In 2007, my nephew wanted to be Gravedigger more than anything for Halloween so I offered to try and make a gravedigger monster truck costume for him.
With a toy monster truck in front of me to work off of, I cut-shaped and painted (as best as I could) two black posterboards to look like the truck. I bought some shiny skeleton faces at the craft shop, then with markers, I drew the haunted house and graveyard on construction paper first, then cut them out and glued them on. The sides were done.
For the tires, at first I bought the biggest flat circle Styrofoam I could and tried to paint it black. That didn’t work out well so I put it inside black 30 gallon garbage bags (I could have used smaller ones but I wanted REALLY big ‘tires’) and filled it with crumpled newspaper on TOP OF the Styrofoam. Then I twisted it to look like tread then scotch-taped it shut. I covered the tape with white construction paper as the rims with lug nuts drawn on with marker.
To put it together, I used dowels inserted in small holes and used rubberbands on each side of the boards to hold it in the right spot. Then I used black construction paper to close.cover the front and rear. On the front, I drew flames to match the ones on GD’s hood on green construction paper. I folded it in half before I cut them out so they would match. Then I glued them on along with the headlights I colored red from the same piece of paper I used for the haunted houses on the sides. To finish I folded it to fit the curves/outline of the sides and stapled it all together.
I attached thick ribbon to the dowels so he could carry it in the contest. It only weighed about 3lbs altogether. He still has it in his garage
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You did a great job! I’m surprised how little it weighs! Well done!
Great job!! Thank you, you’ve given me an idea how to make my four year old son happy this Halloween… he totally wants to be a Monster Truck and I was thinking “how am I going to do this?!!”. Thank goodness for the Internet and people like you sharing their great ideas!
My soon to be three year old grandson lives and sleeps gravedigger. We have even recorded some of his races so he can watch them whenever he and his big brother Brooks are here…What I am wondering if you sell these?
I was wondering how to make one of these for my four year old. Thanks for the tips! His twin brother wants to be a reindeer. That should be a little easier.
THANKS FOR THE INSTRUCTIONS! AWESOME JOB!
Dang girl!!!! you can create some awesome stuff!!! and people are willing to pay for that!! that’s awesome!
can you give me some insight on how you made this-you can contact me at mso@musicshowcaseonline.com– I need to make a couple different truck ones and this looks great!
Right on! You did a WONDERFUL job! Great going!
Are you willing to sell?
hi my son is 4 years old that costume that t you made was the coolest that is my sons favorite driver for monster jam
My 8 year old son is obsessed with monster trucks and Hot Wheels cars. He insists on being a monster truck for Halloween. I think I’m up for the challenge thanks to your awesome Gravedigger!
Would you be able to post what the dimensions are (length and height of the side of the truck and width of the front grill from side to side) just to give me an idea of how big I should make it? THANKS!
I want to thank you for spending time making your little boy’s dream come true. A lot of parents would have just said, “Pick another costume.” but you were determined and your effort paid off.
Also, I want to generally thank everyone who goes out of their way to enrich another person’s life.
Thanks for all the comments! They are surely appreciated!
No I do not sell these. I made this for my nephew two years ago and he wants to keep it. It took me about a week to make it, although now it’ll probably be easier now that the first one has been done. Nothing was better than the look on his face (and other kids’ faces) when he wore it! I made it as big as the paper I used to cut it from, if that helps.
I hope the instructions were helpful. Happy Halloween!
This is the ultimate Halloween costume for my 3 year old, he LOVES grave digger!! How did you attach the wheels to the poster board? I have started to make this, but am struggling with the wheels.
I am also the mother of one of the biggest GraveDigger fans, I am about 95%done w/the costume….struggling w/ the last 2 wheels that are not attached to the dowel yet..any suggestion from anyone? I would appreciate it. Thanks!
nice truck
To attach the tires, I used rubber bands on the inside of the posterboard like a nut for a screw. Then I poked it through the styrofoam wheel which was inside the unfilled black trash bag already and used another rubberband as another ‘nut’. THEN I filled it with crumpled newspaper and closed it with the construction paper ‘rims’.
Hope this helps!
awesome job on that, your like those dudes from weird science all you need to do is hook it up to your computer and voala,but need to know dementions my email is abel.ruiz38@yahoo.com
I have an obsessed 5 yr old who will not go as nothing else but Grave Digger this year. Please post dimensions!