Darth Malgus Cosplayer Brings Big Costume Builds to Life
This week we feature the stunning work of Order 66 Creatures and Effects, a studio that builds projects more true-to-life than their subject materials.
The Star Wars franchise is known for its dedication to practical effects. The master creators behind this immersive galaxy have always been experts at elevating the mundane to the extraordinary. Studios work on a miniature scale and also create massive-sized projects. It takes an incredible amount of talent to bring these sci-fi creations to life.
This week, we’re featuring a cosplay studio known for its gigantic, complex, and miraculous cosplay projects. Order 66 Creatures and Effects sat down for an interview with the BoLS team. Here’s a peek into just what kind of creativity it takes to make such life-like cosplays.
What is your favorite genre to work in?
I’m a fan of the whole spectrum of genres. If I had to choose, it would have to be sci-fi. That genre is just limitless with possibilities.
What material is your favorite to work with?
Any type of clay, Chavant, Monster Clay, or even plain old ceramic Buff clay. It’s fast, forgiving and again the possibilities with it are nearly limitless.
What are your favorite fandoms? Favorite characters?
We started out specializing in Star Wars-themed creations. That led us to making things for Rancho Obi-Wan and being invited to Skywalker Ranch to deliver something we made for one of the top guys at Lucasfilm.
Who are your cosplay inspirations?
I get inspired after walking around the various events and Comic Cons that we get to attend. The standard of work being created today by people at home is better than some of the stuff you’d see at studios back in the day. Just incredible stuff!
Whose work do you admire or aspire to?
The level of commitment by many cosplayers is really inspiring to me. It makes me want to go back to the workshop and push for something bigger and better every time.
What projects are you working on?
There’s one in particular that we are very excited about. I’m afraid I can’t talk about it just yet, as I haven’t finalized it with certain parties at Marvel. However, there is another project to bring Superman’s nemesis to life in the shape of the character ‘Doomsday’. Our current project on the bench is for one of the promo shoots I mentioned earlier.
Every few years produce a costume for our own promo shoot that helps showcase what is possible. Kamil Krawczak, a local cinematographer with an amazing eye for the ‘hyper-real look’ takes care of all the camera work for these shoots. He creates some incredible images.
The upcoming costume that we plan on shooting is called the Batman XE suit. XE stands for e’X’treme ‘E’nviroment, which actually reminds me of a dinky Warhamer 40K design. It’s basically a Batman suit on steroids. With smoke, lights, sound system, semi-active exoskeleton, and an actual working nitrogen freeze ray with thermal insulation(for the freeze ray!). It was developed for the space shuttle program. Once it’s all finished we’ll take it on location to Iceland to get some shots of it. We’ll do some sort of dramatic setting. The costume design is from one of the Arkham video games. It seems to be becoming more popular with our clients than costumes from movies these days.
What are your favorite movies/shows to watch or music to listen to while you craft?
I have an extremely eclectic mix of playlists that I listen to while working. For intense concentration-focused work like sculpting, I have a collection of classical music that fires something for me. I also have a metal thrashing mad playlist with everything from Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Anthrax, Steve Van, etc. That helps when I need a kick in the pants to get stuff completed for a deadline.
What message do you have for people wanting to break into cosplay?
Stick at it and put the time in. I’m a firm believer in the 10,000-hour theory. If you apply that amount of time and aptitude, you can pretty much become an expert at anything. There is so much amazing stuff out there to learn from on social media today.
What is the most important lesson you have learned in your time working in cosplay?
You never stop learning. There are so many incredibly talented people out there. You can never sit back and think you know it all; there is always some new material or technique. They might not always be better than the old ones… But you might discover new and better ways of creating something.
What are your social media/website links? Where can we find you?
Facebook-Order 66 Creatures and Effects
Instagram-@order66effects
Twitter-@darthserberus
~Join us next week for more Cosplay Coverage~
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Editor’s Note: the title of this article has been updated from Vader to Malgus.
