The Anovos Kylo Ren Costume

Trooper armor is easier to duplicate once you've made your bucks (which are simple in design). For the most part, you just form, cut, assemble. Every Kylo will require a lot more work and cost way more in materials. Plus, Kylo's helmet is far more complex than anything on a trooper.

It just depends. If your doing a scratch build. Storm trooper has more parts and it takes more time to assemble and then vacuform them and get everything correct. Kylo its mostly just the helmet then putting the clothing together. When I made my cap phasma from scratch It took a total of 9 months to get everything done and thats without painting.
 
I'm sorry, I think it's insane that they would actually advertise ANOTHER pre-order item. At what point do they stop worrying about the money grab and fulfill the pre-orders that people have been waiting over 2 YEARS for?! I know that this (the RPF) is their home court, but every time I see yet another e-mail hawking a pre-order item I just delete it. There is absolutely ZERO reason that a cosplay item should take over a year to receive, let alone 2 years.
 
I'm sorry, I think it's insane that they would actually advertise ANOTHER pre-order item. At what point do they stop worrying about the money grab and fulfill the pre-orders that people have been waiting over 2 YEARS for?! I know that this (the RPF) is their home court, but every time I see yet another e-mail hawking a pre-order item I just delete it. There is absolutely ZERO reason that a cosplay item should take over a year to receive, let alone 2 years.

The thing is it isn't just a simple "cosplay item" but a real deal movie costume replica with an official license from Disney. No one will disagree with you that it's absolutely horrible how they've failed to ship Vader after more than 2 years. On the other hand I imagine they basically have to fund the costumes R&D cost from our pre-order payments which isn't ideal and requires a lot of consumer trust. They're in that business for quite a while and delivered some Star Wars costumes already. I think Anovos absolutely failed at focusing on only a few costumes and actually delivering them, instead of introducing new ones every month or so... there's no reason to defend them but we also shouldn't act as if they're purely lazy or scammers.
 
It just depends. If your doing a scratch build. Storm trooper has more parts and it takes more time to assemble and then vacuform them and get everything correct. Kylo its mostly just the helmet then putting the clothing together. When I made my cap phasma from scratch It took a total of 9 months to get everything done and thats without painting.

I strongly disagree for the reasons I already stated. How long it took you is a bit irrelevant because of repeatability (see my previous reply). You seem to not be considering cost of materials and actually scratch building a Kylo (aside from cast helmet, they're all essentially scratch built). It's not just "putting the clothing together", it's a **** ton of sewing every order.
 
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I strongly disagree for the reasons I already stated. How long it took you is a bit irrelevant because of repeatability (see my previous reply). You seem to not be considering cost of materials and actually scratch building a Kylo (aside from cast helmet, they're all essentially scratch built). It's not just "putting the clothing together", it's a **** ton of sewing every order.

No prob everyone has a right to disagree.
My stand just comes from that there are about 22 parts of armor you must build from scratch and then mold or vacuform including the helmet for any kind of trooper armor.

While kylo ren its just the helmet you have to do this to and the rest is clothing and a belt buckle.
Its a bit easier to make a kylo ren costume from scratch then a full armor costume.

Sewing is easier for some and you dont have to mess with making molds after you make your original.
 
No prob everyone has a right to disagree.
My stand just comes from that there are about 22 parts of armor you must build from scratch and then mold or vacuform including the helmet for any kind of trooper armor.

While kylo ren its just the helmet you have to do this to and the rest is clothing and a belt buckle.
Its a bit easier to make a kylo ren costume from scratch then a full armor costume.

Sewing is easier for some and you dont have to mess with making molds after you make your original.

Well, if you want to make multiple fabric costumes, you have to trace/cut fabric from patterns, and in the case of Kylo's undercoat, do pleating and ironing, then sewing, finishing seams, installing zippers, hemming, and whatever other small adjustments.

Vs armor, which would be vacforming sheets of plastic, trimming, gluing, and adding straps, installing lenses.

I'm not saying one is easier since I don't have extensive experience in both, but in the case of multiples, fabric costumes might be more time consuming. Also, with Kylo Ren's, it's 3 different coats (under, mid, and outer), pants, boots, hoot, belt, gloves, and neck seal.
 
Well, if you want to make multiple fabric costumes, you have to trace/cut fabric from patterns, and in the case of Kylo's undercoat, do pleating and ironing, then sewing, finishing seams, installing zippers, hemming, and whatever other small adjustments.

Vs armor, which would be vacforming sheets of plastic, trimming, gluing, and adding straps, installing lenses.

I'm not saying one is easier since I don't have extensive experience in both, but in the case of multiples, fabric costumes might be more time consuming. Also, with Kylo Ren's, it's 3 different coats (under, mid, and outer), pants, boots, hoot, belt, gloves, and neck seal.

