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Halo Elite Cosplay Puts Others To Shame

AndrewGOO9 writes "Pete Mander, a special effects artist from Ontario, Canada seems like he might have either had way too much time on his hands or just really enjoys Halo. Either way, this is one of those costumes that makes all of the cosplayers at a con feel like their best efforts just weren't quite up to par."

27 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. PWNING NEWBZ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can you imagine those great, big foam rubber balls being dipped in your face?

    1. Re:PWNING NEWBZ by Myopic · · Score: 5, Funny

      You're projecting.

  2. No. He's male. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The only people who don't look ridiculous doing cosplay are young, attractive women playing the roles of young, attractive, scantily clad female characters. All other cosplay is pointless.

    1. Re:No. He's male. by garyisabusyguy · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yeah, let's get some Cortana-Flood tentacle action going on... Maybe a Sailor-Moon/Bleach crossover and some fatass dressed as a Panda Bear just for fun

      --
      Wherever You Go, There You Are
    2. Re:No. He's male. by X0563511 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I may not like Halo, and may I'll leave my opinions of COSplay out of this.

      But I recognize art when I see it. That man knows his craft. Holy-shit. (I bet he does or did work in special effects or costume design)

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    3. Re:No. He's male. by jon3k · · Score: 5, Funny

      I bet you didn't, or have not, read the article summary.

  3. I think all coplay by adeft · · Score: 4, Funny

    puts itself to shame

    1. Re:I think all coplay by EkriirkE · · Score: 2, Funny

      You obviously don't know the gloriousness of Man-Faye.

      --
      from 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
      to 45 2F 6E 40 3C DF 10 71 4E 41 DF AA 25 7D 31 3F
    2. Re:I think all coplay by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Any of the ones that made the genre?
      Halo just brought FPS to the fratboy set.

      Two points:
      1) An accomplishment is an accomplishment.
      2) The Halo series are really good games. They've brought tons of new ideas that many, many other games have emulated (recharging shield/health, realistic weapon load), and obviously they've sold very well.

      Most people just hate it because they have some "PC Game 1337 Gene" that makes it impossible to appreciate anything involving a game controller.

      (Ironically, they much prefer to play games on controllers designed to run office applications... but console players are less 1337. Go figure.)

    3. Re:I think all coplay by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Two points.

      1) I like Halo as much as the next guy. Have all in the series, play #3 quite a bit to this day.

      2) While Halo is a great series, they've not brought ANY new ideas. Rather, they have emulated the other ideas that have existed in many many games before it, but made it mesh very well together. Recharging shield and health was around before Halo, weapon reload times, carrying only two weapons.

      I like Halo, and it IS a good game, but one thing I can't ever give it credit for is originality - which ripped a lot of stuff from Aliens and Predator films, the same way Starcraft did.

    4. Re:I think all coplay by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      One might say that. Keep in Mind Halo (the original) that spun everything into play first came out for the Mac, then the PC, and THEN the X box - so it's as much the "Blizzard for the console set" as much as it is a "Blizzard for the PC" - also keep in mind Blizzard made Starcraft64 so its not like they are free of the console bash.

    5. Re:I think all coplay by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Recharging shield and health was around before Halo,

      In what game?

      I like Halo, and it IS a good game, but one thing I can't ever give it credit for is originality - which ripped a lot of stuff from Aliens and Predator films, the same way Starcraft did.

      If you're including "ripping off films" in your list of original games, even if they really only take the setting and wide-brush concepts, what game would you consider original?

      Let's put some money where your mouth is.

    6. Re:I think all coplay by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well you could take the Armor and/or health recharge mods that have been in every Unreal Tournament game since the beginning, you could look at one of Bungie's older titles, Marathon. If you want to consider games that aren't first person shooters but have recharging shields, X-wings vs Tie Fighter was a good space sim that featured it. I mean any Protoss unit in Starcraft also does it.

      If I want to think of a game that didn't really rip off the films, I might say something like Mirror's Edge? Don't get me wrong its not the greatest game in the world, but it certainly was a little more unique in it's style. One might say Half Life 2, but even there you could draw SOME lines, though its really stretching it.

      The "Wide-brush" concepts that Halo Ripped off are not so wide brush at all. Watch Apone's Dropship Speech in Aliens and then go through the opening of the first Halo. with Sarg Johnson. You can tell they deliberately copied that character, as either a joke or a homage or what-not, but despite how much you may love that Character he wasn't Bungie's creation. I mean, if you don't think the elites are rip-offs of Predators, I can't do much but point out how similar their mouths are, they both use cloaking technology, they both prefer Melee... I mean it's not like the similarities are subtle.

      What else should I say...

    7. Re:I think all coplay by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well you could take the Armor and/or health recharge mods that have been in every Unreal Tournament game since the beginning, you could look at one of Bungie's older titles, Marathon

      UT mods maybe, although I've never played any and you haven't named any.

      But I've played the shit out of Marathon, and it didn't have charging shields. You had to go to a socket in the wall and manually charge them up. So... wrong.

      If I want to think of a game that didn't really rip off the films, I might say something like Mirror's Edge? Don't get me wrong its not the greatest game in the world, but it certainly was a little more unique in it's style.

      Yeah, it didn't ripoff films, but it came pretty goddamned close to Bungie's Oni. You might even say it... ripped off Oni.

      (That said, I haven't played it; I don't buy EA games. I'm just going by gameplay footage.)

      What else should I say...

