May 27 – June 01 (2025) – Wally On The Web

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

Yup, we were never bored back then!

My pal Scott Sebring and I were having dinner after setting up at Monsterpalooza and we started talking about the 60’s/70’s band The Grass Roots. Lotsa good music came to mind, and this is one of my favorites of theirs’. “Temptation Eyes” sure brings back the memories!

Tuesday the 27th – TOYOTA TUESDAY! – My Rav 4 is a 2023 and they suggest I bring it in for service about every 5-6 months. But the most recent service visit slipped my mind and I hadn’t had it in for service since AUGUST! Time really flies! I don’t put that many miles on it, so the “bring-it-in-every-5000-miles” thing doesn’t really apply to me. I should have brought it in for service in February…but oh well. So I got an appointment and took it in. I walked over to Ernie’s Taco House, which is just a few blocks away, and ate lunch while they worked on it. I made a ton of phone calls, including many about the upcoming Monsterpalooza convention. On the way back to Toyota I stopped at McDonald’s and got an ice cream cone, and then picked up the Gray Ghost. I got back to Planet Wallywood and prepared for a visit from my pal Mike McGee. He and his wife Alex own the company Alex In Wonderland, whom I’ve been using for my projects for several years now. Mike is going to measure the flats I created for the “Man with the Golden Gun” exhibit I’ll have in the Monsterpalooza museum. He’s going to create some sturdy supports that I can attach to the backs of the flats for stability. Mike has a special way of creating the supports so they’re just the right angle. When Mike arrived he brought his “angle thingamajig” so he could see how many degrees I wanted the supports to be angled. I never even knew such a thing existed! Over the past few months I expressed interest in buying one of his Gorn pieces (the lizard creature from the original “Star Trek” episode called “Arena). He has the molds for the Gorn head that was used in a recent commercial with William Shatner. You can see it here…it’s freaking hilarious! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hnBp7x2QAE He whipped up a beautiful replica and brought it over. It even has the rhinestone eyes! He also polished the Phantom of the Opera metal sculpture I recently bought, and it looks completely amazing all polished up! After Mike left I relaxed for a while, and then did my daily auditions. I took my nightly WOG, and then started packing for set-up day for the Monsterpalooza museum. Thursday we’ll be heading over to the Pasadena Convention Center around 2 in the afternoon to begin set-up. VERY exciting!

Wednesday the 28th – BUTTONS BUTTONS – WHO’S GOT THE BUTTONS?! NOBODY! – Mike stopped by with several supports he whipped up for the “Golden Gun” flats, and then I headed to Paty’s to have lunch with my pal Chris Malmin, who would be watching Spooky while I was away at Monsterpalooza this weekend. While I was in the area I stopped by Hobby Lobby to see about getting some specifically colored buttons for a few new shirts I got. I ordered an Oscar the Grouch shirt, and a Cookie Monster shirt, and while the prints are amazing, the white buttons really ruin the look of the design. They’re right in the middle of the faces of the characters, and I figured if I could closely match the colors with colored buttons they would look better. But no luck. Their selection of buttons was terrible. Now that JoAnn’s is defunct, it’s going to be very tough to find a suitable supplier for such things. I stopped over at Big 5 to get two new pairs of shoes for my WOGs, as the pair I currently have torn fabric in the interiors from excessive use. In the old days good running shoes cost $100-150, but they lasted forever. Nowadays, good shoes are only about 50 bucks, but they’re virtually disposable. I braved Walmart to see if they had any decent buttons, and while I found a few assortment packs with different colors, they didn’t have everything I needed. But I did pick up a few much-needed grocery items. Then it was on to Michaels. Nada. JOANN’S! WHYYYYY?! I gassed up the Gray Ghost for this weekend, and then headed home. I staged all of the stuff I needed to pack, but I will pack the car later when I can concentrate better. I relaxed for a bit and then did my daily auditions and sent them to my agents. I did some more staging work, and when I was satisfied that I had everything, I started packing up the car. I took a quick break to do my WOG, and then finished packing the car.

