My Blood Berry Beam Katana and Travis Touchdown Costume
Thursday, 8. November 2007, 17:25:00
It looks like no one else wanted to be Travis Touchdown for Halloween. Despite me saying for nearly a year that that's who I was going to go as, work became so time cosuming that I only had time to even begin working on my costume on November 5th. Why did I even bother? Two reasons: I really wanted to go as Travis Touchdown, and there was still 2 days to enter pictures in the N+ Halloween Costume CoN+est.+ Click here to Digg this sweetness and support tinkering/honest fun.
+ I was just informed this is the Opera Community top news story, here. - Thanks, Espen
+ Naoko from Grasshopper Manufacture sent me a message.
+ Nintendo Wii Fanboy likes it, too.
+ GoNintendo likes it.
+ Well, now when you search Google for Beam Katana or Travis Touchdown, there's a bunch of first page results about this.
+ Kotaku really likes it.
The main character (characters page) in No More Heroes, a game coming out for Wii in Japan in December and the US in February. Travis, an otaku, buys a Beam Katana in an online auction and ends up battling assassins in the town in which he resides, Santa Destroy, CA. (gallery)Wait, who is Travis Touchdown?
I decided to make the Blood Berry Beam Katana because it's far more complicated and looks a lot less like a traditional light saber. I used a Star Wars Force FX Light Saber as the base, among other supplies. The best part is that the prop retains all of it's original durability. That means that just like a normal Force FX light saber, you can swing and smash this thing into anything and the sounds and durablity aren't sacrificed. It still rests on the Force FX base as well, but I think I'm going to make a special wall mount. And if I can figure out how to get it to not turn off after a minute of not being used, I'm going to turn it into a powered lamp by taking out the battery/speaker unit that is politely designed as a single piece and just wiring it up and adding a plug. This way it won't make noise as a lamp and I can always put the battery pack back in for portable fun/death dealing.
The handle-looking things I later realized aren't handles at all, but I had already made them super sturdy, enough that you can swing this thing around by them if you wish. And yes, there are two, it takes a lot of screen shot analysis to say that with conficence.
There's a bright red master switch located within prime thumbing area, and that glows pretty bright thanks to an LED from my box of LEDs I ripped out of stuff.In the video game, Travis needs to re-charge his Beam Katana every now and then by shaking it. So for fun I decided to include a Battery Meter. (larger pictures here) It really is a nice touch, and when you shake the Beam Katana, the needle moves.
There's already a million things I want to do differently, like not to forget putting on the orange piping before I took all these pictures. And I'm not satisfied with the tip, I had no way of making it gold under the time constraints. But for only 2 days worth of off-and-on work, and very little planning, I think it came out pretty sweet.
The total cost was around $150-160, with $120 of that being the original light saber purchased specifically for this task. No, I didn't just use one I had. If that makes you angry, I'm sorry. I spent 2 hours in Home Depot, 1 hour in a craft store, a quick stop at a Radio Shack, and went to 7 stores looking for Travis glasses, and I ended up using glasses I had. Had the jacket, too. Made the shirt from two shirts I got at a thrift store and a lot of sharpie markers and sewing. I think I spent the least ammount of time on my hair, ironically/considerably less than I spend on it before I go out. I haven't sat around and worked on something in a loooong time. This was totally worth the cost and effort.
Capt Seagull (1:46:35 AM): what would be so fitting (but dont do) is to sell it on ebay! hahaha
Battle Happen (1:51:00 AM): haha i know
Battle Happen (1:51:05 AM): i should add that to my post

Check out my Blood Berry Beam Katana gallery and let me know your thoughts.
Digg this.
MyOpera Story.









1 2 Next »
Vetle Roeim # 8. November 2007, 12:20
Anonymous # 8. November 2007, 12:51
Man that's so well done!
Geoff Girardin # 8. November 2007, 13:41
Nice work.
José Torres # 8. November 2007, 15:40
yeeliberto # 8. November 2007, 18:11
I visited today again this page because I wanted to see if you were going to put your image in your blog.
Djordje Gavrilovic # 9. November 2007, 00:12
Anonymous # 9. November 2007, 00:34
That is really freakin' sweet. Nice work. I hope you win.
Anonymous # 9. November 2007, 01:38
YOU! ARE! AWESOME! That beam katana is very well done. I wouldn't be surprised if this was an official merchandise that's how good it is. Oh, and the costume is pretty neat too.
Anonymous # 9. November 2007, 02:36
No offense, but none of that stuff looks even close to Travis Touchdown. The hair, jacket, gloves, and glasses are way off. Sorry. But the beam katana, that is awesome. Nice work on that.
Joel Luther # 9. November 2007, 03:26
Anonymous # 9. November 2007, 05:40
"way off" ????
uh considering he made it clear that he went to 7 stores for the glasses and did all that in under 2 days... and didnt even really try on tyhe hair, i'd say he did as well a job as anyone could have dreamed.
congratulations Ed, this is one for the books.
