Regeneration Who 2 Recap

Regeneration Who 2 was another huge success for Oni Hartstein and James Harknell!

The con had brought in major Doctor Who guests like Peter Davison, the Fifth Doctor; Terry Molloy, Davros; Colin Baker, Sixtth Doctor; Nicholas Briggs, voice of the Daleks and many other villians or creatures within the Who-verse; Nicola Bryant, Sixth Doctor companion; and just so many more!!

The panels that I attended were wonderful and moderators were great at asking relevant questions and keeping on topic.

The vendors and artists were pretty awesome as usual. Great products and artwork for sale.

As with most cons, I usually go for the celebrity hunt. But this year I was actually more about the panels. I did meet Peter Davison for a selfie with my now-fiance, but overall, I really surprised myself by not "needing" any autographs or photo ops this time. I have met most if not all the celebs already at previous conventions. So, I focused more on the panels this con.

Friday's panels, for me, started with the Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison; moderated by Nicholas Briggs. Peter talked about his time as the Doctor of course but also talked a lot about the special he did for the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, the Five-ish Doctors. I audio-recorded most of his panel but I am not sure how to edit it to add here haha! Peter is so funny and loves talking with his fans. He's really great with them.

After taking a nice dinner break, I came back to attend the "Freaking Out" panel that a friend was helping to moderate. It was about anxiety at conventions, or associated with attending cons in general. It was really helpful for those in the room to discuss anxieties and how to cope with them. But also I found interesting, was a couple audience members also discussed that it may not be them whom are dealing with anxieties but someone they care about and how to help that person cope at a con (or in life in general as some issues applied for both life in and out of cons). I found myself nodding to a lot of issues that the panelists talked about, agreeing that either I have those same anxieties, or how to cope with them in certain ways, or the way we behave in general based on our insecurities or anxieties. Stephen Webb, Clay Dockery, and Decca Dent did a fabulous job addressing everyone's issues and how to cope. Highly recommend if it's offered in another convention or future RegenWho again.

Saturday started with an awesome "Geek Chic" panel that more friends were moderating again. Being a geeky girl, ahem my blog name hehe, it was great to listen to others who loved dressing up geeky in everyday fashion. They of course touched upon cosplay in general, as all of them do cosplay at conventions and such. But then also related in how they have so many pieces that are normal everyday clothing, bought from second-hand stores or bog box stores, that when they wear those pieces alone, they still get recognized as a specific character. But there are ways to not just look like your favorite characters but rather what you can do to just accessorize your outfits with geeky items like scarves, ties, cardigans, shoes, jewelry, etc. So you may not want to go out looking like a character, but you can still show off your fandoms with little hints of flair. Stephen Webb, Kristin Sirota, Christine Evans, and Decca Dent did great in explaining it all, especially with a lovely slideshow!

I went to the "Doctor Who Travel Guide" which explained many of the places you can go in the UK, United States, and Canada to visit places either Doctor Who (and spin-off Torchwood) have taped or took place at. It was great to hear about the places like museums or exterior locations where they have taped and how to incorporate it into your travels. I've been lucky enough to travel overseas to London and Wales for the main discussion points, but it was before I was that deep into Doctor Who to find the places they filmed. Other than Wales, which was the main reason I traveled there. My friend and I at the time, took a bus to Wales to see the Torchwood hub and had friends who gave us a personalized tour of Cardiff and where they grew up. So now that more seasons of Who and Torchwood and even Sherlock have aired, I'd love to visit more of the places Brian Savoie talked about or to look at with different eyes. One day I'll save up enough to go back and revisit!

Then came my own "panel". I did a live-to-tape taping of our web series "Captain Kyle's Cosplay Spotlight" with host Kyle Williamson and guest cosplayer, Angela Pritchett. It took some time to set up the room of course to tape everything and light everything correctly or as good as we could given the room dynamics. But Angela was fun and engaging as Osgood. And we had a really good audience count for being at a convention taping! The episode will air sometime this fall on SciFiGeekProductions Youtube page! Then it was a very fast breakdown as another panel of course needed the room right after us. But it was definitely fun!

