, click the pic above to go check out their site.

Star Wars Celebration according to Genna the Wampa Handler

2010-09-11T13:16:00.000-07:00

I am sure you noticed that everything of mine is posted by WampaDude, well in the 501st everyone is referred to either by Handle or by TK Number (mine is 2638). Well in the case of Genna who I have referred to her as "The Wampa Handler", but very soon she will be accepted into the 501st as a Juno Eclipse. Once accepted in she will be known as "Inkstess".

Genna was with me the entire trip to Star Wars Celebration and also has been blogging about her experience from her point of view. Click the photo above with Genna, and the hottest Imperial Officer you will ever see Mrs. Brady herself Adrianne Curry, or go to Inkstress.net. Over on her blog you can read her reviews about CV and learn about her artwork, costume and tattoo designs. Genna can also be followed on twitter at Twitter.com/inkstress and on facebook at Facebook.com/inkstress

Check out this Video: Preparing to meet Steve Sansweet

2010-09-10T06:13:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the folks over at the HippoJuice Podcast we now have a great candid moment while I was preparing to greet the awaiting crowd and to head over to meet the Wampa Squad and Steve Sansweet. We were up by the Hoth Ice Bar at Star Wars Celebration V and it was time to suit up. Because the whole snapping of the waist and buckling the crotch usually gets hoots and hollers we turn the back to the crowd. But the flaw in the plan here was there was doors leading to the back entrance of the convention center. Sure enough with perfect timing here comes folks with a video camera!

In this video you can see our "Convention" set up. You can see all 3 of my support crew, Genna in black is helping with the grooming, Geff in the background is helping with water and talking with the crowd and Eric is shooting photos. You can also see our dolly we were transporting the body on with the yellow straps. Also this is a great video of showing how I slip my arms out to be able to have a drink and put my head on. You can see the latest additions to the outfit with my weightlifting gloves for better grip on the handles inside the arms. I found out with the Storm troop the sweat was running down my arms to my hands and made it tough to grip. The long sleeve compression shirt also helps with this. Also you can see the Underarmor skullcap to help keep the sweat which is what I feel is the best addition, it keeps the head cool and the sweat away from my eyes.

(The "Stage 2 Beast" costume at the Guavaween costume contest 2004)

The video ends with my traditional raising of the arms to meet the crowd. When I built the Beast costume in 2002 I found that when I do this it gets a great reaction from the people. It really shows how tall the costume can be. You can see me also do it in the LEGO promotional video. Once I modify the shoulders this will be an even more dramatic event because I will have a better range of motion with the arms and can really get a wingspan to go along with this move.

Check Out This Fan Video - The 501st Group Photo with the Wampa

2010-09-08T19:14:00.000-07:00

I found this amazing video from the 3rd level shot by Pitu Vision. You can hear the enthusiasm of a fan as he narrates what he is seeing. It also shows my favorite candid moment of the 501st photo, the late arrival of Greedo. You can hear all the guys shouting out "Greedooooooo" at the 7:50 moment. We do have some obscure characters and you can hear him trying to figure them out. His "Ball Sack" Alien interpretation of Ponda Boba did catch me off guard.

Star Wars Celebration V Review: Day 4 - Part 2: Finally, Panels

2010-09-04T22:29:00.001-07:00

While waiting for the panels to begin, I got to kill some time by myself wandering the trade floor. Next to the Force in the Flesh was the Clone Wars chalk drawing. Through the weekend, artist Eric Maruscak had been working on an amazing chalk drawing that would have a big reveal on the last day of the convention, and boy was it big. Savage Oppress was revealed by George Lucas during the Main Event and Eric was adding him to the mural.

I also ran into Steve Sansweet again with this AWESOME custom Star Wars suit. He was at the Commitment Chapel reading the vows to couples wanting their own Star Wars themed weddings. I later found out that he had been holding on to that material since 1980 when he got hold of a roll of fabric that was being used for kid's Osh Kosh B'gosh overalls. Now that my friends is why he is the greatest Star Wars collector, to hold on to something like that for 30 years and to finally have a use for it is amazing. Check out this article about his collection better known as Rancho Obi-Wan. I did get to pick up some stuff for the boys, for my oldest son who was with me on Thursday, he got the new Boba Fett helmet from Hasbro. For my youngest who is about to turn 2, he got a plush Wampa of course.

After my son left at 5pm on Thursday, I had either been in costume, pulling a costume or talking about my costume. It felt nice being somewhat anonymous for the moment and sit among everyone in a panel, though people still recognized me and we struck up a conversation. Who knew I would make such an impression as myself! My first stop was to a 501st costume building panel featuring Jason "Torment" Rucci - 8581. Jason was with me on my first troop and walked me through everything and made me feel right at home. He was hosting a panel on building movie accurate Clone Armor. Now how can you make clone armor when they were computer generated? That is where Jason can talk your ear off about how clone armor is superior to stormtrooper armor because it is that challenge to make it seamless and perfect! This panel changed my opinion big time about the clones and before my tenure with the 501st is done, I want a set of clone armor... yeah so what that I am short, but now I have a new attitude, it's for the kids.

(Here is a sample of the Armor panels, this one was the Animated Clones)

Next up was a panel with Star Wars sound guru's Ben Burtt and Matt Wood, hosted by LucasArt's lead sound designer David Collins. Little do people know is although they are sound guys they also have voiced some characters in movies and games. This brought up a fun scenario, where Proxy from the Force Unleashed (Collins) was interviewing Wall-E (Burtt) and General Grevious (Wood). People may remember the infamous video of Ben Burtt hitting guide wires to make the blaster sounds from Star Wars. He spoke to the crowd about how it is amazing that with any other movie sound editors never get any publicity but with Star Wars it lead to an Oscar and being treated like a celebrity, just as much as the stars of the films. He even brought some rare super 8 footage from the filming of Return of the Jedi. Who knew he was the last person to fly the Millennium Falcon before the set was destroyed.

Next up was the big finale for me, Dave Filoni and the Clone Wars Season 3 . This to me was one of the can't miss panels of the convention. I have been addicted to the Clone Wars since the movie came out in theaters. Some don't feel this is "real Star Wars" because it is a kid's cartoon. I beg to differ. I would actually go as far as saying that this series is more like the Original Trilogy and far superior the Prequels. All of the heart that was in the first 3 movies that was lost in the computer generated confusion that was the prequel movies is back in these 22 minute episodes. They really make you see Episode 3 and the whole Order 66 in a whole new light, because now the clones aren't just computer generated masses, they are individuals with names and dealing with the issues of being at war. From the brotherhood between the troops, to questioning the war and becoming friends with the Jedis. Also they are not shy of killing them off after just getting to know them, yep the reality of war packaged in cartoon form.

So back to the panel. Dave Filoni was telling what it is like making the Clone Wars and how characters develop, but he understood that many people were there to see video clips from the upcoming season. People want spoilers! Of course there was the Q&A where people love to make him squirm. There was the typical what happens to Rex and Ahsoka but someone brought up Hoth. It was sad to hear that there was no plans of going to Hoth, which probably means no Wampas in the Clone Wars, oh well. But we will get a new Zabrak warrior named Savage Oppress seen in the chalk drawing above, an attack on the cloning facilities on Kamino (which sounds like it will be the season opener) and a fun twist in using the force with the Sith Witches. Yep there isn't only the light side and the dark side, the Sith Witches use the force in their own way like using magic.

Then just like that Celebration was over. I met back up with Genna who was wandering the trade floor with new friends and we left the Orange County Convention Center. It seemed like we left as we came in, as regular fans, no costumes no hoopla and it felt right.

Star Wars Celebration V Review: Day 4 - Part 1: R2-KT honored at The Force in the Flesh

2010-09-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

We finally come to the last day of Star Wars Celebration V. This was also the short day on the schedule ending 2 hours earlier than the other days. By this time we have seen almost everything on the trade floor but we haven't been to any panels. Funny how you look at a schedule ahead of time and highlight all the great panels you thought you would want to see, but once you get there you just go with the flow. We got to meet so many people and experience some wild things that we would have missed if we were sitting in panels all weekend.

