Star Trek and Kickstarter.

Star Trek fan film productions that have been popping up on kickstarter lately but before i get in to Kickstarter lets get a little background on my love of Star Trek first.

Star Trek one of the corner stones that my fandom has been built on. For as long as i can remember Star Trek has been apart of my life and a big part it was and has carried on being. I can still remember being a child and watching The Original Series ( TOS ) on BBC 2 and later on Sky 1 and in 1987/8 Star Trek started a new show called The Next Generation ( TNG ). Showing my age... i can still remember watching Star Trek the Motion Picture on ITV Thames while i was on a school holiday.  

And in between there have been movies and other TV shows. Though my opion is mixed on the other TV shows i have and always will be a massive TOS and TNG fan. My favorite time period is the TOS Captain Kirk, Spock and Dr McCoy nothing can beat it though TNG does come close. It was a bright future and a hopeful future. Something we all can strive for. 

I have very fond memories of going to the Star Trek Generations 2 convention back in April of 1996. It was a 3 day convention at the Royal Albert Hall in London. It was also my first Star Trek convention. Going all 3 days with my dad and even my brother came on the 3rd day. As another first it was also the first proper cosplay i had ever done. I wore a TNG costume to all three days. The uniform was an Easter gift from my parents and i still have it even after all these years.

( photo taken in 1998 but it's the earliest one i have )

Then in October 2012 there was the Star Trek Destination London convention at the London Excel center where the London Expo is held each year. 

This was a great convention but at the time i was disappointed i had hoped for a big U.S. style of convention with a lot more to see and do in between going to talks. It was also one of the few times my brother has gone to a con. But looking back i did have a good time and i have good memories of the con. I hope they have another one in the UK i will have to go to it. The last one was in Germany and i was unable to go.

I have watched Star Trek, read the novels, brought audio books, read the comic had the toys and built the models. I am a fan and not ashamed to admit it.

 I got in to fan audio and films in the early 2000's while i was studying at university. It started with Star Wars fan films and that lead me to finding Star Trek New Voyages later to become Phase 2 and Star Trek Farragut. One of the first i saw was Star Trek Hidden Frontier. I do enjoy the production that fans have made as you can see the passion and the love they have put in to it. Even when the results do not look anywhere near as good as the TV shows it was based on. But that does not matter because it is a labor of love. and over the last few years fan production have come a long long way in all areas of production. And That leads to Kickstarter...

There are currently two Kickstarters going on that are looking very interesting and do deserve support. Now i am not telling you to become backers as that is up to you and can only be decided by you. I have backed them and i just wanted to make people aware that these are in production and it is something you should keep an eye out for once they are made. Or if you want to back them then do so.

The first is 

Star Trek Ambush

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/191098213/star-trek-ambush?ref=live

This is set in the TOS time period and is a semi sequel to the classic TOS episode Balance of Terror. It is also UK based production and so far things are looking very promising and there are not many UK based fan productions and none i can think of off hand.

The second is

Star Trek Horizon

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/startrekhorizon/star-trek-horizon?ref=live

This is set in the Enterprise period so set before Kirk and crew. Enterprise was cancelled after only for seasons and it was a sham as the show was really good towards the end and was going to cover some very interesting things if it had the seasons it should of got. So it comes down to the fans and this production is looking very good.

If you can back them then please do i am sure you will not be disappointed with the end results. As for other Star Trek Kickstarters there was Star Trek Prelude to Axanar that ended at the end of March and i can not wait for that. I backed that as soon as i saw the cast... A lot of Star Trek and Battlstar Galactica actors are in it. There was also the Star Trek Renegades the follow up to the fan film Star Trek Of Gods and Men, and Star Trek Continues. Both kickstarters i missed out on backing but all were successful in getting funded and all are looking like something fans should be excited for. 

Darth Vader Chest Armour Phase ONE Complete.

After such a long time i have finally started work on the my Vader suit. Now i have not finished, not by a long shot but the first phase is compete. So what was Phase One? Well it comes done to cutting the Shoulder Bells... I have to ask. 

Why are the called bells anyway?

But back to what has been going on lately. The hope for the day was to get the bells cut and sanded and then put back on to the chest armour. I am happy with how it has turned out. But remember i am not going for a screen accurate costume. More of an idea of what the costume looked like to me as a child. Also a lot can be hidden but a cape.... if thing don't go to plan.   

The tools for the job. I got my Dremel tool and some blades or are the called discs??? anyway i got set up and i started cutting. It was at this point i started to doubt myself... I mean i have never done something like this before and the first time is a little scary. But after cutting a few test bits off i made the leap and started to cut.