Somewhere in the weekend I also went to Angela Pritchett's book signing! She has an awesome second cookbook inspired by Doctor Who! I have the first one and missed out on getting the second one on site so Amazon it is for me! Haha! She handed out a sample peanut butter cookie from the books recipes. It was so yummy! Fun and delicious recipes! Buy her books!!

I went to the Davros Variety Show. It was so much fun! Terry Molloy is of course the most entertaining! But I loved the ukele performances by Cat Smith and Angela Pritchett. The singing from Hannah Harkness is always funny! So that was a great time! I hope they have something similar again next year!

Gallifrey Squares was something I missed the previous year so I needed to go this year!! The room was still crowded but not standing room only busy. Found seats and watched the fun begin! There were a couple ladies who had too much to drink near me and were acting up, mostly just being loud and shouting out answers and general obnoxiousness. But once their friend was done being "on stage" they left. And then I could enjoy the rest of the game show. It was a lot of fun. Great questions, trivia and such. And I loved everyone who was in cosplay! So much fun!

Sunday was a down day for us. Got up, packed the car and checked out and then just wandered the vendor room for a bit. Didn't really hit any other panels. With the semi-long drive home, we got on the road around lunch time. That meant I would miss Oni and James' closing panel though again. But such is life. Maybe next year!

RegenerationWho is really the only con I actually want to do everything a con has to offer! I love the celebs of course. Meeting them and getting autographs or photos are fab with them. And Regen always gets great guests! And I of course love shopping, so the vendor's room is always a fav to walk around in and try to spend money on local artists and such. And of course I get to see friends from afar. But it's the one con (and Intervention) that I actually enjoy going to the panels. They have wonderful guest speakers, discussions, interesting topics, and topics to entice anyone's interests! So it really is just a wonderful con to go to. I can't wait for Intervention Con in Sept and RegenWho 3!!!! Thanks for a great con Oni & James and your quality staff!!!

P.S. - Next year's guests are already lining up and it's going to be magnificent! Michelle Gomez, who plays Missy, is going to be there! I will finally get to meet her!!! My "namesake" hehe. So my hotel and tickets have already been bought! And I'll be first to get her autograph/photo ticket if there are presales! heehee Cannot wait for next year!!

Captain Kyle's Cosplay Spotlight Show

Over the summer I had the pleasure of directing this very cool web series from Captain Kyle's brain.

The series starts Wednesday, Aug. 19th at 7pm ET on the YouTube channel SciFi Geek Productions. Take a look at the trailer and subscribe to the page so you don't miss an episode. It airs every week on Wednesdays at 7pm ET.

Watch our trailer now!

Each episode Kyle interviews a cosplayer in costume, as their character and then interviews the person behind the mask. It's one of the few cosplay shows out there that puts a positive spin on cosplayers and depicts them in a favorable light. Cosplay is supposed to be fun and celebrated rather than all the negative publicity its gotten in recent months.

Within the series, there are helpful con tips with Constance Chesney, Kyle's "Man on the Street" interviewer. She talks to young cosplayers at various conventions to see how much they love to dress up and go out to the cons with their families. Constance also plays some trivia with various cosplayers and some short comedy pieces, along with characters reciting Shakespeare. You might even recognize a few familiar famous faces along the way...

Taped in front of a live studio audience, season one has wrapped in-studio production but we will still be present at upcoming conventions like RetroCon in Oaks, PA Sept. 12-13th, Walker Stalker Con Philly Sept. 26-27th, and Walker Stalker Con Boston Aug 22-23rd. Constance will be continuing to interview cosplayers and playing more trivia with some lucky guests.

A special treat at RetroCon, we will taping an episode in front of the convention audience! The taping happens on Sunday Sept. 13th. Come out and be a part of the live audience! Maybe you'll be in cosplay and will want to be interviewed by Kyle! Stop by for some fun!