Anonymous # 9. November 2007, 07:29
Suggestion: Y'know those Flashlights that you charge by shaking them? You should figure out a way to implement it in the Lightsaber handle - Then you can recharge it like Travis does in the game. Looks good!
Aaron # 9. November 2007, 12:53
.ed # 9. November 2007, 17:27
wow i did! sweet.
thanks to everyone digging!
Anonymous # 9. November 2007, 18:54
Looked amazing! one of the best costumes ive ever seen.
.ed # 9. November 2007, 19:11
thanks, you robo-web-thing...
.ed # 9. November 2007, 19:11
Make Way for the M.E.G. # 9. November 2007, 19:19
.ed # 9. November 2007, 19:36
.ed # 9. November 2007, 19:52
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seans potato business # 10. November 2007, 03:07
Haavard # 14. November 2007, 13:56
How brave of you to write that anonymously
Anonymous # 14. November 2007, 15:21
Everyone is anonymous.
Anonymous # 15. November 2007, 09:17
How old is this guy?
Haavard # 15. November 2007, 11:37
That's what you think
.ed # 15. November 2007, 17:11
26
Anonymous # 18. November 2007, 10:32
Snaps
Anonymous # 1. December 2007, 21:38
Your costume is pretty bad, but that's the case w/ all closet cosplay.
I'm currently working on a Blood Berry (with the same Lightsaber base, roflganger). For every ounce of negative criticism I have on the costume itself, I think you did a bang-up awesome job on the Blood Berry. For something made with a "closet-cosplay" base, the work you did is excellent.
tl;dr: your costume itself needs improvement, but your prop is excellent, even in light of your comment that you don't like the remainder with the top. Overall: B.
PS. not posting anonymously because luzorz do that.
Anonymous # 2. December 2007, 11:26
Beautiful! You really paid attention to every detail! I am compelled to buy and make my own bloodberry or tsubaki.
Anton # 4. December 2007, 06:21
... better than ed
Anonymous # 8. December 2007, 20:16
Hi, can you e-mail me how to make either beam katana? I'm not very good at building anything, but I want to go to a convention as Travis.
my email is wisemanwannabe@yahoo.com
I wanna try the Blood Berry Beam Katana.
Anonymous # 9. December 2007, 19:21
If you sold it on ebay and someone named Travis bought it ..
I'd be scared.
Anonymous # 24. December 2007, 04:59
You nerd... (which is a good thing... lol)
# 27. December 2007, 10:41
Its been a long long while since we last spoke. :O
How are you??
I love the Katana and I love that picture of you!
Tis Great!
Kai Jean Marc Maatta # 21. January 2008, 00:58
Anonymous # 28. January 2008, 17:22
Me want Berry Blood Beam Katana so bad... XD
Anonymous # 19. February 2008, 07:03
That's awesome! Kudos for all that amazing work you did with the beam katana and the costume.
If you or anyone else wants to see more Travis and Silvia cosplay, check out this link:
http://www.cosplay.com/costume/124248/
Those guys are amazing too!
(However, they didn't get the beam katana spot on like you did)
Anonymous # 21. February 2008, 04:16
Where did you get the jacket from?
Anonymous # 22. February 2008, 02:18
I know a lot of people like to keep their creation secrets well... secret, but is there any chance of us big fans getting some advice on parts, if not, a full walkthrough? Or would you prefer an email for this kind of question?
Anonymous # 22. February 2008, 10:55
Holy god this is awesome. Are you considering making a guide on how to make one of these some day?
Anonymous # 2. March 2008, 01:37
to sick i just rented the game and i wish i had that too well done
Anonymous # 8. March 2008, 12:16
man that is so freaking awesome. just seriously. woah.
Anonymous # 14. April 2008, 18:56
Dude thats awsome.I wanna create my own Beam Katana but i dont know how :D
Anonymous # 23. April 2008, 15:15
how easy was it to make the katana and can you give me any tips how to make one as cheap as i can. and where did you get the tee from. please e-mail me with the hints. hawkins101@live.co.uk
Anonymous # 13. May 2008, 05:24
any tips on items to make it my emails tylerofthedark@aol.com
and by the way its great
costume and sword
Anonymous # 7. June 2008, 16:35
Really cool :yes:
Anonymous # 22. June 2008, 23:25
Hmm
Very well made!
Looks as if its the real thing!
If you used the flashlight thing to power it up you must be crazy...
i saw one and it took forever to power just to look under my bed...
I wana see the Tsubaki MK III
Anonymous # 22. July 2008, 16:34
you should have gotten a leather glove instead. it would look a lot better imo
great job though with the katana
Anonymous # 23. October 2008, 19:50
Hi!
Your Beam Katana is awesome!
I go to a Convention in France (because I live in France) in a few months and I would know if you could send me a list of what I need to make the Blood Berry Beam Katana.
I leave you my email adress : nightwing_21@hotmail.com
Thanks ;)
Tim
Anonymous # 11. January 2009, 06:30
super...es igualita a la del juego...felicitaciones