Our first stop was to the Force in the Flesh tattoo area. Genna who is no stranger to tattoos wanted to get something done at the convention. She considered many designs from Mando and Jedi symbols but something else came to mind. Leading up to Celebration I would give her homework assignments of sorts. Learn this storyline, read about this character, trying to get her as well versed in the universe as I was. Don't want your apprentice going in blind now do you! There was one piece of homework that was essential. I told her, be prepared on this one, it will tug at your heart strings and you might even cry. Now Genna is a tough chick, a big fan of the Saw movies and doesn't get emotional that often. But I sent her the story of R2-KT. I think it should be mandatory reading for any Star Wars fans and anyone who has any interest in the 501st.

In short, because I want all of you readers to also do their homework at R2KT.com . Albin Johnson, founder of the 501st had a daughter named Katie. In 2004 Katie was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Albin had an idea to build her a droid to watch over her, just like R2 watched Padme. Her sister went one step further and said why don't we make her pink and name her after Katie, R2-KT. Knowing time was short, the R2 Builders club rushed a modified pink R2 and Katie fell in love. The droid watched over her until she passed in her sleep.

The R2 Builders continued to build the official R2-KT and was presented to Albin and his family the next year. R2-KT has since travelled the world and visited many children's hospitals, and even made it onto the big screen in the Clone Wars animated movie.

Genna with her tough no nonsense exterior was brought to tears over her story, so much so from that day on there has been a photo of R2-KT on her wallpaper at work ever since. Leading up to Celebration, while staring at the photo of R2-KT had an epiphany. She likes to hide stuff in her tattoos, stuff that if you know, you know. She wanted to get the utility arms on the front of the astromech. To anyone seeing that didn't know star wars probably wouldn't figure it out, and if you know do, and you know that special little pink droid than you know exactly what it is.

So she made an appointment for Sunday morning, and got the tattoo done. The reaction from fellow 501st members was fantastic. They were amazed that she made such a commitment and wasn't even a member.... yet.

We had to head back to the 501st room to get a pic with KT herself and Genna's new ink. It is hard not to tear up when in her presence. Funny how we talk about a piece of metal as if it was a person, but this is a traveling memorial to Katie. Even though we have never met her, she will always be in our hearts. Katie was and always will be a part of the family that is the 501st.

Up Next, Part 2 - My Day 4 Experience and finally, The Panels.....

Star Wars Celebration V Review: Day 3 - Part 3: LEGOs, and Droids and Rebels.. Oh My.

2010-09-01T10:37:00.000-07:00

(Click the mural to see the official Star Wars/Lego promo video Featuring My Wampa)

So we are coming to the end of Day 3, and yes I am milking it for all it was, it was a very eventful day! While I was walking back from Hoth Bar to the 501st photo shoot, Genna was approached about the Wampa. They were begging and pleading with her that we have to go to their booth, they will give us an escort and it will be a big event. They weren't kidding, it was Julie, the Brand Relations Manager with LEGO! As the photo shoot was wrapping up Genna felt a presence behind her. It was the LEGO group. They had a 6 person escort to bring the Wampa to the trade floor. As soon as the legion broke formation I was lead to the Elevator that was being held for me. On the top floor more LEGO folks were there to head to the Mystery LEGO Mural.

For the last 3 days they have been handing out squares and having convention goers fill them out using single colored studs revealing a mystery image by the end of the convention. Well that time had come and the image was none other than their Wampa and Hoth characters with an Empire Strikes Back poster in the middle. The last piece in the mural was the Wampas eye and they had LEGO Master builder, Eric Vaszegi and a lucky Star Wars fan, A little guy named Jake and me as the Wampa to put in the last piece. The press was there and it was a huge hit with the fan. I posed with Jake for the fans and gave him a big Wampa hug. As soon as it was done they took me back to the main hall.

It had been a long day in costume, almost 4 hours at that time but it was pure adrenaline that was fueling me. Something I learned while talking to many 501st members, especially those who troop for 6-8 hours in armor, that sometimes when the fans want you to keep going you get that second, third and fourth wind that keeps you going. I was on my third and I knew if I was going to fulfill any of my appearance requests it would have to be soon. There was about an hour and a half left in the day and up next was the R2 Droid Builders room. The folks with me were trying to convince me that I was done but I had to go, with a 20 minute break without the top, I got back dressed and headed across the hall.

In the droid builders room the Mountain Garrison of Colorado had a display I just couldn't pass up. It was the WAMPA DOOR! If you are a reader of the blog you will know my fascination of this prop. It was part of the script of ESB but cut from the movie because of technical reasons. Now if Lucasfilm couldn't do it, could I... could I possibly accomplish something that uncle George couldn't? The builders of the door wanted me to do some poses in front of it with the R2 and C3PO that were there. Just like the Ice Bar upstairs, they had padded floors and add posing with those 15lb arms up in the air and trying to hold the position I could feel myself fading, but I pushed through. I told my handler that I can probably do 5-10 poses with fans, and she saw some kids up front and told everyone kids only. This was a blessing in disguise because after those kids I needed a break, though I had enough energy to pose with the builders responsible for the display too.

Now with the Droid room down, I got that 4th wind once I downed a bottle of water and got back on to solid flooring. I got thinking, we visited the Rebel Legion Echo Base booth the day before with half the Wampa and it was a hit I needed to go back there with the whole suit. They had a section roped off for a tauntaun costume but that didn't last too long. The person inside that costume couldn't handle more than 15-20 minutes in the suit. I watched them get dressed on Thursday and as soon it was on, she said that was enough and they proceeded to take it off. Well I am now going into my 5th hour in the suit and a jolt of duty I walked to the back of the Expo hall to the Rebel Legion Booth.

On the way I couldn't resist posing with a great Darth Talon costume. People say Slave Leia is the sexiest costume in Star Wars, No way Darth Talon, the Twi'lek sith tattoos from the Legacy series is freakin' hot.

We finally get to the Rebel Legion booth and talk to Lori the head of Ra Kura Base (Florida's RL group). She was excited to see us and thanked us again for coming back in full costume. To my surprise who was in the pen, non other than Chewie! Fans got to pose with not one but 2 - 7+ foot tall costumes. It was nice to be able to talk to someone eye to eye. After about 15 minutes the line of people died down and it was time to suit down.

The day was complete and after almost the entire time with Eric and Geff following us I told them to go enjoy the show. Geff was trying to hunt down show exclusives and ended up with the Gentle Giant 12 inch vintage Kenner Boba Fett. Eric did what he did best, event photography He went around and got some great shots of the full size props and the fans. Afterwards Genna and I agreed for all the work they did today we would treat them to a dinner anywhere of their choice.

So next up, Day 4 - Force in the Flesh and Panels

Star Wars Celebration V Review: Day 3 - Part 2: The 501st Group Photo

2010-08-29T05:15:00.000-07:00

(click to enlarge...see if you can find me!)

For me I can pinpoint the exact moment when I knew I had to go to Star Wars Celebration V. There were rumors, will it be Orlando, will it be Chicago, Steve Sansweet kept playfully dancing around the subject in any of his interviews. It was October of last year in a Spirit Halloween store. While taking my kids to check out costumes by the front door they had a display, win CV tickets. How can you have a contest if there hasn't even been an announcement for one? There wasn't even an official logo on it. But they did use a great trick to get kids and adults hooked into putting entering the contest, a photo of hundreds of imperial costumes... it was the Celebration 4 501st Group Photo seen below.

(The 501st Celebration 4 Group Photo)

I would sit there and stare at it like a kid in a candy shop window, trying to figure out all the costumes. Hey there is a Grevious, and a Darth Traya, that Darth Maul is short, I could probably pull it off. I actually hunted down the photo online and looked at it at home. Eventually they announced that Celebration will be in Orlando, right here in Florida, and that got me really excited to go. As I said before I want to build a costume and since I go big, I went with the wampa. I wanted to make something that would be noticeable and it was for my love of the movies and wanted to do something to give back. I had looked up before if a wampa was 501st eligible and figured it would be a long shot. I thought to myself, damn I would love to be part of that photo that sold me on going to CV.

