HaloGoddess:
Yep, there's a pep file for the backpack...I'd have to dig it up as I don't have the files on this computer. I think fettman made it. Anyhow, you might be better off doing a search since I can't spend too long on the computer. Got some work to do for tomorrow. But it's a perfect file since it splits up the standard ODST pack into three parts, and what you'll need for DARE is a shorty version of the center piece.
HaloFreakX:
Thanks for the link!
Alright guys, first thing is first...SWAG!
The official swag bag was mostly advertisements. There were some coupons (10% off Darkest Days on Steam) and the LotRO Mines of Moria expansion.
Only thing here from the exhibit hall is the Darkest Days poster. There is so much stuff I want to see there...gah, too busy and too hard to cart stuff in costume! I should have brought a duffel bag. Next time...next time. I probably won't have a chance to properly peruse the expo hall until Sunday.
A little custom art from Behemoth
Castle Crashers swag I bought. I'm a fan of their cutesy art style, can you tell? =P That poster is going right up in my dorm room once I hit UCSD.
Some Bungie swag. The top two were from a grab-bag for those in the front of the line (we were there 2 hours early), and the bottom one was brought out to us by Bungie employees. And we got cards for little PAX avatar shirts.
Some more swag.
Pins from Bungie (I got my little angry Superintendent!), dog tags from Halo Wapoint, and and ODST survival kit (compass, thermometer, flashlight) from the grab bag.
Anyways, quick recap of the day:
Pre-departure pics:
We got there around 9. No rush to get to the front of the line since I wasn't planning to stay for any concerts or anything of that sort. Got into the expo hall, got our swag and programming guides, and since we were chugging water before, and the line was long, our first visit was to the good 'ol bathroom. First casualty...while was in there, my sister rested my helmet on the flashlight, and one of the little pieces snapped off. No worries, I came prepared with a hot glue gun! I just wish I packed a non-outlet requiring adhesive...but I couldn't dig it up. No matter, that adhesive was foul smelling stuff anyhow. Hot glue was nicer. My sister also pretty much had to completely gear down to use the restroom....I'm glad I'm a guy.
First picture of the day was appropriately enough with a Command and Conquer guy. Actually, I asked for this picture. My first video game I was really into was....Red Alert. So this was very fitting for a video game convention.
We then proceeded to the expo hall. Played a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle brawler, which was fun, then I saw behemoth stuff and I had to swing by. Who can resist the allure of those cute little figurines? I accidentally got in the line for autographs and cute little sketches, so I got an ice knight drawing.
Then I got in the regular line and a conversation ensued with the person in front of me.
'Nice armor'
'Thanks!'as
'You know we (points to people in front of him) were with the original Nightmare Armour'
'No kidding? I used to talk to one of those guys, way back in the day'
'Oh, who?'
'Uhm...TallestClear was his handle...or er...MiscreantPyro?'
'...That's me.'
'Oh! Hey. It's me Trooper, from the Invader Zim forums'
'no wai'
'totally wai'
Okay, those last two lines weren't completely accurate, but yeah...you want to talk about fanboyism...as I may have mentioned before, the original NAS suits are what got me really interested in armour making. That's why I currently have a $4500 suit of Deepeyes armour sitting in my room, doing nothing else except looking badass. Of course, this was before I found out that most of the original NAS crew have gone on to form a new company called ThirdWhat.
Anyways, the story is better than that. And I realize this has nothing to do with armour making itself, but I'm sharing it with you, because it is awesome to me, and this is my thread so I'm going to babble a bit. Feel free to "TLDR" this part, but I think it was awesome, so therefore you should too.
I'd started watching Invader Zim in high school because my then-girlfriend was into it. She went on some forums called Gir's Board, Wormbaby, or Room With a Moose, and when I registered there, that's where I started using the "trooper####" dealio, because I wanted something generic. I remember my avatar was Cpl Hicks from Aliens holding a shotgun and looking over his shoulder.
Anyhow, I ended up posting there way more than she did. And little of it had anything to do with Invader Zim. Most of it was just random jokes and killing time with other people, so much that when the Zim boards went on the fritz, a bunch of us moved over to a more generic "Homer's Board" and just sat around bull$#!Tting all day online. There was one fellow, TallestClear, one of many awesome people on that board. One day he posts some pictures of Master Chief armour, with him in a blue suit next to a green suit, and a rocket launcher somewhere in the middle. And there was a video of Dragoncon, where he did the Robot.
Here is a link to the original thread, where he clearly says "I love you Trooper".
Why's that? Well, you can't see it since the link has long since died, but the animated .gif of him doing the robot? Yeah, my little high school attending self whipped that up on adobe photoshop/imageready. There's still a few copies of it pimped around, on this forum also.
