Coolest Homemade Hamburglar Costume

This year for Halloween I wanted a costume that would induce nostalgia in people that grew up in the mid-80’s/early 90’s. The Hamburglar. He is one of my favorite characters from the McDonald’s franchise. Having no previous mascot mask-making skills, making the Hamburglar’s head was quite daunting. Here’s how I did it:

I used a Halloween cauldron I bought at party supply store so I already would have a head shape. First, I cut out eye holes. Then I used instant paper mache to shape the chubby cheeks, chin, nose, and ears. The instant paper mache works great because you don’t need any glue – it’ll stick to just about any surface. Once that dried, I covered the paper mache areas with paper-clay to give it a smoother surface for painting.

After painting, I put black mesh over the eye holes so I could see out, but no one could see in. I cut out a bandanna mask from felt, cut out where the eye holes would be, then hot glued it to the mask. I used white paint to make eyeballs (the pupils being my eye holes). For hair, I cut up two orange clown wigs and hot glued it onto the head on the areas that would be exposed from under his hat.

For the Hamburglar’s signature hat, I took a wide-brimmed witch’s hat and cut the pointy part off. I then took a plastic cookie container, painted it black, glued on the yellow ribbon trim, and hot glued it to the witch hat. Then I took the hat and hot glued the middle of it to the top of the mask.

To get the mask to stay put and be comfortable, I hot glued various layers of foam inside the mask. I also drilled two holes into the back of the mask and laced a piece of cord through so I could use it to tie the mask securely on to my head since it was a little front heavy. The mask was still spacious enough to allow me to breath comfortably without having to drill nose holes.

The cape and jailbird outfit was bought used at the thrift store. I sewed on a red tie made out of an altered scarf also bought at the thrift store. I threw on a pair of red, winter gloves I already had to complete the outfit. For all the materials including tools used, this homemade Hamburglar costume from head to toe cost approx. $95.00. It took me about 3 days to put together mostly due to drying time.

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