Optimus Prime Part IV: Return of Prime

What do you do when you have a monstrosity of a costume cluttering up your apartment all the time? Why, wear it into town, of course! These are pictures of me in the Prime outfit hanging out in the neighboring town of Imari. First, I went outside the "Best Denki" which is an electronic store chain here in Japan. I stood outside perfectly still and then would bow to customers walking in or out. I got a lot of great reactions. Although some responses were nothing more than a quick nervous glance, others would come up and talk to me. Some even took pictures with me. When the Best Denki workers started closing down the store, they all came out and took pictures with their cell phones. Some mid-20 year old guys in an SUV were very interested and would occasionally honk at me. Every time they did, I would do a short jig. This seemed to make their night. After Best Denki closed, I went into the neighboring "Mr. Donut" and ordered my favorite: Golden Chocolate!. Unfortunately due to the costume restrictions I could neither eat the doughnut, nor sit down and relax. I did greet a few customers though, much to the dismay of the Mr. Donut staff. Then, I went into the 100 yen store which is basically the Japanese equivalent of the dollar store. Did a little window shopping, but didn't get anything. After that, I stood next to a row of vending machines, hoping to catch people coming around the corner off guard. It worked. Some guy was sitting in his car watching the whole thing and really getting a kick out of other peoples reactions. He even called his friend and gave him a play-by-play as I was doing random stuff. The best part was when a Japanese-looking William Shatner came up to me hoping I could calm his crying baby. I only made it worse as the baby was terrified of me. The kid will probably grow up to have some unfounded fear of robots... Enjoy the pics!

Oh, I added the glowing eyes in Photoshop. I would have liked to have done that for the actual costume, but I really have know idea how I would have gotten it to work with the resources I have. Also, I have to give credit to Jill and Kate for taking pictures of the event. Word up! (miss you already, Kate).