My Wampa is talked about on the Sarlacc Pit SWCV Podcast

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!

Check out this Video: Preparing to meet Steve Sansweet

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.