Wednesday 27 March 2013

Proton Pack Progression 2/3 – Geoff

GEOFF (2011 – Present)

 
After wearing Eliza a couple of times I noticed how much things got dinged and just how much stress it was taking even trying to maintain it, after all the material itself was only foam with card stuck to it (also known as foam core) so I decided to finally bite the bullet and build myself a new Proton Pack and make it somewhat more sturdier for future events. After several attempts of getting a shell, I finally managed to get one off ebay... and honestly it wasn’t that great a shell. It took a lot of work fixing most of the problems with it, and it still didn’t help that it was slightly warped on the edges, but I managed to complete it on time (again barely) for Supanova Perth 2011, the first official gathering of the newly minted WA Ghostbusters. We had an absolute blast at that convention and I’m not exaggerating when I say it took us over an hour at one to move less than ten meters at one point, we were photographed so many times I’m glad I wore my sunglasses for the flashes (actually the previous year I looked like I was wearing cherry lip gloss my lips were that raw from all the smiling for photos).
 
After naming the first pack after Eliza Dushku, I really hadn’t thought too much about naming this one until something inspired me. One of the things that bugged me about my first pack was that there wasn’t enough to time and/or to buy or construct the ‘bumper’ at the bottom of the pack, so I was determined to get one on the next pack to try and get it at accurate as possible. That being said one of the biggest snags I encountered when being this pack was that no one was making bumpers and the one I got access too was too small for my pack (yes measurements do vary on these things depending who built what and how). So I got some plans, I measured my pack, scaled everything up to fit, and proceeded to build from scratch a custom bumper that fitted my pack... OUT OF FOAMCORE!!! Yeah I know, considering I retired my old pack because of the same material, however I was running out of time and money so that’s what I had at hand, and a shitload of car body filler. That being said it has still held up this entire time but I’m still thinking of replacing it soon for a more accurate and resin bumper. So why Geoff? Well it’s because the bumper on its side looks like a giant moustache, and there is a great episode of Top Gear where the boys are tasked to make from scratch an electric car, which Jeremy Clarkson designs, adds a moustache to the front and calls it “Geoff”. This always stuck in my mind when I thought about my pack, so I called it Geoff. Simple huh?
 
Geoff has so far been to several conventions, promotional events, cinema screenings, a zombie walk, a Telethon Christmas Pageant and even survived a trip to and from Melbourne relatively unscathed. The only things I had to replace was the Ion Arm Attachment as the rod fell off (and the replacement is not even more accurate) and my gun bracket after some punk nearly broke it in Perth when we were doing promotions. Geoff pretty much has taken up residence in the back room of my parents house on a chair, and he still makes me smile when I walk past him. However with ongoing problems with my back and the strain of constantly carrying over 15 kg of equipment, I wanted to have a change and finally build a pack I’ve wanted almost as long as I’ve wanted a movie GB... an Real Ghostbusters Proton Pack!

2 comments:

  1. It is funny how you work so hard to avoid certain things you always somehow end up with it back in your life. In this case it's you and foam core.

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  2. Yeah, foam core was that one material I swore I'd never use again at one point.. but I just keep going back to it. I must admit it does have it's uses but it's definitely not something that you want to use if you know it's going to get knocked about a bit.

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