I know i should not be holding the bell and just cut but i have to make do with what i have and i have a habit of doing things on a wing and a prayer. So with health and safety out the window i carried on regardless. But... But i did wear goggles. 

One side done and on to the other.

One down one to go.

With both bells done i then sanded the edges to smooth them out. This is just the primary stage so It was not sanded down to be perfectly smooth as i did not have the right sand paper but that will be sorted when i go to Phase Two Sanding and Painting.

With the bells cut and i was happy enough with the shape i started to reattach them to the chest armour. I know that the bells are covered in the glue from the masking tape i used but that will all be removed before i start to paint the armour.

Both bell cut and back on the chest armour done i will be ready to move to Phase Tow in the next couple of weeks.

With the bells done and i can move on to panting but that will come later. I am happy with how things went Doing all this will change the silhouette of the suit when the cape is worn. I just never liked the rounded shoulders of the Ep 3 Darth Vader suit. This means that the cape will fall straighter off the chest armour also it will look narrower than it did before. When ever i wore it it felt to big and cumbersome to walk around in. Also with the smaller bells or are they just pad now? Ok that is beside the point but with smaller ones i should have better movement in the arms as well.  

     

And more importantly 

I DID NOT LOSE ANY FINGERS! 

So with this done i feel like things are moving forward i will not get this done in time for the May expo but i am hoping to have it ready for the October Expo. But cutting the bells and repainting the chest and leg armour is the easy part... Once those are done that will leave me with the helmet.... And i wont lie that has me worried. The helmet will be a BIG job with a lot more work involved than anything i have done so far.... 

That is in the future as for now Phase One complete time to move on to Phase Two.   

The Comic Shops. A Trip Down Memory Lane.

I was talking to a mate about comic shops and it was a trip down memory lane. As it turned out we were going to the same shops  So as it got me thinking about a lot of things but mostly about my father who passed away in 2008.

So lets start at the beginning. I have been going to the Forbidden Planet and GOSH! since i was a young child. It's a shop in Central London so it was a journey to go to so i was only taken there as a treat for my birthday. If i was not taken there then I was taken to the comic shop in Harrow. Calamity Comics was always a special place for me as it was nearer than the Forbidden Planet so i could be taken there more often. It help that at the time my aunt lived in Harrow so i had more opportunities to go. Just a few shops down the road was also a model shop. I got many Star Trek and Star Wars models from there.  

 Now jump forward to the early 1990's and one night my father said he took a different route home and he saw a comic shop in Northfields just outside of Northfields Station. I can not remember the name of it. It was just short bus ride away so very Saturday or very other Saturday he would take me. It was here where i started to collect Star Wars comics i got the Dark Empire and Star Wars Classic comics from there.

At around the same time he found another shop in Hayes. Now i can not for the life of me remember the name of the shop but we just referred to it as Hayes Comics Shop. between these two shops i was able to get most of the back issues and all the new ones that were came out. About a year after we started going to the Northfields shop it closed down and it was sad but there was still the Hayes store. After the store closed and we were left with the store in Hayes we started to go very week. It was local and i spent many hours reading comics while my father would stand around talking to the owner of the shop about comic movies and all that other stuff. Then one day we found out a new comic shop was opening up in Northfields. A new comic shop and its back in Northfields that's great news or so we thought.... 

The store opened and it was called Blue Silver. I remember going and they had a good selection of back issues and new ones. But something was not right and i was not the only one to notice. Then one time time i was picking up a few back issues and then went to pick up a new issue of something i can't remember what but my father stoped me and said i should only get the back issues and we will get the new ones from Hayes. Then i looked at the prices on the new issues. They were more expensive than the ones in Hayes. Now when i was told this and i started looking i realized that a lot of the prices were marked up higher than you would of expect. But The two guys that ran Blue Silver did do Something right. They put together The first comic mart or convention thing in Ealing Broadway. This was awesome as i had been going to the London Comic Mart at the TUC ( Trade Union Center ) for a few years and the idea of have a mart local to us was great. It was at Ealing Town Hall and it was great lots and lots of comics, figures and trading cards. But sadly it was a one off. A few weeks later my father was was talking to the guy in the Hayes comic shop and the topic of Blue Silver came up. Both my father and the owner of the Hayes store really did not like the Blue Silver store and the guys running. All this didn't matter in the end as the store closed a few years later. 

