New hobby

rkrochen

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Well my granddaughters found me a new hobby, thanks a lot kids. Damn internet let them locate some Halloween costume ideas and guess who has to help (their idea of help is I do the work). At least they started now because it will take that long, about 40hrs so far, good thing I’m retired. Anyways the griping is over and here is the results of the first one (head only, the wife can sew the body part). Taking time away from my car.

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Damn it was a week or so ago I started to see Autumn/Halloween crap starting to appear on the store shelves here in Florida.

Really? I guess it's to appease the new people from up north as their body clock hasn't been adjusted yet. I looked at the clerk and said "The leaves don't fall off the trees around here till December or January".
 
Damn it was a week or so ago I started to see Autumn/Halloween crap starting to appear on the store shelves here in Florida.

Really? I guess it's to appease the new people from up north as their body clock hasn't been adjusted yet. I looked at the clerk and said "The leaves don't fall off the trees around here till December or January".
Unfortunately ours started turning recently not so much because of the time but we have a severe drought here accompanied by pretty high temps. All the trees are stressed and losing leaves. They just announced that 12 municipalities here are under severe drought conditions. Glad they let us know.
 
I started putting my costume together last year on November 1st. The grim reaper, I have a doctor's appointment on Halloween, should I wear the costume?
 
Where'd you find the pattern to go by? Some nice "rosy" cheeks!

Congrats!
CBODY67
No pattern there is a video on YouTube showing how to build these. Used that as a basis and modified things as I went. I wasn’t sure what or where some of the materials they used came from. Needs a frame similar idea to a hard hat liner. I made it out of hard plastic and used a heat gun to form it. Then cover it with soft foam and material. The eyes, ears, hinges jaw and red cheeks are down later.
 
Cool, looks like it can be modified to make many kinds of costumes. I will look that up for the kids. They did a minecraft thing a couple years ago out of cardboard boxes.
 
Cool, looks like it can be modified to make many kinds of costumes. I will look that up for the kids. They did a minecraft thing a couple years ago out of cardboard boxes.
Yes it can be modified. Working on a second one right now. Hardest part is getting the movable jaw to work. The head piece needs to fit firmly on the head or it will move when they try to move the jaw. The geometry is hard to figure out but with a few adjustments you can get it.
 
Not sure about down there but in Canada Halloween is growing like crazy. Retailers are pushing it big time and are making it. If like Christmas.
 
The day after Halloween is over the Christmas junk goes up. They don't waste time.

I got ya beat, way back decades ago I went into a Sears and the stock person was putting up the fake Christmas trees and lights on the shelves during Labor Day weekend.
I looked at her and said "Are you serious?".
She looked back at me with a perplexed look and said "I just doing what I'm told".

Sheeeech.
 
I got ya beat, way back decades ago I went into a Sears and the stock person was putting up the fake Christmas trees and lights on the shelves during Labor Day weekend.
I looked at her and said "Are you serious?".
She looked back at me with a perplexed look and said "I just doing what I'm told".

Sheeeech.
wow, that's pathetic.
 
Finally got back to finishing these costumes. I am pretty happy how they turned out.
The wife is just putting the finishing touches on the rest.
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Those look great! I can appreciate how long it takes to make costumes from scratch because I always make my son's Hallowe'en costumes.

In 2017 he asked me to make Sam Flynn form the movie Tron Legacy. I knew this would be a challenging costume to do well and it took a long time to make. He got 2 years out of that one, but unfortunately has outgrown it. I told him I'm done and he's making his own if he wants to keep trick-or-treating this year.

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I started with a black jacket and rain pants from Value Village, LED light strings from Princess Auto and some strategic wiring to 9V connectors in the pockets, sheer blue fabric over the LEDs, then black fun foam cut and hotglued over top to make the armor. Finally silver paint marker for extra detail lines. On the back there is also an "identity disc" with LED lights around the perimeter. Permanently attached unfortunately, not removable to use as a weapon as it is in the movie.
 
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2016: Barf from the movie Spaceballs. The simplest costume by far. Many of the adults got the reference but none of his classmates did. He was fond of saying, "Please, I'm a Mawg: Half-man, half-dog. I'm my own best friend."
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2014-15: Ironman. The helmet mask was store-bought, but I made the rest. Fun-foam glued to a shirt for the basic design and details using a black sharpie. The light on the chest was some kind of stick-on utility light powered by AAA batteries. The light-up repulsors on his palms were segments of LED tape soldered together and attached to some thin gloves.
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2010-11: Buzz Lightyear. I made a circuit, hidden in the backpack, to blink the large LEDs on the wingtips on and off. The right-hand gauntlet also had a "laser" LED and buzzer which turned on with a pushbutton.

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