So fast forward to Saturday at Celebration, the day of the group photo. We finally made it outside of the 501st room in the little hallway that we found that we could suit up without a crowd and rested for a bit. Although this was away from the crowds we still got traffic anytime someone saw the suit and even had a reporter come over and ask some questions. We started to hear the call out to the legion members from the atrium below and knew it was time for the Wampa to make it's appearance. We got dressed and headed to the near by elevator.

As soon as the elevator doors opened and I stepped foot into the opening where everyone was assembling, a roar came over the crowd..... the Wampa had arrived. I wasn't even in full suit, my arms were out and had the head in my hand but the crowd and the fellow 501st members didn't care, they just erupted. It was an amazing feeling, the 6 months of building, the hard times the day before the pain I was in wearing it for the 3rd day in a row, every hardship I felt for the suit just melted away and pride overtook everything. The goal of the suit was to give back to Lucasfilm and the fans and this was the moment I knew that the suit was a success.

All weekend when someone complimented me about the suit, I tried to be as humble. I tried to redirect any praise towards the good deeds that the 501st did. I didn't want anyone to get the impression that I was out for personal glory or to out do any other costume makers or prop builders and take any attention from the stars of the movies that were there. But at that moment I felt like one of those stars. But the minute I stepped into my place for the photo any feeling of individual accomplishments meant nothing to me. I was part of something much bigger.

(Hyper getting a nose full of wampa butt)

I am a firm believer in the power of group thought. Each one of these brothers and sisters standing next to me have built their suits for the same reason. They love the Star Wars movies, they do it for the fans and many of them built their suits to be part of the good will and charity that the 501st represents. Our charter does not allow us to accept payment for appearances. In return we ask the hosts to make a charitable donation. This is why you can understand my feeling that you really become part of a greater good. So my suit is big, it dosen't make it any better than those hundreds of other 501st costumes next to me, each one of them deserved to have that same reaction from the crowd when they took the floor. Some of these guys have 20, 50, 100 troops under their belt, take our new buddy Craig "Hyper" Provine who was two rows behind me, he has over 160 of them. I want you to take a moment and look at the list of the troops he has made, all the great causes, he is what I inspire to be. This is what the 501st does all around the world. You could feel that sense of pride in the air and it was humbling to be part of it.

There were chants of 5 0 1.. there was the collective chants of character names when they were coming in a little late, my favorite was GREEEEDO!!!!!! When the celebrities in the pics arrived like Adrianne Curry and Dave Filoni the legion and the crowd started hooting and hollering, but the biggest cheer of them all came when the founder of the 501st, Albin Johnson arrived, the fans probably didn't know him but boy did the legion, the crowd soon caught on and cheered with us. I took a look at the crowd form my high vantage point. The stairs were filled with photographers, there were 2 more levels going up with people hanging off of the ledges. We were the biggest thing going on at that convention, it was time.

We were set for our photo though it took a few attempts, step forward, buckets off, buckets on, buckets off again... wait a bit, buckets on, take a few more steps forward, then once again buckets off. I did get accused of cheating once when they called buckets off, everyone held them high... well I got big arms, I held those about 3 feet higher than everyone else, it was a good laugh, but I did follow along with everyone else the next time and held the wampa head high. Once we were done the crowd showed their appreciation and the legion gave one big hoot and broke position.

Now all of the individual 501st detachments to get their group photos, the Imperial Officers, the F.I.D.S.(First Imperial Stormtrooper Detachment) and all the rest, but the Wampa really doesn't fit any of these detachments, and I do regret not staying around, because I am sure many of the individuals would of loved to have my picture taken with them, but someone else had bigger plans for me, and pretty much kidnapped the Wampa as soon as the photo ended.....

and that comes with Day 3 - Part 3: LEGOs, and Droids and Rebels.. Oh My.

Stay tuned

Star Wars Celebration V Review: Day 3 - Part 1: The Wampa Squad

2010-08-28T10:30:00.001-07:00

While all our fellow Legion members party until the wee hours at the 501st Imperial Bash, we were up till 2:30am making repairs to the Wampa. All of the areas that I rushed to put together at the last minute to have it approved in time seemed to be the weak spots of the costume and the first areas that needed to be repaired. With emergency surgery (sewing) to the legs and feet, sewing together the armpits of the body, re-gluing the straps and the foam of the lower legs, gluing back in some loose teeth and repainting the toe and fingernails the Wampa was ready to make it's longest appearance at SWCV.

This day we had the chance to add 2 more people to our "Wampa Support Crew". Mr Promee from the Bunch of Dorks podcast and his friend Geff who is equally as big of a Fanboy as mMyself and the Genna my Wampa Handler. But before we met up with them we ran into Adrianne Curry again, today she was in her infamous Slave Leia costume, and I couldn't resist posting a pic with her on thi s post.

We learned from our mistakes the first day out and brought the costume in by dolly. I decided that this day I would not make the trek around the convention center in full costume but take it with me to the places I planned on being in costume. But I wouldn't be just dragging it around like the day before I had a better idea. I would be dressed from the waist down. Not only did this make it quicker to get in and out of costume but being up in stilts with giant Wampa legs seemed to get more attention than just the upper body like the day before.

Photo by LeeRoy Holmes

You would be surprised who would stop you and want to talk to you when you are 7 feet in the air. Our first encounter was non other than Seth Green, who was there to promote his Star Wars Robot Chicken 3. He was on his way back from the Main Event with George Lucas and Jon Stewart. He loved the costume and being a fellow short guy thought it was great to see someone his size in such a big costume. But unfortunately he said he was in a hurry to another panel and couldn't get a pic. Could be the Hollywood thing but he was a really cool guy to chat with so I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

(proof you don't need to be in full costume to satisfy the fans!)

Our first stop was the Hoth Ice Bar to meet fellow Wampa Jay Bleu. Jay will be featured in a future post. We were up there also to meet the Mandalorian Mercs "Wampa Squad". They asked us to make an appearance with them as they made Steve Sansweet, Director of Content Management and Head of Fan Relations, an honorary member of the Mercs. For anyone who doesn't know the Mandalorian Mercs are, they are a costuming club that specialize in customized Mandalorian armor made famous by Boba Fett. While waiting for Steve, as if by fate hanging out with the Mercs, Jeremy Bulloch who played Boba Fett came buy on a way to a panel and gave the mercs and myself a nod of appreciation, while he was whisked by with his handlers.

(The Wampa Squad's Amazing Logo)

Then the man of the hour came, Mr. Steve Sansweet. This guy just oozes his love for Star Wars. He complimented everyone on their costumes and was excited when accepting his plaque. He later asked for a big hug from the Wampa and told the crowd watching that it was his favorite creature in Star Wars. Read more about Steve here. The Mercs were awesome folks and if you are a fan of Boba Fett, Jango Fett, Pre Visla, Jodo Kast or just think Mando armor looks badass, I would recommend looking into building some armor and joining up at Mercs.firespray.net . If you want some great tutorials for Mando armor check out TheDentedHelmet.

After the presentation was done, we spent a short amount of time in the Hoth Ice Bar. Because of the padded rug and dark atmosphere it made it a short visit for a guy on stilts. We posed with some fans outside and started to head back to the main entrance for the 501st group photo. While in route we saw a crowd and because I was on stilts I instantly recognized the 3'6" man they were surrounding. It was Warwick Davis, the actor who played 3 characters in Star Wars, Wicket, Wald and Weazle and also well known for his roles as the Leprechaun, Willow and Professor Flitwick in the Harry Potter movies. Again like the other celebs he saw me on the stilts and came to talk to me. I had to tell him "From a fellow short guy up here on stilts, you are an inspiration", which he is. We struck up a conversation about his new book Size Matters Not, which he told everyone that they can get a signed copy from his website WarwickDavis.co.uk.

Next Up... Day 3 - Part 2: The 501st Group Photo

Hear about our Celebration V experience on the Bunch Of Dorks Podcast

2010-08-26T12:04:00.001-07:00

Want to hear about Star Wars Celebration from a non-fanboy? Well we invited our good friend Mr. Promee to help photograph us on Saturday and in the 3rd segment of the Bunch Of Dorks podcast he tells the other Dorks all about it. He may have got some of the facts wrong but it is a very favorable review and worth a listen.

