In this post you’ll get to see the last few steps in my progression towards a man-size Ed-209 Cosplay costume. In the previous installments you’ve seen the design and build of all the parts. Now it’s time to get it together.
It’s getting close to the date of my visit to the comic con at the Birmingham MCM Expo, held at the NEC. With a week to go it’s time to close out all of the snags I’ve got left and to plan how the day will go, what tools I need to take, how I’ll build it and pull it apart again as well as how to move around in it.
One of the first things I wanted to resolve had been troubling me since I did a test with the gun pods. It was the weight in the gun pods that pulled down on the arm meaning that if I was to hold the handle inside on each arm I’d be supporting the weight all the time the guns were level and pointed forward. This was less than ideal so I set about a method of taking the weight off.
I fitted 20mm plastic T piece to the bottom of the handle and attached bungee cords from the inside front edge. This would try and pull the handles towards the front and thus take the weight off. It splayed the arms and gun pods at a funny angle so I tried to find a way of supporting it from these directions.
As you can see in note 32 and 37 I was puzzled at how to fix this t piece securely while it was in use. It couldn’t be permanently fixed as the end of the arm needed to go through the hole in the side wall and then the washer and pipe clip as part of the build. I thought about the T piece some more and when it was a little prone to slip off I thought that a long bolt fastened to the bungees and fed up the handle would suffice if fixed in with duct tape.
It appeared to work but I wasn’t happy, that’s when I was scouting the hardware racks in Charlies on the way to buy some spray, again, that I saw a rawl fixing with an eyelet. A rawl bolt is like a rawl plug with the screw included and made out of metal. Usually used in concrete a hole is drilled and the fixing inserted before being screwed in. The screwing and tightening of the bolt, or eyelet in my case, opens up the metal flaps and expands to grip inside the hole. In Note 47 you can see a sketch, I guessed the size I required by eye and bought a 5 pack. When I got home they fit like it was designed to. I inserted them into the bottom of the handles, screw tightened them and then an eyelet was available to hook the bungees onto.
You can see here that the green bungee from the right side holds it from there while the yellow bungee is fastened at the front and connects to both handles, this gives it the tension to the front and also across the body to the other side. This seemed to give the arms enough support that meant I just had to guide them, not carry the weight of them on the handles all of the time.
With the gun pods sorted and the arms almost now self supporting it was time to get onto the small details. One idea I’d had was to have a bluetooth speaker in the front linked to my phone playing clips from the film of ED-209 counting down to the killing of Mr Kinney. I’d managed to salvage a few off the web and some of the soundtrack from the film. In the samples of the robot counting down 20 seconds to comply, 15 seconds, 5, 4, 3, 2,1 there was a bit of screaming and other shouting from the other characters in the scene as they struggled to comprehend what was about to happen. These, to me, took some of the impact away from what Ed was saying, so I decided to record some of my own samples and robotise them to make them a little closer to how ED sounds. They weren’t brilliant and didn’t sound much like a 209 but hey ho. I recorded myself using my Maplin, USB podcast microphone and then edited it in Adobe Audition where I added lots of effects and filters.
As it happens it didn’t make much of a difference anyway as it was so noisy in the NEC that they ultimately wouldn’t be heard, even through my JVC SP-AT3 speakers at full chat. I had the recording of the machine guns also and these could just about be heard when I was posing for photos with other cosplayers or visitors to the show. I also suggested that the Masquerade portion of the show should use Basil Poledouris’ soundtrack album and the track titled “Rock Shop” for when I got onto the stage and posed in front of the assembled guests.
It was Friday now, before the Sunday and I’d had a day off work to catch up on a few items. I needed to test fit the costume into my car, a Vauxhalll Insignia. It’s a five door hatchback car used by reps to travel the country so I thought it should be big enough. It turns out that my wife was right a month ago when she said it wouldn’t fit. Whoops, I dropped the seats forward, removed the spare wheel and the packing around it but it still wouldn’t fit in. Gulp.
