The Saga of Mr. Fizzles
Sorry, this got long. Feel free to skip to the photos at the end.
Months before last year's convention, I knew there was a costume contest. But I just couldn't come up with any ideas, so I hadn't planned on entering. Then just a week before the con I was suddenly hit with inspiration - I could make a Mr. Fizzles costume!
I had so little time, but I decided to give it a try. So I bought all my materials and worked on it every night. But the day before I was scheduled to leave for the con I discovered I'd miscalculated some measurements and as a result needed to do some redesigning and probably get more fabric. Also, when I put aside my emotions of really, really wanting to finish the costume I realized that it just wasn't going to happen in the time I had left. So I stopped work and instead got a good night's sleep.
After the con, I did intend to finish the costume for next year. But I had 16 months - plenty of time. Time passed. No need to work on it right now. More time passed. Still plenty of time. Until a month before this year’s con. Whoops! Time to get to work.
Of course I had tons of other projects to get ready for this year too. So for a while it was touch and go whether I'd get it done in time. To complicate matters, for a long time I couldn’t figure out how I wanted to construct what I came to think of as the "skull" - the support for the heel area of the sock. For a while I was going to use EVA foam. But then I realized that for foam to work, I needed a pattern. And to create a pattern, I needed to know the shape of the skull. But while I had a general sense of how the skull should be shaped, I didn't know exactly. So I finally decided to do a wire armature, as it allowed me to build/sketch out the shape of the skull in pieces/arcs as it was formed.
So I created the wire armature for the skull and padded it out so the wires wouldn't show (as badly) through the polar fleece. I also used pvc pipe, foam, and cotton webbing to create a support/harness for the skull to hold it in place on my shoulders. Everything was going great... until the final fitting.
Saturday before the con a friend came over to help me hem the lining and the "leg" of the sock. But once I got the costume all assembled and on me, things started to go wrong. First, the combined weight of all the elements of the costume wound up pulling on the wire skull more than I had expected, and it started bending. Then the distortion caused by the bending made the supporting harness not want to stay in place. Then we discovered that the pvc handle for the upper lip was showing badly through the polar fleece of the face. So I tried inserting a pillow into the space between the handle and face to soften the line. That solved that problem. But it made the face even heavier, and the skull bent more. To top it all off, somehow the proportions of the leg came out way skinnier in relation to the head and face than I expected, and I just wasn't liking the way it looked. Then the last straw was that, while I knew a costume that covered me head to toe in polar fleece was going to be hot, I wasn’t quite prepared for just how hot it was.
I was crushed. I had put so much time and energy into this project and it was falling apart before it was even finished. After much crying and lamenting, I gave up. I couldn't finish it, and there wasn't time to come up with anything else for the costume contest.
So I spent a few hours clearing up space on my DVR, trying to pull myself out of feeling so down in the dumps. And then it occurred to me... That pillow I used was really old. I chose it because it was kinda flat. But it got that way from being slowly squished flat over time from a full size pillow. So it was pretty heavy for its size. So I pulled it out and shoved in some batting scraps. They weren't the right size or shape, but were enough for me to tell that batting would do the job of masking the outline of the lip handle just fine, without adding nearly the weight. And while the skull was still having some weight/bending issues, I decided I was going to try after all. It was entirely possible the whole thing might come apart while I was on stage. But I was going to finish the construction and attempt to make it through the contest.
So Sunday I got more batting and fixed the face. I also added the finishing touches of the hair, eyes, and lips. (Though I did simplify the hair a bit from my original plan.) I still didn’t like the odd proportions of the leg, but with the full face in place it looked a lot better. I still wasn't sure if everything would fall apart while wearing it, but I was all set to enter the contest.
Well, I'm very glad I pulled myself out of my funk and decided to solider on. I did have to keep unbending the skull and adjusting the harness from inside the costume. But it held up, and as I mentioned the other day, I won! After all the hurdles getting it made, it was so gratifying to get such a positive response from the audience. Many thanks to everyone who cheered for me.
Okay, onto the photos...
The day of the contest, I ran a bit late picking up the costume from my room and by the time I got back to the hall everyone was already lined up. So in my haste to get into the costume I somehow managed to put the lining on backwards, thus the weird twisting in the leg. Whoops.
Mr. Fizzles is ready for his close-up.
When I first got on stage, I could tell that Adam from Creation Entertainment had no freakin' clue what to make of me. He was like, "And here we have......" But then tons of people in the audience yelled, "Mr. Fizzles!"
Mr. Fizzles talking to the audience.
One of the aspects of the costume I was pleased with was how the mouth moved. The lips were formed around sections of pool noodle, with large wooden beads for the corners of the mouth. I ran a cord through through all of them and into the pvc pipe handles to keep everything connected. It worked great, as the pool noodles have enough flexibility to allow the lips to curve when opening the mouth. Yet they also have enough rigidity to hold their shape when the mouth is closed.
Say Ahhh!
Lots of people asked to take photos with Mr. Fizzles. If you know any of them, or anyone else who got photos or video of the contest, please have them get in touch with me. I'd love to get copies if they're willing to share.