Thursday the 29th – GLOVE LOVE!!! – The car is packed and we’re ready to set up at the Monsterpalooza museum! My pal Scott Sebring will be meeting me there to assist, as it’s something I won’t be able to do by myself. The good news of the day was, the Darth Vader leather gloves I ordered on eBay from New Zealand arrived a day early! That means I can pick them up on the way to Pasadena and have them for my Darth Vader cosplay this weekend! I stopped by my box to grab them, and they’re beautiful! I stopped at McDonald’s to get some lunch to go, and then hit the road to the Pasadena Convention Center. I met up with Scott and we lugged all the stuff in. The guys from Blok 4, the company who built many of the components of my Roger M00re figure, weren’t there yet. But they’d be there soon to set up their displays right next to mine! What I hadn’t counted on, was that the convention center management doesn’t turn on the A/C on set-up day…only during the convention! YIKES! It was a sauna in there, and we were working away and sweating our $%(& off! Scott and I set up the backdrop and the frame first, and then plugged in the backlight. It looked amazing, and Scott did an amazing job on the graphics for it. He basically took a tiny screenshot from the movie “The Man With The Golden Gun” and turned it into an image that was printed onto a 6 foot by 8 foot fabric backdrop. It looked amazing, and was really an eye-catcher! As a bonus, our position was right in one of the corners of the room, so when a person came around the bend, there was the glowing image of Christopher Lee as Scaramanga dead ahead! It was a choice spot! After we finished setting the backdrop up, we put the flats together and attached the supports onto the back. Our pal Kelly with Blok 4 arrived and they began setting up their amazing displays. Kelly asked who I would prefer to be next to Roger M00re, and OF COURSE I opted for Lon Chaney as the Phantom of the Opera in the Red Death costume! Kelly helped us set up and dress the Roger M00re mannequin and it looked amazing. But none of us hippies knew how to tie a tie. Luckily our neighbor, the great Dante Renta, saved the day! We finished up at 6:30 and we were drenched with sweat. Undeterred, Scott and I walked across the street to have dinner at the Yard House. On the drive home I was pretty tired. But the weekend had just begun! After relaxing a bit, I sat down and made a list of everything Chris needed to know for Spooky’s care over the weekend. I packed a little bit, took my nightly WOG, and came back inside to continue packing.

Friday the 30th – MONSTERPALOOZA: DAY 1! – As I packed some last-minute things for the convention I noticed that my voice was a bit creaky. Uh oh! Not sure if it was weather-related, or perhaps it was from working in the heat while setting up in the museum. Whatever the reason, I needed to be careful not to lose it entirely. I had a long weekend to get through! I hit the road and got to Pasadena around 3:15. Luckily they had a room available, and even though check-in wasn’t until 4, they let me in early. And it was a room on the top floor! BONUS! I dropped my luggage and then headed over to the convention before they opened at 6 to put the final touches on the Roger M00re display. He was looking good! The lighting looked good, hair looked good, pose looked good, props and flats looked good – we were ready for prime time! I saw a bunch of friends while I was there, including my good pal Dan Roebuck – who had a table there for the weekend. I headed back to the room, totally wiped, and then got a call from my gal Angi – she was on her way over. I got up and headed downstairs to give her the excess parking pass so she could park in the hotel structure. Oddly enough, she was having voice problems too. Perhaps it’s something in the weather that’s irritating vocal cords?! We went to the con and had a blast looking around. Then we walked across the street to the Yard House and had dinner. Then we headed back to the con for the final hours and finished out the day.

