Putting the punk in Steampunk (parts1-57)

You would think that after trying to explain steampunk for the entire month of October... and then some, I would have come up with something clever by now, but I haven't really. My best description is: Victorian-era style as though steam emerged *the* main source of power from the Industrial Revolution... with a DaVinci-style gadgety twist.

As usual though, wikipedia says it much better... although I have always wondered why it isn't wikipaedia, with that funny 'ae' like encyclopaedia... No, for serious.

So without further ado... here are some shots from the no-less-than four times that we dressed up for Halloween this year. Some of the odds and ends are way cooler up close and personal, and a little hard to pick out in the pictures... so I'll fill you in as we go.

The Eyeglasses... they were sufficiently Victorian style until I pulled something out of an ancient crt tv that looked like the extra lenses from the glasses in the National Treasure movie.  I spent days trying to figure out how to attach it to them, because I really wanted it to be able to swing up out of the way... and then it hit me! The squeeze tube on my hand soap which closes and locks for your traveling convenience!!! The skies opened up and the angels sang.

My satchel with my spyglass... and Indian Jones whip

My glowing bits

The Jacket. Nobody knows how old it is, or whence it came but it received a little extra aging courtesy of a foot file. Edging was done along the main seams with some copper wire pulled out of some ferrite winding inside an old tv, or it might have been the dvd player... There are furniture tacks on the shoulder seam and rivets down the back, although they weren't quite picture worthy.

Treasure's wicked steampunk wings... that fit through doorways

Note to self: Photoshop in better head... when I learn photoshop

*whispers* I am a little embarrassed to admit that I totally forgot to dress up for work Monday morning... like didn't even cross my mind forgot. THE freaking day-of I was half way to work when I heard it on the radio pulled a questionably legal u-turn and was late for work.

Both gauntlets were built on a kids soccer shin guard base... sprayed to a nice coppery colour. My nephew had a cardiac because he thought they were his, but they weren't... this time ;) The right gauntlet suffered most of the casualties every time we went out, but it was just odds and ends... including the dial from inside a thermostat. The left gauntlet has the entire inner mechanism of an optical drive riveted to it, motor and gears intact... so you can slide it back and forth!!!

Blastering a hole in the floor!

Vaporize!!!!

The Ray Gun" This was actually a functional super-soaker until we modded it,  my nephew hasn't forgiven us for it yet... but it was totally worth it. The glowing ball was actually a toy we found on one of our scavenging trips, it was a clear ball with a spinning disc inside with led's around the edge of the disc... some weird kid picture in the middle and batteries in the handle with a push button.  As soon as I saw it I knew that as cool as it was, it would be EVEN COOLER on my gun!

A few evenings of taking it apart, soldering various pieces back together... testing, soldering... changing batteries and testing!?! *phew* Then cutting the bare minimum plastic bits down to size, hacking out the inside of the screw on water filler cap and it fit like a glove... with some hot glue. But this setup meant that we could unscrew it at any time and change the batteries... brilliant! The batteries ended up working perfectly in their original holder (cut down to the bare minimum also) and had tonnes of room to rattle around inside the super soaker. During the soldering ordeal we drilled a hole through the handle so the start button could be mounted on the trigger position of the handle. Oh and we coated the inside of the ball with glow in the dark powder, because glowing things are awesome!

The holster for "The Ray Gun"... was a pair/set? of strategically wrapped suspenders.