Halloween 2014 Part 2

Last post, I talked about my Halloween plans. How did the actual day go? Pretty good. I got a lot of compliments on my Star Trek uniform. Quite a few LLAP salutes and a few "It's a good thing you didn't wear a red shirt" comments, as well. It seems quite a few people on base are Star Trek fans, or at least know of it. A few people asked me from which Star Trek it was from, and I proudly said Star Trek Into Darkness. Say what you want, I love that movie.

As for the costume itself, I love it. The tunic is more green than I expected, but I know it is dyed to the actual colors used by the film crew and actors. Studio lights and camera filters can change colors, so the uniform appears much more gold on screen. It fit almost perfectly, the arms were just a tad long but it was perfect around the chest. The Khan undershirt (a black tunic with a black-filled delta shield on it) fit perfectly out of the box and I will most likely wear it as a regular undershirt. The command badge from QMX is excellent. But I'm curious about one thing: if their TNG and DS9 badges can have magnetic backs that don't cause holes in the fabric, why can't their Into Darkness line of badges do as well? I'm glad the badges use two pins to secure it, but I hate putting holes in my tunic. Those quibbles aside, the tunic is perfect. This is my first full tunic from Anovos, a company I love and I have bought many of their side products. Their attention to detail and quality on these products is outstanding and worth the price. This is the first uniform I bought from them and I'm glad I did.

Speaking of, I have fulfilled a dream of mine. I have always wanted a screen accurate high quality Star Trek uniform. I always thought my uniform would be the Monster maroon from Star Trek II-VI. Maybe a TNG suit. But with this tunic, I have gotten what I wanted. The last thing needed is to buy the pants, but honestly, a pair of black slacks (which is what I used for Halloween) is not much different. The other uniform I would like to get is the TNG uniform used in First Contact and Nemesis.

Back to Halloween. While I was biking to work, wearing my tunic underneath my jacket, I was nervous. I thought maybe wearing costumes to work was an elaborate prank on me by the staff. Yes, I am that paranoid. But when I saw a few fellow staffers in costume, I felt better. When the first customers saw me, I got nervous again. Maybe wearing this wasn't a good idea, I thought. Besides, the majority of the staff weren't in costume and none of our customers were either, despite this being Halloween. I thought at least some of the students from school would come to the store in costume but none did. The longer I wore it, however, and the more compliments I got, the more confident I became. Who cares? It's Halloween and I'm a Trekker, I thought. My nervous returned went I had to leave my work building for lunch, but I remained confident.

That taught me a bit of a lesson. Cosplayers have to be confident. You really put yourself out there with the quality of your costume and, to a bigger part, your costume of choice. You are telling the world which characters you love, and by association, the traits and charateristics they embody. I like Kirk. I wish I had his courage and ingenuity. And his confidence. But for a few hours on Halloween, I had a little more than usual.



P.S. I completely forgot to mention that I took second place at the employee costume contest at work!