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My Blood Berry Beam Katana and Travis Touchdown Costume

Thursday, 8. November 2007, 17:25:00

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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.

Wait, who is Travis Touchdown?

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)
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.

ChargingGrasshopper Manufacture Email

Comments

Vetle Roeim 8. November 2007, 12:20

Hahaha, awesome!

Anonymous 8. November 2007, 12:51

r0mpMike writes:

Man that's so well done!

Geoff Girardin 8. November 2007, 13:41

That is one hot katana.

Nice work.

José Torres 8. November 2007, 15:40

Great:up:

yeeliberto 8. November 2007, 18:11

The saber look very good.
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

congratulations man - this is insanely good

Anonymous 9. November 2007, 00:34

SidearmS writes:

That is really freakin' sweet. Nice work. I hope you win.

Anonymous 9. November 2007, 01:38

Game-tech writes:

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

Hiro writes:

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.

Anonymous 9. November 2007, 05:40

to Hiro writes:

"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

Anonymous writes:

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

Yo .ed! Way to make digg frontpage! I'm gonna freaking go insane waiting for this game to come out. Suda can have like 10000 of my babies (for dinner).

.ed 9. November 2007, 17:27

hahhaha

wow i did! sweet.

thanks to everyone digging!

Anonymous 9. November 2007, 18:54

Oculin writes:

Looked amazing! one of the best costumes ive ever seen.

.ed 9. November 2007, 19:11

i'm not sure what popurls.com does really, except pull in top news from different news places, but they're sending lots of people here.

thanks, you robo-web-thing...

.ed 9. November 2007, 19:11

and therpf.com a replica prop forum seems to like it..

Make Way for the M.E.G. 9. November 2007, 19:19

you're also the 3rd entry when you google "travis touchdown"

.ed 9. November 2007, 19:52

i cant keep up... here is a list of the top referral sites now:

Domain
digg.com
www.digg.com
kotaku.com
Bookmark or direct
my.opera.com
popurls.com
reddit.com
www.therpf.com
www.netvibes.com
www.google.com
gonintendo.com
www.kotaku.com.au
www.nintendowiifanboy.com
blockedReferrer
www.yandex.ru
go.mail.ru
d.hatena.ne.jp
www.universo-nintendo.com
therpf.com
glozer.net
diggriver.com
us.kotaku.com
forums.gametrailers.com
search.live.com
www.gamereactor.se
www.destructoid.com
www.diggriver.com
www.stumbleupon.com
www.google.it
www.bloglines.com
duggtrends.com
feeds.gawker.com
wiinintendo.net
www.wiiwii.tv
www.duggtrends.com
www.wiiliving.com
nintendowii.topdiggnews.com
uakron.facebook.com
ime.nu
Not Your Business!
www.newsgator.com
digg.originalsignal.com
www.facebook.com
www.hitslink.com
images.google.gr
onnintendo.com
www.4colorrebellion.com
files.myopera.com
www.joystiq.com
www.google.fi
search.msn.no
search.virginmedia.com
search.prodigy.msn.com
www.google.co.uk
images.google.com
www.google.ca
images.google.com.au
search.comcast.net
mail.google.com
www.google.ie
notify.bluecoat.com
wii.wakufactory.jp
www.beverung.de
reader.livedoor.com
search.icq.com
www.techzonept.com
www.in4matrix.co.uk
kura.livejournal.com
www.gconsole.com
terrakazama.livejournal.com
www.glozer.net
www.sponsorsnet.com
playwithyourwii.com
www.n-g-online.com
universo-nintendo.com
www.niwifi.net

seans potato business 10. November 2007, 03:07

What's a blood berry? This article is the first google hit...

Haavard 14. November 2007, 13:56

:lol:

How brave of you to write that anonymously :wink:

Anonymous 14. November 2007, 15:21

Anonymous writes:

Everyone is anonymous.

Anonymous 15. November 2007, 09:17

Anonymous writes:

How old is this guy?

Haavard 15. November 2007, 11:37

Everyone is anonymous.


That's what you think :wink: Everything you do online leaves traces.

.ed 15. November 2007, 17:11

To Anonymous:

26

Anonymous 18. November 2007, 10:32

Ano[ther] nymous writes:

Snaps

Anonymous 1. December 2007, 21:38

BlindKijin writes:

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

Anonymous writes:

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

i was thinking tsubaki as well, but I REALLY love the handle on the blood berry. I need to make that one.


... better than ed :wink:

Anonymous 8. December 2007, 20:16

Rusell Viloria writes:

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

Yin writes:

If you sold it on ebay and someone named Travis bought it ..

I'd be scared.

Anonymous 24. December 2007, 04:59

Anonymous writes:

You nerd... (which is a good thing... lol)

27. December 2007, 10:41

hey :smile:
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

:coffee: wow wow wow :sing: Dot Eddy wine:cheers: Happy New Year 2008 :hat:

Anonymous 28. January 2008, 17:22

Emcnelis writes:

Me want Berry Blood Beam Katana so bad... XD

Anonymous 19. February 2008, 07:03

Laura writes:

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

Anonymous writes:

Where did you get the jacket from?

Anonymous 22. February 2008, 02:18

Vez writes:

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

Anonymous writes:

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

Anonymous writes:

to sick i just rented the game and i wish i had that too well done

Anonymous 8. March 2008, 12:16

Anonymous writes:

man that is so freaking awesome. just seriously. woah.

Anonymous 14. April 2008, 18:56

Anonymous writes:

Dude thats awsome.I wanna create my own Beam Katana but i dont know how :D

Anonymous 23. April 2008, 15:15

Anonymous writes:

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

T. T. writes:

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

Lalala writes:

Really cool :yes:

Anonymous 22. June 2008, 23:25

Erick525 writes:

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

Anonymous writes:

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

Anonymous writes:

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

vancho writes:

super...es igualita a la del juego...felicitaciones

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