Coolest Emperor Zurg With LEDs Costume

My son wanted to be Buzz Lightyear for Halloween, so I decided it would be cool if I would be Zurg (since he is Buzz’s Dad in the movie). Unfortunately they don’t sell adult Zurg costumes, so I decided to make my own Homemade Emperor Zurg With LEDs Costume. I have never sewn before, I haven’t paper mached since I was a kid, and I have never worked with LEDs.

I started with the helmet first. I used a plastic popcorn bucket and a fed-ex envelope for the support on the helmet. The clear mouth I just cut strips from a CDR spindle. The horns were made out of a Wire hanger. After I had the support I put five layers of Paper Mache on it. I put four or five coats of spray paint for the purple and the silver I just hand brushed on with basic craft paint. The mouth has 16 yellow LEDs and the eyes each have four LEDs all powered by one 9 Volt battery.

The robe was relativity simple, except for the neck, but I’m sure I’ll get better with practice. The cape was super easy and came out great. The “Z” clasp that holds the cape on is actually just a soda can that I cut down the side and clasped on like a claw. The shoulder piece is just Cardboard covered with poster board. The Gloves are regular gloves that I attached fun foam to.

All together it cost me $60 and about two weeks to make. I wore it to Mickey’s not so scary Halloween party in Disneyland and had a great time. All the cast members loved it and there were bunch of little Buzz Lightyears who wanted to take pictures with me, it was well worth the time and money.

The first picture shows me near a Wanted poster of Zurg in the Buzz Lightyear ride. The second picture is in the dark so you can see the LEDs it was really hard to get them to show in the pictures, but it looked great in person. The third picture shows the helmet in one of its earliest forms. The fourth picture is the Helmet with the support and horns all done, mid paper mache.