Zombie Storm Trooper, anyone?

Tis the season to be someone else. With Halloween upon us, ForeverGeek wants to hear about your personal costuming plans! Are you dressing up? Are you going with off-the-rack, or designing something from scratch? Will you gore it up by zombifying yourself? (It’s what all the cool kids are doing!) Or do you shrug off “dressing up” as childish?

Take our poll, and then give us details about your Halloween plans in the Comments or over on the ForeverGeek Forum.

[Image source.]

Are you a Star Wars fan? Prove it. Show the world your love for the most important scifi saga of all time by sporting your very own authentic Star Wars costume. We’re making it easy by giving away one high quality costume up to $60 in value!

UPDATE: We have a winner! Thank you for entering, and please check back soon for our next contest!

BuyStarWarsCostumes.com carries some of the best Star Wars costumes in the world. Their selection includes both adult and children-sized costumes, with a huge catalog from both the original and prequel trilogies. They’re offering one lucky ForeverGeek reader your choice of any costume from their catalog up to $60 in value. (The four costumes seen above are examples of available costumes that sell for less than $60.) Note that this contest is open only to U.S. residents.

This is a Share + Link contest. (If you’ve entered one of our “Tweet + Link” contests in the past, you’ll recognize these rules — only now we’re adding Facebook and Google+ as sharing options.) To enter:

Step 1: Copy & paste the following, and share it on one (or more) of the following social networks: Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.

I just entered to win a high-quality STAR WARS COSTUME from @geekforever! Enter here: http://spm.me/swcostume #contests #starwars #costumes

Step 2: Leave us a Comment on this page (below) to let us know you shared, and paste the direct link to your social network status in your Comment. (Note that our Comments are moderated, so it may not show up immediately after you click the “Post Comment” button.)

In case you don’t know how to find a status post’s individual URL, here’s a little guide.

For Twitter, it’s the timestamp just below your Tweet at Twitter.com, as seen here:

The timestamp is also the link for Facebook:

For Google+, you guessed it — the timestamp is the link:

One winner will be selected at random, using a random number generator, from the Commenters on this page at or around 8:pm EST on Friday, October 7th. Winners will be notified via their social network of choice, after which we’ll send their mailing address to the good folks at BuyStarWarsCostumes.com so they can ship you your prize.

One last important thing: You can enter the contest once per day between now and the 7th — but no more. (That’s up to 11 total Shares + Comments if you enter every day.) Enter more than once daily and all your entries will be disqualified. Gotta keep it fair!

Good luck!

Right up there with flying, or maybe wallcrawling, there may be no other superpower that fans covet more than Wolverine‘s claws.

Cosplayers love to wear fake claws, but they can’t actually pop them the way that Logan does. There have been fans who’ve managed to make fake claws that expand and retract, but this has always required a switch or lever, which undoubtedly dilutes the experience. Even Hugh Jackman, who plays Wolverine in the movies and uses the highest-quality faux-adamantium claws money can buy, has no idea what it feels like to make those claws pop out — his Hollywood prop claws are real enough, but when they pop on screen, it’s a CGI effect.

Well, those days are over. One very smart geek, who goes by the moniker “FingerRails” on YouTube, has finally figured out how to make claws, which are worn like a gauntlet over the forearm, that realistically pop. As he explains, he installed a release mechanism at the gauntlet’s bicep, so that flexing his bicep causes the claws to pop out.

Are you geeking out over this as much as I am? This is absolutely the closest possible thing that fans could come up with to mimic Wolverine’s signature weapons without actually installing them beneath the skin. (I’d be willing to bet that in the far off future, somebody will find a way to make that happen.) “FingerRails” says he made one set of claws in just two days. (He now has one set for each arm.) If they were that easy to make, you have to wonder why nobody thought of this before.

Oh, and in case you were wondering: the blades are real. He made them from steel, with the gauntlets’ frames being welded copper tubing. Above is a video showing the dual-claw-popping action in all its glory, while the video below follows the devices being made.

It takes a LEGO builder of special caliber to build something of their own design that’s recognizable to others. Now imagine compounding that challenge by trying to make something out of LEGO that you can actually wear.

By its very nature, LEGO is far too fragile to be worn. It’s not meant for building clothes; basic human movement is more than enough to cause the bricks to come apart and shatter on the floor. I’m not sure how teenage master builder Ben Caulkins managed to avoid this — if he glued the pieces together or what. But cleverly using Technic pieces for the framework, he modeled his costume pieces to the contours of his own body, and then molded them to look unmistakably like the Master Chief‘s costume.

In one of his many comments about building the costume — which he’s photographically documented in its entirety — Caulkins mentions that the suit is painfully hot to wear, not to mention heavy. But you’ve got to admire his ingenuity. Starting with a wetsuit underneath, he attaches each piece of armor with velcro. The ensemble is completed by his custom-made, wearable helmet, and black biker gloves that he affixed more bits of armor to.

