Pittsburgh Comicon 2014
13 October 2014 06:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dime_novel_heroI have been costuming for too long and have won enough awards to not generally concern myself with costume contests. But I was so pleased with my high-concept Steampunk Django, and especially the coffin/carbonite/freezer unit that I decided I was going to give the contest at Pittsburgh Comicon a try.
I also typically go on Saturday but because I am becoming increasingly broke, I went for just the one day on Sunday for the contest only. I needed to get there early because the coffin will not fit in my car and I need to strap it to the bike rack. Since this sticks out quite a bit from the back of the car I wanted to get a parking space that would not only be close to the entrance but wouldn't stick out into traffic. An hour before the official start time was plenty of time.
I went in without my costume so I could walk around comfortably, see stuff and maybe shop before gearing up. I ended up not buying anything.
[Section redacted because of someone's dickish behavior.]
Comicon seemed a bit lighter than it had been last year, even in the number of dealers. I heard a rumor that their table costs have been raised which would understandably push out some dealers. I'm wondering how that is going to shake out when Comicon moves to the convention center downtown next year.
After hydrating myself and getting something to eat, I went back out to the car and geared up. I chose to wear the full helmet instead of the Mark II mask because, at this point and in this context, I thought the full helmet would be more identifiable. The costume contest was set for 2pm instead of what I had thought it was at 1pm so I left the coffin tied to the car so I could easily walk around the con.
No one got the reference. A few recognized the Jango Fett part but no one caught on to the Django part. I thought perhaps the coffin would help that but didn't hold a whole lot of hope. Not the right crowd of people to recognize a western movie reference that wasn't Clint Eastwood or John Wayne.
Just before the contest I went out to the car with everything failing. The cosplay has chest armor that I made out of the same poster board I had made the helmet out of. I had failed to seal the back with paint so my sweat had soaked into the paper and it had started to fall apart. I was able to cobble it together with some tape and hid the worst of it with my scarf.
My holster fell apart. The lacing on the belt loop failed completely. Fortunately I had a piece of leather lacing that I could loop around and tie to my belt to hold it up.
The plastic window on the coffin fell out of its mounting during transport. I got it back in place and was able to re-set the screws but it wasn't going to hold. The screw heads simply weren't enough to hold it it place. It only needed to hold long enough for the contest.
And, at contest time, I had my iPod and a speaker in my pocket and I tried to get it to play the theme from the movie “Django” as I walked on. After the first bars and before I navigated through the door and around a table in the way, it got bumped and paused. The effect was completely lost.
Finally, something else I learned. When measuring leather for belts and straps, assume that you are going to be pulling it three inches tighter than you first thought.
High concept is cool but it wasn't cool enough. The costumes that did win the contest were really spectacular so I don't feel I was robbed or overlooked. I was probably pretty high on the voting based on the judges response but I was just a touch out of my class.
The next thing coming up would be Old West Festival near Cincinnati. I should have all the bugs worked out of my Steampunk Django by then. TeslaCon after that.
I also typically go on Saturday but because I am becoming increasingly broke, I went for just the one day on Sunday for the contest only. I needed to get there early because the coffin will not fit in my car and I need to strap it to the bike rack. Since this sticks out quite a bit from the back of the car I wanted to get a parking space that would not only be close to the entrance but wouldn't stick out into traffic. An hour before the official start time was plenty of time.
I went in without my costume so I could walk around comfortably, see stuff and maybe shop before gearing up. I ended up not buying anything.
Comicon seemed a bit lighter than it had been last year, even in the number of dealers. I heard a rumor that their table costs have been raised which would understandably push out some dealers. I'm wondering how that is going to shake out when Comicon moves to the convention center downtown next year.
After hydrating myself and getting something to eat, I went back out to the car and geared up. I chose to wear the full helmet instead of the Mark II mask because, at this point and in this context, I thought the full helmet would be more identifiable. The costume contest was set for 2pm instead of what I had thought it was at 1pm so I left the coffin tied to the car so I could easily walk around the con.
No one got the reference. A few recognized the Jango Fett part but no one caught on to the Django part. I thought perhaps the coffin would help that but didn't hold a whole lot of hope. Not the right crowd of people to recognize a western movie reference that wasn't Clint Eastwood or John Wayne.
Just before the contest I went out to the car with everything failing. The cosplay has chest armor that I made out of the same poster board I had made the helmet out of. I had failed to seal the back with paint so my sweat had soaked into the paper and it had started to fall apart. I was able to cobble it together with some tape and hid the worst of it with my scarf.
My holster fell apart. The lacing on the belt loop failed completely. Fortunately I had a piece of leather lacing that I could loop around and tie to my belt to hold it up.
The plastic window on the coffin fell out of its mounting during transport. I got it back in place and was able to re-set the screws but it wasn't going to hold. The screw heads simply weren't enough to hold it it place. It only needed to hold long enough for the contest.
And, at contest time, I had my iPod and a speaker in my pocket and I tried to get it to play the theme from the movie “Django” as I walked on. After the first bars and before I navigated through the door and around a table in the way, it got bumped and paused. The effect was completely lost.
Finally, something else I learned. When measuring leather for belts and straps, assume that you are going to be pulling it three inches tighter than you first thought.
High concept is cool but it wasn't cool enough. The costumes that did win the contest were really spectacular so I don't feel I was robbed or overlooked. I was probably pretty high on the voting based on the judges response but I was just a touch out of my class.
The next thing coming up would be Old West Festival near Cincinnati. I should have all the bugs worked out of my Steampunk Django by then. TeslaCon after that.
