Super Genius Wile E. Coyote Costume

My 8 year old son and I love watching retro cartoons together. One of our favorites is the self proclaimed super genius Wile E. Coyote. We poke ribs and laugh as he buys stock in ACME Co. and paints tunnels that seem to only work for other folks. He was determined to catch that Roadrunner someday, even though I don’t think he would have ever REALLY eaten him had he been so lucky! This Wile E. Coyote costume and Halloween will be a precious memory for my son and I as we worked on this costume together for days!

He wore it a few times and the reception was HUGE! People ran up for pictures. Laughs and “meep-meeps” rang out. My kid played the part brilliantly as he plotted each time a “birdlike” costume was anywhere close to him! Someone dressed as “Kevin”, the bird from the movie “Up”, was shocked when Wile E. Coyote chased and plotted a yummy drumstick dinner at their expense!

I even made my son a wallet out of felt and printed out Wile E’s iconic “Genius” business cards! He handed them out after receiving candy and to strangers in Walmart. We had to detour there after a trunk or treat and he went in character! My son was a celebrity in that costume! There were lots of “paparazzi” and he had, as he called it, a “mac daddy candy haul”! He has been very sick for a year or so, recently diagnosed with a syndrome and these moments of complete wonderment are invaluable. Even though it took time and some planning, I can’t say it was extremely hard.

It just started out as a pile of felt, glue sticks and scissors (that I now realize are slow acting torture devices!). It was really a concern for me that this iconic character maintained all of his “trademark” features. Those huge jowls, long nose and very expressive eyes had to be done right.

I first printed out a few “8 year old head sized” pictures of Wile E’s face so that I could layer the individual pieces for dimension. The base was just a brown felt oblong shape. I found it MUCH easier to cut the felt if I layered 2 pieces together with thin cardboard glued between the layers. It also held the shape better.
The nose is just thin cardboard and stuffing with felt wrapped around it. At the front of the snout I gather folded the felt a little for dimension and placed a pom pom at the end for a nose.
I was then able to cut a hole in the base of the mask and attach the snout. I notched a little of the nose so that there was a clear nose hole for breathing, this would be blocked from view by the bottom of his mouth.
I cut out the rest of the pieces and layered them on carefully.
A little fur for the eyebrows capped off his huge eyes nicely.
It only took a little more felt and a headband to make huge ears. All the better to hear the footsteps of large birds.
For the ACME Co. rocket, I cut 4 cardboard rounds and used a hot glue gun to secure posterboard around the evenly spaced rounds. I made sure to REALLY secure the top segment because we decided to have people drop candy “donations” in the rocket.
The cone top was “hinged” with felt.
On the inside we put a sign that read “Roadrunner Capture Fund. Thank you. -Wile E. Coyote”
Elastic straps done like a backpack worked well at keeping my son’s hands free for handing out his “business cards” and holding his “YIKES” sign (the back of the sign read “thank you!”).
Red felt wrapped the rocket beautifully and ribbon curls of gold, red and orange ignited it!
I also used felt to make his shoes into skates complete with flames!

It was an amazing Halloween! Next year I am thinking Tazmanian Devil!!!