Tuesday 26 March 2013

Proton Pack Progression 1/3 - Eliza

I've recently been going through my photo collection trying to find some pictures of past costumes throughout the years for an album, as it was requested of me to have an easy way to access them. As I was searching I found a picture of the back of my first Proton Pack whilst I was at Supanova in my first year as a Ghostbuster. This kind of got me reflecting on how I’ve come as a costumer and as a prop builder over the years, but more specifically how my Proton Packs have evolved through the builds. At last count I’ve either built or been heavily involved in the building of four movie Proton Packs and two Real Ghostbusters  packs, but here is my personal collection.

NOTE: I originally imagined this would be one post, but I began waffling on so I’m breaking it up into three, each focusing on my personal Proton Packs.

ELIZA (2010)


My first Proton Pack nearly didn’t happen as the fibreglass shell and some parts I had ordered a couple of months before Supanova were never sent to me, as the shell is literally what everything attaches onto and it quite possibly 90% of what makes a Proton Pack, well a Proton Pack. Whilst I did eventually get my money back (not in time for the con mind you), I did get a replacement shell made out of foam core from my fellow buster Brenton to which I frantically painted and attached as much as I could in the days before the con and only got it finally finished the night before. Unfortunately the morning of the Con the mounting bracket where I had attached the Thrower (the Gun bit, which I had purchased and made months before) had popped off due to how fragile foam core was, so I spent the Saturday holding the thrower all day. I fixed it that night before I went off to dinner so I could at least holster it on the Sunday.

It should be noted that on it was only on the Saturday that there were three busters (including myself) although only I was going on the Sunday. Whilst I didn’t need to go in costume for the Sunday, I decided to do so for some more fun... and it was a good thing I did. Whilst waiting in line to get an autograph for (I think) Summer Glau, Eliza Dushku saw my costume and absolutely flipped and when I went for her autograph she asked if she could wear me pack... and this happened!


Yes that is the photo I took of Eliza Dushku wearing my pack, and was named after her from then on, and I uploaded the photo onto my Flickr account. The next day I was bombarded with messages (not really, just “WTF DUDE!” from my GB buddies) as reports spawned on some of the biggest GB sites on the internet after Eliza Dushku had found my photo and tweeted it! Read about it here and here!

After a couple more outings with Eliza, including a Hollywood themed party which I won first prize, I was getting worried about her getting damaged so I decided to retire her in favour of a fibreglass shell and try to make it a bit more accurate as well.

4 comments:

  1. Finally, some history on Eliza! :D

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  2. Actually there is more on the GBFans page about the encounter, and it's probably more reliable then my memory because I wrote it shortly afterwards when it came out!

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  3. I remember this picture. Pretty amazing work for a last minute pack and a great story with a happy ending and err'thang! Good times!

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  4. Yeah that was a surreal moment and I'm a bit disappointed no more pictures of that turned up, although I do have some photos of myself with Eliza wearing the pack somewhere as I'm not sure if I ever posted them.

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