All was not lost while i was at university I found other comic stores in the near veracity. There was Epic Heroes in Edgware and in Richmond there was They Walk Among Us. Later it changed it's name to Ace Comics. Epic Heroes was very cool it had a lot of import figures and i got my first Macross figures from there. Now that was an epic birthday.... but a story for another time. Epic Heroes sadly closed a few years ago and I've not been to Ace Comics in a good while. I might take a trip after work one day...   

London Super Comic Con.... Part TWO!!! No major complaints but what i do have is minor nit-picks....

Last week I talked about our roundabout trip to get to Excel and the this time i am going to cover the Pros and Cons of the convention. Like i said in my last post

"I think the Cons did out way the Pros but again i did enjoy it. It was GOOD i mean it"

I do feel like this post is going to come across in a negative way but i want you to understand i did enjoy myself and i will try to explain my points the best way i can. And i will be going next year. 

Pros

When we got to the con there was not many people there at we got to the con late at around 11/11:30 and with the weather being so nice it felt good to be able to take my time. Things started well when we got to the hall but didn't see a sign or notice to where we should be queuing. I had a bad feeling when i asked a really jolly fellow where we had to go he had a big smile and was more than happy to help use. Unlike the last Expo i went to where the staff were in a bad mood or just not around. He pointed us in the right direction and we were on our way. We got our passes and goody bag... YAY goody bag got to love a goody bag... and then we went in to the hall. Right from the get go things were looking good. the hall was well thought out with wide aisles and there was a nice flow to the movement of people. compared to the last con this was a nice relief. So we walked the floor and had a look and eyed a few things so out of my price range and some WAY out of my price range. There was a decent amount of sellers and it was all comics and graphic novels for as far as the eye could see. What really struck me was the amount of families there. I don't mean kids with there dads but whole families mums, dads and the kids all going and all enjoying themselves. It has been a long time since i have seen this. A good family friendly con is always a good thing. 

And then there was the cosplay. I was impressed by a lot of the cosplayers there and some really cool costumes. The best part for me was the lack of anime cosplay, most of the ones i saw were from comics which is fitting we were at a comic con. Please don't tell me what i already know. YES manga and comics are the same. But It is cool to see something else other than the normal Bleach or Naruto people running around. Well i guess that should be Attack on Titan or what ever is really big at the moment..... which reminds me i need to catch up on Space Dandy, Kuroko's Basketball and Hajime no Ippo Rising... Anyway back to the cosplay. There was a really impressive X-Force Wolverine and a very cool Fem Captain America. Staying on cosplay there was two guess Yaya Hun and Riddle. World class cosplayers indeed. This is good as it shows that the UK cosplaying community grows from strength to strength. 

Cons

I have no major complaints but what i do have is minor nit-picks.... 

OK this is going to sound odd but the comics were a con at this convention.... wait... wait... wait a minute let me explain. There was a lot of comics and graphic novels but each table you went to you saw the same books. The prices were more or less the same so i found that to be disappointing i was hoping to see a better rang to the books. There was a only a few sellers selling toys or other high end collectibles. Normally i am all for wider aisles but i few more stalls would of been nice. I was also amazed at the fact there was no manga or anime there and no DVDs or blu-rays.

Another odd con i found was the number of artists do signings. That fact that they were doing signings was not a problem but it was a small problem when the artist was signing and the que was in the middle of the aisle. Now if they were at at the top or bottom of each aisle then fine but it was more annoying than a real problem.      

Also i was surprised at the complete lack of big companies there. I would of thought that Marvel UK would of been there at least to get people hyped for Captain America the Winter Solider that is out next week or other movie companies pushing their new movie. I understand that the Expo is a media con or a pop culture convention so a lot of movies get pushed there but at a Super Comic Con i was expecting to see something along the lines of say SDCC. Now i know that the UK can not compete with what the Americans can do at their conventions but there should of been some kind of Marvel UK presents at the con. IDW who have be doing the Transformers comics were there, so we should believe that none of the big comic companies could not have a presents. Then there's the outside of the con. Nothing you went out side the Excel building and there was nothing i was expecting to see a big screen playing trailers or something but there was nothing. Even though i enjoyed myself at the con i did find the longer i was there the more i felt that this was a small con in a big hall. Now this is not the same as an armature thing because it wasn't but with the lack of big companies it did feel empty. 

Final thoughts

OK i thought i hand more cons that that but still none the less the fact that it's called the London Super Comic Con but it was not as Super as i was hoping for. But and i do have a positive out look for this convention... i understand that this is a new con it was only the 3rd one so it will grow and when it grows more people will come and hopefully so will the companies stat to show support for this UK convention and it will truly be the Super Comic Con. I will be going next year and look forward to seeing how this con will grow and change. Well hopefully next post i should have some Vader news.