I've got a daft hobby so thought I'd share it with the forum.
A couple of years ago I went to a major comics and movie memorabilia show and got hassled by a bunch of stormtroopers from the film Star Wars. It was great and hubby decided that he wanted to be one too. Six months later I was hassled by the Joker from Dark Knight at a similar event and we ended up getting involved in this crazy hobby.
What we do is make our own costumes and props which are made to the exact same specifications as those used in the movies. We use the same materials and methods and they have to pass strict criteria and an assessment by a scrutiny panel before we're allowed to go out in public. In fact, most of our costumes are actually better than those used in the movies and if you've ever seen the real outfits/props you'd agree ours are far superior!
We're all volunteers and we do it to raise money for charity. We can either promote a community event by turning up and entertaining people, walk around with collection buckets or appear for a fee which goes to either a charity of our choice or a charity of the 'client's' choice. We dress as characters from movies (Star Wars, Batman, Dark Knight, Nightmare on Elm Street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Top Gun, Predator, Aliens, Ghostbusters etc), TV shows (Batman, Star Trek, Dr Who, Battlestar Galactica, Band of Brothers etc), video games (Silent Hill, Halo, Modern Warfare etc) and cartoons/comics (Batman, Iron Man, DC/Marvel characters).
This isn't just fancy dress! Each costume can cost upwards of £500 and are hand-built to specific criteria. We don't just turn up and hang about with buckets, we become the characters which we study in great detail, perfecting their mannerisms and voices. We also put on little stints such as Lord Vader inspecting the stormtroopers, stormtroopers harrass the public and search their bags/pockets and 'arrest' people, Batman gets into fights with Joker and chases him around the venue, zombie nurses harrass passers by, daleks try to exterminate and Aliens battle with Colonial Marines.
It's all jolly good fun, a form of amateur dramatics and I spend most of my spare time and money making costumes and props. So far I have a Jawa (scavenging little critter from Star Wars), two Dark Nurses (Silent Hill movie and game), Catwoman 1966, Star Trek officer (original series) and I'm in te process of having a Harley Quinn (DC character from Batman) and Princess Leia (from the first Star Wars film). Tomorrow and Sunday I'll be spending my time making an E11 blaster (star wars) rifle from bits of plastic and resin and two masks from the Silent Hill movie. I don't have time to be ill!
Here's a couple of photos of me in costume at events. I'm in three clubs who travel around the country doing this for charity and one club I'm in raised £600,000 for charity in 2008/9 so it's not to be sniffed at! I don't want to use the forum to promote the clubs as I don't want to annoy anyone but if anyone wanted us to turn up and bring a little movie magic to a charity/community event please do PM me or fire me an email at
nursejawa@googlemail.com and I'm sure we'd be happy to help.
I'm the one with the glowing eyes
Anyone else got any daft hobbies they'd like to share?
