Wampa Sighting - Stuffed Crocheted Wampa Doll

Artist Beck "Beckadoodles" Seashols is a cartoonist and also does some great crocheted star wars characters. She posted this latest work over on her Etsy page (click the photo above to check out Etsy page).  

Beck as been a freelance illustrator/artist since 2000 with a style that is very kid friendly mixed with bright colors, bold lines and kittens. She has worked with Lucasfilm, Topps, Breygent, 5finity, Cult-Stuff, Target and rubber stamp companies as well as private collectors of all things cute and cuddly.

http://www.beckadoodles.com/

More photos with David Prowse!

Yesterday I got an email from the other Stormtooper participating in the ceremony, asking if I have seen the photos. Well that is the downfall of being in costume if you don't have your own dedicated photographer with you guys, you tend to experience the event but rarely see it as an observer. When George Lucas was being interviewed by Oprah, he gave a really haunting where he said he never got to see Star Wars (video below). 501st members can really relate to that when we are in costume. You see the look on peoples faces and the excitement and wonder, but we never really experience that feeling. But in return we get to give that to them. So there is a payoff.

Also involved in the ceremony Richard Leparmentier who played Admiral Motti. This was fascinating standing next to him talk about working with Peter Cushing and how classically trained he was. Also involved was Peter Mayhew who is no stranger to Star Wars fans, but if you are... that is Chewbacca!

George Lucas Discusses Star Wars

Megacon 2012 - Wampaless, but not void of Awesomeness!

Trooping with the Dark Lord (yep, that's me on the left)

Megacon is the biggest Florida con for the 501st (well that is when Lucasfilm isn't bringing Celebration to the same building 2 times in a row... woohoo!)  So for the Florida Garrison we use this event as our big showcase. But I had one goal in mind and that was to meet David Prowse, Darth Vader himself. For those who haven't been following it, David and Lucasfilm have been fueding, and his health hasn't been the best. But when it comes to being a fan, you can't pick sides, and I wanted to take advantage of the chance to meet him when I could. Not only did I get a great pic with him, I also got to participate in a ceremony in Stormtrooper Armor from one of the local costuming groups dubbing him Lord. This is one of those "once in a lifetime" moments for me. But at the same time, being in the 501st, this is almost getting to be the norm. While in costume now, I have been able to troop with David Prowse, Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), meet Warwick Davis (Wicket)  and open Star Tours at Disney's Hollywood Studios with George Lucas.. not a bad resume, to start!

One of the other things I got to do was take out my work in progress, Palpatine, while I was still waiting for the mask, Tim who does our maul INSISTED I walk with him around the convention with it. So here are some pics taken by Nathan Carter.

The 501st expanded their booth this year and there were tons of helmets and costumes on display, and included the Shoot The Trooper for charity again. There were some lesser quality stormtrooper helmets around too, but as you can see above, the rest of the costume made up for that.

We also gathered for our annual group photo, can you tell Phantom Menace is in theaters this year? The first 2 years trooping I saw no Darth Mauls, now we have 3 in the state! Plus now we have a Tarfful, which is the first of many wookies to come... Don't be surprised if you see a Attichicuk (Itchy) build thread coming up on this blog soon!

And how can I have a post from Megacon without the 501st dinner, good times as usual. 

Want to see more pics... click here to check out the full gallery. 

The Wampa Backpack and "Attack" - By Inksress

"Wally" the Wampa Backpack

Check out this awesome Wampa Backpack made by the Wampa Handler - Genna over at her blog Inkstress.net Since we were not able to bring the Wampa costume to Megacon this year, she decided to represent by wearing this backpack around the con. The backpack used a modified Celebration V exclusive Wampa with removable plush arm. On top of that she added to the backstory by adding some effects make up and showing that she was attacked while handling. You can read on how she made the backpack and how she did the make up over on her blog!

Next costume in the making: Emperor Palpatine - Part 1

As soon as I was accepted into the 501st I knew the next costume I wanted to do was Emperor Palpatine, he is after all the biggest villain of the Saga, and with Darth Vader at nearly every troop, why not include his boss too. The Stormtrooper and Wampa are fun, but there is a sense of comfort knowing all you have to do is slip on some robes and some prosthetics and you will be ready. Not to mention being told that I am too short for a stormtrooper, or going home with ice packs and hurting.  But for the longest time the only way to get approved is to have glue on prosthetics... that is until the Mr. Bungle mask came along. Check this thing out it is amazing!




I had to place an order for that mask, it was the missing piece of starting the costume. I soon afterwards started work on the robes, while they still need a little tweaking and another round of dye to get them darker, I am happy with the over all look. Below is a photo from the Phantom Menace 3D movie troop. Since I don't have the mask yet, I opted for the Pre-Scarring TMP version of Darth Sidious since I would be trooping with our new Darth Maul, Tim. He pulls it off better than I have ever seen.

Also completed so far is the Cane and Broach, and even my own solution to force lightning! But why post everything at once! Consider that a little teaser for Part 2 once the mask comes in.

Coming soon from Comic Images - Wampa Headgear

Check out this upcoming Wampa and Ewok headgear coming from Comic Images. The same folks that brought us the Wampa Rug, Backpack Buddies and how can we forget the Wampa exclusive from Celebration V.

http://comicimages.com/


Thanks to @JustinL81 for posting this

Check out this amazing Wampa costume!

Came across this costume today, it is a real shame I don't have any more info but I would love to learn the whole story.

Wampa Sighting - The Wampug!

The Wampug... Yeah I know I am late on posting on this, but for those that haven't seen it, here it is. Kristen from over at http://starwarschick.com/ made this awesome costume for her pug Chubbs.

Time for a little Plastic Surgery for the Wampa

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.