Halloween 2012 in Pictures

One of the reasons I frequent the same club every year is the effort they put into documenting the night. Usually my costumes are too cumbersome to carry a camera, despite my own strong interest in photography. It's a real conflict, because this is exactly the type of photo opportunity that I would lap up in normal circumstances were I not part of the subject. In particular, the studio set up that Freakscene puts together is a major attraction for anybody that puts effort into their costume and wants a high quality document of it for prosperity. I have collated those studio images of The Zombies here, in addition to those of the outstanding AT-ST created by my buddy Mark. The studio shots were taken by Nathan Richardson of Splinter Images while photographer David Hegarty shot the walkabout images shown after them. 

 

 

Fully Built: The Zombies

In a post like this, I always find it tricky to find a balance between providing a sufficiently good idea of the steps taken in building the costume and not losing people to inordinate details. It's tricky because the post attempts to synthesise the incremental steps taken over weeks and months (about two, usually) of hard work. Trying to exercise succinctness is challenging when you have one costume to outline; but this year there is double the workload to squeeze in. With that in mind, I'm going to try to keep text to a minimum on this one (and if I have skimped on anything, I'd be happy to elaborate in the comments if prompted).

Halloween 2012

One day, one day I'll actually have my costume done before October 31st so that I'm not running around like a headless chicken on the day. But then again, maybe that 11th hour panic is all part of the festive fun. I woke up yesterday morning to a costume which looked much as it did in my previous entry's photograph. In reality a lot more work had been done (particularly the creation of arms and hands, which had been a lingering worry as we hadn't figured them out until the bank holiday weekend), but the lion's share of decoration still needed to be completed. 

But ultimately we got there, after a day of painting and blow-drying in what often felt like an interminable cycle. The structural issues were put firmly to the test when we finally made our way into town; the walk from the car park to the club took the bones of 30 minutes, where it would take 5 minutes for somebody not laden in several kilos of costume (and whose legs were not obscured by cardboard surrogates). 

The night went very well; as always, good fun was to be had in the club which always attracts the best costumes in the city. People seemed very appreciative of the effort put in as well, which is always gratifying. It was hard to get around (cardboard legs and a club full of stairs is a bad combination) so it was hard to get into the thick of festivities at times, but in the latter part of the night we were able to put our costumes backstage in order to get more involved with the night's action. That was, I'm hugely satisfied to say, after we'd been on stage having been announced as winners of this year's competition. A nice cash prize and this guy to bring home:

I plan on doing a write up on how the bride and groom were constructed, but allow me to skip a few several steps to show you the final costumes:

Flying in the Face of Tradition

The bride and groom aren't supposed to see each other when they're getting ready for the big day...but I just had to arrange this little preview.

Til Undeath Do You Part

Well, they're getting closer to the big zombie betrothal. Only a couple of structural issues left, and then we're onto the blissful decorative portion of costume making. The painting is always my favourite part, which is a pity because it's always confined to the last couple of panicked days. My guy does have finished legs too, but they don't support the weight of the body on their own. Another issue to figure out...

("Undeath" seemed like an erroneous title, given that they are already undead, but Google failed to provide the answer. Unlife?)

Sticking to what you know

Most of the best LEGO costumes I've seen have followed a similar method for making the head: a base and a top both made from styrofoam, with a strip of card folding around the diameter sandwiched between them. If that's not the best explanation, than see for yourself: two of my personal favourites can be found here and here.

Just about every costume I've done so far has prominently featured wire. Wire is great because it's almost limitless in what it can be shaped to. However, the method discussed above made a lot of sense. In previous costumes, wire was a good option because the head shapes were intricate. The head of a LEGO minifigure is quite straight forward, making styrofoam more appealing; the only work one would have to do is taper the edges into smooth curves. Furthermore, the infamous head is so smooth and free of imperfections I felt that it would be impossible to replicate that smoothness using the wire method. As well as it has served me, a smooth finish it does not always make. 

With this in mind, I decided to opt for styrofoam. I had enough to do the neck, which was straight forward and turned out as well as I'd hoped (see here). After this, I only had enough foam to make a start on the base; however, a start was all I could make. Days after making this start, I began to resent the difficulties I appeared to be having in sourcing more styrofoam for the project. In the end, I felt that I had to start thinking about contingencies. With this in mind, I began to experiment with a wire frame. 

