My Wampa Costume - ready for Celebration V

Just a little update on the suit, I put together a video on how to put it on. You can see it in action and how tall it is compared to my "Handler".

 
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That is SOOOO impressive!
Well done mate, brilliant work.
Looks like you need to be an engineer, designer, sculptor, and seamstress to pull off something like this.
Amazing!
 
dude, I am amazed at the awesomeness of this costume! I will be seeking a pic with you at CV... I'll just follow the sound of the screaming children... LOL
By the way- does your arm come off? (again, just joking... but it would be cool... if you happen to meet up with a lightsaber, and the arm was "cleaved" off... "Just like in the movie!!!")
 
Nice job i will be at the booth and looking foward to see that in person you defintly wont be hard to spot.Again nice
 
That is SOOOO impressive!
Well done mate, brilliant work.
Looks like you need to be an engineer, designer, sculptor, and seamstress to pull off something like this.
Amazing!

I would say I am average at best at each of these, but it helps to know and have experience at each. I made one other "stilt" costume similar to this one 10 years ago with just foam and fur, it even made it on to the Discovery Channel in their "You Spoof Discovery" contest. But with all of the first time flaws just festered with me. It took one failed attempt a couple years ago and Star Wars Celebration V to really kick it into gear. It helps to have a professional knowledge of the Adobe Creative Suite, I am a graphic designer by trade. I was able to plan a lot of it out in 2D but it took a little trial and error to get it right in 3D.

What made it tougher is I did this in my spare time with 2 small boys (5 & 1), it is hard to find funds and time when you have a greater priority of being a parent. Then again being a parent got me thinking about adding safety features I missed out on the last costume too.

Here are some pics from my first troop. It makes it easy to see the size of the costume:

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I was you walking from the lobby with the AT-AT down the West corridor towards the main room. You had the head under your arm and seemed like you were about to die, but Holy Handgrenades Batman, you looked amazing!
 
Impressive, most impressive! I saw you at CV stomping around but with the top half of the suit off, and I was so amazed that I only wish I could have gotten closer and gotten some photos of you. However did you travel around the convention hall? I can't imagine you fitting into the elevators and don't think it was safe enough to ride up and down the escalators in that suit, so what did you do, climb in and out of it every time you went up or down from level to level?
 
Yeah in full suit I have about a limit of 1 maybe 2 hours before it gets too heavy. The heat isn't so bad it is more of the weight, especially if I have to do a lot of posing with the arms up in position. The upper body weighs 55lbs with each arm about 15lbs (overall weight is 75+lbs if you include the stilts). Most of the weight on the arms are the hands too which makes the arms feel heavier. I was walking around in just the upper body for a while because I can travel from one spot to the next faster that way and my handler pulls the top via dolly behind me.

If it was on Friday when you ran into me, then yeah I made the mistake to walk the whole costume in. I learned big time from that, I also had one of the legs of the costume loose and had to struggle with that all day. Even in half suit I can only go so long without having to stop, my stilts are adjusted for standing still, the springs are pretty tight and walking is tough. Though I have been known to "run" in the stilts, I did have to do it once to catch up from the folks at the Droid room.

I fit pretty easily into an elevator, the folks with me wouldn't let me do the escalators, though I think I could do it!
 
I had to make up for being short somehow, here is a side by side shot of it while it was still under construction.

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Love it, foam city!~ great build, very impressive! what length stilts are you using? Im doin a similar custom dtand bout 8ft tall, but not as furry haha

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