DIY Han Solo Skirt

In prep for Star Wars Celebration, I decided I wanted to do a fem Han Solo. I've been wanting to do this for a long time actually. But getting the costume or making one from scratch was daunting. I am ok at sewing squares and rectangles and mostly things with straight edges and no real patterns. I have not ventured into the clothing dept yet. So I can revamp or redo some clothing pieces for costumes if needed but never from scratch. A friend put me onto Cosplaysky.com tho and well, things have changed the game! So I bought myself the Han Solo costume there, where it will fit me and is tailored to me! I am only 5' tall and pretty small and petite overall. Small arm and leg lengths, etc. So having a custom made cosplay outfit for me, for a relatively cheap price? Sold!

All that aside though, I still wanted to be a fem Han Solo, not just a woman wearing his costume type of fem. I wanted to wear a skirt instead of pants. So after a lot of searching for the perfect A-line swing skirt that was the right length, size and color, (and small pricetag!) I finally went to work on this skirt! (FYI, I eventually found the skirt at a TJMaxx in a state thousands of miles from my home while on a family vacation. It's a CWonder designer skirt (they are now out of business) that normally is about 80 bucks. I found it there for a mere 20 bucks).

I will tell you though I ended up doing this twice, two different ways and one way that was clearly much better than the first.

Firstly, though, I also found the perfect color and width ribbon to use for the side panels at the crafts store. Cut them into the proper length I needed for the skirt. Then with permanent markers I carefully marked every inch with a line. Gently using the marker because they do bleed on the satin ribbon, so don't press the marker too hard or it will bleed and have a really thick line or uneven looking line.

Then my first attempt at attaching the ribbon was to use fusible web strips and iron-on the ribbon to the skirt.

Ironing on the sides using the fusible web.

This proved to be the wrong way to attach the panels.

The fusible web didn't really adhere to the thick knit fabric like it should have, no matter how much heat I used or how many times I ran over the damp towel over the ribbons (don't want to burn the ribbon by putting the iron right on the ribbon). So, then I used some frabic glue to help adhere the parts that didn't want to fuse with the webbing. Another bad idea as the glue bled through the ribbon and even when dry, was then much darker and sloppy and blotchy looking in those areas.

So, I decided to do it the right way in the first place. (Hey, lesson learned that's all that matters haha)

The old ribbons came off the skirt easily since none of the webbing really stuck in the end. And wherever there was glue, it came off pretty simply as well. Whatever glue did stick, I think there was a way to get it off completely if I wanted, but it would just get covered again anyway, so I just pulled off as much as I could with my nails.

Redid the ribbons as mentioned above with permanent marker at one inch intervals.

Then this time I took out the sewing machine instead. And though I still had some issues with this, because it's a thick knit skirt, the ribbon did stretch a bit with the fabric so one end on each side is a teeny bit shorter than orginally planned and therefore the ribbons on one side of each, are a little crooked. But with the natural folds of the skirt and how I will wear it, hopefully you don't notice it.

Close up of the sewn finished side. You may or may not notice the left side (top of the skirt, I can't turn the picture) that the stripes look a little diagonal which is because the ribbon stretched as I sewed around it. It's mostly noticeable at the top of each side so hopefully my Han shirt should hide some of it or the holster belt will hide it as well.

Below is the finished skirt! (view of the back of the skirt) The skirt has pockets in the front so I needed to sew the stripes onto the seam behind the pockets, which mean the stripes face the back a little more than they normally would. But I'm perfectly OK with that.

I'm so excited to use this at Star Wars Celebration next week! ^_^

 

Homemade Han solo props & Revamping Toy Weapons for Cosplay

In prep for Star Wars Celebration, I decided to be Han Solo. I admit I am not crafty enough to make the outfit from scratch so I did get my outfit itself, from CosplaySky. After a slight mishap with the pants, I had the outfit ready. I bought the belt from JediRobeAmerica. And I actually had my outfit all ready to go for FarPoint convention in Maryland. So I used it for that. What I didn't have ready in time were my accessories so my friend Kyle graciously lent me his Droid caller and blaster for FarPoint. In the meantime I started on my own Droid callers and painting up my blasters for both my Han Solo cosplay and my Princess Leia cosplay that I have planned as well.

