You know, Star Wars only shows the Dark side of Darth Vader. But I was curious about Vader’s mundane everyday moments, so I hired a spy to find out what he’s really like when he’s not hanging out at the Death Star. Hold on to your helmet…this may surprise you.
Slobsofgaming.com is highlighting 31 Amazing Video Game Costumes and wow, they are fantastic! Very realistic renditions of characters from The Legend of Zelda, Streetfighter, Halo, Soul Calibur and more.
The levels of detail, creativity, passion of these gamers are really quite touching. These costumes are the best of the best. Head on over to Slobsofgaming.com to view them all.
Since we reported last week on the numerous video applications for Dr. Horrible’s Evil League of Evil, we’ve received requests to highlight a few more.
I’m astounded by the quality and creativity of the Dr. Horrible fans. They have come up with such great villains with awesome costumes. Some of these people should just quit their day jobs and move to Hollywood.
Stevil and his Zombies
Fury of Solace
Tur-Mohel
Even our friends ManWithPez and ThatCostumeGirl got into the fray:
The Butler
Caffiend
Well done, everyone! Hope you all end up on the Dr. Horrible DVD.
There are 30 acres of land in Harveysburg, Ohio which are unlike any other plot of land in the whole state. They are not especially fertile, nor do they host any sort of exotic flora or fauna — unless costumed enthusiasts can be included in the latter. It IS home, however, to a permanent 16th century English village which is in turn the home of the Ohio Renaissance Festival!
An ever-changing spectacle of sight and sound, the Ren Fest (as it is familiarly called) runs from Aug. 30th to Oct. 19th, 2008 and will re-open again around the same time in 2009. A $20 ticket will gain you entrance to the winding lanes of this piece of transplanted history and all the delights contained therein.
The shops sell just about anything the historically minded tourist could desire, from mass-produced costumes to intricately hand-crafted clothing pieces, custom leatherwork, handmade masks, weapons, handmade musical instruments and more.
There is also a great deal of entertainment to be had, no matter your age and preference for muddiness. The Swordsmen put on a dashing show, instructing the male half of the population in the ways of masculine Renaissance charm after attempting to cut each other to pieces with (hopefully blunted) rapiers, much to the delight of the audience.
Musicians of consummate skill were to be found at every corner, peddling their wares to any who would listen in a cascade of poignant notes from harp, lute, dulcimer and guitar. And last—and I fear I must categorize it as the least—were the gentlemen who felt that mud was the ideal medium for the re-telling of such great literary works as Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Beowulf.
I’m sure I would have enjoyed their recounting of the Viking’s voyage to America more if they had not managed to spatter my 13th century dress with mud from thirty feet away.
Amidst this delightful and somewhat bewildering cacophony are the employees and tourists who have turned gaily out in their best fancy-dress for the occasion. We saw fantasy costumes, elaborate Renaissance period pieces that were hundreds of hours in the making, medieval ladies and knights, archers, monks, and various sprites and spirits.
Whether you spend the day costume hunting with a camera, sipping a drink, eating hearty stew out of a bread bowl whilst listening to the best sorts of music, riding a camel (yes, there ARE camels there. Why? No one is quite sure) or browsing the endless selection of fine wares, there is something for everyone at the Ohio Renaissance Festival!
With the contest to join Dr. Horrible’s Evil League of Evil rapidly coming to a close, I thought it would be fun to post a few of our favorite submissions.
The winners will appear on the Dr. Horrible DVD which will be released in time for the holidays. And for you procrastinators, the deadline is Oct. 11, so you still have a few days to submit your application.
It’s great to see all the fans dressing up in Evil Costumes and having fun. Great job, Everyone!
The Vicious Viceroy
The Cutinator
Mr. Miserable
The Pocket Paradox
Evil Chassy
Captain Shrovewreaker
Harry Potter characters continue to be a very popular choice this Halloween. But for people who want their costume to be extra awesome, I’ve found this tutorial on Instructables about how to make a wand that lights up at the tip! Everyone else with their plain-old-boring wands will be totally jealous!
This is where you can find the instructable.
The basic premise is that you build a wand with a LED in the tip, and a simple circuit connecting it to a battery and a switch. You can turn the light on and off whenever you need to–but be sure to say the spells Lumos and Nox when you do it! It’s simple and brilliant.
Good news, Evil Doers! If you’re a fan of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, you’ll be happy to know that the Evil League of Evil is now accepting applications!
