Predator conquers Sacramento

[CalPred1]

Here are a few pics of my completed suit. I won the $2,500 costume contest at the Sacramento Zone Ball, which had about 10,000 people there. Special thanks to Chuck Ruffing for helping me put this together over the past ten months! Honorable mention to Bovine 13 and Mumbaki for tips and pointers here and there. I hope you all have/had a great 2007 Halloween!

 

[ronin1]

Man thats great...$2,500?!That hard work payed for itself.Nice suit and congrats on your taking over Sacramento!

Preds rule!

 

[subzeroblack]

thats some nice cash

 

[Squeeter]

That's just fantastic to hear man ! All that time and effort pays off. Sweet.

 

[mumbaki]

AN awesome job on the costume!!! Bad ass suit love the laser's...Thank you for mentioning me and it a pleasure helping other hunters!!!
Pred's rock!!!!

mumbaki

 

[keefer]

very sweet victory!!! And awesome suit!!! The lasers are a great touch..look fantastic with the smoke/dry ice...I have seriously though about gettin some, but would really fear accidently blinding someone with those. Especilly love your canon arm!!!!

 

[CalPred1]

very sweet victory!!! And awesome suit!!! The lasers are a great touch..look fantastic with the smoke/dry ice...I have seriously though about gettin some, but would really fear accidently blinding someone with those. Especilly love your canon arm!!!!

Thanks for the kind words, Keefer. I wouldn't worry too much about blinding someone. Most pred lasers are very low on the standardized laser classification system, e.g. type 1 to 2. See [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_safety#Revised_system"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_safety#Revised_system[/URL]. In other words, it would take much more powerful visible lasers, or infrared lasers that don't trigger the eye's blink reflex (which you wouldn't be using for a pred costume anyway), to do any damage to the eye.

Believe me... the lasers are why I won that contest. If you're up on stage and visible beams sweep the crowd, everyone gets the feeling like they're the one the Pred is looking at, and they go nuts. I hooked mine up to a pressure switch in my mouth so I could turn it off and on by biting down.

 

[carlart]

2 and a half grand? Holy ****, there must have been quite a list of sponsors, or a high cover charge walking in for that kind of payout!
I've never heard of a costume contest paying out that much. One thing's for sure, the predator is always a hit. We Lair folks have certainly picked the right character to recreate costumes of! Great job there, CalPred.

 

[CalPred1]

2 and a half grand? Holy ****, there must have been quite a list of sponsors, or a high cover charge walking in for that kind of payout!
I've never heard of a costume contest paying out that much. One thing's for sure, the predator is always a hit. We Lair folks have certainly picked the right character to recreate costumes of! Great job there, CalPred.

Lots of sponsors, yes. It was a HUGE event. There were three indoor rooms and a couple of outdoor areas packed with people like this:

 

[DangerDavey]

Was that the Exotic/Erotic Zone Ball?

If so, it is the biggest costume event in Sacramento. The competition is fierce and abundant for best costume.
Literally thousands of people go to it each year. One year, I did some major decorations for one when I lived in Sacramento.
I think it was the 2000 or 2001 ZONE Ball that I worked on. Lots of fun and semi-nakedness. I didn't get to enjoy it as much as I would have liked since I was working it. But it was still a blast!!!

Major congratulations!!!


~DD

 

[CalPred1]

Was that the Exotic/Erotic Zone Ball?

If so, it is the biggest costume event in Sacramento. The competition is fierce and abundant for best costume.
Literally thousands of people go to it each year. One year, I did some major decorations for one when I lived in Sacramento.
I think it was the 2000 or 2001 ZONE Ball that I worked on. Lots of fun and semi-nakedness. I didn't get to enjoy it as much as I would have liked since I was working it. But it was still a blast!!!

Major congratulations!!!
~DD

DD:

Thanks for the kind words. Yes, it was the Exotic Zone Ball. The event has grown to be the biggest costume event in NorCal now that the police have shut down the Castro district in S.F. because of all the shootings in recent years, and because the similarly-named Exotic Erotic Ball in S.F. has become so disgusting that fewer and fewer people want to go. The Zone Ball in Sacramento now has about 20,000+ people attend each year, versus the one in S.F. that has about 12-15,000. We had a great time... definitely lots of semi-nakedness!

 

[predelder666]

great costume and amazing lasers did you have lights in the cannon too?

 

[Bovine13]

Congrats on the win. Hell of a payout. The pic with the lasers is sick!

 

[CalPred1]

great costume and amazing lasers did you have lights in the cannon too?

Thanks! Yes, I installed a blue LED inside the cannon.

 

[Mortal Immortal]

That rocks, Glad to hear of your winnings and your suit looks great.

 

[sandnomad]

Sorry but at first i really did'nt even see a pred in that pic.. i did however see the devil... lol your suit is awsome very nice.......

 

[Sand Scout]

Nice suit good job! I'm soooo wanting to get mine started.

 

[Kithunter]

excellent suit!!! i'm going through all the halloween threads now to get the suit thread up to par.

congrats on the win


Andrew

 

[Merlin1]

I hooked mine up to a pressure switch in my mouth so I could turn it off and on by biting down.

May I ask exactly what type of switch you used?
I was thinking of doing wire down to the left gauntlet, but your idea seems somewhat better
(If you don't mind me perhaps copying it )

 

[CalPred1]

May I ask exactly what type of switch you used?
I was thinking of doing wire down to the left gauntlet, but your idea seems somewhat better
(If you don't mind me perhaps copying it )

I don't mind helping out at all. I originally planned to go down to the left gauntlet too, but then you have to deal with the wire connecting your hand to the bio everytime you want to take off the bio. It's a huge pain.

This is what I used: http://www.paintballexpress.com/get_item_s...sure-switch.htm

You cut off the end where it would connect to the back of the flashlight. This exposes the two wires. You'll have to strip them down a bit, so be very careful... the wires are really thin. You then take each of the wires and solder them to your lasers and battery assembly. Then you mount everything inside the bio close enough to your face so you can stretch the "pig tail" wire and put the switch in your mouth. I cut off the finger from a latex glove and put it over the switch so it stays clean and I wouldn't get any beer (or spit) on the switch.

One word of caution. If you're mounting everything inside the bio, including the battery, you must be 150% sure your wiring is PERFECT. The last thing you want is to overheat your battery and have it explode inside the helmet while you're wearing it. One of the other members and I were talking one time about how we'd both messed up our circuits, causing the batteries to get extremely hot. Luckily, we fixed the problem before we installed everything. I recommend getting a set from someone on the Lair that knows what they're doing, and then do some reading on how to make a circuit before installing everything.