The remainder of the Friday was spent sourcing a van or trailer that I could use to get this to the NEC on Sunday. Plant Hire shops like HSS and Domindo don’t hire trailers at short notice in Shrewsbury but I found a couple of van hire companies who’d let me rent a van for the weekend for £170+. Now, I knew that this would never fly with my better half and I couldn’t justify it to myself either. A message on Facebook asking friends and contacts if they had a trailer I could borrow was met with a couple of offers, one too far away and one for sale. Then I noticed a trailer hire company in Shrewsbury and they had one I could rent for £30 so I went and paid him a visit. Jim Clark at Shropshire Trailer Hire said he could sort me one out that was covered and I could go and get it on Saturday evening to be ready for the Sunday morning early start. We were in business!!
The day of the show arrived and I was certain that everything was packed and ready to go the night before. I’d made lists of what needed to go as in Note 46. I’d need my nut spinner to tighten and loosen the hose clips on the steel pipes, some duct tape in case of emergency repairs being needed, a few tie wraps to ensure that the front and back panels that hid me from the outside world could be attached. I’d also packed extra bungees, extra Rawl Bolts, USB power supplies for the speakers/phone and also my reference images and evidence of the making process.
Me and my boy were up early to load the body and the gun pods into the trailer, covered by sheets and old curtains. The legs and the remainder of the parts went into the boot of my car. The sat nav was programmed with the NEC and the letter telling me which Lorry Park and Gate to report to were safely stowed in my door panel. I’d previously written to the Cosplay organisers to say it was a large costume and I could do with dropping it off and then parking the car after. Granny Gertrude, I’m guessing it’s not her real name, got back to me and told me how best to proceed when I got there.
We arrived after an hour and a quarter, did the necessary business and then went to unload at a door in the hall we were to be in. The door security were adamant we wouldn’t be allowed in without our wristband/stamp but they allowed me and my son to place the parts of my costume in the hall and then leave. We parked the car, locked the trailer to the tow bar to prevent me losing my deposit and then queued up for the bus to the hall. This is the bit of the whole event I love the most as people from all walks of life all take part in the day and dress as their favourite characters and you see loads of Harley Quinn’s, Pokemon, Anime and Comic book stars wondering across the car-park to ride on the bus.
After getting in we joined the main queue for the 11am General Entry and joined my daughter and her friends who’d travelled on the train, dressed as Ghostbusters and one of the Teen Titans, Raven. As soon as we were allowed through the gates and into the show, my son and I made a beeline to where ED was concealed beneath a sheet.
We started to assemble the parts but I noticed that one of the Rawl bolts had fell apart in transport and that the parts I’d heard rattle around in the dark when unloading were those. Fortunately, I’d a spare in my bag so I fitted that, connected the bungees to it and then I got into the costume before walking off to register at the cosplay desk, for the Masquerade. This is the first time anyone, including me had seen it all together in action.
It was tricky getting my feet into the tied on shoes whilst wearing the top of the legs over my shoulders and then getting the body on over the top. It was also tricky seeing out of the costume as I could see only through the front grill and had to rely on my son to guide me and direct people out of the way if they hadn’t spotted this beasty coming their way.
It was blooming hot in the costume and heavier than I’d anticipated so I had a couple of breaks to let my nipper go and watch some wrestling. When I disrobed from the internals of ED I was soaked with sweat and that’s when my Cousin Kim and her Husband Roger decided to introduce me to their two boys. Urgh, a sweaty bloke! It was time then to go back to the cosplay desk and be judged for the competition. I was stood in a queue, dressed like this and I had to apologise to another cosplayer who I was bashing on the head with my gun pod.
The judging was carried out by a couple of judges and they asked me multiple questions as the make up of the costume and the toughest parts to make and wear etc. They said that they’d then see me in the Masquerade later in the afternoon so I wandered around a bit having a few piccies taken and hearing people saying stuff like, “Woah, it’s him out of Robocop”, “Awesome! It’s ED-209, I’ve not seen one of those before” or even “What is that? I don’t know what it is” and “that must be from a really old film”.
Some Cosplayers and other visitors took photos of me and with me so here are a few of them. Thanks to them for sending me their images.
A video from the Birmingham Mail shows me, 8 seconds in strutting my stuff. This is only a couple of seconds clip from the video which you can see if you click through the link on my youtube channel.
In the last part (9), I’ll share the links to the youtube videos of other people to show you how I got on in the masquerade at the end of the day.
If you have any comments or questions please feel free to leave them in the comments below!
[…] ED-209 Cosplay – Part 8: Final Preparations and Snags. → […]