Just click the logo above and listen. I recommend subscribing to them on iTunes and listen in. They cover a wide range of subjects, each dork has their own unique interest. Mow is a big fan of classic pinball machines and Japanese culture, Man with No Name is a Trekker, and Promee is a Disney fanatic and big into computer graphics. All are employees with me at the code named "Widget Factory" so inter office politics and cubicle life is a common theme. So in other words every podcast is different with a new subject from the topic phone.

Star Wars Celebration V Review: Day 2 - The Wampa Arives... sort of

2010-08-22T21:18:00.001-07:00

So Friday the 13th arrives and boy did it live up to it's reputation. This was the day we were supposed to bring the Wampa out for it's first official Star Wars Celebration moment. Instead it ended in one of the weirdest days I had ever had in any costume.

To start the day we visited the 501st room to see the TK project. These were a collection of Stormtrooper helmets given to artists, celebrities and select 501st members to decorate. At the end of the convention these helmets were auctioned off to earn over $50,000 towards Make-A-Wish Foundation!

We were scheduled to participate in a Hoth walk through and had to get the suit to the 501st room by 1:30. We had to figure out a way to get it there, and our first mistake was thinking that parking in the back parking lot and walking it in was the best way to get it there. The wampa weights over 75lbs with the upper body about 55lbs. It was a half mile walk from the car and with only Genna my Wampa Handler with me, and no wall or ceiling to prop myself, I spent too much of my energy getting dressed and hauling getting the costume in place. We also noticed a problem with one of the feet. It started to show late at the IceBar event but also noticed it at the previous troop at the Storm game. Come to find out one of the snaps on the foot was ripped off, and was dragging along every time I tried to plant my right foot. To add to our folly we also forgot to install my batteries in my fan inside, forgot my headband to absorb the sweat and left the camel pack in the van. Also left in the van wasthe dolly to haul it back. But these are all rookie mistakes that we corrected and it all worked out great for us the next day.

So our Hoth walk through ended up being more of a Hoth pose for fans. Don't get me wrong, just because we didn't walk all the way around didn't mean it was a total failure, the fans ate it up. We were there for about an hour including breaks for myself to get a break and chug a water. With me were a General Veers and some Snowtroopers. Even Chef Vader came along and posed with us!

After we were done we had to figure out how to get it back to the van. I chose to walk the stilts back in my socks, yeah I forgot my shoes at the van too. I loaded up the stilts, got dressed, dumped my head in the cooler of ice water and brought back the dolly. This turned out to be one of the oddest things we saw. As we had the top half of the wampa loaded onto the dolly the fans still wanted to take pics. So we figured out we could just enjoy the rest of the day and drag the wampa along like a fresh kill.

Kids loved the fact that they can pose with it, stick their lightsabers in him and act like they slayed the beast. To solidify the fact that it was Friday the 13th, a Jason Voorhees Snowtrooper came by and posed with his machete and the wampa's decapitated head.

(notice the thumb? That is where I burnt myself good on the first attempt to make repairs!)

That I thought was the highlight of the day until the Golden man himself Anthony Daniels saw the wampa and went off onto one of his signature monologues about the suit and his opinion about wampas. He was after all part of that infamous cut scene. But before I could introduce myself as the wampa's maker he got snagged up by a camera crew. I was able to get a picture with him as he was leaving and he complimented me on the suit.

That 10 minutes made up for all of the troubles we had that day, and I knew I had to go back and repair the hell out of the suit. We missed out on a great party that night with the 501st Imperial Bash, but staying up till 2am sewing, gluing and painting we knew would pay off the next day... and boy did it... Day 3 is coming next!

Star Wars Celebration V Review: Day 1 - A Night With The Wampa At ICEBAR

2010-08-22T21:01:00.000-07:00

Down the street from the Orange County Convention Center on International Drive is ICEBAR Orlando. When I saw a post on the 501st boards and hearing that there will be an actual room that is kept at 27*f I knew I had to take the Wampa in there. So after we dropped off my son and a bit of a break we headed down the street to ICEBAR.

Inside is a regular bar called the fire lounge. This is your typical bar with an added fire theme. But the real attraction is the ICEBAR. Inside here it is lined with blocks of ice and they offer a poncho and gloves for anyone heading in. Fellow 501st legion members showed up as well as one pesky Jedi and we had a blast posing with customers and ourselves. They also have their own photographer on hand to bring home a souvenir of your experience.

The alcohol inside the Icebar is actually served in cups made of ice and there was a big penguin that you can take shots off of too. To help with the Star Wars theme inside they also had some of the wampa rugs and tauntaun and wampa ice sculptures that they were providing for the Hoth Ice Bar inside the convention center.

This place has a great gimmick and normal admission is $20, I would recommend it to anyone staying on I-Drive in Orlando and if you have a night to spare

Star Wars Celebration V Review: Day 1 - Family Day

2010-08-22T19:09:00.000-07:00

Going into Star Wars Celebration I had a plan, knowing that my Wampa costume had its limitations due to it's size I had to limit my time inside and have it available for scheduled events. I chose to dress up 2 days, Friday and Saturday. This gave me 2 full days out of costume to enjoy the actual event. If I didn't dress up the first day, I could scout locations such as high traffic/high impact locations for the fans and also places to hide and get dressed, or take a break.

I also found out that kids under 6 were free.This was the perfect opportunity to take my oldest son, who is 5, with me for one day. He is a huge Star Wars fan and it would also give me the ability to attend some of the scheduled family events that I would have probably skipped if he did not come. You also get to see the event through the eyes of a child when they are with you. True they are all over the place and have their head on a swivel. You have to be on high alert when there are distractions everywhere, but I think this was a great choice to bring him.

Finally when the big day came, it was my son Gavin, my handler Genna and myself going to SWCV for the opening day. We arrived to the convention center about an hour and a half early. Once I saw the line behind us the time the doors finally opened I think we made the right decision. Gavin was dress my up as Clone Wars Anikin Skywalker and we let him bring one of his many lightsabers. We knew that not every moment would be filled with things to do, so some role playing would keep him occupied. This ended up paying off in our favor when non other than Dave Filoni, supervising director of the Clone Wars spotted him in costume. Dave said ahead of time that if he spotted anyone in dressed up in a Clone Wars costume he would give them the elusive "Plo Kool" button. He used this Plo Kool stamp to approve any designs for the series. Dave personally pinned it on to his costume and to our surprise, the back of it was autographed.

We spent the next few hours wandering the trade floor. One of Gavin's favorite parts was the Lego section. Not only did they have large displays of the sets for sale, large pieces done by master builders, there was areas where the kids can free build their own designs. Their show exclusive was a white Ralph McQuarrie lego minifig. To get this you had to complete a square piece of their giant mystery mural. The mural would be completed on Saturday afternoon. (more info coming on that part!) Also on the trade floor was Jedi Training Academy. A master would come out and teach the kids on the ways of a lightsaber and eventually face off with the dark lord of the Sith himself, Darth Vader. Although we tried to get Gavin chosen for this one, he was not. It was limited to the amount of kids and like a typical 5yo once he wasn't chosen he wanted to move off to the next thing.

There were many sets around the convention to pose with scenes from the movies. In the 501st room there was the Emperors throne and a scene from Mos Eisley, in the Droid builder room there was a hallway from Echo base and the infamous Wampa Door from the cut scene from empire from Mountain Garrison. But one Garrison outdid themselves bringing 10 sets, the Belgian Garrison brought reproductions of the inside of the Milineum Falcon, a full size Wampa, Jabba the Hutt with his minions, Snowspeeder, Speeder Bike and Endor bunker and even a large AT-AT. But the most impressive was the full size Tie Interceptor by the Belgian Garrison. To see an actual ship hanging from the ceiling was awesome. And to add to the illusion, many of these sets had 501st/Rebel Legion members stationed to pose with. My son got to pose with many everyone from Han Solo to Slave Leia. Another fun photo op was the lifesize Hasbro toy package where you could pose yourself as an action figure.

I really wanted to get him to meet some of the Star Wars celebs especially Daniel Logan (little boy Boba Fett as he calls him) but I could see that he was starting to get tired. Soon after we got the call from my wife that she was on her way and the timing couldn't be better. We ended the day a couple hours early so we could get prepared for our first appearance by the Wampa at Ice Bar Orlando. All about that in the next post.