Saturday the 31st – MONSTERPALOOZA: DAY 2! – My pal Mark Fullerton came by so he could spend the day at the con doing what he loves best…taking great photos! I was also joined by my friend and Christoween attorney Stephanie. She always loves looking at the latest monster trends to edify her personal research for our Christoween IP. My friend Sara dropped by to have some fun, and my pal Chris Malmin took a few hours off from watching Spook at my house to drop by as well. He had intended to come in full make-up as Peter Criss from KISS, but he texted me and told me that he didn’t like the way his make-up job turned out, so he’d just be showing up as himself. Mark, Stephanie, Sara and I took a break from the convention floor and headed over to the hotel to grab lunch. The restaurant is poolside, and since there were plenty of bathing beauties by the pool, I made sure to grab the best table in the house! After lunch Sara and I headed up to the room so she could help me get into the Darth Vader costume. If you recall, I started cosplaying as Darth Vader back in 1980, before the word cosplay even existed. My costume was VERY homemade; constructed of pasteboard, vinyl and wood. But it was effective for what I was doing back then. However, today, a company called Jazwares released a nearly-complete, screen-accurate Darth Vader costume (complete with rolling carrying case) for $1,000. I just had to have it! My idea was that I would wear it on the convention floor for just one hour, before retiring completely and putting the costume on a mannequin in Planet Wallywood. Then my Darth Vader cosplay adventure would have come full circle. Unlike the homemade costume in the early 80s, this one took two people to put on, though the effort would be worth it. For a convention like Monsterpalooza, Darth Vader seems an odd fit at first glance. But when you consider that Darth Vader is the most terrifying monster in the galaxy, I think it could fit very nicely. It took about a half hour to fully complete (we had a very tough time getting the straps on the shin guards to work right). By 4pm I was ready to rock. I’ve customized the Jazwares costume with a few upgrades. First, I had Alex In Wonderland tailor the cape and cloak to fit my build. I also had her add a lot of Velcro to certain places, so the chest box, the belt, and the breastplate wouldn’t move around once it was on. She also put Velcro on the shoulder pieces so the cape would affix nicely, so it didn’t move back and forth. I bought a nice 3D printed lightsaber hilt that I clipped to the belt, and I also found a wonderful pair of Propet men’s boots in size 13EE. The reason I got them so large is because I had 2 inch lifts inside the boots. The larger boot size could easily accommodate the extra space taken up by the lifts, as well as my feet. But they were very tough to walk on after a while. Given my own height, the height of the heel on the boots, the lifts inside the boots, as well as how high the helmet is, I clocked in at a total of about 6′ 5″! One of the things I wish Jazwares would have done differently is the configuration of the lights on the belt packs. I know it’s convenient to be able to push the green buttons and they light up, but as you’re walking around in the costume it’s common that the buttons get bumped, and consequently turn off. Luckily Sara was there to make sure my lights stayed lit. Either I would bump them and turn them off, or people would accidentally bump them when taking pictures and turn them off. But the chest box with the alternating lights and the breathing sound effects was amazing! I also had a microphone inside my helmet that was attached to a speaker on my belt. This way I could talk and people could hear what I was saying. It was hot in the suit, I couldn’t see very well because the eye pieces would fog up, and it was difficult to walk – but man was it fun!!! There’s really not a person on Earth who doesn’t know who Darth Vader is. I kept my walking pace up considerably, as I love that “Vader’s in a hurry” gait, similar to how you saw him in “Empire Strikes Back” when he’s trying to catch the rebels in the Hoth base. Or when he’s walking with the Imperial commander telling him he’s come to put them back on schedule for building the Death Star. Vader never seemed to lumber along. I went to visit my pal Scott in the PPI booth, and he was playing some terrific music that had everyone in high spirits. When I performed as Darth Vader back in the 80’s, I usually was with a mobile disco company called “Disco On Wheels.” So dancing as Darth Vader was not uncommon at all. It was great to do a little Dancing Vader once again on the Monsterpalooza convention floor! But after about an hour of frivolity, I had about enough. Unlike the old days, when I could stay in the costume for hours, I was ready to be Wally again. 45 years made a huge difference in my enthusiasm for staying in that costume for long periods! I headed to the room, changed out of the costume, and showered. The bodysuit was SOAKED! I went back to the museum and hung out around the Roger M00re exhibit. It’s funny that many people didn’t know why Bond’s fingers were missing. I would just smile and say, “Watch the movie.” Hopefully I inspired them to dig out an old 50 year old movie and enjoy it again! I thought that I should have had a QR code posted next to the exhibit that would take people to the clip in the film where Scaramanga shoots off the four fingers on the left hand of his James Bond effigy. But hey, I just wanted to plant a seed in hopes that people would get curious and go rent the film again. By late Saturday afternoon my voice was REALLY bad. Luckily I still had my lower register, so doing the Darth Vader voice wasn’t hard, but my regular speaking voice was very rugged! I needed voice rest badly! The show closed at 6, I turned off the backlight on the Scaramanga backdrop, and Mark and I headed down the street to get pizza. My feet were killing me. When we finished dinner Mark took off, and I headed up to the room. My Monsterpalooza tradition is to join my pal Perry in the hotel courtyard on Saturday evening so we could enjoy cigars and talk all night about monsters and Laurel & Hardy. When I got back to the room I laid down to take a one-hour nap with the intent of getting up joining Perry downstairs. However, when I awoke it was well after midnight. I had crashed out hard! It’s probably all for the best. The smoke may have further irritated my vocal cords, and the excessive chatting wouldn’t have done much for my vocal rest anyway. I was sad to have missed that tradition. I went downstairs to visit the hotel’s store and the cases were almost empty! There were only TWO lonely sandwiches left in the cooler case. One was a PB&J, and the other was turkey and cheddar. I opted for the latter, checked out and headed back to the room to eat and pack up. During the checkout process at 11am on Sunday finding a luggage cart is always difficult. So I went downstairs around 2am and found plenty. I loaded up everything I could live without for the night and loaded up my car. That way the next morning, I could hand carry my remaining luggage to my car and check out. No cart needed! I headed back to the room and passed out!

