Coolest Homemade Teenage Mutant NEON Ninja Turtles Costume

As a Korean-American studying abroad in Seoul, it was heart-warming for me to see so much enthusiasm and creativity put into costumes this year in Korea!! Our Scandinavian friends threw a Halloween party for our exchange group with the theme of “neon”. So, we decided to put a fun, NEON twist on the traditional Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles costume! Both as fans of the TMNT and of homemade costumes, it was truly a “dream come true” to put this together. Here’s how we did it…

Create a TMNNT:

Green Dresses (Michelangelo, Donatello, & Leonardo)– Purchased from Forever 21 in Myeongdong for just 12,000 KRW. All three are green, short-sleeved dresses with gathered waists and belt loops.

Green Top (Raphaello)– Purchased from Daiso in Myeongdong for 5,000 KRW. It’s a basic green tee in mens size 100.

Green Briefs (Raphaello)– Created from fabric from a green t-shirt. Folded and sewn into briefs and worn over tights.

Neon Yellow Tights–Purchased from H&M in Myeongdong for 10,000 KRW. They were actually the most expensive piece of our costume!!

Eye Masks, Arm, and Leg Bands– Created from fabric from red, blue, green, and orange t-shirts. For the eye masks, we cut a long strip of fabric in the color of our respective turtles. Then we measured the fabric so it fit our heads, cut two holes for eyes, and tied them on. For the arm and leg bands, we similarly cut strips of fabric and tied them twice around both elbows and knees. Double knots work best.

Front Shell– Created from yellow fabric from two t-shirts. We cut oval-shaped circles out from the t-shirts and drew in “2-pack abs” (“4-pack abs” for Raphaello) with black marker. To attach them to our dresses and top, we used safety pins and tape.

Back Shell– These were the most challenging to make! We purchased four medium-sized baskets from Daiso, and stuck them inside neon green bags, taping the insides so they were wrapped snugly. We then used green tape to outline a turtle shell pattern on the outside. Shoulder straps were created from green shoelaces and put through two holes cut out in the shells.

Brown Belt– Created from dark brown fabric from a t-shirt. We cut four long strips from one sleeve to the other. We then looped the strips through our belt loops and hung our weapons from them.

Green Gloves– Purchased from Daiso. They are actually dish-washing mittens in neon green, but we used them as our turtle hands!

Turtle Necklaces– Purchased from Forever 21 for 2,400 KRW. Found these perfect little accessories on sale in silver and gold.

Weapons:

Donatello’s B Staff– Purchased at Daiso for 1,000 KRW. One neon yellow stick.

Raphaello’s Sai– Purchased at Daiso for 1,000 KRW each. They are actually neon green cooking forks!

Leonardo’s Katanas– Used two butter knives! Stylish and safe.

Michalangelo’s Nun-chucks– Created from two neon green jump ropes. Cut each jump rope approx. 6 inches from the handle on each end. Use clear tape to attach one jump rope to the other one. Makes two cool nun-chucks that can easily be spun around!

Neon Green Kicks– As a finishing touch, we purchased neon green house slippers from Daiso for 2,000 KRW. As this was an indoor party, they were the perfect accessory! A few of the turtles even wore them out to the club afterwards! :]

Enjoy! Cowabunga!!