Star Wars Celebration V: Arriving in Orlando on Wednesday

2010-08-18T09:33:00.000-07:00

The best part of Celebration V is having it in my home state of Florida. This was a major reason why I built the Wampa when I did, if this was in Chicago or any other location the Wampa may have never existed as we know it now. This also gave us the flexibility to leave when we wanted to. I work nights and we figured that if we show up a day early we could get everything ready that night before and be ready to go in the morning. Since I would have my son with us the first day, we figured we might as well have fun with it. So we packed up the Wampa in the family minivan and left Tampa Bay to Orlando.

Our first Star Wars experience actually started the day before when we stopped by Downtown Disney. Their toy store "Once Upon A Toy" has a great selection of Star Wars products from their die cast Racers to Mr. Potato Head parts. We were there for the make your own Lightsaber display. You can customize your own lightsaber or chose from unique famous sabers like Maris Brood's tonfa style lightsaber to Count Dooku's curved lightsaber for about $20. We got the infamous Darth Maul double lightsaber. The only Maul saber we could find for my son to play with was the Rubie's costume saber which says it is not intended for battle. The sabers at Once Upon A Toy not only hold up to the stress of battle, but they also light up via LED lights, have interchangeable crystals inside and make noise. You can swap out the parts too if you have more than one set!

Not your ordinary McDonald's food!

That evening we hit up the "World's Most Unique" McDonald's right down the street from the OCCC. Of course we got my son a happy meal but what makes this McDonald's stand out from the rest is their Bistro menu. We had tortellini, one with Alfredo and chicken, the other with marinara and meatballs. They also claim to have the world's largest Play Place. This was ridiculously huge and I could easily see how kids could get lost in this thing and drive parents crazy finding their kids.

Before we called it quits for the day we walked down to the convention center. We wanted to get a sneak peek and also judge the distance. We wanted to see if it was worth walking down there or taking the free shuttle the first day. It was a 20 minute walk down there and we got to peek in the windows and see the AT-AT and Wampa. We also found the R2-D2 parking barriers that were cute as hell. I kind of wish we didn't see some of this stuff because the anticipation built up by seeing what was inside made it hard to fall asleep. It was just like kids on Christmas Eve but eventually we knocked out.

The Wampa featued on Yahoo photos promoting the LEGO Mural

2010-08-16T23:49:00.000-07:00

Today we found on Yahoo some pics of the Wampa taken by AP promoting the LEGO mural at SWCV. I was humbling to be asked to participate, especially when this piece was their centerpiece for the show.

Even George Lucas participated in the mural!

Check out the Wampa helping out LEGO at SWCV!

2010-08-16T23:46:00.000-07:00

Wampa gets a Mani-Pedi!

2010-08-14T05:34:00.001-07:00

We could have been partying all night like the rest of the Star Wars fans. Instead we spent all last night repairing the wampa. I put the suit in some extreme conditions for it's first few showings and it was already showing wear in those spots where I rushed to finish the suit in time to get approved. Lesson learned! We are ready to go for Saturday.

Super Mario Jedi

2010-08-13T08:11:00.001-07:00

Jusr ran into these 3 guys and had to share. It's the second day of day of SWCV more posts to come!

It's a craft! My first day with my son at SWCV

2010-08-12T21:31:00.001-07:00

Today I decided to not suit up at Star Wars Celebration and spent the whole day with my 5yo son. There was so much to do to keep kids entertained from lego building, Jedi training, the Clone wars playing on a huge digital screen and the family room filled with crafts.
Of course I miss the highlight of the day when Dave Filoni saw my son in his Anakin Skywalker outfit and personally pinned on the elusive "PLO KOOL" autographed pin. I was busy hunting down the autographed Ralph McQuarrie bounty hunters print.

So far in one day we have shot over 300 pics and we haven't started! Tomorrow the wampa makes his first official appearance at swcv

Wampa sighting: sneak peak inside celebration

2010-08-11T18:31:00.001-07:00

Today we scouted the Orange County Convention center and saw the Belgian Garrison wampa statue perched atop the front entrance

Follow @mywampa on twitter for our SWCV coverage

2010-08-11T18:29:00.001-07:00

Unable to make it to Star Wars Celebration V. We will post pics all weekend and give updates through twitter!

Star Wars Celebration Here I Come : Schedule to meet the Wampa

2010-08-11T10:02:00.001-07:00

We are now leaving for Star Wars Celebration in Orlando Florida. I have scheduled a couple events with the Wampa so feel free to come by and take a pic with him.

Thursday Night After Hours Party
IceBar Orlando From 8-12.

Friday at SWCV
"Unscheduled" flash mob, with snowtroopers General Veers and Darth Vader
1:30 - 3 on the trade floor.
6-7 Door Guard Duty in the 501st Room

Saturday at SWCV
3:00 Photo op with the Mandolorian Mercs Wampa Squad (and possibly Steve Sansweet!)
4:00 501st Legion Group Photo (You won't want to miss this one)

Unscheduled Appearances
Also on Friday and Saturday I will be wandering the halls between shifts. Be sure to check the Hoth Ice Bar upstairs, this will be Official hangout of the Wampas (yes there will be more than one there) and be sure to check up at the Rebel Legion Echo Base booth, I will wander by there a couple times through the weekend.

My Wampa is now a part of the Wretched Hive!

2010-08-10T11:02:00.000-07:00

Who knew when I was building this that the Wampa going to be eligible for both the 501st and the Rebel Legion. While posting in the 501st boards, the suit caught the eye of the CO of Rebel Legion's Ra Kura Base (Florida) and she said I should apply over there too. Now the suit has been approved by both costuming groups. To add to the membership the Rebel Legion, the Wampa has been added to a group known as The Wretched Hive. They are a group consisting of all alien species and not to mention an awesome logo. So now going into Star Wars Celebration V, it seems like I have a lot of support to help me along entertaining the fans!

Galactic Empire State of Mind

2010-08-01T19:52:00.000-07:00

My First Troop with the 501st

2010-08-01T08:42:00.000-07:00

This weekend I participated in my first troop with the 501st Florida Garrison - Tampa Bay Squad. We were at the last regular season for the Tampa Bay Storm. I got to say I was nervous being the guy in the unconventional costume around a bunch of seasoned troopers. But after meeting everyone and having a fellow trooper Jason help me out, I felt right in place. With us was Darth Vader, ANH Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Ep. III Anakin Skywalker, Jango Fett, an Imperial Officer, a 501st Clone Trooper, a Sandtrooper, a Snowtrooper and a handfull of TK Stormtroopers. We had a meet and greet on the plaza before the game, though because of the heat (over 95*) they kept myself and fellow furball Chewbacca inside as much as possible. We made our appearances in front the stadium on the plaza, through the hallways by the ticket gates and even in the Suite level where they had us positioned for the whole stadium to see.

]

The costume held up quite well. I was able to stay in costume for over an hour with the head on, which is something I had not attempted yet. It is more of a mind over matter situation, when you are in character you tend to not think about yourself, especially when kids are coming up and hugging you. I have always said to do something like this you have to have a little bit of an "Evel Knievel" gene in you. Putting your body on the line to give the fans what they want. My only regret is I did not bring my camel pack. The 501st handlers did a great job of providing us ice and water when away from the crowds, but there was that long stint that if I had some water then I could probably of been much more comfortable inside, I really started to feel the effects of the heat at the end. The fan in the back was also a big help, and I got some tips on how to improve it from fellow legionnaires.

For being in a big costume for the first time in years it felt good, but this time there was something more. This time there was a overwhelming feeling that I was part of something bigger. Before my costume was mine, as an individual. This time I was there in front of thousands of people, representing Star Wars. Watching people flock with cameras and wanting their pictures taken is a great feeling, and knowing that we do it many times to promote a great cause is an even better feeling. To stand next to legendary screen characters like Darth Vader, Princess Leia & Chewbacca was a childhood dream. To be recognized as one of them 12 months ago wasn't even in my thought process. And here I am, a member of the 501st. I would recommend this to anyone!

Star Wars Celebration V is almost here, and I got my tickets!

