Coolest Mortal Combat Halloween Costume

I envisioned Ninja suits made all of duct tape. After downloading numerous photos of Ninjas online, the project took on a life of it’s own.

The Mortal Combat Halloween costumes were prepared over a two-month period. The costumes are based upon the Mortal Combat franchise, but they are custom (ie, you won’t find them in any game).

I am Scorpion (yellow), and my buddies are Sub-Zero (blue) and Ermac (red).

The vambraces (arm guards), greaves (leg guards), shoulder straps, loin cloth, and belt are all cut out of a white plastic sheet foam (kinda bubbly, with air-holes). I then cut a piece of thick duct tape, fold it lengthwise by 1/3… and then tape in an alternating pattern which ends up looking like a “duct-tape braiding pattern”.

I then cut the “metal” pieces out of either 6mm (chest and shoulders) or 2mm (arms, legs, and loin cloth), cut out the designs I wanted, taped them to cardboard, and spray-painted with krylon “make it stone”… which gives it a pebbly, rusted-metal look. Then spray-painted over the stone paint with krylon red, yellow, or blue… then, spray-painted over that with testers metallic lacquer (it is VERY important to remember to allow at least 1-2 days to allow the paint to cure – to dry and to stop all the chemical reactions going on.

At the same time as the paragraph above is happening, I cut out 2mm hobby foam to form a base for every piece of the “metal” armor. I spray-painted it black, and then hot-glued it to the top.

The shoulder straps are held firmly in place by 1″ nylon webbing (like the straps you tighten up your backpack with), one longer piece of webbing belt comes from the back (under the butt), then clips to a shorter piece just above the groin. Each shoulder strap has this… and no, it wasn’t uncomfortable for any of us.

The shoulders are steadied by webbing that criss-crosses over the front of one shoulder, and clipping into another shorted strap on the mid-back (imagine an ‘x’).

The masks were made with clear plastic sheeting maybe 1mm-2mm thick. They were the hardest part to make. Lots of trial and error with everything from hobby foam, to cardboard, to paper towel, test everything before you’re ready to cut, the plastic’s expensive. The outside of each mask is painted the same way as described above. I used yogurt containers, cut to size as the inside because they retain that bent shape, which tightens around the face helping to hold the mask in position. The inside was duct-taped extensively. The mouth piece for Scorpion was cut out of a fiberglass “demon skull” mask, though I cut it too narrow. The mouthpiece for Sub Zero and Ermac’s masks were cut out of the same plastic sheeting, (then spray-painted black) with perforated plastic, painted silver, as the inner grill.

Very labor-intensive and time-consuming, not to mention expensive.

Trevor (Sub Zero) supplied the weapons which he carved out of a fine-grained wood, spray-painted silver, with black duct-tape handles.

Caylin (Ermac) supplied the beer for Halloween.

Total spent (on materials for costumes alone) – about $300.00

But I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as we enjoyed wearing them!

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