This was my first attempt at ever building my own Halloween costume. My sister and her husband started doing detailed costumes for Halloween parties they hosted a few years ago… So, this year I had a lot more time on my hands and decided to bring more to the party than a store bought costume like I usually did in the past. It was more exciting because it turned into a 20 person contest. I told one of my buddies about the fun family contest and we decided to try and beat everyone. I just randomly thought that making a Optimus Prime would be ultimate… until I looked at how much detail was involved. I stuck with my guns and decided to do my best with the amount of time I had. It was my first time ever working with so much cardboard off of little online photos but I gave a solid effort.
The making of this homemade Optimus Prime adult Halloween costume idea:
I decided to design my costume using cardboard, spray paint, hot glue, and duct tape. All these items are cheap and easily found and very abundant. The hard part is designing it to withstand human movement. I believe I succeeded because it made it through a whole 5 hour long party with my friends. Using just scissors, a straightedge, exacto knives and a pencil I was able to look at the Optimus Prime parts and eyeball the cut-outs and design the parts and details.
The painting process was fun and cardboard is easy to paint on. I used base coats to define shadows or for a more clean top coat. Designing the flames I used masking tape on top of a particular coat and then used a knife to trace the flames. Then peeled off the outline and sprayed the space with the blue coat on top of the red to give the effect of a professional auto paint job with flames. All cardboard pieces were cutout from home depot boxes.
The helmet was made from a broken paintball mask. I only used the mouth guard area to give the strength for the frame of the helmet and I used the band to secure it on the top of my head, everything else is cardboard cuts and hot glue. 2/3 of the materials for the helmet is cardboard, underneath the cardboard from ear level to the jaw line is plastic paintball mask.
I used wire for the joints at the shin guards so they could pivot and withstand walking. Also used Velcro sticky pads to fasten the belt to the thigh pads so that the thigh pads would not slide down and move around. And used velcro for the chest piece where I secure the front and back together down at the bottom to have it fit around my torso like a suit.
My suggestions for building it are: make sure it is secure before you paint. Test pieces and parts for fit and mobility along with the type of undergarments you will be wearing when it is showtime. Research, Look up photos, and put together a good idea of how you’d like it to look. Have fun with it! I worked on my costume while my friend worked on his so I had good company.
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