Supanova!

The third annual Supanova Pop Culture Expo came to Adelaide in late November. Supanova have a different hiring agreement to most pop-culture conventions, so normally the TARDIS doesn't appear for this particular convention. 

This year was a little different as my Victorian counterpart The Tardis Guy had hired a standard artists stall to display his wares. He makes a lot of different props, mainly Marvel props, so check out his FB site for all his goodies. 

Rather than cart his TARDIS prop across from Melbourne, mine acted as a stand in. Great convention, although the ridiculously humid and hot weather on day one, made it a little flat.


The TARDIS Guy also brought half of the Avengers with him, so we had a very popular stand.

The TARDIS was hugely popular with the fans, young and old and the quality of cosplay was incredible. This group of modern Who cosplayers was spot on and incredibly impressive.

Gawler Village Fair part 2

In the previous post I totally failed to actually talk about the Fair!

So the next week, on November 1 the TARDIS was put up in Pioneer Park, former site of Gawler cemetery and now home to the Rotary Village Fair, Dawn Service, and so on.

The weather was miserable (the photo doesn't show it), but it was cold, extremely windy and threatened to rain the whole morning. Still, there was a few sunny periods so many people were able to enjoy the Fair. I'm quite glad it weighs over 100kg otherwise I'd have been a little worried about the wind.

Apart from the picture above I didn't take any photos on the day, but here's one somebody posted on the Where's the TARDIS Facebook page.

No Seventh Doctor this time, so grabbed my Ten costume to fill in. Man I need a wig.

Gawler Village Fair

Gawler Village Fair has been going for decades. I actually grew up in that town, so I remember it fondly as a kid, back when you could still call the town a 'country town' and not the extension of urban sprawl or dormitory for city workers it's now become.

To promote the Village fair the TARDIS was erected the week prior to do a little street standing out front of the Town Hall / Library. It got quite the reaction, especially after being posted to the Gawler Library Facebook page.

Here we are set up out front of the Library.

It got an amazing amount of social media feedback getting shared around like never before. Go Gawler!

Once again Seventh doctor costumer Ben came to add some ambience.

Amazing changes in colour depending on perspective and camera.

Of Weddings and Ports

It's been a hectic couple of months for the TARDIS!

The South Parklands - great location

Over half the attendees got into the spirit of
the day, cosplaying a variety of characters

After the floor rebuild, it went straight back on duty featuring in it's first wedding!

A very geeky affair, it stood as the backdrop as a pair of lovely nerds agreed to the terms and conditions of marriage.




Adelaide's South Parklands turned out to be in perfect condition, as was the weather, and with ample parking right out front. A absolute must given how unwieldy the TARDIS is to transport.





Following the wedding we'd decided to continue TARDISing that day with a trip down to Port Adelaide's historic wool packing area for some photos.

The location and lighting couldn't have been better! Crozier street has some glorious rustic buildings from the late 19th century which formed the perfect backdrop. 

Seventh Doctor costumer Ben came along for some laughs, posing as the Doctor with the TARDIS and popping out to surprise passers by. The bus driver's reaction was gold.

You can see the rest of the photos over on the TARDIS Facebook page

 

It's new floor day!

As mentioned previously the floor has copped a beating from four Winters outside, especially given the main panel is made from MDF. MDF is like a sponge when it gets wet, it soaks up water, expands and goes all... fluffy. Essentially makes it useless.

Why I made it from MDF to begin with is a good question, to which I have no real answer except maybe poor forethought. That being said I had no idea the TARDIS would live the life it does now. I had expected it would either live in pieces in the shed between outings or simply be sold after the it's original purpose, being the ACG Ball in 2011.

Anyway, it's going to a wedding this weekend and then likely Supanova in November, so a brand new floor is urgently required!

As you can see below the floor has rotted pretty badly in the corners.

 


The outer frame is ready. The inner frame is yet to be attached. This time I'm using Contruction Ply for the floor. 

Dismantling again...

As mentioned in previous posts, and moreso over on the Facebook page the old Phone Box has taken quite a beating. It's been dismantled and rebuilt for events around 25 times and spends the lengthy time between events (especially during Winter) outside in the weather. Now it does have a roof over it, but this just keeps rain from falling directly on it, not from splashing up off the ground. As hindsight is always 20/20, the idea to make the floorplate out of MDF was ridiculous and has soaked up months of moisture. A temporary base rebuild occurred in 2013 but didn't hold and today she came apart for a final floorplate replacement in a more weather proof material.

Temporary storage in the shed whilst the floorplate is rebuilt.. I need a bigger shed.