Sunday the 1st – MONSTERPALOOZA: DAY 3! – After lugging my final bags to my car and stashing them, I checked out of the hotel and headed to the convention. My voice was actually doing MUCH better. I’m sure the vocal rest helped immensely. I turned on the Scaramanga light and eventually met up with my pal Sergio Lopez. Sergio does the hair on all my mannequins, so he wanted to check out how Roger M00re looked in the museum. I’ve known Sergio for about 21 years, as we first met when I was doing Beetlejuice at Universal Studios, and Sergio was the wig guy. As Sergio and I walked the floor we saw a familiar face from our past. Scott Fresina, who played Frankenstein in the “Beetlejuice Graveyard Revue” was chatting with a buddy of mine. Sergio and I hadn’t seen Scott in many years, so we had lots of laughs talking about the old days. We hung out a bit with Dan Roebuck, Sara arrived to enjoy the final throes of the convention, and it was a fun, but exhausting day. The weekend seemed to fly by, except for the last hour. Sergio and I sat down waiting for 6pm to roll around (when the show closes) so I could start breaking everything down in my museum exhibit and head home. But the final hour just seemed to creek along at a snail’s pace. Once the show closed we headed to the museum, Sara brought in all the boxes so we could pack everything up, and we spent about an hour tearing down. Luckily, because the show had just ended, it was nice and cool in the museum room! (Not like set-up day!) Sara did an amazing job helping me break everything down and load it into her car. My car was loaded full of my luggage and Darth Vader costume, so we needed her SUV to take all the Roger M00re stuff to my house. I drove home and met up with Sara, loaded everything into the garage, and I went inside to put a few things away and crash! When I got up later my voice problems had come back (probably from all the talking I did during the day at the convention). I drank some hot water and relaxed. I wasn’t in the mood for a WOG because my feet hurt so badly. I unpacked and got settled. I’m looking forward to resting for a couple of days. All of the excitement leading up to the convention, coupled with the convention itself, was really quite exhausting (but FUN!). I couldn’t resist setting up the Roger M00re figure in my living room. He looks fantastic! I also broke down my life-size Michael Myers mannequin and put on the new coveralls I had just bought at the convention! I had a pair of blue coveralls on him for the longest time, but I met an expert in the field who had a booth called Creepy Customs. He assured me that the coveralls I needed were in a specific “screen-accurate” color, and with the proper amount of weathering. I grabbed them at the convention and couldn’t wait to see how they looked on my figure. As expected, they looked totally amazing! After that I showered up, and hit the hay in hopes that I could sleep for a week!

And how was YOUR week?!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

The Phantom of the Opera metal sculpture polished up very nicely!

And it looks terrific at the feet of my life-size Phantom of the Opera figure!

We’re all set up in the Monsterpalooza museum!

The other exhibits look amazing as well!

My pal Dan Roebuck is busily signing Funko Pops

Scott & Vickie Sebring attend their first Monsterpalooza in years!

Larry Strothe from the Monster Party podcast pays tribute to my fingerless James Bond!

Sergio Lopez, Scott Fresina and I relive the glory days of “The Beetlejuice Graveyard Revue!”

As a character performer in the “Star Wars” shows, my pal Sara Raftery takes a lot of inspiration from the great Doug Jones. She was amazed at the chance to meet him and thank him in person!

Sara, aka Darth’s Dresser, is congratulated for a job well done!

Stephanie is armed with her Stromtrooper purse to show her allegiance to the Empire.

Michael Myers is cool, yeah – but is he Vader caliber?

Scott from PPI enjoys having Darth Vader for protection.

Chicks dig a man in black! Darth is always a hit with the girls!

Bob and Darth chew the fat.

Vader compels another beauty to turn to the dark side (even though she looks like she’s well on her way!)

Even the convention center employees wanted a shot with the Dark Lord!

It was so fun to interact with these kids who were convinced I was the real Darth Vader. They were telling me all about the love of “Star Wars.” It brought back good memories of doing this in the 80’s.

This is one you never saw in the movies…Darth Vader vs. The Rancor!

“I find your lack of KISS make-up disturbing.” Chris Malmin pays for his failure to cosplay.

Back at the hotel, even the housekeeping staff wanted a shot with D.V.

Seriously, this costume from Jazwares was one of the best $1,000 I ever spent. Look at that baby!

Mark always wanted a shot of him getting choked by Darth Vader, but the character at the Disney parks was forbidden to do so. So we decided to make it happen!