Wicked Awesome Predator Costume for Boy

So my 8 year old son Ethan is obsessed with the Predator vs Alien movies and decided mid-september that he wanted to be the Predator. We watched the movies and mama started brainstorming. He was going to be predator no matter what I had to do! You cannot just go buy this costume, so I had to make it. the only store bought items for this costume was the Predator mask and the dollar store gun.

Body

Any thrift store costume will do – it just takes a little spray paint mastery! I had an old ninja turtle body suit that I spray painted silver to cover the green. I shaded it with different hues of brown and tan spray-paint. I, then, hand-painted designs with a hand-made stencil and shaded out the ribs and muscles with black craft paint and spray paint to make the body more realistic (and less ninja-turtley).

Makin the Body of Predator

The Infamous Predator Head

For this, I purchased an $8 mask from an online retailor. I got a yard-sale pink bike helmet and painted it black (because it would be covered anyway). I cut the mask up the back and contact-cemented (glued) the pre-made mask to the helmet make the face more full. (I tried vinyl glue, hot glue, and super glue to no avail…so I ended up using contact cement and holding the piece until it dried on the helmet!) As the dreadlocks on the purchased mask were very disappointing, I got a pack of gray Backer Rod from the hardware store and cut it in 12-14″ sections for the dreadlocks. I spray painted it black, let them dry (with help from pipe cleaners and a hanger) and then used duct tape for the dreadlock decor. I ended up supergluing it to the outside of the mask for a 3D dreadlock effect.

beginnings of dreadlocks

gluing the suckers on

Blade Wrist Piece

the blade piece was made from an old soccer shin guard that had been spray-painted brown and tan, with hand-painted shading to match the body. I used an old Nokia phone (yes i still had it) box duct-taped to it (which was too tight for his arm later, so I had to remove the duct tape and secure it with a less tight electrical tape). I painted the box black, and hot-glued several hand-cut foam shapes and odds & ends to it for the designs (seriously found a piece of a pen, a coke tab, a rubberband, a pen spring…a bunch of JUNK that looked really cool painted). I cut out the blades from a cardboard lego box and spray-painted them silver, then hot-glued it to the box. I also painted accents on the top of the box.

beginning of blades

blades

Self Destruct Panel

This was a MUST. I used a thick foam base and cut out designs to make the panel. I used velcro pieces to hold the foam around the wrist. for the red “electronic panel,” I dissected red shiny christmas tree confetti and made the graphics for the panel. all of these tiny pieces were either super glued or hot glued to the foam using tweezers (due to the fact that I realized my fingers were too big…and sensitive…to hot glue such tiny pieces).

self destruct panel

Armor

For the shoulder and leg armor, this was simply black foam sheets cut out from a hand-made paper stencil, sliced, diced, and hot-glued back together. I spray-painted them silver to look like metal and used velcro to secure them to the suit.

spray painted silver

foam armor

Accessories

I located an old belt (from what I am assuming is from an old Star Wars costume) and glued pieces of fabric to it to cover the Predator’s privates, of course. i found a bag of skulls and strung together a chest piece and hung the rest from his belt like a bag-o-bones. Add in a skull necklace and the outfit is complete!