And even after all this, he says the suit isn’t finished yet. He’s still got the lower legs and feet to do, too.

With all the work he’s put into the suit, you’d expect Caulkins to be a serious Halo player, but he says he doesn’t even own an Xbox!

First there was the Ladies of Sci-Fi Burlesque show. Now there’s cosplay – or something like that. I have to admit that while I am not totally averse to cosplay, I will not be the first one to queue for tickets for cosplay events.

The guys at Devil’s Playground have done it again, though. Instead of sci-fi,  it’s all about Anime Babes this time. Our very own Nopy is the anime expert, so if you need more information on anime, check out his posts. In the meantime, here is some eye candy.

This is Trixie from Speed Racer.

Meet Lust from Fullmetal Alchemist. I have to be honest that I didn’t know this character but the costume is definitely eye-catching. Oh, and according to what I have read, Lust is a homunculus with the Ultimate Spear. Gotta love that noun! (Homunculus, not the spear.)

This is Ichigo Momomiya from Tokyo Mew Mew.

The next two photos are undoubtedly recognizable. Who does not know about Pikachu? This Pickachu may not be the likes that you would have your little brother play with, though.

It must be my age, but I do remember a time when Sailor Moon was THE cool thing. This Sailor Moon definitely got a lot of attention that night.

I told you it’s not just cosplay. It’s burlesque too, although I am pretty certain Dita von Teese fans will have something to say about this!

I leave you with a not unexpected question: Which anime character would you feature if you had your own Anime Babes (or Anime Dudes for that matter) show?

For more of these photos, check out Shannon Cottrell’s gallery. Some may not be totally safe for work – depending on where you work! ;)

Who won the Marvel Costume Contest at New York Comic-Con? Steampunk Iron Man, that’s who. Sadly, I have no information on who the buidler/wearer is, but his/her work is incredible, no? The details are just ridiculous. I mean, just look at all those rivets! And photographer Judy Stephens gave it a tremendous showcase with her terrific use of lighting and composition.

What do you think? There are more pictures here, but I’ve posted the best of them for you below.

Ah, Comic-Con. That time of the year when freaks, geeks, and the downright inexplicable annually migrate to San Diego to pay tribute to the almighty Pop Culture. For many of them, their love is so great that they’re compelled to dress up in elaborate outfits and costumes — most of which are homemade.

I grabbed over 150 of the best costumes, as seen on Twitpic, Yfrog, and other Twitter-related photo streams, and have compiled them into a gallery that’s turned out kind of like peopleofwalmart.com for the geek set.

With huge thanks to all of the Comic-Con Twitterers out there, here goes…

What do you get when you combine Nerf darts with a Halo Assault Rifle? This bad-to-the-bone rifle prop used by a Master Chief cosplayer — that actually works.

Me want.

I grew up outside of Boston, Mass, and when I was little, we lived in this two-story house off of Pleasant Street. It wasn’t much, but it did have a cool patio on the second story, which was pretty neat to me at the time. I was pretty young when we lived in that house, and I was a huge fan of comic books. So my mother decided to get me these Underoos with Superman, Batman and Spider-Man on them. I’ve told this story before, but the end result was that I loved superheroes, and I’ve always wanted to become one.

I caught this on Twitter today, and I’ve spent a good portion of my day lost in the website. It’s called the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company, and they sell all sorts of products for the average superhero. Need a secret identity? Choose between mild mannered, pilot, a cranky head chef or others, and pick them up for a fair price. Maybe you need a lair for your do-good activities. Buy a matter transformer, fancy clock, or maybe just a bucket of gravity in 1-gallon sizes. This place has it all, and it all looks super cool.

I haven’t bought anything from the site yet, but I get the impression that some of it is actually for sale. If you end up buying anything from the site, let us know in the comments. In the meantime, I’m going to spend some money on an invisible phaser. I’ve got an ex-editor that I’d love to use it on.

With eight episodes of K-ON having been aired in Japan, the amount of cosplay in this series has already surpassed what you would find in most anime. In this short amount of time, K-ON has already managed to cover maid uniforms, swimsuits, normal clothing, a nurse outfit, santa costume, winter clothing, and others including the ever-popular school uniform.

Having so many types of cosplay covered already, one has to wonder what kind of outfits the girls from the light music club will be made to wear next. Some cosplay outfits that are commonly shown in anime but haven’t made an appearance yet are: miko , cheerleader, chinese dress, and wedding dress (a bit far-fetched, but KyoAni did do farm animals…). There are probably a lot of types of cosplay I haven’t mentioned, but lets just see which one of these end up being shown in K-ON for now.