2010-07-30T20:44:00.000-07:00

Todat I finally got my 4 Day passes to Star Wars Celebration V. There is so much to do in 4 days that we are actally having to pass on stuff we want to do. Since I will be taking my 5yo son with me on Thursday, more than likely I will not be in costume during convention hours. I am also passing on the costume contest. My feeling was if I am going to be part of the entertainment, yeah you heard that right, than I should bow out and leave the costume contest to the fans.

I have volunteered in one of the "Flash Mob" skits and will also be on door guard duty in the 501st room Friday Night. I will be in costume a few other times including the 501st photo, a stop by the Hoth Ice Bar, and an after hours party Thursday Night at Ice Bar Orlando. When I get more info I will post up a schedule of appearances.

Coming Soon - Behind The Scenes with the LFL Wampas

2010-07-28T10:53:00.000-07:00

While spending 6 months building the Wampa suit, I learned so much about the different wampa suits and puppets that were built for the Empire Strikes Back. Did you know there were actually 4 different Wampas? Soon you will...

In this 3 part series I will post about the full size suit. The Puppet and Second Head, and the Special Edition suit. I really want to take my time on these so all the info is correct and this site can be a one stop spot for anyone wanting to learn all about the one creature that Lucasfilm Ltd just couldn't perfect!

Wampa Sighting: Star Wars Artist Katie Cook's Wampa Sketch Card

2010-07-28T08:37:00.000-07:00

While in college I was a charicature artist, so understandably I am a sucker for stylized cartoons. So when I stumbled upon Katie Cook's stylization of classic Star Wars characters, I was instantly hooked. She makes the most vile and retched creatures of the galaxy so damn cute and cuddly that you can't help yourself from saying AWWWW! She really hit home with this site when she immortalized the famous cut wampa scene in the drawing above for a Topps Star Wars Galaxy 5 sketch card.

"I'm a huge fan of the creatures of Star Wars and the Wampa is right at the top of my list of favorite SW critters. In a deleted scene from Empire, Han wants to take a shortcut through a room in Empire and Leia tells him 'that's where they keep those creatures'. C-3P0 does something totally out of character and takes the warning sign down, hoping to trick the troopers into going in there. I've ALWAYS wanted to see the scene where the stormtroopers are being attacked by the wampas trapped in this room. I imagine it to be a furry, frantic battle where, of course, the wampas win."

Katie has done work with Marvel, Lord of the Rings, DC, The Muppets and has her own web comic Gronk. Katie also has her "Daddy's Little Girl" Leia and Darth shirt available at the new HerUniverse.com, Ashley Eckstein's (Ahsoka Tano) Star Wars clothing line for girls. She will also have 200 prints of her Acme Star Wars print available at Celebration but if you are unable to make it, she said they will be available on StarWars.com. Katie along with Bonnie Burton also just finished up a panel at San Diego Comic Con to teach kids how to draw Star Wars.

Check out more about Katie Cook @ KatieCanDraw.com

Wampa Sighting: Wampa'd by Mr. Hipp

2010-07-26T21:20:00.000-07:00

Found another great cartoon of the Wampa by Dan Hipp, over at MrHipp. His artwork has appeared in Wildstorm Comics, Image Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Tokyopop, and Del Rey Books.

Adywans Empire Strikes Back Revisited - (First Two Minutes.)

2010-07-26T10:57:00.000-07:00

This is the first 2 minutes including the Wampa Attack in a fan made revision of the Empire Strikes Back. We can only hope this is possibly a sign of things to come with the upcoming BluRay edition. Adywan, who in 2004 revised A New Hope, will be releasing his ESB edition next year including enhanced graphics and color correction it really brings new life and detail into the old films. I hope that Lucasfilm Ltd. has taken notes from these. Check out the full trailer below.

Check out these links to see all the enhanced scenes.
Adywan's Star Wars: A New Hope Revisited

Adywan's Empire Striked Back Revisited

Amazing new entry for the 501st TK Project

2010-07-22T09:22:00.000-07:00

This TK Demon Helmet has been created by Melita Curphy from MissMonster.com

The horns/teeth, etc are hand sculpted from epoxy clay. The helmet was painted with acrylic with several layers of wet/dry applications...no airbrushing. The forehead eye has been painted with flourescent orange and will glow in certain light. The mohawk is made from high quality National Fiber Technology hair that i hand dyed.

Come see this and many more TK helmets at Celebration V where they will be auctioned off to benefit the Make-A-Wish foundation.

Wampa Sighting - My Little Pony Wampa

2010-07-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

Now available on Ebay.. check out the One of a kind My Little Pony Wampa

Hide your tauntauns......
The Wampa is one of a kind fan art*. He was sculpted over a My Little Pony base. He is a mixed media piece. The sculpting compound used was epoxy sculpt which is a rock hard medium. He is balanced on his front claws

Wampa Sighting: Star Wars in Concert - Hamburg Germany

2010-07-20T12:43:00.000-07:00

This could be a sign of things to come, here is a Wampa seen at the Hamburg Star Wars in Concert. I do believe this is one of the members of the German Garrison inside. To think this is only at a concert, I can only imagine what it would be like at the world's biggest Star Wars convention!

Becoming a Wampa - How to put on the costume.

2010-07-19T10:15:00.000-07:00

Here is the first video of the complete suit. We put together the traditional "How to put it on" tutorial. Yeah it does kill the illusion, but it helps show the scale of the costume and the range of motion. See you at Star Wars Celebration V!

Yoda recording for TomTom GPS - behind the scenes

2010-07-12T13:56:00.000-07:00

Sounds like Tom Kane. I love how he has brought back the fun playful Yoda from ESB that was missing in the prequels!

The Wampa is now a proud member of the 501st Legion

2010-07-12T06:55:00.000-07:00

I am pleased to say that the Wampa has been accepted into the 501st. For those who do not know who the 501st is, they are the World's Definitive Imperial Costuming Organization. If you have seen a Darth Vader or a Stormtrooper on TV or at an event, more than likely they were a member of the 501st. As much as they are known for representing Star Wars in the public they are equally praised for their charity work. Making appearances at children's hospitals and the fulfilling the requests for Make-A-Wish, the 501st menbers are true heroes in the eyes of many kids.

Here is a thier mission from their charter:

"...The Legion is an all-volunteer organization formed for the express purpose of bringing together costume enthusiasts under a collective identity within which to operate. The Legion seeks to promote interest in Star Wars through the building and wearing of quality costumes, and to facilitate the use of these costumes for Star Wars-related events as well as contributions to the local community through costumed charity and volunteer work..."

To Promote Interest in Star Wars
While a growing number of people are experiencing a reawakening of their Star Wars fandom, new generations are seeking ways to celebrate their passion for George Lucas's modern mythology. The 501st Legion brings these fans together, reinforcing the enduring longevity of the Star Wars saga.

To Facilitate the Use of Costumes
Some fans are content to collect action figures...other fans want to be action figures. Nothing professes your passion quite like building your own detailed costume replica of a classic Star Wars villain, and there's nothing quite like the feeling that comes from bringing the characters of Star Wars into the real world and sharing the magic with others.

To Contribute
While our organization was founded to simply provide a collective identity for costuming fans with similar interests, the 501st is proud to put its resources to good use through fundraising, charity work, and volunteerism.

The Smoothest Christmas Tree Ornament you will ever see!

2010-07-09T21:49:00.000-07:00

Announced for 2010, Hallmark Ornament Premiere Limited Quantity Ornaments will include this Lando Calrissian By Robert Hurlburt to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Empire Strikes Back. What makes it great is the emphasis on what was Billy Dee's has told us was his favorite part of the costume. "I get to wear a cape." One of these will definitely be on the Wampa's Christmas tree this year.

Thanks to MyDisguises.com for the great write up about My Wampa

2010-07-08T10:12:00.000-07:00

About a month ago I found the website MyDisguises.com and became addicted immediately. They feature many very elaborate costumes and fun news stories when costumes are involved. Today they posted a big story about the building of the wampa including photos and videos! I am very greatful for this and highly reccomend this website for anyone who wants to get get into costuming.

Need to represent the 30th Anniversary ESB at Celebration V?

2010-07-08T06:30:00.000-07:00

Go to Orlando in style with the baddest bounty hunter in the galaxy with this Boba Fett T-Shirt from Entertainment Earth!