Basically I saw this person's cosplay and was inspired on how to make my own Droid callers. She doesn't give directions on what she used or which pieces of plumbing she used so I just went down the plumbing aisle at my local home improvement store and matched the picture as best I could. Some parts were different then hers, just based on what was available. But I'm ok with that. I have provided some pics of which parts I used still in their packaging. Hopefully that helps others with their cosplay making too.

All the peices that made up the Droid callers. I basically made two just in case. It was cheap enough to do two.

 Black spray paint was a must for everything, including the blasters. So one big can of that. It goes a long way. PVC piping, I can't recall which size they were. But they are only a few inches long but don't recall the circumference. The threaded end pieces fit perfectly in the ends. And you needed threaded pieces to have the metal parts attach to the rest of the body. I bought special PVC piping cement glue. Tho trust me when I say this stuff is a LOT stronger than cement glue so be careful using it, use is in a well vented area. I found some metal plumbing pieces for the top part. Again using some threaded pieces made it all easier to put together without more glue. The caps I did exchange last minute tho because the 3/4" caps looked like they'd pop in ok, but did not. So I exchanged to 1/2" caps instead. They fit better and I glued with hot glue just to secure it in place.

Started out with basic small PVC piping and some threaded ends that fit into them. Used the special PVC glue to attach those to each end.

 

The only threaded ends I could find were hexagons instead of rounded like the link above. But it's ok. It looks good anyway.

After gluing those pieces together, I went outside and spray painted this part all black. I stood them upright and sprayed the paint circular and from above. But I had to come back and do it twice by flipping it over and do the other side in the same manner. In doing so, I created drip lines from the spray paint. Oops. You can see some of them in the pics. Overall no one will see it when it's on the belt though. So I'm not too worried.

After it all dried, I screwed in the metal pieces one at a time. There is a flat sprocket like gear that I put on the bottom of the big metal piece first. That part went closest to the PVC pipe. Once that got put on as a whole piece, it really looks close! But I wanted to get some silver Sculpy and make the buttons like she did.

Almost there!

Made buttons out of Sculpy. It's mush like working with clay, only you can bake it to harden it and make it permanent.

Then I made the part that looks like its meant to be attached to the buckle as a slide in piece. But it's non-functional of course for our purposes. Layered the pieces together and folded around the PVC to get its shape before baking.

Droid callers done! One piece of the sculpy on one is much larger than the other. Oops. But it came out well overall. It gives the basic idea.

A little more up close of the better Droid caller made.

Now onto the blasters! I needed the Han Solo blaster and I needed something similar to Princess Leia's blaster that she took from the Stormtrooper in A New Hope. I managed to find Han's blaster no problem. It took some research to really figure out Leia's blaster. Eventually I settled on a newer blaster from I think Clone Wars. Both were bright white so I needed to get outside in warmer weather and paint them. First chance the warmer weather came, I went out and did it. Again, I had to do it twice in order to flip it over and do the other side. And same thing, I got drip marks on it but hopefully no one can really tell from a distance.

I covered the orange tips in order to preserve that for safety reasons. But some of the masking tape got stuck to the Leia blaster so I left it there. You can still see the orange tips enough. And the Han one, the paper I attached like a cone to the front, well, as you can see from the first pic, some paint soaked through that paper. Oops! I sanded it down a little but it's still there. Oh well. Minor mishaps happen. I can't be too OCD about it or I'll never get things done!

 

 

 

Once they were painted on both sides and any extra coverage I'd missed was done, I then got some acrylic silver paint from the crafts store and with a bristled paint brush, I went over the edges and parts of the gun to make it look worn, used and beat up. I did a little too much on one side of Han's blaster and some of my strokes had too much paint on the brush for Leia's but again, it gets the point across.

And fin!

I'm really happy with how these came out overall. So now I'm ready for Star Wars Celebration!