      Well, for starters, you shouldn't lie about Marathon. I love that fucking game, man. Love it.

      Look, anyway. Here's the deal:
      1) You don't hate Halo games, but you have some kind of vague "oh it's inferior because frat guys play it" thing going on. That's stupid... just man-up and admit you like the game, stop kowtowing to your geek friends who criticize you for it.

      2) Your standards on "ripoff" are pretty crazy. By your standards, pretty much every work of media ever is a ripoff of something or another-- the real world doesn't work that way. No reasonable person would say that Halo is a ripoff of Aliens. They might use the word "homage" or "in the same genre as", but ripoff is definitely going too far.

      3) Don't lie about Marathon, man.

      Cheers.

    8. Re:I think all coplay by quantumplacet · · Score: 4, Informative

      Umm, no. Halo was made by Bungie, which was prior to Halo primarily a Mac developer. They started making Halo for the Mac, but then signed with Microsoft who made it an XBox launch title and an exclusive. It was then ported to PC and Mac two years later, in 2003.

    9. Re:I think all coplay by Requiem18th · · Score: 2, Informative

      But Halo is basically the prequel to Bungie's Marathon for the Mac so you could say that "Halo" came out for the Mac first.

      --
      But... the future refused to change.
  4. Of course, he's a professional... by Aereus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Imagine that -- a professional special effects person spending over $1000 was able to make a costume able to put all amateurs to shame. It's still amazing, but the guy obviously does this kind of stuff for a living and has lots of disposable income.

    That is seriously a lot of wonderflex, foam, etc. I wonder how he stilted the legs to get himself that high. Or if the extended arms will actually have articulated hands.

    1. Re:Of course, he's a professional... by v1 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I wonder how he stilted the legs to get himself that high.

      you can see the stilts under construction earlier in the video, looks like they're custom fitted to the bottom of a boot, kind of looks like he's adding a blade on an ice skate the first time you see it, when he's doing the metal cutting. I assume they just carved out the leg foam and fit them in.

      very nice. wonder how heavy it'll be when done? Fun to see the various stages of construction, things like using the turkey carver to carve up the leg foam, little tricks like that which let you see how anyone can do it with common tools, no need for complex or expensive mold constructions etc. Can't wait to see part 2.

      --
      I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
  5. Re:Neat by Jarik+C-Bol · · Score: 4, Informative

    no joke, if you look on his youtube channel, there are a couple videos showing how the jaws are anamatronic. absolutely incredible suit.

    --
    I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
  6. Giant Cardboard Robots by Facegarden · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This guy's got nothing on the Giant Cardboard Robots i saw at the Maker Faire.
    http://www.gorobotics.net/the-news/misc/turn-yourself-into-a-giant-cardboard-robot/
    -Taylor

    --
    Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
    1. Re:Giant Cardboard Robots by ChinggisK · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, I think he does indeed have something on those.

  7. You don't say? by geekoid · · Score: 3, Funny

    A special effect professional did better then some amateurs? I'm shocked I tell you, shocked~

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  8. I don't think that means what you think it means by gujo-odori · · Score: 2, Informative

    Colplay (is an English-derived Japanese word referring to a sexual practice (paid for in cash more often than not) in which the female dresses up in a costume (often anime-derived) for the male's entertainment.

    It does *not* mean dressing up in costume at a con.

  9. Re:No good work.... by Sta7ic · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why would Bungie bust out the lawyers? When the Demon? Devil? Armor guys wrote them about the Spartan armor, they invited the guy to their offices to show it off.

    Odds are they'll give this guy a ticket to show off and talk shop as well.

  10. This guy is amazing by DaEmEoNd · · Score: 2, Informative

    I met Pete Mander 2 years ago when I went with my brother to pick up his Pinhead costume he ordered from Pete for Halloween. I was absolutely amazed at the work he does, Pete makes/sells costumes to anyone that is interested. It doesn't matter if you are in the movie industry or just interested in having a kick ass costume for Halloween (if you have the money that is). Pete also sells costumes from the movies Aliens, Predator, Master chief (Halo) costumes. Here http://petemanderfx.com/ is his old website where you can see some of his previous works. This guy is trying to make a living and to say Pete has way too much free time on his hands and wastes his money really does him a disservice. In the last week this video has made it to the front page of digg and now slashdot I hope from all this publicity some FX house from Hollywood or somewhere else sees this and contracts him for some work. Great Job Pete!!!

    --
    The begining of the end...
  11. Re:So where is it? by sortius_nod · · Score: 2, Informative

    Nope, if you go to TFA you'll see him standing almost double height of his makers.

    I saw this the other day on 1up or something, was amazed how much detail they went to. Kind of like a big "fuck you" to the dudes that wear the Master Chief suits.

  12. Re:Umm... actually... by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 2, Informative

    Realistic weapon loading has been mainstream since Half-Life. At least.

    I'm sorry, have you *played* Half-Life? I remember being able to hold:

    2 Pistols,
    a shotgun,
    2 assault rifles,
    a crossbow,
    a rocket launcher,
    and at least 2 types of experimental weapons

    All simultaneously.

    What is with people today trying to counter my arguments with wrongness? You couldn't spend the 15 seconds to look up whether Half-Life had a limited weapon-load or not?

    Anyway, Halo's rechargeable shields have always seemed like somewhat limited god-mode to me.

    The point of it is so you get behind cover from time to time. It's only "god mode" if you're playing on super-easy.