Create your own Evil Villain and submit a video - the winners will be shown as a Bonus Feature on the upcoming Dr. Horrible DVD!
Here are the rules listed on the ELE website:
Ha! How fun is this? Better hurry though, the submission deadline is only a couple of weeks away. Some videos are already up on Youtube, and they are a lot of fun to watch.
Those are great!
For more information, head on over the ELE website. Good luck, Horrible Fans!
Brought to you by ManWithPez, guest costume blogger extraordinaire.
After Thursday’s excursions into the realms of drunken surreality, we all realized that we had to pace ourselves. Friday held the first of the celebrity panels we were going to, the first real day of costume wear, and the Buffy and Dr. Horrible sing-a-longs.
Before the day could start, however, ThatCostumeGirl, queen of the procrastinators had to finish my Dr. Horrible costume, which required some hemming. I was running around like a kid on Christmas morning: “C’mon! Get up! We gotta go!” And she, gamely, rose to the occasion. She got up and finished the costume before putting on her Dr. Horrible groupie costume. Our pal Lissa was dressed this way as well, and I was the only Dr. Horrible with his own fanclub!
The elation about this faded fast when I ran into the first other Dr. Horrible of the day, and his costume was ten times better than mine.
Didn’t bother me much when I found out later that night that he was actually in the Whedontrack’s Sing-a-long as Dr. Horrible. So, I don’t feel so bad about mine, and besides, I hadn’t had anything to drink yet.
The lines in Dragon Con are legendary, and to get into a 2 o’clock show, we began waiting in line around 10am. We found our friends, holding our places like the good friends they are, at least, they were holding the place, until the entire line had to be moved elsewhere. Dragon Con has yet to understand the sheer size of the crowd the Firefly celebrities draw, but it is substantial.
The very first things I noticed in this line were two costumes. One, a young lady (I have to say that I use this term loosely…but I did appreciate the costume) in a Gizmonics Institute jumpsuit that was open damn near down to her knees. Not only did I appreciate it, everyone who passed her enjoyed it, as she was wearing very little underneath. Now, this kind of thing happens rampantly at this con, but it was a shock to see it first thing Friday morning.
The second was the young woman in the beautiful Cylon Six red dress. She was having a hard time staying in her dress, as it doesn’t lend itself very well to standing, or sitting in line. I noticed that if she didn’t keep the dress in check, it was going to get the better of her, and all the males in the line were with me in hoping that gravity or her dress would come out on the winning side.
After the line moved, ThatCostumeGirl took the opportunity to look around and take pictures of the more interesting costumes. She came back to find me getting my picture taken with the Six. What can I say, I’ve always been interested in robotics.
When it was my turn to look around, I ran into what was possibly the coolest group of costumes I’ve ever seen. Jack Burton and Gracie Law from Big Trouble in Little China, but, scattered around them, there were dozens of people dressed in the red and yellow costumes of the Chang Sings and Wing Kong, the rival gangs that duke it out in the Chinese Standoff at the beginning of the movie.
I was impressed to say the least, but, man, those guys were near impossible to herd together, which is probably why you won’t see a picture of them here.
Also of note, there was a little guy dressed in one of the coolest Speed Racer costumes I’ve seen! He also asked to get his picture taken with me, and who is Dr. Horrible to say no to a photo op?
I can remark on there being a lot more Dr. Who costumes this year, and, one of my favorite things in the con happened while I waited near the beginning of the line. The guy who promised me an “Evil League of Evil” ribbon for my badge came through, knowing he was going to be at the back of a miles long line, and he STILL gave me the ribbon. That’s class, man…that’s class.
Less classy was the line for the Dr. Horrible Sing-a-long. The panel went off without a hitch, and was very entertaining, but what do you expect from Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk? After that we went our separate ways, and I, knowing I was going to be singing later, went up to the room to start getting my courage on…rather, to begin drinking. After an elevator ride with a woman wearing my favorite comic costume from the con, a flawless Lilandra costume from X-Men, the drink was on!
The good thing about staying in the same hotel as the sing-a-long was that I could head back up and replenish whenever I needed to. The bad thing about the hotel is that this was where it appeared most of the Clemson v. Alabama fans had decided to stay. These poor people were wandering and mixing among people dressed…well, like me, while they were wearing their football jerseys. As I have stated previously, the surreality knows no bounds.
