Fan Costumes

If you're looking to get ahead of the next Mad Max movie and/or stock up on accessories in case the apocalypse decides to pay a visit to earth in, say, the next couple of months, then might I suggest picking up a pair of these freak-ish goggles that look like they're straight out of a really bad 80s sci-fi film. Kids today seem to be using them for raves and cyber-gothic house parties, but I think they'd make a great present for someone with a Statue of Liberty fetish.

The goggles come from the folks over at F#@K The Mainstream (and if you're at work, I might suggest not visiting that site), and something tells me all proceeds won't be going toward building a new Baby Gap in an under-developed city like New York. I will say that it's comforting to know that if the world were to end tomorrow, we'd be looking toward the rave culture for fashion advice. Check out more images over at TrendHunter. So who's buying a pair?

Excuse me, sir? You have a TIE-Fighter on your head.

This came to my attention via StarWars.com, who found it originally on Great White Snark. There's no info to be found on the construction of the TIE-Fighter helmet or its wearer (or the guy sneaking a peek from around the corner), but its one of the more amusing Star Wars costumes I've seen.

It's like the world's nerdiest hat.

It's a fantastic time to be a geek in Los Angeles. Between Stuart Gordon screenings at the New Beverly and He-Man art shows, you could also take in a little Star Wars-themed striptease or two at Bordello, courtesy of burlesque group Devil's Playground.

L.A. Weekly reported on Devil's Playground's recent January 9 Star Wars show, and they've got an encore planned for March 13, so if you've ever wanted to see Boba Fett's feminine side or just how sexy Jabba the Hutt can get, there's still time to plan a trip. The girls of Devil's Playground are ridiculously hot (See for yourself on the official website. I did. Hey, it's research!), and they know the way to a fella's heart is through his fandom -- the foxy ladies also did a popular video game-themed show that saw Metroid's Samus Aran and a gender-bending Link from Zelda getting down-and-dirty.

(Photo by Shannon Cottrell)

Some serious time and effort went into the creation of Scott Holden's incredible Halloween costume -- Han Solo on the back of his tauntaun from The Empire Strikes Back! Scott created the piece for the Zone Ball, a Halloween bash thrown by a Sacramento, CA rock station that draws over 12,000 visitors for the annual event.

The tauntaun costume is a scale-model of the real thing, with the wearer's legs supported by stilts within the frame of the body, while Han Solo's legs that straddle the back are bogus. Scott discovered the hard way that putting the costume on is a two person job, as his first test-walk with the costume found him tipped over and pinned overnight in his garage! Details of Scott's innovative DIY Star Wars creation can be found on the blog Incredible Stuff I Made.

You can see the costume in action in the video below:

I think my favorite part of District 9 was those crazy alien weapons the government was trying to get their hands on -- like the giant gun that vaporized people. I bet when you walked out of District 9, you immediately wondered whether there was a place online that showed you exactly how to create your own District 9 alien gun ... minus the whole vaporizing people thing, because, well, I think I could get in a lot of trouble with a lot of people if I shoveled out those instructions.

Now something like this probably could've come in handy before Halloween, but you never know -- there might be someone out there who's looking for a fun and exciting geek-related weekend project. Over at Instructables, they show you how to make the District 9 weapon in 15 different steps. The outcome (as seen below) looks pretty cool. Just be careful kids ... you don't want to vaporize your eye out.

[Welcome to the Sci-Fi Lunch Break, where we'll be supplying you with a cool bit of audio/visual goodness to break up the monotony of the work day. You bring the turkey on rye, we'll bring you something out of this world to watch while you eat it.]

Usually the Internet has to wait for something to become popular before its denizens start dressing up like it. Alas, further proving that there is little typical about James Cameron's Avatar, it has broken that cycle by inspiring an enthusiastic YouTuber's Halloween costume nearly two months before the movie is set for release.

Attempting to pull off Sam Worthington's character of Jake Sulley, the fan in question explains that it took countless days of planning and roughly five hours of makeup on the final day, which sounds like a lot of a devotion, but if you ask me it was worth it. Baring the necessary facial reconstructive surgery to make it look like he was born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and taking some Skele-Grow to bump his height up another two feet to truly complete the look, I'd say this is a damned impressive bit of cosplay; particularly considering he would only have been able to use promo materials as his sources and not the end product.

His tail could use a bit of work, but the modded Nerf gun he has more than makes up for it. Plus the guy has a good sense of humor, as evidenced by a picture of him in front of a toy display at a store. Enjoy:

"Go get the door, John..."

Assuming it was another party guest, some cousin or playmate with a present in tow, I was happy to oblige. But it wasn't just some kid at the door. It was DARTH VADER, Dark Lord of the Sith, and to my just-turned-five-years-old self it may as well have been the Devil himself looming like a black spectre of death in my grandparents' carport.

There's a picture of me, somewhere in my mother's things, with both legs off the ground, running to the nearest bedroom, away from Darth Vader. I'm about a foot off of the carpet, defying gravity, literally sprinting through the air as I left the entire fate of my partygoers at the cruel hands of the Empire. I was terrified.

Mom dug a couple of pictures out and posted them on Facebook recently, and I'm glad she did. It's one of my favorite moments from my childhood, and it makes me reflect on how kids' brains work in regards to separating fact from fiction. I knew it couldn't possibly be the real Darth Vader, because he wasn't a real person, and yet, there he was, at my fifth birthday party. As I hid in my grandmother's room, I knew in my heart that there was an everyday man in that costume, but there was still a big enough part of me that was incredibly cautious as well, because what if he did turn out to be the real Darth Vader? What then? Would my plastic lightsaber (with three changing colors!) be enough for a one-on-one duel? I needed to be prepared.

What happens when The Today Show attempts to film a Halloween-related segment with the hosts dressed as Star Wars characters and two random drunk midgets dressed as Ewoks? Well, you get two very drunk Ewoks stumbling around the set on live television, trying to hump trees, beat each other up, do the moonwalk and drink vodka. I absolutely love it when stuff like this happens on live television because it's so much fun to watch the sober hosts try to pretend like nothing is wrong, though you know very well that they'd love to bend down and strangle these Ewoks with all their strength.

The only one who seems mildly amused by the whole thing is Al Roker, who makes one or two comments about the fact that these tiny people got hammered prior to filming the segment. Either that or they're just really trying to stay in character. After all, if real Ewoks were on the set, wouldn't they be trying to mess with every little thing? Isn't that what they do ... cause trouble?

Watch the hilarious video after the jump.

So you've decided to dress up as Chewbacca this year for Halloween, but want to make things even more authentic by learning how to imitate that famous Chewbacca howl without sounding like a dying cat. Well, good news for you is that there's a Howcast video online right now that teaches you how to sound like Chewbacca when you're out at that Halloween party, looking to impress that random group of people who spent way too much time constructing their Halloween costumes out of an assortment of about 150 different household items.

Check out the video after the jump. And if you're still in need of an actual Chewbacca costume, then head over to the Star Wars shop and pick that sucker up.

Over on kimncris.com, Cris, an amateur maker of movie prop replicas, has fashioned himself just about the most perfect Bender costume I've ever seen. Futurama fans take note--it even has a chest compartment containing a 40oz bottle of Olde Fortran!

Cris details the creation on his blog, but, sadly, didn't take any pictures of the work in progress. Sounds like it took a lot of styrene, bondo, and unabashed love for Matt Groening's cult hit TV show to get things this perfect. Cris went on to win a "Most Humorous" award at Comic-Con with his amazing costume. Check out some images of it below.