dannychoo.com - Danny Choo : Anime, Figures, Idols, Gundam, Otaku and Events from Japan

Dance Vader

Sun, 22 Jul 2007 00:16:00 +0900

Shot the day after Tokyo Dance Trooper in Harajuku. The above shot is of Hector and I harassing, erm, I mean dancing with some school girls. Video after the jump.

Didnt really plan this one too much and just went to Harajuku to see what would happen.
Hector was Vader while I wore the trusty ol trooper armor. After watching this vid, you can get yourself along to Hectors site to see the "behind the scenes" video and photos.

This time round, we brought along some portable speakers so that people who were dancing with us could actually hear the music. In the Dance Trooper video, only I could hear the music on the iPod ^^;

You can also see in Hectors video that we were actually dancing (or attempting to) to the same Earth Wind and Fire "lets groove tonight" tune. Didn't want to have the same soundtrack in the final video so replaced it with a tune that had the same tempo.

If you want to share this video, you can find the embed code at YouTube.
By Danny Choo on 2007/07/21 23:28

starwars.com

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 23:49:00 +0900

I got a message yesterday from Lucasfilm regarding the Tokyo Dance Trooper video...

And the good news is that they loved it! Apparently the video is doing the rounds at Lucasfilm and they told me that they blogged it at the official Star Wars blog.
I couldn't contain my happiness. Then I thought "hang on..." and checked out Starwars.com to discover that I was on the top page (still there for now). At that moment I blacked out from excitement ^^;

Below: According to Technorati, the Dance Trooper vid was the second most blogged about video in the world (yesterday) ^^;

Below: My moment of fame ^^; Wonder if Mr Lucas himself has seen the video yet.

Below: Sneak preview of Dance Vader Episode I. This time we dragged people off the streets of Harajuku to dance with us.

Below: Behind the scenes of Dance Vader. Hector and I getting geared up - Photos and video by my wife ^^;
300 yen for 25 mins of parking is petty - the norm in Tokyo is 300 yen for 30 mins.

By Danny Choo on 2007/07/04 23:01

Densha Vader

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 22:02:00 +0900

Was out n about with Hector who runs Japan blog Kirainet (he was also on blog tv) and here are a handful of pictures we took on the trains. Vader is a bummer to snap due to the blackness - the SLR thinks there is nothing there when you aim ^^; The complete opposite of a Stormtrooper ^^;

Hector will be uploading more pics to his blog (his blog is in English too) after he has finished fixing Technorati. Speaking of Technorati, their catch phrase is "Zillions of blogs (some of them have to be good)" which makes it sound like most of them are crap. hmmm.

Update: Hector has the pics up now.

For those who don't know, Densha (電車(でんしゃ)) means "train".
Having lived for most of my life in London, it was a welcome relief to come to a place where the trains are so spot on that you can set your watch by them (which I always do). I guess I'd rather be crushed on the train than having no train at all as was the case of London.

Back then, I would head for the underground station not knowing whether the trains were running or not. Occasionally I would get the "The Circle Line is closed today. Please find an alternative method of travel".

The best bit about the underground trains is when they change drivers. This process takes 10 mins where the previous driver gathers his newspaper (the Sun), packed lunch and tea flask. The new driver then sets his newspaper, tea and lunch in position, adjusts his seat....

The driver change process in Tokyo is instant and you can normally watch it happen at Shinagawa station on the Yamanote line - done within 15 seconds.

A few more pics of the armor at IT Media. Was at the Sblog Dinner where Japans top bloggers (including Kogure-san who runs Netaful - Alexa rank 10,124) and folks from the IT industry gather together to network/share ideas etc. IT Media had the MacBook Pro on the day of release and brought it along to get the opinions of the bloggers.