RengenWho Cosplay

Attended RegenerationWho convention a couple weekends ago and cosplay is a huge part of any convention but I always love it when the whole convention revolves around one of the many geek themes I enjoy. In this case, Doctor Who is the theme! All the people who cosplay are pretty amazing and really talented. I'm sorry I don't have everyone's names on these pics. I was a poor planner and did not ask for names this convention... So sorry! There were also so many I missed taking pics of because I was in line or rushing to a panel or in a panel and couldn't stop to take pics! eeps! But enjoy the cosplayers I did manage to get and their awesome costumes displayed here!

Waiting for the masquerade. So many amazing cosplayers! I can play an eye-spy game -- I spy an Ace, 9th Doctor, 6th Doctor, Cat Nurse, 10th Doctor, Clockwork droid, and so many more!

9th Doctor (Brad Trechak) meets a fem 9th Doctor, Dara Dandrea-Giannotti

Kristin Sirota as the amazing hula-hooping Tardis

The Master

Fem 9th Doctor, Dara Dandrea-Giannotti, and me as Bad Wolf Rose

Masquerade with Clockwork droid

Captain Kyle (Kyle Williamson) as Jackson Lake

Somehow the Doctor regenerated into the Governor! Uh oh. #cosplay #DoctorWho #layer @captainkylephilly

A video posted by Missy Skywalker (@pooh05bear) on Mar 28, 2015 at 12:03pm PDT

Brad as a mashup of 4th Doctor and 6th Doctor and indicating that he's a Zygon

Missy and... Missy?

10th Doctor and Davros

Brad as the 6th Doctor

Brad as 6th Doctor, me as Rose, and Captain Kyle as Jack Harkness

Mini 10th Doctor (Evan) meets mini Dalek (Bumpy w/ Bella inside; via Richard Siegbigteroth)

mini 10th Doctor meets big Dalek and fights him!

Me as Bad Wolf Rose and Brad as 9th Doctor

Brad as Inspector Spacetime and me as Rose

It's just too easy... Vote for me! Erm Missy... I think?

Missy (as Bad Wolf Rose) meets... Missy? Again?? (Johnathan Michael Sternquist)

Davros

Me as Bad Wolf Rose and Brad as 9th Doctor on stage at the masquerade trying to recreate the scene from the "Parting of the Ways" episode.

Long Island Who Con Cosplay 2014

Long Island Who 2 convention held in November 2014, always brings out the best cosplayers and costumes for Doctor Who. So here's a selection of so many amazing cosplays I saw that weekend!

Kyle Williamson as Jackson Lake aka The Next Doctor, getting ready for the first panel of the day at LIWho2.
He talked about fan filmmaking and showed some of his own fan films from
his SciFiGeekProductions company.

Delete!

Cutest adipose & a scary weeping angel

Me in a rockabilly 4th Doctor dress

Me in the same dress with my handmade 4th Doctor scarf.

Clockwork guy and The Wire - Careful, she's hungry!

Clockwork guy

Hungry!!

Jackson Lake trying to save us from the Clockwork guy!

Corseted Dalek

Are you my Mummy? Totally awesome cosplay by this mom and son.

Me and the Tardis

Run!

Dianna Tucker Baritot and Adam Baritot - Dinna as the Tardis and Adam as the 12th Doctor

This was pretty brilliant -- Van Gogh with the famous Starry Night painting

Me in my rockabilly 9th Doctor dress

The museum had pieces of wardrobe and props from the show.

Many of the props used in Doctor Who- from sonic scewdrivers to River's journal (tho that was a Kindle cover), to the whistle and celery stalk.

One of the few Paul McGann's actual 8th Doctor jacket he used in the 1996 film.

4th Doctor's outfit pieces used in the show.

Closer shot of the various props used.

4th Doctor Sonic (red-tipped one) and you can see the bottom of the celery stalk above right, 10th Doctor sonic in the middle.

10th Doctor sonic and the plastic/rubber celery stalk for 5th Doctor

It's much heavier than it looks. It was made out of metal and it's pretty sturdy for tossing about.

The tip didn't glow much anymore but overall it still functioned with the slider working to make it longer, etc.

The slide whistle is at top screen, a Yeti that I can't recall what that prop was from (corrected from thinking it was an owl), the Pandorica box, Tardis keys, and various other sonics from earlier Doctors.