Cumbria has its very own Mandalorian and he’s on a mission bringing joy to fans all over the county.
Alex Sweeney, 36, of Carlisle, has been cosplaying as the Mandalorian for a year and a half and has gained thousands of followers and millions of views sharing his adventures on TikTok.
As a long time fan of Star Wars, Alex said he had been instantly hooked when he first watched The Mandalorian TV series, a spin off which streams on Disney Plus and stars Pedro Pascal as an intergalactic bounty hunter who goes rouge to rescue a child known as Grogu or ‘baby Yoda’ to some fans.
Alex – who is a bus driver by day – first started building his armour after he jokingly asked a work colleague who had recently bought a 3D printer to print out the character’s iconic helmet
He said: “As soon as my friend said to me that he’d bought a 3D printer I joked and said he should print me the Mando helmet and about two or three months later he sent me a message saying ‘I hope this fits your head’ with a picture of the start of a helmet being printed.
“I’d totally forgotten we’d spoken about it at this point and when I realised I was like ‘Is that really it?’ and he said it was and I was chuffed.
“I went and picked it up and said I was going to make a really good job of it because there’s a lot of sanding and prep work involved to get it as shiny as mine is now and I warned him at the time that if it turned out good we’d end up printing the whole suit.”
Alex finished the helmet and was so pleased with the result that he ended up working on the rest of the suit with his work friend’s help.
He added: “We ended up building the whole suit and I bought the materials and specialist paints online and I would go and pick up the parts as they were being 3D printed basically.
“Some of the things I had to buy from costume stores like the under suit and leather straps but all the armour was all painted and put together by myself and it took a lot of time and effort.”
@cumbrian_mandalorian Comic con 2023 @NerdStuffByAndy #themandalorian #starwars #comiccon #starwars #cumbria #carlisle #thisistheway #bobafett #charity #childrenshospice #jigsawcharity ♬ original sound – Ashleyraye
Alex said that building the cosplay and bringing it to life had also proved a therapeutic process for him.
He said: “When I started doing it I was going through a bit of a rough time as I’d just lost my parents and I found that is was quite therapeutic just standing there and sanding parts and doing a repetitive process. It took my mind off everything.”
Before last year’s Carlisle Comic Con, Alex decided to go as screen accurate as possible with his cosplay and bought accurate shoes, electronics, a wrist rocket and grenades.
Overall, the outfit has cost a significant amount of money to create – after various upgrades and initial versions were created and parts purchased spread out over time.
He added: “This is my first cosplay and people are always shocked when I say that. I went as Kylo Ren for a fancy dress party but that’s it and it was just from a costume shop.
“The outfit I have now for Mando you could not get in a costume shop, it is totally custom made. I’m completely self taught when it comes to the painting – I’ve painted car parts before but I wasn’t too interested in the sanding but with this I was really passionate about it.
“You could definitely buy a decent car for the cost of it all but that’s over a period of a year and a half and there was a first version of it as well. The main costs have really come from the specialist paint, prep time and materials, the 3D printing is relatively cheap.
“I haven’t just dropped a big lump sum on it, it has been a slow process of spending £30 here and there on materials.”
Alex’s close friend Andrew ‘Andy’ Murphy, who he has known for over 27 years was the driving force behind Alex’s inspiration to set up a TikTok account.
He said: “Andy said to me ‘you’ve got to put this on TikTok, people are going to want to see it’ and this was before Mandalorian content blew up on TikTok so that’s how it all started really.”
Andy also cosplays with Alex as Boba Fett and the duo along with friend Kira have dubbed themselves The Cumbrian Mandalorians and began making public appearances for fun at first before taking it more seriously.
Alex said: “Andy got me into the whole cosplay thing but Boba Fett was his first big build and his costume has cost a lot as well because he’s ordered parts that you can’t just buy from a shop.
“I always wanted to do it but we argue about who convinced who to get started! I always say I told him to do it, but he’ll argue me on that.”
Alex’s first public appearance as the Cumbrian Mandalorian was at Smyths Toys in Carlisle. He visited the shop to buy Grogu as a way of creating some fun TikTok content.
After getting a buzz for cosplaying in public, he then spotted the Lego shop in Carlisle had hired Stormtrooper cosplayers for a promo day, so Alex decided to message the store and offer to appear as the Mandalorian.
He said: “I messaged the shop owner saying I had a Mando cosplay and would have come and joined the promo day and she asked to have a look and she was blown away with it and asked to hire me.
“They’ve hired us a few times now and me and Alex have also now done a few appearances in town with our outfits on.”
Alex said that every time the duo go into Carlisle’s town centre that the experience is always incredibly positive
He added: “Every time we go out we get absolutely hounded. It’s non-stop pictures and the nice thing about it is it’s all positivity.
“At first I was worried about it, I went out thinking oh god what if we get kids shouting at us and being obnoxious but there was nothing. We had young lads, young lasses, older people, middle aged people and kids, everyone was just loving it and it really gave me a massive buzz for it.
“Seeing people’s reactions makes it worth it, I’ve never had any negative comments it has all been so positive. The attention I’ve got when I go out in it can be a bit overwhelming to be honest, from being just a bus driver that everyone ignores half the time to someone who gets stopped for a picture every five seconds is a bit crazy.”
After meeting a mutual friend who worked for Cumbria’s only children’s hospice charity Jigsaw, Alex decided to offer a free visit to spend some time with the youngsters in character.
He added: “I visited for an hour and just chatted with the kids. They were a bit shy to start with, obviously I am a big guy in a metal suit! But they warmed up and seemed to really enjoy it.
“For me it’s all about the reaction people have when they see the suit for the first time, it’s a great buzz.”
Alex plans to stay local with his cosplay outings for now but would love to continue appearing at events for people in the future.
He said: “We’ve got a Facebook group under the Cumbrian Mandalorian’s and it would be great for people to want to book us for parties and events, we’re not expecting a full business or anything, we’d just love to keep doing it on the side really.”
