Beaker Muppets Halloween Costume

For this Halloween, I needed a simple, low cost, but impressive costume. Maybe something science related (ungrad mechanical engineer at TCNJ currently)... Beaker from the Muppet Show seemed to be the obvious answer. The head is made of 1" thick green foam sheet from Jo-Ann Fabrics. The felt is attached with spray adhesive. Foam spheres are used for the eyes and nose with felt stretched over them and pinned in place. The felt was stretched by running it under warm water and pulling it. The labcoat was bought online and the tie from Thinkgeek. I can see through the mouth, and I strengthened the partially open mouth with cardboard. I see through a few layers of red mesh also picked up from Jo-Ann Fabrics. Jo-Ann also supplied the orange hair.

Comments

[srdryja]

Great idea! So great I made one myself and had a fun time doing it. Thanks for posting your ideas--especially about the felt going on the nose and eyes. I used red mesh to see through the mouth and I used an orange boa for the hair, otherwise I stuck to the "script". I've posted some photos of my costume, which I wore to my nephew's birthday party and giving out candy for Halloween. Sadly, most of the little kids were afraid of me, but at least most of the adults knew who I was!

[NCBob]

Great slideshow, inspired me to make one of my own.  Had a blast making it, and have gone to two parties.  It came out pretty good considering I couldn't find any orange hair :)  Ended up getting white, dying it with rit dye and then spraying it with orange hairspray.  Came out ok, but once I find some longer orange hair I'll probably upgrade it.

One thing I am doing tonight, I'm putting a fan in the sucker, it gets HOT.

[rjones3]

Great Idea on the fan. I pretty much have to use a camelbak to stay hydrated.

I'd like to use that to blow his hair upward or something.

[NCBob]

 Hehehe, I just want to stay cool ;)  It wasn't too bad being outside, but inside it gets rather warm :)

[hawkfrost64]

you have given me inspiration i shall go as.... ELMO!! 

[lane29]

what about the hair

[1234magicman4321]

8 bit tie!!!!!

[bikesrsexy]

what if you put a string through the lip and down into the mouth, out the neck to your hand?

[iflops]

that is SOOOOOOO awesome

[eskimojo]

EPIC WIN!!! meep meep meepmeepmeep!

[mrbean_100]

Or you can make it out of Styrofoam balls, construction paper,tape,scissors And some type of fuzzy hair. Cost me 8 dollors to make the hole thing.

[rjones3]

Looks awesome!

[supremegoddess]

Yay! Jim Henson is my hero. ^_

[JohnSeever]

That is a sweet costume, and you will need to post the Instructable for us to use for next year.

[RetroTechno]

Meep meep meh meeep meeeep!

[creaturerevenge]

That's amazing! Nice job! Does the mouth open and close by any chance? I know you have to see out the mouth but forgoing a little bit of vision temporarily to see him mouth jabbering away would be pretty amazing!

[rjones3]

I actually tried to do that, but couldn't come up with a frame quickly enough. It was going to be some sort of pulley system through a rope/tube system down to my hand, but I guess it will have to wait until version 2.0.

[creaturerevenge]

Something you might want to look into... I'm not sure how well it would work without sitting and doing some drawing for it or anything, but just off the top of my head... what if you tried a pulley system that is attached to some sort of chin strap, so that as you open and close your mouth it can pull on a cord and control the mouth. Maybe a combination of cords, pulleys, and maybe a spring or 2... just a thought.

[sickels3]

I loved it the second I saw it. Obviously I'll be rooting for you in the contest!

[hackstarx]

Awesome costume. Definitely a winner.

[bobhill125]

that costume is awsome but beaker used to scare me when i was little

[Honus]

That's just too cool! I've always liked Beaker.

[rjones3]

Thanks! vote for me when the contest starts! -Russ www.tcnj.edu/~solrboat

[canida]

That's awesome!