Trying the full costume on... for the FIRST TIME!

2010-07-06T07:43:00.001-07:00

Here are some complete costume pics with me in it. Yesterday, I put the complete costume on for the first time. Mobility of the body is pretty easy though the arms don't have the full range of motion I had hoped for. They are heavy and even with the weight being distributed through the backpack, you still have to make a dead lift to raise them while hoping to keep your balance.

The head on the body looks better than I thought it would, there was a moment when I thought it looked too small. But being my own worst critic, I still think the arms are too thick. But can't change that now. But there is one big benefit of having the arms this size. As you can see below, I can slip my arms out of the "pits" and be able to adjust the head, or take a drink. My last costume I had to remove the arms all together to do this, now they stay in place and keep the illusion alive. This is also great when i want to take a break from holding them, I can just rest my arms inside.

Here are some more pics of the costume

And testing the range of motion ....

And here is a pic while getting dressed, you can see how it goes together.

AT-AT DAY AFTERNOON

2010-06-28T22:12:00.000-07:00

Normally you won't hear this from me, but this Star Wars fan film was so damn cute!

The costume is complete!

2010-06-24T19:09:00.000-07:00

I know i am behind at reporting of the progress, but I have finished fabricating the costume and felt it was right to post a photo of the entire suit put together. Sorry for cutting off the feet in this photo. More posts including video of the costume in action and a professional photo shoot in the costume coming soon!

Star Wars Celebration V Preview 2

2010-06-24T12:23:00.000-07:00

Here is the latest promotional video for Star Wars Celebration V

Star Wars: The Old Republic E3 2010 Trailer

2010-06-18T20:32:00.000-07:00

Oh how much i wish this could be a full length movie or a television series. Sometimes you got to wonder if Lucasfilm has milked the original trilogy and now the prequel timeline to the point that it is getting stale. Now here is a chance for an entirely new timeline to be created.

I was a big fan of the previous Knights of the Old Republic games, but it looks like this one will be only for the PC and set up like an MMO. Because of this I will never get the chance to play this, I hope they release it to PS3. Besides like typical LucasArts games they give us this great rendered trailer, it is a shame the gameplay is not the same quality.

The Wampa is only ranked 16th ?!?

2010-06-10T16:42:00.000-07:00

Dreamworks storyboard artist Ben Balistreri drew up his 30 favorite Star Wars characters. Being a former professional caricature artist, I love this guys work, check out who ranked #1

Pre-Order Now - Zombie Stormtrooper Bust

2010-06-08T11:23:00.000-07:00

Entertainment Earth is now taking pre-orders for the Zombie Stormtrooper from Deathtroopers. This thing is awesome, I want one!

I have entered the Celebration V costume contest!

2010-06-08T10:57:00.001-07:00

I have submitted my application to be part of the Star Wars Celebration V Costume Contest on Thursday afternoon. Although I was not planning on putting it on until Friday the chance to participate and possibly have my costume included in some of the future promotional content was too tempting too pass up. Oddly enough I had to enter my costume in as a beginner. Although I have a history of building elaborate costumes I haven't contested them at other conventions. This might be a good thing after all. Wish me luck.

For more info on Star Wars Celebration held August 12-15th 2010 in Orlando Florida check out their website at StarWarsCelebrations.com

Size Comparison pics!

2010-06-07T22:37:00.000-07:00

Here are a few early pics so you can see the size comparison between me and the costume.

Star Wars Celebration 5 - We will be there, will you?

2010-05-25T06:46:00.000-07:00

We will be making the official debut of our Wampa Costume at Star Wars Celebration V - Held Aug 12-15, 2010 in Orlando Florida. We will be there all 4 days and post plenty of photos of the event and plan to be in costume on Friday and Saturday. More info to come and check out their officla website StarWarsCelebration.com for the growing list of special guests including Carrie Fisher, Peter Meyhew, Jeremy Bulloch and the creator, the infamous GL, George Lucas!

Original Full Size Wampa - Rare Behind the Scenes Footage!

2010-05-25T06:19:00.000-07:00

Check out this amazing fan made documentary Building Empire by Jambe Davdar. at the 4:21 mark it shows clips from the movie as well as behind the scenes of their attempt of a full size Wampa suit. Sadly it did not work and get the on screen impact that they intended. Watching them attempt to walk through the snow in stilts and falling over is somewhat comical but at the same time I wish worked and made it in the film.

Because of the failure of the suit an entire Wampa attack subplot inside the rebel base was cut from the movie (see below). Who knows maybe we will see these scenes digitally remastered in the upcoming Blu-Ray release. They have teased us that some highly anticipated deleted scenes will see the light of day.

Let the Wampa Win!

2010-05-21T06:05:00.001-07:00

Check out this piece from Artist Austin Madison.

See the Wampa in this 1950's Premake of Empire Strikes Back

2010-05-20T22:06:00.000-07:00

Let's turn back the clock, shall we? Back to a distant time in an alternate universe far, far away... The 50s! It was a simpler age of 3-D movies, and robots named Robby, Gort, and Tobor. A hidden gem of this period in cinema is a little film called "The Empire Strikes Back", the second chapter in a planned three-part epic science fiction trilogy. While the preceding and succeeding episodes were never actually produced due to budgetary constraints, "Empire" shines as an example of 1950s 3-D space opera. The re-release of this trailer coincides with the 60th anniversary of this amazing film.

Skinning it with foam... Math, Trial and Error and lots of little green shavings

2010-04-10T12:33:00.000-07:00

Now there are those out there that live and die by that green furniture foam, and those who say you have to go with a closed cell foam that won't deteriorate, grow mold from moisture and can get wet... Well, if you want to go and spend a couple hundred bucks more sure you can go with the good stuff. But like many of the hobbyist costume makers out there, like myself, the furniture foam is the only way to go.

If you watch for coupons online and through the Sunday papers, you will find 40%-50% coupons all the time for Joann's fabrics. They have various sizes of the foam ranging from 1/2"-4" thick. And when you can cut your foam budget in half this really is the way to go.

There are plenty of great tutorials on YouTube.com and Instructables.com on how to carve foam. But my favorite is the electric carving knife. These can be found at thrift stores and garage sales for next to nothing. There are cordless versions available new would work better but i use my trusty old one that I have had for years. And when it comes to putting it all together, I am using hot glue. In the past I have used everything from foam spray adhesives to contact cement but I always go back to hot glue. It seems to work the best. This time I invested in a cordless hot glue gun. With a project as big as this it is easy to get tangled up in cords. And it is very handy.

Making a curve can be as easy as taking a notch out and gluing it together, but you have to consider some math. Take this little example. I want a width of 40" around the middle but I want 30" at the ends. I need to cut out 10" in wedges. If i don't need it to be perfectly smooth I can take out 5 - 2" wedges, or to for a cleaner curve i can take out 10 - 1" wedges. The length of your wedge is also important. the longer they are the more gradual the curve is. Another factor to think is as your foam curves down you lose length. I forgot most of geometry from high school, so I would add the width of the wedge to the length of the foam to compensate for the length of the foam. It worked great for me. With a 5 inch long wedge, with a 1 inch wide wedge, I would add 1 inch the total length of my foam.

One thing that I did remember was how to calculate a circumference using our old friend Pi (or to make it simple 3.14) Using the Diameter x Pi = Circumference or Radius x 2 x Pi = Circumference. This came in handy for the thighs, which I had no tube frame for. I wanted the thighs to be about average about 15 inches wide on the inside, so 15 x 3.14= 47.1 give another inch because I was using 1 inch thick foam, you have 48" to go around the thigh. Foam comes in a 24 inch sheet, so with the 1 inch wedges on top and bottom, I expect the entire length to be 20-22 inches. Once you figure out this math you can easily calculate the total coverage of foam that you need.

Now all of this said, some of the pieces did take some re-work, once the whole body was done its best to stand back and look at your work. Squint your eyes and try to picture the complete project. For this one I went back and adjusted the thighs and forearms and I still might go back and adjust the calves. This is another reason why I started the project 9 months in advance.. I want to get it right!

Oh and if you have a shop vac, you will find yourself cleaning up little green shavings EVERYWHERE. Just look on the ground in any of these pics, you will see these. But don't trash every trimming, I found out that when I had to make a modification some of these little wedges came in real handy. When I post about the head you will see how many of these created the structure of the head without needing to go with solid foam!

