Coolest Transformers Costumes 25
by Joseph B.
(Fort Calhoun, Nebraska, USA)
Homemade Transformers Costumes
This year my son wanted us to be Transformers. He wanted to be Bumblebee from the movie. I looked at a lot of different ideas and came up with the idea to use football shoulder pads to connect the majority of the costume to. I had thought the robots kinda had a football player look to them in the movie... so I went along with it.
I used foam, cardboard, hot glue, led lights, and spray paint. I had never used foam before on any costumes and found it a lot easier to work with than cardboard. The only drawback is that it doesn’t hold the paint as well.
I used various pictures of the movie Bumblebee as well as the new Chevy Camaro to help make templates for all the costume parts. Making templates made it easier to make parts that are duplicated as well as give it more of an authentic look I thought.
I made the front end of the car so that it was detachable (connected with Velcro). This made getting in and out of costume much easier for a 6 year old. I glued the doors and the rear end directly to the shoulder pads. I found the wheels at a hobby store and spray painted foam black to make the wheels.
I decided to have my son dress in all black and I simply used Velcro to attach some of the other accents of the costume. I used an old bike helmet and painted it black for the base of the mask. I had no idea how to make it look like the movie bumblebee so I kinda went with the battle bumblebee look for the mask. I spent about 3 weekends working on this. It was kind of a learning process... but it worked out well because I used what I learned to make my costume as well.
I would estimate that I spent about 30-40 bucks on this costume. I found the shoulder pads on Craigslist for 5 dollars! It was a lot of fun to do and my son loved it!
After completing my sons Bumblebee costume it was time to start mine... and yes I was quickly running out of time to complete it!
I was planning to be Optimus Prime from the movie as well.
I used the same idea as I had used for my son's by using football shoulder pads as the starting point of my costume. I again used cardboard, foam, led lights, hot glue, and spray paint. I first painted the shoulder pads blue. I then found some gel flames that you would put on your car. I painted these red and glued them on. I used old cans for the gas tanks. I made templates for all of the major parts and affixed them with Velcro.
I had originally planned on making my own mask, but I was out of time and I managed to get the one I have on for under 10 bucks on Ebay. The shoulder pads were the most expensive part costing me about 25 dollars. The rest was either in my house or made of foam or cardboard.
My son and I were the hit of the town! It was a blast to do this with my kid! It took me about 2 weekends to complete and I was working on it on Halloween day to finish it! I would estimate that I spent 60-70 dollars on mine.
