Norm from Tested and Gordon Tarle sat down to discuss C-3PO costumes with us. Norm started by saying that he's excited to have Gordon on the show, and they began discussing their love for the character of C-3PO.

Norm said that he was a kid who was obsessed with armor, which is why his fascination with 3P started. He explained that he wanted to create a robot armor costume that was as realistic as possible. As they talked about the process of creating the costume, Norm mentioned that it was a tight fit and required a lot of comfort for him to wear it.

The conversation turned to the helmet, which is one of the most iconic parts of C-3PO's costume. Norm explained that he made the helmet with a mat on the inside and belly wires on it, but it ended up being uncomfortably hot to wear. He also talked about how the shoes were made in a last-minute bind, just to make sure they fit.

As Gordon began to put on the costume, Norm mentioned that he had to pin some parts together because they didn't quite line up perfectly. But once everything was fitted together, it looked amazing. Norm said that he loved the character of C-3PO and the performance is a big part of it. He explained that you have to be pretty slender to wear the costume without feeling claustrophobic.

When Gordon put on the costume for the first time, Norm was amazed at how well it fit him. Gordon mentioned that his arms were mostly held up for comfort, but he had a lot of freedom of movement in them. He also talked about how he didn't feel claustrophobic when he wore the costume.

Norm asked Gordon if he became the character when he put on the costume, and Gordon said that it was hard to explain. But he did talk about the mannerisms that he thinks best embody C-3PO, such as his fidgeting with his arm. He also mentioned that R2-D2 might be responsible for some of these traits.

