Everyone loves costume roundups, right? Our Día de los Muertos
present to you: a visual post-mortem from this year's Rock & Shock con.
PHOTOS: Click here to see more ghoulish getups from Rock & Shock
2012.
#1. Christina Blamire
[spotted with friend Fiona], spotted in the celebrity-autograph zone
So how long did it take
to apply your Predator face?
It took about three to four hours to mold it all on and cut it
down from the real mask. I cut the jaw to the real mask, and we just molded it
to my face.
Can you describe what
you guys sell here?
Everything horror-related. [Fiona, of Fiona's
Fright Shoppe] started it because she couldn't find any horror stuff
for kids so she started making her own clothing line, and binkies, and all
kinds of stuff. They make their own soap and coffee called "Deadly Grounds" and
all different kinds of stuff. And then we've always been horror fans, though.
She has a bunch of collectables and hard-to-find stuff. Just cool fun stuff
too, like little kids' books, all horror-related. [Laughs]
Have you been to Rock
& Shock before?
Yup, we have a booth here every year.
So what brings you guys
back every year?
Mostly the energy of the entire thing; concerts afterwards are
always fun, lets loose after working all day. Of course, the awesome
celebrities that are here...
Whose autograph are you
looking to get today?
Oh, well, I just got Derek Mears, of course. And I wanna do
Candyman. And I've gotten -- I mean, we're here every year, so we've gotten a
few of the regulars already. Like Bill Moseley, Sid Haig, those are some of my
favorites because I love House of 1000
Corpses, of course.
#2: Mary Courtney (aka
Captain Cruncher), spotted checking out one of the merch booths
So what brings you here
to Rock n' Shock today?
Just to promote the Worcester Roller Derby, just get out there,
you know. We're all big fans of this kind of stuff. We figured that the two
combined would be kind of cool.
Yeah, it's a pretty good
combination. So when's your next match?
We're actually in the off-season right now. We'll probably
start bouting again in about March. So we're skating, we're recruiting right
now.
Are you a regular at
Rock & Shock?
This is actually my first time being here. I've heard of it
before, I just didn't have the time to come down here.
Are you enjoying it so
far?
Oh, of course, yeah. Everyone's really nice, there's a ton of
stuff to look at, and we can skate around on this awesome floor. We're actually
trying to rent this out, maybe, in the future when we get a little bit more
money for our league.
#3: Cazimir Bzdyra, spotted towering above the crowd
I have been trying to
figure out what the deal is with this booth. What do you guys do?
We're the Toy Soldiers Unite. We're a community group
that's global, and our sole purpose is to make fun our top priority.
That sounds sinister.
It's not a world takeover, it's a world makeover. The world's
kind of humdrum. So if everyone's having fun, everything ends up getting
better. It's actually been scientifically proven that if you smile your body
thinks that you're feeling better and you'll start feeling better if you're
depressed or something like that. It's that same mentality. We do these
different invasions, these different recruitment groups all over the globe. We
have another brother-group over in the UK right now, at the MCM Expo.
Kind of a friendly competition between the two booths. We want to make ours
bigger and better.
Where are you guys based
out of?
It's a global
community, so we're all over the place. It's a digital bunker. We've got people
primarily on the East Coast and West Coast, sprinkled throughout the Midwest,
heavy in the UK, we've got Soldiers in Germany, Japan, Israel -- all over the
place.
Oh my god, the axis of
fun.
Exactly.
How did this start?
We started off as a street team for a performing artist called
Dr. Steel. ... He's from San Diego. He retired two years ago, and at that point,
we could either just let the group dissolve, but we decided to take the
mentality of making fun a top priority, and keep on with that message. So
that's what we do.
[Other Toy Soldier] When he retired we had 35,000 members strong.
People were upset when he quit, so we lost numbers, but we are regaining our
strength.
So, what's your idea of
fun?
My idea? I'm up here on stilts, walking around at the con,
getting all sorts of weird looks. The best part for me about that most people's
view is about what their head-height is. So they don't see me. I'm standing
there and I'll move slightly and they'll get startled even though they're right
next to me. That's lots of fun. ... I think Einstein said that a good fright is
worth more to a man than good advice.
Let's talk about these
stilts. Did you assemble these stilts?
No, these are store-bought. I put the lights in them just to
kind of give it a little bit more visibility. I've got other pairs as well. I'm
working toward getting some dynamic ones with the carbon fiber blades so I can
spring around a little bit. ... Yeah, I walked three and a half miles in these
last Sunday for a community walk down in Connecticut.
Have you guys been to
Rock & Shock before?
I've been to every Rock & Shock.
If you had one message
that you wanted to impart to people reading this?
Follow your imagination.
#4: Ophelia Hathaway,
spotted manning the Frightful Acts photo booth
So tell me about your masks.
These masks are actually about 10 years old, which shows you
how well some of our stuff holds up. They're made out of silicone. Latex tends
to break down eventually, but these are 10-year-old masks. Sculptures, really.
... These are personal projects of our co-founder. These were actually his
art-school senior thesis, the culmination of his art school talent. Then the
company has been around for two years.
Where are you guys based
out of?
Beverly, Massachusetts.
How did you start out
with Frightful Acts?
I've only been with the company for about a year now. ... [Before
joining Frightful Acts], I've been doing costumes on my own, like, for
Halloween and different things here and there. Like I've done steampunk
conventions and historical recreations and stuff.
What conventions have
you done?
There was a small steampunk convention in Salem. ... Everyone
there is super friendly. It's great. Everyone's a lot of fun to hang out with.
You just kind of dress up and hang out for the day. So I've been doing costumes
on my own for a long time. ... So [Frightful Acts] were looking for somebody to
start helping out with costumes for the masks. ... I brought in what I had
done, and he loved it, so I started working with the company.
These
masks are covered with tufts of fur and stuff like that. What kinds of
materials do you guys work with?
We have like one has porcupine quills in it and feathers and
stuff, and they're actually punched into the silicone. ... The silicone grabs it,
and they stick right in. We use a lot of different materials.
What are some of your
greatest hits?
The Aztec one, definitely, I think is one of the best ones.
That one was a huge collaboration between everyone. What else is there? I had
made this huge [medieval dress], and it was supposed to be Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty as if she was a little
more historically accurately done. I've done historical recreations before. ...
It's fun to do something that's not quite horror with the masks; it's not all
gore and stuff.
Did you study costuming
at school?
I did not. I was actually an illustration major. They don't
really offer costume-making at Montserrat, and I didn't really know -- I knew
there were colleges that offered fashion courses, but I wasn't interested in
fashion, not today's fashions. I was interested in historical fashions and
costumes and elaborate things. I was also very interested in illustration, so I
ended up going to school for illustration, and my costumes took a back burner
for a little while.
Where do these masks
usually end up going? Are they just bought by private collectors?
Yeah. Most of them go to private collectors, but I know last
year, they sold a few masks to Canobie Lake Park to be in their demon house or
something. And we were just recently contacted by somebody who is like a
producer on Cirque du Soleil.