3 Simple Ways to
Share What You Make

With Instructables you can share what you make with the world — and tap into an ever-growing community of creative experts.

PhotosPhotos

Share one or more photos of a project, recipe, or whatever you've made, quickly and easily.

Get Started

Learn more & Get Tips

Step by StepStep-By-Step

Share your step-by-step photos with text instructions of what you made so others can do it too!

Get Started

Learn more & Get Tips

VideoVideo

Share your how-to video. You'll need your embed code from a video site such as YouTube.

Get Started

Learn more & Get Tips

Print PDF

Favorite

Bender from Futurama

Last year was the first time I actually made my costume and i enjoyed it so much that this year I figured i'd go all out. With Bender being one of my favourite characters on TV I thought he'd be the perfect costume. The body and head are made from sintra frame and styrene skin. The mouth is white mesh fabric on a sintra frame attached with velcro. I used magnets to be able to attach the cigar to the mouth. The domes on the head and the feet are made from 12" globes of the world cut in half. The arms and legs are made from thin styrene covered in duct tape and stuck together with rivets. The antenna is two door stop springs stuck together with a ping pong ball on top and a red blinking LED inside. The eyes were made from a 5" plastic yarn ball holder and they light up using white LEDs. The interior cabinet is made from sintra. Other than that it was a lot of hot glue, rivets and bondo. I'll try and come up with a more complete instructable in the next few weeks if possible.

55 comments

1-40 of 55

Oct 1, 2011. 12:35 PMunderzenith says:

Hey awesome job, I was just wondering where you bought sintra frame for the body from?

Oct 10, 2011. 5:24 AM

puyanera (author) says:

http://www.artsupply.com/foamcore/sintraboard.htm

I used 48" x 96" x 2mm White Sintra PVC Board and 48" x 96" x 3mm Grey Sintra PVC Board

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=22883&catid=715&clickid=searchresults

I used various thicknesses 0.020", 0.040", 0.060" and 0.080"

The thickest one for the body etc...

Hope that helps.

May 1, 2012. 8:13 PMmartitm says:

Hey- I was wondering- why does the body need to be coated with styrene if the sintra is already grey? Does the sintra have a foamy texture and the styrene looks more like metal?
Thanks!
Todd

May 2, 2012. 5:44 AM

puyanera (author) says:

The sintra is a lot stiffer than the styrene so it can't really be used as the skin. I used the sintra purely to make an interior frame and then wrapped the styrene around this.

May 2, 2012. 1:50 PMmartitm says:

So basically you made sintra vertical supports that are attached to rings at the top and bottom? Although the top ring would be a cone shape.

I was under the impression that the sintra could be molded into the body cone shape using a heat gun- I didn't know if this would work or if the material would get messed up easily due to uneven heating/bending (I have never used this material).

Thanks again,
Todd

Oct 9, 2011. 9:20 PMrmason6 says:

This is the best Bender costume I've seen anywhere. You nailed it with the arm/leg coverings. This thing looks like a studio prop. Great job!

Sep 29, 2011. 10:38 AMavanderveen says:

Fantastic job!

Sep 28, 2011. 7:10 PMRobert L says:

Are you a robot! or is that a cheesy new years costume?

Jul 11, 2011. 11:32 AMchicopluma says:

pure awsomeness

Jul 3, 2011. 6:13 PMa75444 says:

Post an instructable on how to make it

Mar 20, 2011. 4:55 PMhfduiyttrbrbhyrhyghyu says:

lol

Oct 28, 2010. 3:50 PMgarishginsberg says:

01110111 01101111 01101111 01110100 00100001 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100010 01111001 00100000 01100110 01100001 01110010 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100010 01100101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01100011 01101111 01110011 01110100 01110101 01101101 01100101 00101110 00100000 01100010 01111001 00101110 00100000 01100110 01100001 01110010 00101110

Oct 28, 2010. 11:59 AMmayej says:

"I have a dream. A dream of killing all humans."
This is the best Bender suit I've seen yet. Great job man, great job.

Oct 1, 2010. 1:24 PMPhiasmom0 says:

That is perfect!!!! Any ideas on how to make they cyclops eye for my daughter who want to be leela?