Just so you understand. A scratch build is not just ( vacforming sheets of plastic, trimming, gluing, and adding straps, installing lenses.)

you have a lump of clay
You have to sculpt out your form.
Or you have pepekura that you have to fiberglass resin the outside and inside, then apply bondo and rondo and sand that down and etch in details with a dremel
Or you build something out of wood etc and use bondo and such to get your details but your still sanding alot
Or you use expanding foam and carve out a form.

Next you have to then make a silicon mold out of that so you can cast a copy
Once you make your copy you have to sand your cast down to get it smooth and ready to be painted.
The lenses are another issue as you have to create, from one of the casts a form block to vacuform the plastic properly so it creates the perfect fit of lenses.

Some parts you can vacuform and not have to make molds but things like the helmet or parts that go all the way around are usually molds.
Its building the first parts of the scratch build the raw casts which takes the most time. And your doing this for about 20 to 22 peices depending on the trooper or mando or what not.

If you have a kit then your just vacuforming and adjusting plastic and adding the straps etc. Then its easy. and its not a scratch build. So in that case yes kylo ren could be more difficult due to the seamstress work. But if were comparing it to a scratch build of a trooper armor with 20 pieces that have to be individually built. Trooper is more difficult when it comes to skill levels during a scratch build.
 

Now you're confusing skill with time. Everything you mentioned you can or has to be done to make all of Kylo's hard parts AND you have to sew, do leather work, manually apply coatings to fabric (believe it's heated wax). Also, Kylo isn't Kylo without his saber, it defines his personality in the movie. Even if you buy a Force FX saber you have to mod it to get it accurate. The paint is terrible and cartoonish, hilt DIA is way too wide and side emitters are too stubby and also need to have their DIA reduced significantly. So that's metal work and if you want the blades removable (which why wouldn't you) you'll need to do a conversion requiring a fair amount of electrical work and relocation of internals.

Even if your costume comprised of 22 helmets, it wouldn't require more skill than making a single Kylo Helmet (which is more complex than anything on a trooper) and you still have to deal with all the other aspects of the build.. Doing a lot of one thing doesn't require more skill, just more time and endurance.

Not sure how this discussion went from why Anovos is charging so much for Kylo to the difficulty of making a single costume from the ground up, but meh.
 
Did anyone ever find out if Kylo ever wears the mid coat and outer coat at the same time?? I feel like I've really searched the movie over and can't tell. I can't even tell if the mid coat is on in the exhibit pics either. Is the mid coat strictly a star killer base outfit?
 
Did anyone ever find out if Kylo ever wears the mid coat and outer coat at the same time?? I feel like I've really searched the movie over and can't tell. I can't even tell if the mid coat is on in the exhibit pics either. Is the mid coat strictly a star killer base outfit?
He wears both in these pics:
vf1.jpgvf3.jpg
 
Those were the only pics I could find also that he has both of them on. Problem is it's not in the movie. I guess I'm wanting to know if it's 501st approved without the mid coat. I would assume the anovos is 501st approved as is but I could be wrong. I just can't seem to find any other time where he has both of them on other than those two pictures. I looked at some of the Toronto exhibit pics and it seems to me it's not on in that exhibit.
 
Those were the only pics I could find also that he has both of them on. Problem is it's not in the movie. I guess I'm wanting to know if it's 501st approved without the mid coat. I would assume the anovos is 501st approved as is but I could be wrong. I just can't seem to find any other time where he has both of them on other than those two pictures. I looked at some of the Toronto exhibit pics and it seems to me it's not on in that exhibit.
Kylo is definitely wearing it on Takodana, it's visible there. Maybe there are more scenes but the dark lighting makes it impossible to tell for sure. Promo pictures have nothing to do with the movie outfit. Often times the promo shoots depict a slightly different costume, for various reasons.
You can read more about the midcoat topic and 501st requirements on the Sith Lord Detachment forums - there's no guarantee that the ANOVOS costume can be 501st approved but the midcoat probably won't be required for level 1 cert. Check out the CRL development thread over there.
 
Oh I've read the CLR inside and out. I was just trying to shed a layer if at all possible ;) I already have a wool twill mid coat for 501st certification. I just didn't know if it was something Kylo wore all the time with the outer coat or just whenever
 
Looking again at the video of Adam Savage wearing the Anovis ensemble, I noticed that he's wearing the midcoat under the outer robe, and it has the accurate camo like texture. I didn't know Anovos offered the midcoat aas part of the costume?
 
Looking at the site it seems like this has been pushed back to Q1 2017. I should have known but still ughhh

Hopefully they let us preorder the mid tunic soon as well.
 
100% screen accurate doesn't always mean the most comfortable to wear when you don all the parts to this costume. Also to justify sweating your arse off in this $3000.00 costume makes me a little nervous. Having trooped twice in my homemade/custom non-movie accurate costume and having it dripping wet from an 10 hour wearing you might want to think twice before sending a $3000 investment to the cleaners. I'm nervous enough sending my $500 soft parts to the cleaners.
 
Is it just me or in the Adam Savage's video of him wearing Kylo undercover on Comic Con outer robe and sleeves look... plasticy? I mean they look very stiff, like made from vinyl or polyester.
 

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