We get up close with the beautiful helmet and prop replicas made by eFX collectibles at Comic-Con. Chatting with eFX founder Bryan Ono, we learn about how they’re fabricating the Black Panther helm from Captain America: Civil War, and the process of replicating Harley Quinn’s weapons from suicide squad.
Cutaway Millennium Falcon Model Miniature!
One of our first stops at this year’s Comic-Con was the Quantum Mechanix booth, where we found some amazing new scale models. John Eblan of QmX’s FX Cinema Arts shows us an incredible cutaway Millennium Falcon, a new Star Trek ship, and a fully realized Milano from Guardians of the Galaxy! (Minor Star Trek Beyond spoilers within)
Shot and edited by Adam Isaak
Sean Bishop’s Ghostbusters Ecto-1 Replica!
Ghostbusters fans have been making replicas of props and costumes from the film for decades. But not many people have taken on building their own Ecto-1 replica. We meet Sean Bishop, who has built a highly-detailed reproduction of the iconic car, both outside and in!
Shot by Joey Fameli and edited by Tywen Kelly
Music by Jinglepunks
Adam Savage’s Star Trek Beyond Costume
Adam and Norm geek out over the new Star Trek Beyond uniform and pick out the differences from the past films in the franchise. Here are some close-up details for replica costume makers to scrutinize, including what’s behind the seams. Adam of course tries it on!
Shot and edited by Adam Isaak
Music by Jinglepunks
Episode 359 – Duocast – 7/21/16
Kishore and Norm preview Tested’s Comic-Con coverage, recap the announcements from Star Wars Celebration, and give a spoiler-free review of Star Trek Beyond. Plus, the return of not one but two fan-favorite cartoon series! All that and our weekly technology, science, and VR news updates.
What’s in Our Camera Bag for Comic-Con 2016!
We’re down in San Diego for Comic-Con! As we prep for a week of travel and production, Joey shows you the camera gear he’s packed to shoot and edit the videos we’re making from the convention. We discuss how we go about shooting our show floor videos, and what new gear we’re excited to test on location!
Shot by Adam Isaak and edited by Joey Fameli
Tested Goes to the 2016 Replica Prop Forum Party!
Every year, members of the Replica Prop Forum gather to share their projects and works in progress. Here are some highlights from this year’s RPF party, including great replicas of movie props from Star Trek, Jurassic Park, comic books, and even Pixar films. Check out that Pizza Planet Truck!
Shot and edited by Joey Fameli
Music by Jinglepunks
Star Wars TIE Bomber Cross Section Model
We catch up with modelmaker Jonathan Faber at the Replica Prop Forum party to get an update on his Star Wars TIE Bomber projects, including his recently completed cutaway model. Jonathan explains how he designed the imagined interiors of the ship and points out some of its great detail.
First Comic-Cons – Still Untitled: The Adam Savage Project – 7/19/16
My Love Letter to Cosplay at 2016’s TED Conference
I was privileged to be a speaker at 2016’s TED conference, which was held in Vancouver. You can watch my talk, which was about cosplay, here or scroll below.
I had a totally different talk prepared for TED this year, and I threw it out completely two days before I left for Vancouver.
Originally my talk was going to be about art and science, which is a talk I want to give someday, but it felt like a lecture. And I’m not a university lecturer. A week before TED I realized this talk didn’t have the resonance that I wanted it to.
Art and science — STEAM — is a topic near and dear to me, but I wanted something more personal. More genuine.
Then my wife suggested I talk about costuming. She furiously workshopped the talk with me even after I left for Vancouver, spending dozens of hours with me on the phone. In the end, I wrote most of this at the TED conference itself.
Cosplay as storytelling is really personal to me. It’s also probably the hobby I’m most embarrassed about. Even more than prop collecting, it’s a weird thing to be driven to do. And yet it’s important. I feel like in talking about it, I’m trying to be a permission machine.
Hence my TED talk and my upcoming panel at Comic-Con, where I will be joined by award winning costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Coming To America) and cosplayer Jay Justice. (By the way, yes, that’s me as a kid. I made my own suit of armor. Didn’t you?)
I hope people watch this talk or my Comic-Con panel and feel it’s OK to cosplay. And if they do, I hope they Tweet me a picture.
See you at Comic-Con!