There was also some pictures where I said, screw voting for Kerry or Bush, I'm voting TallestClear for president, because neither Kerry nor Bush have master chief suits. I made little pictures of that too. I had about as much free time back then as I did now.
So yeah, that was a helluva a random meetup, and honestly will probably be THE highlight of my PAX visit. Talk about random meetings.
After picking up some Behemoth swag, the ThirdWhat guys headed off to the Bungie panel early, while my sister and I wandered off to see more of the exhibit hall. I saw a whole other section of the expo hall that was easily 3x the size of the part I was just in. As the late chris farley might say, "OH MY FREAKING GOURD". And right there in the front? Mass Effect 2.....oh god....must....reach...and.....oh yeah, there's a little cosplay gathering thing that was supposed to go on. Ran into some street fighter cosplayers, one of which I recognized from my usual con, Fanime, and tagged along with them. It was pretty empty and disorganized, but there were some neat costumes. Such as two girls dressed as bubble bobble...who actually blew bubbles. =D The two SF people were pretty awesome as well, and of course...plenty of TF2 there.
My sis took some pictures of the other cosplayers, and we took some pictures of ourselves for posterity.
Then we headed up to the ODST panel where we hung out for 2 hours with the ThirdWave guys. Ah, full circle, in the first video I saw of their armour, MiscreantPyro had his sister dressed up as Cortana, and now I was here with my sister dressed up as Dare. We chatted a lot with each other and with Fearlessson who showed up, and some other interested people. I was told next time I need to make my armour more ninja friendly and combat roll friendly. =P I also did some light patch jobs and we reorganized swag to be a little easier to carry. Of course, when the ODST doors opened, we were hit with 4 free t-shirts and other misc stuff, so our hands quickly became full again. Oh, and tragedy struck. The Recon helmet that Dave helped me make was dropped on the floor and now has an almost Leonidas-like crack running down it. I need to reinforce it so it doesn't grow more, but my plan now is to just brush it to look like a scar. Too lazy to repaint everything. Anyways, if you look at later pics of my sister that should pop up online, you'll notice it. It's not too bad looking, but I gotta fix it tonight for structural reasons.
We got nice front seats at the Bungie panel. I saw Hale's cobalt scout costume. It was awesome and we played an intense game of rock paper scissors in front of the crowd. Shame I lost him in the hustle and bustle of everyone leaving. I'll have to try and find him tomorrow and talk to him more.
The Bungie panel was awesome. Lots of nice background information about the making of ODST and they all have great banter going back and forth. We also got to see some behind the scenes footage of the voice acting, which had Alan Tudyk informing Nathan Fillion that "I'm leaving your sunglasses here. They're scratched. I'm also leaving your iPhone here. It's also scratched. I scratched the iPhone screen WITH the sunglasses.". Other highlights include the music by marty o'donnell (oh how i wish I brought my OSTs!), the truth behind the battle rifle removal ("I just don't like it."), garlic cloves of brute-ified engineers, and many other great things. They didn't show the new ODST trailer unfortunately since it's an IGN exclusive.
WETA helmet. They had the whole suit there also.
Quick look around the room.
And of course, gotta get a photo op! In exchange, I had to explain "Why Mickey?" =P
After the panel, we wandered into the expo hall to mainly get a bag to carry stuff in. I gazed in wonder at all the awesomeness in front of me, and pretty much nerdgasmed and wanted to tear my suit off right then and there to play all the games. And honestly, if Halo Waypoint and Bungie didn't ask to have the suits out tomorrow, I wouldn't bother dressing up just because there is so much at PAX that is right up my alley. No anime convention, not even next year's ComicCon can possibly have everything I am interested in such a condensed area.
We grabbed some subway since it was almost time for my sister to head off. Fearlessson swung by for a little bit:
Unfortunately I don't have pictures of Hale's suit, but trust me when I say it was quite awesome. I'll have to take some tomorrow.
And even half undressed, eating food, taking smoke breaks, etc. we still had some fans drop by to ask questions and play with the props:
You can see the crack on the helmet. Again, not too bad. Fixable anyhow.
And finally called it a night, and we raced very, very slowly down a crowded escalator.
A sidenote: those of you doing escalator racing in these conditions, the winner is usually the one that gets on the escalator first.
I changed into regular clothes, rocking my newly acquired Bungie superintendent shirt. I visited a friend from my hometown who had moved up here, and then I met up with the ThirdWave guys at Gameworx for some arcade shooting and beers. A great way to cap out the evening.
So I am stoked for tomorrow. Now to take a shower then go downstairs and do some repairs. But first, time to watch the new ODST trailer again.
Keep it clean! I can only imagine what the reaction would be if more 405thers showed up and we got organized up here.
