This year when I asked my 3 ½ year old son what he wanted to be for Halloween I couldn’t help but think “Oh great!! Just my luck!?”. This was the first year he had a specific request for a costume – he wanted to be a crane!!- With a wrecking ball!!!
All I could think was “How in the world do I do that”? A couple weeks before Halloween he was undecided about being a panda bear or a crane, I kept my opinions to myself and kept fingers crossed for panda bear but then he decided and he was pretty firm on his decision. I thought maybe he meant crane as in the bird, but nope, it was crane as in construction equipment!
After my first attempt at building the crane failed miserably I was very relieved to hear my husband had been thinking about it and planning and had it all under control.
Materials used.
Plastic hard hat from dollar store
2 empty diaper boxes
Black tape
Yellow spray paint
Black spray paint
Plastic bowling ball from son’s bowling set
Glue gun
String
First he took one diaper box, took it apart, turned it inside out and re-glue it. He cut holes for our son’s head and arms. Next he disassembled the second diaper box and cut it to the appropriate size to use for the boom of the crane. He then used the glue gun to attach to the front of the crane. We then spray painted the entire thing yellow. My husband then went to a local store that sells construction clothing and asked for a shoe box from a pair of Caterpillar shoes. They were more than happy to provide it and we then used the lid of the shoe box to make a stencil to spray onto the crane. He used the black tape to make the markings on the crane and boom. He then attached the plastic bowling ball to the string and attached it to the end of the boom. Needless to say our son was more than impressed and the look on his face when he saw his costume made it worth every minute!
Related costumes:
Cool Homemade Construction Wrecking Ball Costume 
Bob the Builder Costume and His Buddy Lofty 
Coolest Homemade Yellow School Bus Halloween Costume 
Awesome Backhoe Loader Preschool Halloween Costume 
Coolest Diaper Box John Deere Costume 
Coolest Small Block Chevy V8 Engine Costume! 
Coolest Homemade Blind School Bus Driver Halloween Costume 
Cheap and Easy Car-Themed Family Halloween Costumes
Great costume!!…forwarded the pic to the local Cat Dealer, and they were impressed! Your little guy is very creative to think of something like this on his own!!
Fantastic! My son, nearly four, has coincidentally decided he wants to be a crane for Halloween, so I did a search and found your picture. It’s close to what I had in mind, but so much better because of the details. I hope ours turns out as well as yours.
I love creative costumes! Oddly enough I decided that my almost 4 year old son will be a construction worker, and my 21 month old daughter will be a crane. I hope they are game for it! Your costume is just what I was looking for. Great job!
funny, my son (when 3) decided he wanted to be a bulldozer, not the driver, the actual dozer; and when 4, the space shuttle. Now he wants to be a dinosaur and I found this site. This is an awesome crane!
Love it! My son requested to be a backhoe loader for Halloween. Unfortunately, I am not as talented as you or your husband.
thank you for posting this pic!
I am doing a Thomas the train bday for my gonna be 4 year old-I have the Thomas popup tent and am doing the cranky the crane in the right size to the tent to look like the crane is big enough to pull the tent/trains load size but I am putting a pinata on the crane/ ladder!-Indoor party and couldn’t think of a better pinata hanger without damaging my ceiling! Gonna spray paint the wooden ladder green as well as crank! This inspired me! 8 foot cranky the cranecoming up!!
Hi son is the crane at his school play. You have saved my day!!! I have copied the above design and replicated the crane. Unreal!!!! Thank you sooo much!!!
Count me in on the people trying to replicate this – my son wants to be a crane this year. Gotta love three-year-olds…
i LOVE your costume! my husband suggested my 22 month old be just a “wrecking ball” because he is a one-man-wrecking-crew!!! i’m trying to figure out how to make HIM be the ball itself. it wasn’t quite what i was looking for but it IS a fantastic costume!
Every year my husband wants to be the most rediculous things for halloween… this year a crane. Thank you for doing the leg work and putting this togther. Now I need to find a box big enough for my 25 year old “child”.
My hubby is a crane erector and loves his job and anything crane related. I showed him this and HE wanted to dress up for Halloween using this costume. Our son was less than a year old this halloween but we have kept this for reference for next year(and probably several years after that. You did a wonderful job! Thanks for sharing:)