Alien Xenomorph costume

For the past few years I have been making a couple of homemade costumes for my boys each Halloween. Last year I made a Masterchief following some of the advice from this site and it turned out pretty good. This year my youngest boys told me they want to go as Alien VS Predator. Well I knew that this was going to take a bit of time so I started in September. I decided to start with the Alien, arguably the more difficult costume, not finding too much advice for making a homemade Alien costume I had to get more creative. Did I mention that I am leaving one job and starting another so I only had a budget of about $25.00?

Step 1: Building the Head

The Alien head seemed like the most difficult part to me... How to get that elongated tubular shape? And how to get it to stay on the kids head?  Well, I started looking around the garage.  Digging through the clutter I came up with an old bicycle helmet.  being made of Styrofoam it was pretty easy to shape.  I started by cutting the sides down to the bare minimum so my Alien didn't have too bulbous of a head.  Now we needed some tubes.  The local dollar store came in very handy, I found several 3 quart plastic containers and a plastic pitcher that seemed very promising.  Total cost? $3.00  doing good.  I cut the containers up and hot glued them onto the helmet. By the way... I went through two bags of hot glue which are about 4 bucks apiece.  Then I cut the bottom off of the pitcher, cut that in half and I had my Alien Jaws.  A little marker to draw out the teeth, sharp scissors and boom.. we had Alien teeth. I used scrap pieces of the pitcher to make the rest of the Jaws.  The head needed a little rounding, fortunately I had several empty 2 liter bottles.  By the way, careful with hot glue around two liter bottles, they wrinkle and shrink if the glue is too hot.

Comments

[Garrus]

Thanks for this guide! I've convinced my 6 year old sister to be net-head. I'm even making her a fake facehugger. If anyone's interested i could make an instructable for that, but its not as cool as your stuff really amazing.

[avpg]

I've made 4 alien costumes now I am goanna try this way now thanks for the instructable keep making more maybe a face huger next??????

[torreyakatoe]

Cool. I like it. About how much time is needed to make it?

[destructor555]

the coolest thing ever is an alien xenomorph so I'll give you two thumbs up.

[Kiteman]

Oh, that is just outstanding!

[destructor555]

yes I agree

[jhd04]

I was like, "Whoa, that's really cool." And then I saw the budget, and I was blown away.

Very talented, you are, sir. Very talented indeed.

[jpnagle59]

A very well build...you are to be commended. If you can, let us see the Predator build. and also get some shots on the Spooky night when the kids wear them...very good job. Jamie

[brainsfried]

Terrific Instructable and great job on the costume!

[Patjoe99]

Wow you are the mot creative,most make-do, most talented costume creator ive ever seen when i saw the i think, wow thats gotta cost at least a hundred dollars then i see it was about 25 dollars

[sutek]

Mate you win the most Awesome Dad in the world contest, that is fantastic and the work involved, amazing. You've got my vote

[Xenomorph-Hybrid]

you are amazing :3
i have been looking for an easier way to build a xenomorph (alien) costume for a lonnnggg longggg time and now i have the answere XD
thank you so much for making this guide!
time to get started on my costume :P

[Jerrib]

bravo.....you give me hope!!

[lordofducttape545]

that kid doesnt look very happy.....

[seresataka]

After the third or fourth time test fitting it that night...... he wasn't.

[lordofducttape545]

YES!!! LOTS and LOTS of HOT GLUE!!!!!

[SCUBASTEVEAU]

Excellent stuff. That is all.

[orvis]

Really excellent costume, especially for the money. You have a talent for making mundane things and making them extraordinary.

I really do admire your thrift and industry! My perfectionism always seems to get the better of me, pulling me into obscene hours of crafting, usually at the expense of actually getting it done.

Well done.

[Loosewire; SOE Operative]

EXCELLENTE!

A doing it on the cheap too! My kind of costume making 5* and kudos to you for such a great job, I have been inspired to bust out the cardboard and get gluing.

I really like the translucent look of the head in Step 1, it looks like a newly laid infant very cool!

[seresataka]

Thank you everyone.

[macgeek]

This is EXCELLENT!! - Really creative and wonderfully done!
You should enter this in The Halloween Contest!

Jonathan / Zoltar - winner 2009

[seresataka]

I can't seem to find a Halloween contest for this year. Thanks!

[mpatterson4]

Awesome! How is the view from inside? Does the child look out through the mouth or from under the head? How well can he see?

[seresataka]

not too bad actually. I cut the eye holes in the vinyl right under the head, so he looks through the aliens neck. His vision upwards is blocked but he can see his feet quite well and about 6 feet in front of him. to see farther he has to tip his head back. Thanks!

[Phil11]

superb work, your son must be really happy with that!

[dburrill]

Now that's a Halloween costume. Halloween is a time for scaring the be-Jesus out of the little kids. It's the only time of the year when it is permitted. I say that there should be a law, why not since there are laws against every thing else, that on Halloween there can be no cute little ghosts, cartoon characters, angels, or any such costumes.

[sarawelder]

This was an excellent instructible... make me think that at 59 I might have a costume party just so I can wear this

[j.t.kirk]

VERY cool! well done.

[professor awsome]

Best instructable I've seen in a long time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[festeezio]

Wow! Nice job!

[luc.dof1]

Very good, it's so fun. And Good Halloween

[Lorddrake]

AMAZING!!! 5 stars for creativity and resourcefulness.

[Cabe]

Great job!