Fifthrider

Hi, my name's fifthrider and I'm an alcoholic.

Wait, no, wrong intro. Sorry, force of habit.


I'm fifthrider. I got a first generation Boba Fett figure back in June of '79 and have been pissed that the missile never launched ever since. I went as Fett that very Halloween, much to the puzzlement of everyone else who missed the Star Wars Holiday special. Made my own painted cardboard helmet, painted cardboard chest armor on a grey turtleneck, cardboard backpack, etc. hands down the coolest guy in the series and robbed of dignity in his death. ( Unless you read the Fett trilogy and know that coolness like Fett never really dies. ) I've built models of Slave1, got the Slave1 transformer and a million other toys from 1980 to now. My prize possession ( besides the '79 figure ) is a black ceramic mug with the mandalorian crest on it.

Funny, but I never thought of joining this place until now. I've always ruled out making Mandalorian armor because I'm 5'4" and "aren't you a little short to be a stormtrooper" pretty much carries over to mandalorians IMHO as well.

Last year I actually sat down and listed all the costumes I've worked on. Never done that before. Without boring you all to tears it's 40+ costumes between then and now, 52-53 props ( lost count ) and am working on turning a 59 Caddy Miller-Meteor into an Ectomobile. Honest to God, I could be here all day if I listed the things I've done and not all of them are brag-worthy so it's probably just as well I leave it at:

"Hi. Nice to meet you. Thanks for letting me in."

-Bryan

Bryan, glad to have you on the boards. One thing man-Pictures!!! we want to see pics of your props/costumes you have built!

Glad to have you here at TDH.

G-Fett

Hey G-Fett. Thanks for the warm welcome. I held off on posting until today because I'll need an hour or two to put pics together, edit, upload, type, etc. I really wanted to keep it short and humble but I suppose when you're new to a forum it's all about proving oneself to the forum admins, not about keeping quiet and being humble, eh? Here's some accomplishments in no particular order.

Since about 2002 I've been building proton packs. I've got 7 of my own, built 2 for friends and one for Ernie Hudson. Here's me and my friends giving it to him. Getting a hold of Ernie isn't too hard, I've got him on speed-dial and we send each other Christmas cards each year. In the background you can see the bumper of the BTTF DeLorean that Sean and J were building that day.





Made some guns w/ laser pointers for a friend going as Bishop from X-Men




I'm working on my own Cadilliac Miller-Meteor conversion into an Ectmobile




Here's the workshop:




I had to find/rent a 4-bedroom house w/ RV parking on the side just to work on the Cadillac. It's just as well since we lived in the middle of the 2007 southern California wildfire and part of the place we lived burned down.




Today we used the garage to make a lifecast. My friend Eric is getting some armor made before Comic-Con. No further details until the project is done.




I often help out Jen with her projects. She needed armor to be Nova from a Starcraft game that never got released. Bummer. Here's the armor pieces I made for her. I used my Ghostbusters slimeblower as the modeling dummy.




And the finished product:




Some of you may recognize her as a Slave Leia.




The only Star Wars costume I've personally worn ( outside of those I made in the 70's and early 80's as a kid ) was 2006 when I was part of a Bith Band... ( I'm the short guy with the large instrument - I'll let you make your own joke out of that. )



The video of us at Comic-Con 2006 for Masquerade:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOiHkc38GVo


And I've also worn a Tusken Raider. Here I am at Comic-Con 2007 Masquerade, once again I'm the shortest guy on stage. ( Front row, far left, orange gloves. )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arYHIJ2UuYY


Here I am with Eric in the Robocop armor I made him. It's based on a Bruce Hansing suit but wow, what a screaming piece of **** that was. I've heard other Hansing armor owners defend it but personally I don't think they know what that suit is ( as it comes unaltered ) versus what it could be. I spent an additional $1,200 beyond the purchase price just upgrading it. I can always tell an original Hansing suit when I see it. It doesn't fit well and looks like it's practically rattling off of the wearer as they move. Mine was stripped and rebuilt on a tactical harness. It took Eric from being able to wear it for an hour to about 3-4 hours at a time now.







I put fans inside the helmet and suit, not to mention put a mic in the chin and a speaker in the chest. Since the wearer can't hear anything with the helmet on, I put mics in the chin pieces that run to the wearer's ears.




The ear-microphones were $3.00 each ( a kids toy ) and the microphone/speaker in the chest is nothing more than a $15.00 Halloween store gag. It sounds pretty cool when he talks, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggLO3G_XPQw


I made my friend Kim a sword from World of Warcraft:




...for use at Blizzcon:




Last Comic-Con I helped arrange for the largest meet of Ghostbusters to be together at one time.








It was a pretty good time all around and I got interviewed by a local news source.

http://video.signonsandiego.com/vmix_hosted_apps/p/media?id=2026162&item_index=84&genre_id=2721&sort=NULL



I've probably gone on long enough. My Ghostbusters stuff is over here if anyone's interested.

http://westcoastbusters.com/