The custom Gonk costume

At Jedi-Con 2004 I wanted to participate with a droid of my own creation and designed a gonk costume that was high enough to walk upright with. The futuristic accessories were made from packaging waste of all kinds and attached to the body which consisted of a large cardboard box. At the end, I painted everything uniformly with effect paint, which provided a metallic look.

The eye holes were very small and were located within the middle two "buttons" on the head.

Inside the box, two struts of cardboard ensured that my head remained in the middle and the body rested on my shoulders. The droid head could be opened to the back to get fresh air, to get oriented in between or just to talk directly to other fans.

Since I couldn't use my hands for this, the opening was done via a sliding system from the inside by use of two long cardboard stripes.

For the legs I looked for suitable material and found it in the hardware store. Two corresponding parts of thick black plastic were bought and cut open lengthwise so that they could be put over the legs. Unfortunately they were quite expensive.

On the other hand, I was able to make the feet very cheaply out of old shoe boxes that were simply worn over the normal street shoes.

Unfortunately, the gonk costume didn't survive. I had "parked" it at my parents' house because of a move, and they subsequently scrapped it by mistake (at least I hope).

In its issue 34 the german official Star War magazine reports about the Jedi-Con. In the middle of the magazine there is a poster. My picture, when Jay had sat down so casually in front of me, was probably chosen because I had appeared in costume again for the photo session. Now you know who the "con-visitor in the droid outfit" is. (In my own issue I flipped the poster, because actually Lando is on the front side).