Finally the costume... Finding the right parts

2010-04-08T23:00:00.000-07:00

When researching for the "skeleton" of the suit I found a multitude of possibilities. But I settled on using 3/4" PVC joints with 3/4" ENT (Electrical Nonmetalic Tubing). The ENT gave me me the ability to bend the parts into shape but still give me strength to keep its shape. Also both of these glue nicely together with standard PVC primer and cement.

Also all of this would be be joined to an ALICE Pack military surplus frame. Ordered on ebay it came with the shoulder and kidney straps to keep the suit snug and with the lightweight aluminum frame i was able to attach the PVC using metal clamps and zip ties.

The arms were done in a ladder formation with a joint in the middle. On the outside of the basic framework I attached Tee Joints and bent the to form the shape of the body that I wanted. It took some trial and error till I got the exact shape.

(with a mirrored effect to show a symetrical version)

(A side shot)

Originally I was going to do the waist in tubes too but found this to be too bulky and didn't sit right, in later stages I made midsection and waist all in foam

Here is a video of the first test run on stilts. The shoulders weren't glued together yet and one popped off but you can see the range of motion.

Now make that frame look like you... with tape!

2010-04-07T16:51:00.000-07:00

IMG_5237
Originally uploaded by itsthatdude_com

To add a more accurate representation over the PVC framework I used a body double technique using water activated paper based packing tape. Many people have used duct tape, and while it works it is much harder to work with than the paper packaging tape plus more expensive.

I was able to pick up a roll at Staples for under $8! With the help from my brother and a trash bag to prevent the tape from sticking I was able to get my torso done, beer gut and all. Once the paper side was done, we covered it with some left over clear packing tape I had left over from a move. The form keeps its shape much better than my old attempt at a duct tape double years ago and I highly recommend this technique to anyone.

Thanks to threadbanger.com! Here is their tutorial.

Needing a frame to build it on.. can't find one, build your own.

2010-04-07T16:50:00.000-07:00

Before I start any part of this costume The most important thing is I need to see it upright. In order to do that I will need a sturdy platform to make my costume on. Sure a real mannequin would help but there are a few problems.

They are rarely symmetrical
They are not my height, I am 5'4"
they also are not the height of the costume 7'6"

They cost way too damn much!

Now that I got that off my chest, I had to find a solution. So I began searching the web for everything ranging from Duct Tape Dummies, to the 2x4 version that I made to display the Beast, I finally I came across http://www.dagobahswamp.com/projects/mannequin/index.asp. Using a combination of PVC and metal hinges, I thought with some slight modifications this would work great for me. Oh, don't forget the cardinal rule of any project MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE! After measuring myself ad estimating what I thought would be right, I was 9 inches off... that would really of sucked in the real deal. I would have been fine because it was 9 inches too long but its worth making a mock-up like below. If you don't have graphic programs draw it on paper, and make sure you are accounting for any overlap from the PVC and the curves of the tubes (that was my mistake). The mock up, although shrunk for the sake of the web is to scale to my body. The outline of me is from a photograph, and for every 10 points it equals one inch. So it was easy for me to double check all the measurements. Behind #2 you can see the outline of the Wampa, this is the desired size of the costume. The dimensions were from a photo of an early costume that was full size made for Empire Strikes Back. (photo at bottom of post)

I know with a costume as large as mine, the feet would have to go. In exchange I will be using some steel mounts found at harbor freight, that are attached to a 3'x3' plywood & 2x4 base. With those steel mounts, I can slide the PVC tube on and off of them, which also gives me the ability to add 2' extensions to represent the stilts (light blue, diagram 2). These will give me the ability to work on the two halves of the costume. As mentioned before I plan on splitting the costume in two. With the leg extensions on I can work on the bottom overalls. Without, I can work on the top.

Below is the updated mock-up showing some more details. I will add some more mock-ups side by side photos of the progress. Now the mock up stage is done, it is time to start cutting and get this thing started! The photo above is an early version of the Empire Strikes Back Wampa (notice the head). This early version had the head way too high (see action pic in the inset) so I modified it, removing the actors head, and brought it down closer to the version seen on screen. Click on photo for details

The other costume... the Beast

2010-04-07T16:27:00.001-07:00

Before I make the Wampa I want to share with you the other costume that started it all, the Beast. The Beast was also a 7 foot tall costume that won me over $3000 in costume contests and even was featured on the Discovery Channel's You Spoof Discovery. It was made of solid foam glued to a painters jumpsuit covered in fur and had arm extensions made off of forearm crutches. It was modified many times and eventually had to be retired because of storage and I knew it was time for a new one.

Wampa Costme Stage 1: Research and Digital Mock Up

2010-04-03T09:53:00.000-07:00

This is something I have been working on for years so to say, because of the on again and off again status of this costume. Eying the original ESB Wampa Costume has gone back all the way to the first stages of the Beast costume, The picture below was the big inspiration, seeing how tall that original ESB costume really was that impact that I wanted. Now the Special Edition suit was regular size, and it was all camera tricks, (see second pic) but there was a more natural flow and more detail.

I always felt if you are going to go with a high impact costume, go big. And a stilted costume is usually the way to go. My goal is to go with a blend of both costumes. SIZE MATTERS, but so does detail. I am willing to sacrifice some mobility to have that large costume. I am 5'4", which makes the costume complete at 7'6" with stilts, with the discription on Wookiepedia.org, a Wampa stands at over 2 meters tall, which is about 6'6. With my stilts even though it is a foot taller, it is still withing that reasonable "over" 2 meters range.

The photo above is an early version of the Empire Strikes Back Wampa (notice the head). This early version had the head way too high (see action pic in the inset) so I modified it, removing the actors head, and brought it down closer to the version seen on screen. Click on photo for details

I have seen three other Wampa costumes on stilts some are decent but there are some bad ones out there, but I feel that I can take it that next step of realism. Improving on that old body frame of the beast by using tha PVC frame to keep the body in proportion and keep the arms bending in the natural positions. Now the elbow will be my wrist joint, but there wont be as much tension on my wrists because the forearms will be attached via clips to the "bone". Then attached to the skeleton will be the muscle frame to fill it out without the need of solid foam. Outside this frame will be a layer of thin material that a thin layer of foam will be applied to get more detail in the muscle structure.

The legs will be slightly different than the top frame. Since the goal is to be easy to put on and take off, the suit will be split down the middle, bottom half going on first like a pair of overalls, and the top half going over them kind of like a babies onsie and a snap in the crotch. With long fur and good measurements, this should fit snugly together and with some grooming you can hide the transition in the hips.

The hips and thighs will be curved 1 inch foam, to keep them soft enough for movement and to to step into them with stilts on. The calfs and feet will be attached to the stilts and the bottom of the overalls will slip over them with a slit down the inside of the leg, that can be closed up via snaps, zipper or velcro.

Here are two of the sites that really inspired me with the PVC framework.

http://www.guiltgirl.com/Misfits/Rabbit_Body.htm

http://www.cockeyed.com/incredible/guest/tauntaun/tauntaun.shtml

Wecome to MyWampa - My quest to build the snow beast.

2010-04-03T09:12:00.000-07:00

Hello My name is Jeremy and I am a Star Wars Fanboy. Born in '75 I was raised on the original Saga. I had the toys, and watched the movies anytime they came on. I have always considered Empire Strikes Back my favorite of all of the movies and now that it is the 30th year anniversary I wanted to give back to the movie that I held so dear.

I am recreating one of the most memorable creatures in the Star Wars Universe, the Wampa. Although it only has seconds of screen time it stuck with me. It influenced me when building my first large creature costume "The Beast", a 7 foot high hairy creature that won me back thousands of dollars in costume contest money. After it was featured on Discovery Channels "You Spoof Discovery" I retired the suit.

I had been itching to build another suit, but being a new father got in the way. I had always pondered between a Bigfoot suit or a Wampa, and when Star Wars Celebration V was announced right in my back yard it was like the decision was made for me. Now with a new house and the kids are a little bit older I begin to create the costume that I feel is my tribute back to George and the bunch that changed my life!