When we got into the show, it became readily apparent that we weren’t the only ones that had imbibed in social lubricant in order to get ready to sing this evening. Frankly, I don’t see the point in getting so drunk that you can’t stand, let alone sing at a sing-a-long. Cast members were scattered in the first few rows, and we would find out why during the show. The show was wonderful, with the exception of the man behind me stating very loudly and exuberantly that he wanted the Dr. Horrible on stage to …well, make love to him, after a fashion, I guess you could say.
It was after this show that I ran into the scariest Captain Hammer of the show. We were allowed to keep out seats for the next show, the Once More With Feeling sing-a-long, and happily did so. As we got up to go to the bathroom, however, I was grabbed around the neck by a flamboyantly gay Captain Hammer, who proceeded, after choking me, to hump my leg vigorously.
While ThatCostumeGirl and Lissa snapped pictures, I was being violated by this young man who was obviously very into his character, and very drunk. It’s hard to yell for help when you’re being choked and drunk yourself, but I’m not certain a cry of “I NEED AN ADULT!!!” would have gotten the attention that I needed.
The Buffy show was even better than it had been previous years, with Buffy alum Ken Feinberg (the Chaos Demon from Fool for Love) playing the part of the Mustard Man. Also, instead of Spike throwing a wine bottle into the crowd, causing pain and mass hysteria (and possibly alcohol poisoning), she threw, instead, a huge plush bunny. It nailed me right in the face, and I couldn’t have been happier about it!
After the show, we decided to A) drink more, and B) roam around looking for more cool costumes! Frankly, the rest of the evening is a quick blur to me, but if you look at ThatCostumeGirl’s pictures, under her favorites from the convention, you’ll see her favorite pose was a Batman/Superman picture. I took that picture, with the huge telephoto lens on my camera, from 40 feet away, as I was trying to keep from falling on the pavement. I failed, but the picture rocked!
Saturday would see a huge costume failure on my part, a weather failing, an unasked question, and a shindig! See you soon!
[Photos by Lissa, MalsWay, ManWithPez, and ThatCostumeGirl]
One of our readers named Samantha dropped us a line about her Dragon*Con 2008 photos. CLICK HERE to view her photo gallery.
Samantha is a full-time artist. She sells her work on Ebay, Amazon and Etsy. Her custom services include Fleur de Lis, children’s bedroom murals and portraits, and much more. Check out Her Website for more information.
We love hearing from our readers and we always try our best to acknowledge reader-submitted artwork. Thanks, Samantha!
 Tina Fey |
 Sarah Palin |
It’s rather remarkable how former SNL member Tina Fey and VP nominee Sarah Palin look so much alike.
Last weekend, Saturday Night Live had a huge ratings boost as Tina Fey returned to her old stomping grounds to appear as Sarah Palin.
Today, the New York Times is running an interesting story about the custom wig worn by Fey for this sketch.
Some interesting facts:
• The wig took 40-50 hours to make.
• SNL keeps a replica of Tina Fey’s skull on hand for making wigs.
• Required a team of wig makers, colorists and a pound of human hair.
Since the sketches aren’t approved until Wednesday night, it leaves very little time to get things ready for the Saturday show. According to Bettie Rogers, the show’s head of the hairstyling department, “The ladies who make the wigs work around the clock until Friday night, sometimes even late Saturday.”
Rogers describes Palin’s hairstyle as a “French twist with a ’60s bouffant kind of thing, and bangs. It’s darker at the nape of the neck, and shows transitions to a lot of different colors. We also have to go back and root it. We paint in darker colors right at the roots, to give it contrast.” [via NYT]
Wow, I had no idea how much work went into a wig for an SNL sketch. Bettie Rogers and her crew are true artists, it’s amazing.
Sarah Palin reportedly enjoyed the sketch, and even claims she once dressed as Tina Fey for Halloween. So far, no photos of her costume have surfaced, but I think it’s only a matter of time.
If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the SNL sketch of Tina Fey impersonating Sarah Palin. Enjoy!
A word of note before this article begins: I am a compatriot of ThatCostumeGirl, and if you go to her website, you will see me referred to there as ManWithPez. Some of the pictures you see here were taken by me, some were taken by her. Of the five costumes I took with me this year, she made all of them. This article is written in conjunction with her experiences, and predominantly relates to costumes, but offers a look in the round regarding the convention.
THURSDAY:
There aren’t many costumes to be found at Dragon*Con on Thursday night. Thursday night doesn’t really cover any official function of Dragon*Con other than registration and badge retrieval. This year, the registration line started early, but, in their wisdom, Dragon*Con opened the doors early as well. Earlier registration can mean only one thing: A chance to drink more beer. Alcohol can be very important to most of the costumers at Dragon*Con. Besides offering a shot of courage, it helps to suppress dignity, and plenty of dignity was suppressed here.