I'm on a schedule though as the next and possibly final outing for the Davison/Baker/McCoy/MCGann box is a wedding in 12 days time! Better get cracking on that floor.


Notice how I mentioned the final outing for this box?
I'm considering retiring this one, after a fresh coat of paint and copious amounts of weatherproof clear sealant, to becoming a permanent backyard resident.

Next on the plan is the 'wardrobe' (See the original post back in January 2011) a Capaldi era TARDIS is next, that will be much easier to assemble and disassemble, hopefully requiring less muscle to transport. This one will live disassembled in the shed between events.

Watch this space...

Adelaide OZ Comic Con 2014

A rather lengthy delay between posts, but since last time the TARDIS has only had two outings.
Another appearance at the Fringe festival in late February to assist with Preachr's Podcast Live 2! Once again featuring Benjamin Maio McKay and Melbourne (or should I now say international) comedian Robert Lloyd again delivering a fans perspective to a sell-out crowd. The guys from the Dalek Builders Union were on hand to provide comedic relief and ambiance as well.

In place at the Box Factory for round 2

The Where's the TARDIS crew after installation.

Oz Comic Con rolled around again in April, seeing a much bigger and even better event. The TARDIS appeared and delighted for the full weekend once more. The costumed folk who posed with it, made for some great pics.

Check out this video by avid fan 'Petey Davidsun' from Oz Comic Con:

There were a huge amount of photos, several you can see over on the Where's The TARDIS Facebook page or even more at the Where's the TARDIS Tumblr blog.

My favourite from the weekend is probably this recreation of one of Karen Hallion's iconic illustrations:

The Australian Costumers Guild SA Quiz Night

The final hurrah for Merrick and Toddi, our final SA ACG Quiz Night went off, bigger an better than ever in November 2013. Every year features a specific theme, and what a better theme for 2013 than 50 Years of our favourite doctor (wait..what?)

Donning 5 and 7 costumes once more, and with the help of our good friend and photographer Eman as 10, we quizzed our way through 8 rounds of general knowledge and geeky trivia. Of course it's not a Whovian event with the TARDIS.

You may recall the awful video I made of the sound chip device. That same device has an input audio jack, so I can actually play whatever I like through the TARDIS speaker system, not just Tardis-y noise.

Here's a video of classic 80s Public Enemy rocking it from the box.

Here's a small range of the Who related costumes on show that night. A small portion of the 150+ through the door.

Photo courtesy of David Ruwoldt. Video by Ben Todd.

A little catching up

The TARDIS blog has been a little quiet lately, since the creation of the Facebook Page. You can check out Where's the TARDIS on Facebook.

The last outing posted was Oz Comic Con in 2012, a massive event that was ridiculously popular, beating out both Armageddon and Supanova conventions for sheer volume of people. I guess the benefit of a clever and controversial name tie-in (see the article here) coupled with some heavy radio TV and print advertising.

They certainly demonstrated there was a demand, as for their second year they scored William Shatner and Richard Dean Anderson as guests. To top that, this year they have Benedict Cumberbatch! Current massive stars who are continually employed doing conventions is almost unheard of in Australia.

Anyway, here's a few photos of some events the TARDIS has appeared at in the past couple of years.

In 2013 The TARDIS was hired for The inaugural Preachr's Podcast Live! event as part for the Fringe Festival. Featuring Benjamin Maio McKay and Melbourne comedian Rob Lloyd, it was a popular show with a sellout crowd. Seen here is Ben, my usual TARDIS transportation assistant in his awesome 7th Doctor Outfit.

With such a great response that we went back in 2014 for double the shows!

You can see the full crew here as our favourite doctors. Well, apart from Rob who dresses like 10 given the resemblance rather than the appreciation.




















A few weeks following the Fringe event, and sporting a new coat of paint, The TARDIS appeared once again for Oz Comic Con 2013. Again it was hugely popular convention, however multiple outings were staring to take it's toll on the old phone box. It suffered some significant door damage in transport and the warpage factor (see previous) still reared it's head with the doors no longer lining up. To fix this I installed two strips of angle iron reinforcement down the sides of both doors which greatly improved the alignment.

Local cosplayer Jen appears with the TARDIS at Oz Comic Con 2013.

Following yet another super-successful event, the TARDIS weathered a pretty rough Winter as far as Adelaide goes. It does live outside but has a roof over it, yet this doesn't stop the sides receiving a drenching in heavy downpours.  As such, rot had set it when it was dismantled again in late 2013 for the Australian Costumers Guild Quiz Night. More on that later...

Photos by Ben Todd, myself and Catherine Scholz