Oct 26, 2010. 10:21 AM

TLMATX says:

I would suggest using maybe a 6x- speaker grill spray-painted white. Not sure on the rest of the head but I just thought I'd throw it out there.

example:
http://www.autotoys.com/x/product.php?productid=4723

Oct 22, 2010. 1:16 AMwilli.da.bomb says:

cool bananas yewwwww best bender ever

Oct 16, 2010. 4:49 PMelangeleitor says:

Spectacular....

Oct 14, 2010. 5:40 PMfavrock says:

Great, congratulations!

Oct 14, 2010. 3:26 PMMarsell says:

WoW :)

Oct 14, 2010. 10:03 AMThursday Next says:

Love it!
~~Anna Bender

Oct 14, 2010. 7:15 AMboma23 says:

haha, much neater than mine from last year, good job!

My tip: an upside water cooler 10 gallon makes an awesome head, you just need to chop the mouth out - i used white mesh painted to see out of too, and got a little carried away with my chest cavity...

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v77/boma23/ha%20ha/?action=view&current=benderpoint.jpg

Oct 14, 2010. 6:56 AMskipernicus says:

Fantastic - the best detail is the contents of the abdomen. Priceless!

Oct 11, 2010. 8:28 PM

tarzioo says:

OH MY GOD I am sincerely impressed! Fantastic work!

Sep 2, 2010. 8:22 PMxuchilan says:

simply amazing! That is the most ligit bender i've seen yet, i love how u added the beer fridge lol ... pure awsmness 8D

Jan 14, 2010. 2:38 PMmacogala says:

Can anyone explain me what sintra frame and styrene skin are? I'm italian and I can't find them on the dictionary..

Thanks to all

Marco

Jan 19, 2010. 8:00 AM

puyanera (author) says:

Jan 19, 2010. 8:46 AMmacogala says:

Oh yes, thank you very much!

I have just some other questions:

1) Isn't the body larger at the top and smaller at the bottom? I mean it looks like a V. Isnt it? if it is, how how you create that effect?

2) Are the body top and bottom circles, or are they elliptical? I mean the borders of the body.

3) The last one, I think, reading again your description, I think I dont understand how the legs and the arms are made. You talk about think styrene again, but they seem they are made of metal. Is that an effect of the duct tape?

Thank you again. I hope I can ask you again if I'll need.

Marco

Jan 19, 2010. 10:53 AM

puyanera (author) says:

1) Yep the body is narrower at the bottom than the top. It's basically a partial cone shape and it took some high school geometery to be able to figure out the proper dimensions.

2) Yes the body is circular when viewed from above.

3) That's right the duct tape is what makes the arm and legs look metalic.

Jan 3, 2010. 11:58 AMxbox1kid says:

awesome job dude
i would totally make one for halloween
7/5

Nov 19, 2009. 1:44 AMCamisado says:

Awesomesauce.

Nov 9, 2009. 5:23 PMslimguy379 says:

nice mame machine.

Nov 7, 2009. 2:36 PMwolfmanthe says:

that's genius, where did you get those labels though, I've been trying to find a printable slurm logo i can wrap around a soda can.

Nov 8, 2009. 9:17 AMLagmastaC says:

I bought an actual Slurm energy drink in a Spencers at the mall once, maybe you could just buy one there.

Nov 9, 2009. 11:20 AM

puyanera (author) says:

I found one of them on the web and the others a i just made up from screen shots in photoshop.

Nov 6, 2009. 5:21 PM

pokiespout says:

Well done, mate! I've seen a few attempts before, but this is the most convincing Bender I've run across yet!

I've been trying to get my boyfriend to participate in Halloween for years now, but Bender is the only idea that would ever get him to actually DO IT. So I will be sharing your instructable with him, and hopefully he'll be inspired enough to give it his own spin. Thank you!

And remember, if you're at a loss for ideas next year, all you need to do is make a magnetic goatee and go as Flexo!

Nov 5, 2009. 12:53 PMPsychoKlown says:

Is this the same Bender from the Phenomenauts show? Awesome costume!

Nov 5, 2009. 5:54 PMcoffee steam says:

That's too funny that you mention the Phenomenauts robot. I built that about 5-6years ago, and I brought it along when I was doing some special effects for a video they were shooting. I have not worn it again till I rebuilt it for Halloween this year. I made it more steampunk looking and replaced the lightbulb eyes with Battery powered plasma globes.