On a more serious note, I was wearing my Dr. Horrible groupie costume (consisting of a t-shirt bearing Neil Patrick Harris’s face and the much coveted Dr. Horrible goggles). My first costume sighting this year was Shaggy and Daphne from Scooby Doo. It beat the brakes off my first year at D*C, where my first sighting was a gang of Klingons on line at the Chik-Fil-A. Surrealism knows no bounds in Atlanta during Labor Day weekend. Back to business, Shaggy even had a box of Scooby Snax. It made me smile and point, much like most people in the line.
And then the lady Captain Hammer showed up.
Nothing against this young lady, but it was an encounter that would set the tone for all other meetings I would have with the Captain. More on that later.
This young woman put an “I Got Hammered by Captain Hammer” sticker right over NPH’s face! If I had known that I’d be in this line again later, I probably wouldn’t have been so tolerant of it. But, hey…a Thursday costume at D*C is a rarity, and I was just happy to see it.
After badge retrieval we ran into another Horrible fan (or Interns, or whatever the hell we’re calling ourselves this week) who claimed that if we found him on Friday, he would give us some Evil League of Evil ribbons for our badges. Also, one of our fellow linegoers shouted out “You just made my day!” at me at the top of his lungs (for some, apparently the registration line does not prevent alcohol consumption) when he saw my t-shirt and goggles. I also did get to hear a costumer’s favorite question: “How did you do that?” This time meaning the hard to obtain goggles and the paint job applied to them by ThatCostumeGirl. Often times, I find myself repeating the phrase “My girlfriend made it,” over and over again at this convention.
As for the second time I ended up in the same line, a friend of ours got into town a little later than everyone else, and the phrase “Leave no man behind” applies in the case of Dragon*Con. After dinner (mine consisted of libation, and little else) we took her through the line again. She and I sang from the Dr. Horrible songbook, or rather, another friend’s cell phone which held the entire score, to the applause of some and the ire of others. By that time, I was too far gone to care. To put it another way, I was very confident in my groupie costume at that point.
I did see a few more decent costumes that night. There was a young man dressed as a golden dragon, complete with wings. There were two Dr. Horribles, one of whom tried to steal my goggles. But, since ManWithPez don’t play dat, he went away disappointed. There was a first sighting of a huge Wookiee costume that we would see several times, mostly because it towers over everything else in the room. Speaking of Wookiees, my first celebrity sighting this year was Peter Mayhew, somehow negotiating an escalator with his two canes.
Con foot traffic can be tough on a 7 foot 2 inch former Chewbacca. There was an early Richard Hatch (from Battlestar Galactica…both incarnations) sighting. He was talking with fans and apparently enjoying himself as he always seems to be doing at these conventions. The Recliner of Rage guy Pierre Bernard was there, and ThatCostumeGirl, to her credit, recognized him immediately. Hey, I might be a media gadfly, but I had to apologize as I had no idea who he was. I guess I don’t watch enough Conan O’Brien. As I write this, I am saddened at the very prospect of not watching enough Conan. TCG was excited enough for the both of us, though.
The night ended with meeting old friends, making new ones and much carousing between the two in the best Dragon*Con traditions. It also ended with regurgitation, reminding me to pace myself for the rest of the convention. Too much confidence can be a bad thing. Friday, the first real day of the con loomed large ahead.
Dr. Horrible’s lab coat has been found!
It seems everyone has been searching high and low for the perfect Dr. Horrible Costume. The hardest thing for people to find has been a replica of Dr. Horrible’s Lab Coat. There are all kinds of lab coats available, but nothing that looks exactly right.
Fortunately, Irongate Gallery has produced an exact replica, available for sale on their website. For around $100, you can order a custom lab coat that includes the goggles and the caduceus (logo) sewn into the front pocket. Check it out!
Irongate Gallery is a costume shop that specializes in hand-tailored reproductions and original costumes for all occasions. Very cool!
I’ve edited our original post on “How to Make a Dr. Horrible Costume” as well. That post gets a ton of hits as the world searches for the perfect Dr. Horrible costume.
It’s so great to finally be able to get an authentic Dr. Horrible lab coat. Thanks, Irongate Gallery!
Edit 11/05/08: Shadow Dale Creations now also offers an authentic Dr. Horrible lab coat for $200. Available in white or red.
