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Utopia Base TWOK Uniform: January 2015 Alterations

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Description

This photo collage showcases a major set of changes that I made to the very first TWOK Monster Maroon uniform I ever obtained in an attempt to finish improving and accurizing the outfit, once and for all.

Utopia Base, formerly known as Costume Base, is an online store based out of Singapore, Malaysia. Supposedly, they get their TWOK Monster Maroon uniforms "on consignment" and sell them off-the-rack as a full set, and that's how I had originally gotten mine, but it had started off being ill-fitting and badly inaccurate, and I've had to do a lot of work on the outfit since I first obtained it in February of 2011.

This time, the biggest change made was do the proportions of the uniform itself. Even when I wore it at AWA 2014 on Saturday, the Mk.1 Utopia Base Monster Maroon uniform had been far, far too long. It extended too far down past the level of my belt and belt loops, and the sleeves practically engulfed half my hands any time I held my hands out to the side.

I got the sleeves and the bottom of the uniform truncated, and as a nifty side effect, the extra quilted lines on the sleeve cuffs were also eliminated. Now, instead of 5-6 lines on each padded cuff, there are only four, as there indeed were on the real-life, screen-used Monster Maroon uniforms.

Furthermore, we made another huge improvement by taking the pseudo-pincushion - the flat cloth patch that I'd had sewn onto the sleeve above the armband during the summer of 2014, before AWA 2014, converted into a true "pincushion pad" by having soft material sewn underneath the pad and above the sleeve.

We had to tread carefully when doing this, however. While the "pincushion" was certainly an important visual detail and one that needed to be seen to have any meaning, we also didn't want to add too many layers of padding, resulting in a pincushion that would wind up being far too thick.

Needless to say, I'd learned my lesson from my Marco Enterprises uniform, which had a very thick pincushion pad. While that pincushion was indeed highly visible, it ultimately also proved to be nearly impossible to work with because it was extremely difficult to force the sleeve rank bar through the pincushion pad, with so much material getting in the way.

We ultimately chose to err on the side of caution and as a result, the final pincushion on this uniform is a bit more on the thin side. However, it's still visible and very tangible as an actual "pincushion pad" and not a flat patch, and it more than serves its purpose. I just wanted to make this uniform as accurate as I could get it and had already known that it would never be "fully" accurate, so I didn't mind.

At this point, the jacket has been so heavily remodeled that it now looks nothing like a "stock" Costume Base/Utopia Base TWOK Monster Maroon and the results are quite amazing. With the truncated jacket and sleeves, and having previously gotten the belt loops replaced and/or lowered by almost three full inches, the proportions of the jacket are finally "right," especially since I'd gotten the jacket cut down for a better fit as well.

The result looks much closer to the way a Monster Maroon was supposed to look on screen, and it's restored a lot of my faith in the outfit, which I'm happier than ever with. While I will still pull out the Marco any time accuracy is key, or for formal photo shoots, this "stunt" grade uniform is more than capable of filling in under other circumstances and I don't plan to retire it anytime soon. ·
Image size
4896x2197px 2.72 MB
Make
Canon
Model
Canon PowerShot ELPH 100 HS
Shutter Speed
1/25 second
Aperture
F/2.8
Focal Length
5 mm
ISO Speed
800
Date Taken
Jan 8, 2015, 6:33:22 AM
Sensor Size
4mm
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