Traditionally, Dragon*Con has always involved myself (Wayne), David, and his girlfriend Jecca going down to Atlanta for the con. However, this year had some higher priorities as David and Jecca tied the knot back in June and recently purchased their first home. With all this going on, they decided to take this year off; hence this year’s write up will only be from my point of view. Don’t worry though, we all have purchased our badges for 2014 and will be back in full force next year!
This year seemed to go well with the new project we unveiled this year, Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell, as this year’s con involved many technical difficulties and triumphs. Things started off this year with the debut of our Jim Lovell Moon suit on Thursday night. (Write up will be up some time in the next week). It was a BIG hit, and we proved that I can wear the suit for several hours at a time (more on comfort in the write up). One very funny story from the night I have to share happened when a woman stopped me and mentioned her friend saw me walk by and would like to know if I could walk back to let him get a picture as he was in a wheel chair. It turns out her friend was Sylvester McCoy! That’s right; the 7th doctor stopped me to get a picture. After 3 hours of pictures, I called it a night and got ready for a full day of Doctor Who on Friday.
Since my moon suit is based on the Apollo 13 mission, I had this pestering fear that I was going to get it to the convention and for some reason not be able to bring it in. Luckily that didn’t happen with the moon suit, but it DID happen with the Dalek. I had the Dalek out of the van and half way up the sidewalk when I noticed he was leaning to one side. I discovered that his left tire was shot, and after several hours trying to make repairs including finding an emergency air pump, I threw in the towel and Braun spent the entire convention in the van.
With the dalek down for the count, I hit the con in my 11th doctor outfit. The costume is something I sewed together rather quickly for a wedding, but I was surprised to receive a lot of questions about the fabric and complements on the outfit, so I’ll be putting a write up for it soon. Later in the evening I donned the grey mau5 head I made for Dave’s bachelor party and went to the Whovian Ball. I wore this same combination at another con earlier this year and it seems like Doctor Deadmau5 is starting to become a recognizable costume on its own. The party was a blast and I am looking forward to attending again in 2014.
Saturday started off with the parade where I marched with the Ghostbusters and then another round of pictures with the moon suit. Meanwhile, Amanda donned her Marceline costume and took the axe bass we built earlier this year out for a spin. She eventually had it signed by the voice actors for Marceline and Jake!
I also want to add that one of my co-workers, David Hewitt, cosplayed for the first time this year! I lent him my Anakin/Vader costume so he could live his fantasy of being a Jedi. Dave is the bassist and singer for a nerd-core band called Foot Pound Force. They performed at the Filk track this year but I was unable to attend. Maybe next year!
Later in the evening we headed to the aquarium to get some shots of my friend Amanda and her little sister costume. You may recognize the Adam syringe as the one we built for the Sloss Furnace shoot back in 2011. Originally we planned to bring Subject Delta for pictures as well, but we ran out of room in the vehicles and he had to stay behind.
Sunday was game day as I entered the masquerade with my moon suit. I based my skit on the “Dark Side of the Moon” scene in the movie where Jim Lovell imagines walking on the moon. (I cry every time I see it). I was really nervous about the reaction I would get since my skit was dramatic rather than humorous, but luckily the crowd went wild! While I did not win best in show, I took home an award for best historical recreation, and received a lot of compliments. I was really moved when a few people said they teared up during the presentation. I have to give a big thank you to Amanda for being my spotter during the completion, even going as far as dressing up like a mission control engineer.
This was my third Dragon*Con contest. I have never been able to find any footage of Subject Delta or the Dalek on stage. However, the entire 2013 masquerade is up on you tube. My skit starts at 0:43:48
And that about wraps up this year. As I mentioned before 2StoryProps will be back in full force next year. Our room is booked, our badges are purchased, and David is already hard at work on three new costumes. I won’t be building another “8 month” costume this year. Instead I’ll be working on a new vacuum former and continuing to upgrade the moon suit in between other cons and smaller projects. Stay tuned for write ups on our 11th doctor, Jim Lovell, the LED mau5 head, and more!
BTW, they are really getting carried away with security now!
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