As they talked more about the costume, Norm mentioned that there would be future upgrades and improvements to make it even better. Gordon seemed excited about this prospect, and the two of them wrapped up their conversation, thanking each other for making an appearance on the show.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enlook at you oh my goodness hey everybody it's Norm from tested and I'm so excited today I'm joined by Gordon tarle Gordon how are you doing excellent thank you now we've met a lot of Builders cosplayers over the years and especially in the Star Wars Universe people build droids astrx the r two Builders guys best Pals through them that we met you cuz you are one of the few Builders of C3PO yeah just a handful I guess so yeah and you among with other people some other builders uh build C3PO costumes and this is one of your c3pos that you've made when did this begin and tell us the whole story okay so I started out um basically all the pieces on here come from different people all the most of the small detail pieces I 3D modeled and made myself um to get started I Found A supplier for the chest the arms and the legs and that took almost a year to to get once they were ordered so while that was in the works I ordered a head which this is not that head this is a totally different head I actually did make this head um the one that I ordered previously was misshaping had some issues and then I bought a different one and that one has some issues and then I try to fix them and then it was better but still not right so the whole suits like that it's iterative yeah you're you're getting better and better constantly updating you know unlike in tell us about the like for example the movie you know your obsession with the suit did they just have the one for Anthony Daniels no well they have a a mountain of parts at The Archives that so there's clearly enough to make I probably maybe at least 10 suits I'm imagining based on just the piles of stuff that I've seen um there are definitely uh some differences between the movies so for the different suits there are specific things on a New Hope For example the hands are drastically different the the legs are very very different um and there are some changes in the head internally where pieces meet that are different in the later movies which is something I found out after I started making obsessing over these things you start to realize all the details um changes between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi with hands and some little little Minor Details here and there and now with the force awakens there's massive changes because the entire suit's been basically redone and from what I heard it's been entirely 3D printed let's go just go through the anatomy for example I mean because you know all these details you can see a picture of C3 Po and say okay that's from the movie and that's from this movie and that's like this suit they this part they use so let's start from top to bottom let's start with the helmet all right so with the helmet um the helmet didn't change very much during the movies and as far as the um the overall look it didn't change very much at all and uh the Torso has pretty much been the same through all the movies as well as the arms there's some subtle detail things with the little gbly bits are subtle differences nitpicky if you get in there with the calipers you could start to say hey this is cuz they molded something from the original they cast it and they machined them and so sometimes it's like use this one as reference and it looks like they went in a shop cuz I've seen a few suits up close and I had very very carefully modeled some of these parts off of literally a picture of a streen new suit with a ruler up to the piece and I and it matches the one that I did but then I see a suit on exhibit and it's definely different so and C3 pro has GBL it's not something that people think about they think of it it's a lot I mean you have the neck pieces here just small pieces even the disc here yeah everything are you looking to Source from like kind kind of how I been trying to find as many of them as I can and is very very very very difficult I can't tell you how many hours of work I've messed up getting off on a you know that down that rabbit hole looking for parts um but again it's it's like this detail for example is the same one that's in the back of the head oh I've been obsessing over that for for four years now wow okay now you have this suit on a mannequin right now that's how we're showing it to you guys but this is not it's a suit it is something you wear at conventions so Gordon we have to have you put this on cuz building it and assembling it is only half of it there's also the performance all right you ready to put this on let's get in it I'm going to need your help though all right all right let's go headgear should have a mat with belly wires on it but it was very uncomfortably hot to wear it with the rubber mat the rubber mat paint and then uh some real wires now these were shoes that I made in a last minute bind and just make sure it's open if you set on the ground I can slide my foot in there we go thank you and have you pin this other one as well so now we we're this far along this goes on this way back piece here front piece now it's not going to line up quite right I've been trapped in this thing in the middle of the night by myself oh my god well so now neck goes on neck and the wires to this technically should tuck into the back here okay Gordon about 10 minutes later you are let's say 80% 80% sounds good the fit looks great well thank you very much oh my goodness so you love this character uh and the performance is such a big part of it uh it's a tight costume to fit into yes you have to be uh pretty slender to be able to wear it and not claustrophobic which is probably the number one thing that's why we don't have the helmet on yet and I know you don't you've plenty of times uh but as we put it on you know you start it with uh you have a bodysuit y right for that you added some paint here puppy paint wires for the elbows and the backs of the knees mhm um the stomach piece the belly piece actually has textured ribbing which you're going to incorporate into your next build yes uh this is for comfort and then your you know the Torso the the pants pieces the leg pieces they all actually bind together the yes so you are locked in there in there and I need a babysitter the entire time it's like a KN wearing armor that's actually I think why my Fascination was so big with 3p when I was a kid cuz I was obsessed with armor so yeah and it it is robot armor it pretty much is and then uh some Electronics like in the back you actually have lights that go in the eyes it's power in the back as well as a microphone yep uh microphone there's an acre uh amplifier I think it's a 16vt and it's the speaker is right here and I modeled this part with holes in it so the the movie one obviously doesn't have holes CU they had no need for a speaker so there are little holes hidden in here so that the sound will be nice and loud my speaker is a little wony right now and I'm replacing it with Yeah a different speaker bluetoo Bluetooth wireless keeping it simple y um and then the last couple pieces we got to put on you the head the helmet uh in addition to the arms why do you like BR the arms last um I like to be able to help guide the face on because again the ears are it's very very fitted and it's very easy for people to try to push it shut and crunch my ears and just being able to help makes me feel a little better uh next version of the helmet actually is a hair bigger and it might not be a problem anymore so we'll see in two weeks okay well let's get that helmet on and the arms on you and get you suited up finally Gordon is that you oh I I don't know what you mean this is amazing it's it's really a transformation oh well thank you very much this is awesome now uh when you put on the costume and please don't leave character really do you become the character I don't know what you mean the character he he really is C3PO what what okay C3PO what are the mannerisms that you think most embody the see you well some say I'm rather fidgeting but uh I don't know I believe that's just R2 speaking and let's get a look at you you have your your arms here your arms are mostly held up like that is that for for Comfort possibly yes but you have a lot of freedom of movement I can walk pretty well oh my goodness that's that's incredible how do you feel not claustrophobic at all oh I don't know what you mean that's incredible well well thank you so much for making an appearance oh you're very welcome and we'll hopefully see you in the future this hul suit and future upgrades yes looking forward to upgrades my goodness very many upgrades thank you see through po thank you Gordon wherever he went I'm Norm from tested and this has been an incredible incredible presentation Su well thank you again it was a pleasure to be here it's been my pleasure as well and we'll see you guys next time\n"