The thought has crossed my mind a lot lately about this. As Silent approaches his three year birthday, the thought has crossed my mind a few times about retiring the suit. I am always met with a wave of mixed emotions when the thought crosses my mind. I have had countless hours of fun running around as the part time cutie, part time jerk that I have built silent into. I remember when I first wore the entire suit, and the first con I took it to.technically it was MFF 08, but after a quick rebuild and a new head, the official debut of silent as he stands today was FWA 2009.

He is still in remarkably good condition for his age, the suit is still soft and free of tears or rips. The fur is starting to become distressed, and he has lost his softness and luster he once had. The fur on the head has faded, and the feet and tail are both coming apart at the seams. The vision on the head has degraded, and the ventilation is now difficult, making wearing him in less then ideal conditions difficult, and short winded.

There are a lot of construction faults that have nagged at me as well. Imperfections here and there that I have just been itching to correct. With that said, I am going to start retiring the current version of Silent. He is not going away completely, but he is going to be coming out much less in the future. Special events mainly.

However, his retirement will make way for a new version of silent, that will be arriving within the next year. I am wrestling with different ideas, a few different suit builders for the head, and investigating new construction techniques.

Keep an eye out for a new version of silent, for as his current version will slowly move towards retirement, he makes way for a new version coming soon. I know im excited to see him.