Wampa Patches - help with repairs and building a set.

Hello everyone WampaDude here, and I am working on raising money for a new Wampa Set for conventions. My goal is to have it ready for Celebration VII. To help raise funds, I have created a series

of personal patches.
I am producing 5 patches to help fundraise repairs and a new set to display the costume at conventions. The concept of the set is to replicate the Wampa cave. I will be mounting my Wampa costume UPSIDE DOWN! Fans can pose next to it with their hands up. When they flip their photo upside down, they are now hanging upside down like Luke in the Wampa Cave!!




The Wampa is also my first 501st/Rebel Legion costume, so after almost 5 years in the Legion, there is a lot of wear and tear on the suit. I would like to resculpt the face to make it more screen accurate to the Special Edition Wampa. The original head is pretty rudimentary, made of foam (which is directly on my face), latex and fur, and found out if i want more longevity in the suit, i need to get more airflow to reduce the risk of heat exhaustion here in Florida. Also the hands are in rough shape and very heavy, I would like to improve on those also by making them lightweight and more realistic. Thanks to our brothers and sisters within the Legion I have learned so much since building this suit. I owe it to them and the fans to put the most screen accurate Wampa available out there. Especially on a big stage like Celebration.

There is a bonus to rebuilding the Arms and heads too. In doing so I will now have molds of each, so if anyone wanted some  screen accurate Wampa Taxidermy (either a severed arm, or head mount) which would look great at a convention or in a personal collection. Once the set is done maybe i can put up an interest thread for those.


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So on to the patches. I have 4 wampa patches that will be available along with a bonus 5th patch. The first 2 Wampa patches I am releasing are as follows. (proofs will be updated as soon as they come  in)


PATCH #1 - Hanging With The Wampa



First, is the Wampa Set patch, a patch that can be seen flipped just like the images of the set.  It is a 4" fully embroidered patch.


PATCH #2 - Wampa Skull and Crossbones



Second is my personal emblem, the Wampa Skull and Crossbones. Being from Tampa Bay, the Pirate culture is big here, from our Football team the Buccaneers, to the annual festivals like Gasparilla and John Levique Pirate Days. So with Star Wars known for having their own pirates and scoundrels, why not create my own personal logo to reflect the two. This is perfect for anyone in Bizzard Force, with a Patch Vest or personal patch collectors. This one will be a 4" wide die cut patch,

PATCH #3 - Wampa Kitty



A mash up with Hello Kitty and the wampa, a design i made previously for bin decals, now available with a patch. This will be a 4"x4" die cut patch.

PATCH #4 - Wampa Workshop



A patch dedicated to the workshop where the wampa is built, in Tampa Bay we have a series of workshops, the Wookiee Workshop that specializes in all things Wookiee, the Sith Workshop who specialize in Darth Maul and Darth Talon, and also the Wampa Workshop, dedicated to perfecting the impossible costume that Lucasfilm struggled with. This is a 3"x4" rectangle patch.

BONUS PATCH - Hail Hydrate



As a bonus patch. Here is the Hail Hydrate emblem that I created this year after an inside joke to those who marched at Disney's Star Wars Weekends. Anyone who has been in armor in the heat knows we need to stay hydrated. And with the popularity with the Marvel movies and Agents of Shield, this mashup needed to be done. This patch is a standard 3.5" circle patch.


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Prices are as follows.


$6.00 US per patch - includes shipping.
$7.00 International per patch - includes shipping

Plus any additional donations are more than welcome, costs most likely will exceed the funds raised via patches (please add a note in paypal)


Paypal - mywampa@gmail.com

Be sure to include your name and address for shipping via PM or Paypal. and please post here so i can keep track of how many of which are ordered.

Email me for any questions.

 

click link above to make direct donations to paypal.


Thank you all and MTFBY

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.

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.

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.

State of the Wampa Address....

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!

Improving the Wampa - My Handy Cooler

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

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

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.

Wampa gets a Mani-Pedi!

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.

Becoming a Wampa - How to put on the costume.

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!

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

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.

Size Comparison pics!

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

The other costume... the Beast

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

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.

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!