By Danny Choo on 2007/06/09 21:14

Darth Vader

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 01:10:00 +0900

Got the armor to a wearable state and went out to give it a test drive. And theres me thinking that Vader was going to be much easier than a Stormtrooper ^^;
Vader beats trooper hands down in terms of difficulty!
The leather suit ensures that you become a walking oven and the heavy helmet ensures that you cant see as the lenses steam up in no time ^^;
Anyway, time for some lovely cold udon to cool off.

But despite the difficulty, school girls seem to like Vader as much as Stormtroopers ^^;
There were quite a few in this place lining up for pics. School girl uniforms in Japan look so much better than the ones back in the UK.

Took photos with just about everybody in the restaurant ^^;

Using the force to open an automatic door...

Colonel Sanders gets a bollocking for growing alien chickens.

Need to improve my photoshop-lightsaber-effect ^^; That Force FX Lightsaber is awesome.

Vader needs his regular dose of Tachiyomi (whats Tachiyomi?).

Photographing Vader is tough as there needs to be a lot of lighting in order to see him! No lighting and all you end up seeing is a dark blob like in this picture.

Will post a how-to-dress-up and review of the parts and how I modified the suit to be wearable.
The armor looks respectable from a distance but some of the armor looks like it has been chewed on by a dog - photos and details soon.

Now I need to modify the armor more based on the test drive. Shoulder bells, cape, cod, Saber holder and shoes need mods.

By Danny Choo on 2007/06/03 00:22

Vader Haircut

Wed, 30 May 2007 23:47:00 +0900

Vader: Its time for my haircut.
Planet Staff: But my lord, you dont have any hair - it was all burnt off on the lava planet Mustafar remember?
Vader: You have failed me for the last time.
Planet Staff: ....

The armor is not completely ready and still have a ton of mods to do. Will do a post on the process of Vader armor modding soon.

Just a quick BTW, for those who read or are studying Japanese, in case you have not noticed, I also write all my posts in Japanese too. I also have a Japanese RSS feed - so if you are studying, you may want to have a peek.

By Danny Choo on 2007/05/30 22:59

Vader Helmet

Sun, 25 Feb 2007 00:00:00 +0900

Hard parts for my ROTJ Vader armor arrived earlier than I thought. Still need the soft parts before I can actually go anywhere though.

The helmet is humongous and weighs a ton - worried about doing my head in after wearing it for hours on end.
I thought cosplaying as a Stormtrooper was tough but I can see that doing Vader is going to be much more challenging. Unless I carry out some radical mods, I dont think I can go out alone as the helmet is tough to put on...

This is not the full Reveal helmet where the top of the mask comes off but I'm not really bothered about that ^^;

Theres lots of detail under the dome which include a few moving parts @.@
I need to remove all the bits n pieces that you see here however and re-attach properly - you can probably make out a piece missing from the left side of the face.

I may need to get some disposable contact lenses as the helmet is not friendly to folks who wear glasses. For a start, unless you have really small round glasses, the helmet is not going to fit around your face. And even with glasses on, they steam up so you cant see ToT orz

The chest armor is also huge! I find that I need to walk though doors sideways which makes Vader look like such a pratt!
I just realized that I have complained about how big the armor/helmet and forgot that Vader is supposed to be big ^^;

Dont fall for claims of "Ready to wear out of the box" - After my experience buying "Ready to wear Stormtrooper armor", I knew that there was no such thing and this Vader armor is no exception. You can see the neck seal in this photo - I need to take all the bits off and glue them back on properly. Many bits came off just by handling it and I would probably loose the other bits if I went out without modding the whole suit...

Not too sure what to do about a voice changer. Does anybody have that Kenner one thats been available for a while? I also need a way to produce Vaders asthma sounds. I have asthma but its not that bad so I need to think of another way to produce that breathing noise. Probably an iPod attached to speakers of something.
More details pics of the armor at a later date.

BTW, going to Wonder festival tomorrow so expect a ton O figurine news soon ^o^

By Danny Choo on 2007/02/24 23:12