This has so far proven to be quite fruitful, to the extent that I have abandoned my search for styrofoam. The smoothness issue I feared was addressed by overlaying the wire frame with very light cardboard (the flexible type that cereals are typically packaged in). Despite substituting styrofoam for wire, I have followed the base/top method outlined above. Here is a quick pictorial rundown of the progress so far (written instructions will eventually follow):

Change is as good as a rest

...or something along those lines, I believe. In an unprecedented move, I have changed my costume idea only a couple of short weeks before the big day (short weeks at the time I conceptualised the change; I'm avoiding eye contact with the calendar as I write this sentence). When I say that I have changed the costume idea, I don't mean wholesale changes; I mean more superficial ones. At the core, the costume is the same: I am still making what promises to be an unwieldy representation of a LEGO minifigure. Moreover, I am still making what promises to be an unwieldy but hopefully amusing LEGO zombie. Only the plastic shuffler will be different zombie from what I had planned.

When The LEGO Group released the Minifigures line in 2010 we were treated to the inaugural LEGO zombie minfigure. As I referenced a couple of posts back, this guy fast became a fan favourite and pretty hot property in the after-market. In 2012, however, TLG added to the portfolio of macabre minfigures with the release of the Monster Fighters line. Perhaps taking notes from the popularity of the original zombie, the theme contained a number of undead variants. This, in itself, didn't have too much of a bearing on my choice of zombie for Halloween purposes. However, when my girlfriend began her own search for a costume, a lightbulb was switched on somewhere above my head. 

Introducing The Zombies: Mr. and Mrs.

This delightful couple appeared in set  9465: The Zombies. With Ciara in search of a costume, they came to mind as having the potential to be our first ever group-costume (indeed we have had some spectacular mismatches over the years; none more pronounced than my T-1000 in tow with her Guido from Pixar's Cars). 

Thankfully the transition from one zombie to another was smooth. I had not yet progressed beyond what I detailed in my previous post, and the core of the costume would be the same. I have now gone further with the costume, but I am still on the core elements rather than the decorative. Accordingly, I still have some design issues to negotiate. Specifically, I am now revisiting the idea of completely changing from the original zombie to the undead bridegroom. Instead, I am leaning towards an amalgamation which might look something like this:

Now, the purist in me feels like it should be one or the other. But logic dictates that this amalgamation would make the most sense for a number of reasons. Fundamentally, the original zombie's mouth is open wider. Given that I will be seeing through the mouth, this is very important. Besides, the amount of people on the night who would know the difference is minimal. 

The only real debatable point is the top hat; on the one hand, it highlights that the zombie is part of an undead wedding party. Seeing this version without the Bride by his side might not necessarily tell you this. On the other hand, including the top hat would hide the stud on this head: the quintessential feature of the LEGO minfigure. Given that I'm already deviating from tradition with grey rather than yellow skin, a part of me is worried that it might not be immediately identifiable as a LEGO minfigure full stop without it. This is one that I'm still negotiating, but mercifcully progress has been good and I have to decide pretty imminently.

Breathing Unlife into Halloween 2012

Last year, I only managed to write my first entry 15 days before the big day; but I was knee deep in bits of wire that would ultimately become the Mayor much earlier than my tardiness would have you believe. My typical rule of thumb when it comes to Halloween is if I haven't started in August, it's time for panic stations. Going by this mantra, I should have been borderline hysterical by now. However, despite not starting until well into September, the costume has been ticking along rather nicely indeed. I'll keep all details until the final write-up, but here is a quick pictorial progress report on the work so far: 

Halloween 2012 will be Bricktacular

I intimated in my last post that I was looking forward to having a clean costume slate and having generations of pop culture to derive an idea from. Well, I now renounce that anticipation as folly and naive. It shouldn't have happened, but I have struggled for ideas. A Google document I opened several months ago for brainstorming purposes has remained pitifully unpopulated. However, I have been forced to give the issue greater thought as the days start falling off the calendar; building season is already upon us.