In one particularly foolish moment we decided to go large, and make perfectly proportioned lego heads for the halloween parade in New York City. The heads would be worn as part of a Lego Couple (Bride and Groom) pair. This is a quick guide on how we made the costumes, in particular focussing on the heads themselves. With on-board electronics, they deserve a detailed look.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
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Signing UpStep 1: Materials (necessary and not-so-necessary)
Polystyrene Insulation
We got through a fair bit of this. They come in large 8 foot by 2 foot sheets. They're meant for housing insulation but they also work great as the basis for lego heads. They also provide maximum fun while carrying them back for 20 blocks through a windy New York October. Depending on the proportions of your body size, you'll need to adjust your head size (and amount of polystyrene) accordingly.
Fans, Battery and Switch
All from radio shack - as I was building these heads I realized how ridiculously hot they were going to be inside. The fan was meant for a computer and the battery was a 9 volt with a small switch in between. If you're going for the less complicated route, this would be the thing to skip. In fact my better half was shocked that I was putting time and effort into such an elegant solution. Hey, it was worth it on the night!
Paint
Again, we tried to match an actual lego head as closely as possible. Home depot was our supplier in this case. Vast quantities of yellow and black (Groom) and yellow, white and black (Bride).
We got through a fair bit of this. They come in large 8 foot by 2 foot sheets. They're meant for housing insulation but they also work great as the basis for lego heads. They also provide maximum fun while carrying them back for 20 blocks through a windy New York October. Depending on the proportions of your body size, you'll need to adjust your head size (and amount of polystyrene) accordingly.
Fans, Battery and Switch
All from radio shack - as I was building these heads I realized how ridiculously hot they were going to be inside. The fan was meant for a computer and the battery was a 9 volt with a small switch in between. If you're going for the less complicated route, this would be the thing to skip. In fact my better half was shocked that I was putting time and effort into such an elegant solution. Hey, it was worth it on the night!
Paint
Again, we tried to match an actual lego head as closely as possible. Home depot was our supplier in this case. Vast quantities of yellow and black (Groom) and yellow, white and black (Bride).
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I actually have short hair, so it wasn't an issue for me. My girlfriend has long hair, but she tied hers back securely - mostly because if it gets unruly in there (even without the fan) it would be really annoying - there's no real way to touch your head or adjust your hair unless you take the whole head off.
The fan was also quite far away from the top of your head, and I designed it so that the fan was blowing air into the head, rather than sucking the air (and potentially hair) out. I guess it depends on your hair style and air-direction preference :)
To be completely safe though - you could easily add in another layer of the mesh underneath the fan, between your hair and the fan.