Months before last year's convention, I knew there was a costume contest. But I just couldn't come up with any ideas, so I hadn't planned on entering. Then just a week before the con I was suddenly hit with inspiration - I could make a Mr. Fizzles costume!
I had so little time, but I decided to give it a try. So I bought all my materials and worked on it every night. But the day before I was scheduled to leave for the con I discovered I'd miscalculated some measurements and as a result needed to do some redesigning and probably get more fabric. Also, when I put aside my emotions of really, really wanting to finish the costume I realized that it just wasn't going to happen in the time I had left. So I stopped work and instead got a good night's sleep.
After the con, I did intend to finish the costume for next year. But I had 16 months - plenty of time. Time passed. No need to work on it right now. More time passed. Still plenty of time. Until a month before this year’s con. Whoops! Time to get to work.
Of course I had tons of other projects to get ready for this year too. So for a while it was touch and go whether I'd get it done in time. To complicate matters, for a long time I couldn’t figure out how I wanted to construct what I came to think of as the "skull" - the support for the heel area of the sock. For a while I was going to use EVA foam. But then I realized that for foam to work, I needed a pattern. And to create a pattern, I needed to know the shape of the skull. But while I had a general sense of how the skull should be shaped, I didn't know exactly. So I finally decided to do a wire armature, as it allowed me to build/sketch out the shape of the skull in pieces/arcs as it was formed.
So I created the wire armature for the skull and padded it out so the wires wouldn't show (as badly) through the polar fleece. I also used pvc pipe, foam, and cotton webbing to create a support/harness for the skull to hold it in place on my shoulders. Everything was going great... until the final fitting.
Saturday before the con a friend came over to help me hem the lining and the "leg" of the sock. But once I got the costume all assembled and on me, things started to go wrong. First, the combined weight of all the elements of the costume wound up pulling on the wire skull more than I had expected, and it started bending. Then the distortion caused by the bending made the supporting harness not want to stay in place. Then we discovered that the pvc handle for the upper lip was showing badly through the polar fleece of the face. So I tried inserting a pillow into the space between the handle and face to soften the line. That solved that problem. But it made the face even heavier, and the skull bent more. To top it all off, somehow the proportions of the leg came out way skinnier in relation to the head and face than I expected, and I just wasn't liking the way it looked. Then the last straw was that, while I knew a costume that covered me head to toe in polar fleece was going to be hot, I wasn’t quite prepared for just how hot it was.
I was crushed. I had put so much time and energy into this project and it was falling apart before it was even finished. After much crying and lamenting, I gave up. I couldn't finish it, and there wasn't time to come up with anything else for the costume contest.
So I spent a few hours clearing up space on my DVR, trying to pull myself out of feeling so down in the dumps. And then it occurred to me... That pillow I used was really old. I chose it because it was kinda flat. But it got that way from being slowly squished flat over time from a full size pillow. So it was pretty heavy for its size. So I pulled it out and shoved in some batting scraps. They weren't the right size or shape, but were enough for me to tell that batting would do the job of masking the outline of the lip handle just fine, without adding nearly the weight. And while the skull was still having some weight/bending issues, I decided I was going to try after all. It was entirely possible the whole thing might come apart while I was on stage. But I was going to finish the construction and attempt to make it through the contest.
So Sunday I got more batting and fixed the face. I also added the finishing touches of the hair, eyes, and lips. (Though I did simplify the hair a bit from my original plan.) I still didn’t like the odd proportions of the leg, but with the full face in place it looked a lot better. I still wasn't sure if everything would fall apart while wearing it, but I was all set to enter the contest.
Well, I'm very glad I pulled myself out of my funk and decided to solider on. I did have to keep unbending the skull and adjusting the harness from inside the costume. But it held up, and as I mentioned the other day, I won! After all the hurdles getting it made, it was so gratifying to get such a positive response from the audience. Many thanks to everyone who cheered for me.
Okay, onto the photos...
The day of the contest, I ran a bit late picking up the costume from my room and by the time I got back to the hall everyone was already lined up. So in my haste to get into the costume I somehow managed to put the lining on backwards, thus the weird twisting in the leg. Whoops.
Mr. Fizzles is ready for his close-up.
When I first got on stage, I could tell that Adam from Creation Entertainment had no freakin' clue what to make of me. He was like, "And here we have......" But then tons of people in the audience yelled, "Mr. Fizzles!"
Mr. Fizzles talking to the audience.
One of the aspects of the costume I was pleased with was how the mouth moved. The lips were formed around sections of pool noodle, with large wooden beads for the corners of the mouth. I ran a cord through through all of them and into the pvc pipe handles to keep everything connected. It worked great, as the pool noodles have enough flexibility to allow the lips to curve when opening the mouth. Yet they also have enough rigidity to hold their shape when the mouth is closed.
Say Ahhh!
Lots of people asked to take photos with Mr. Fizzles. If you know any of them, or anyone else who got photos or video of the contest, please have them get in touch with me. I'd love to get copies if they're willing to share.