Buzz Lightyear costume

My wife's creativity begins and ends in the culinary realm.

What that means for me is that I'm the one left to do all the sewing and Halloween costume-making. This arrangement works out well--she likes to cook, and I like to make stuff and eat well. It's a happy marriage.

This year (2008) my kids wanted to be Buzz Lightyear and Sheriff Woody. This instructable focuses on the Buzz costume because it required a more unique, creative approach.

Step 1 Chest piece structure

I borrowed one of our garden planters and used it as a mold to build up the basic chest structure. The chest piece is made of cardboard, duct tape, masking tape, hot glue, and paint.

I cut, shaped and sculpted as I went.

Comments

[astilly]

Thanks so much for the inspiration. When my four-year-old settled on Buzz for this year's costume, I couldn't quite wrap my head around how to deal with the crazy torso shape. Your plant pot idea led us to a flower shop, where we picked up a plastic bucket that worked perfectly!

[empeboi]

sura mo huey sura mo col2 sura u sura sura ng buzz light yirs blamu damulag ya sura na ning meka imbento keni nnu ini blmu kog kog ya ot ene mu mat2d krela okaya magxot empe ahaha

[DAV706]

make Lotso costume instructable too

[seamster]

(removed by author or community request)

[DAV706]

I want to see lotso costume instructable next halloween or next next halloween/

[esteve13]

Ours turned out super awesome!!!
Too bad we didnt win our costume contest, idk why!

[seamster]

You should post a photo! I'd love to see it.

[Shaysaree]

Here is my grandson in his Buzz costume. Thanks for the info on how to make one. I even put a little laser light in his wrist band. The only problem with that is I did not realize he would not be able to reach his wrist....LOL. Thanks a bunch. He was the hit of the neighborhoods!!

[seamster]

That looks really good! Thank you for posting the photo. I hope he had a great Halloween!

[Dorkfish92]

Thanks for the inspiration! Just got back from trick-or-treating with my little brother, who I made this for. I didn't have time for the leg parts, but I did put red and green LEDs on the wing tips, and a blue one below the "Space Ranger" badge. Oh, and I left out the green stripe above the purple part of the wings because I ran out of time and had to leave.

[seamster]

Thank you for posting the photos...that looks great! I hope he got extra candy for your good work!

[alix-cool]

love your costumes!!! :D this is the one me and my mum made for my sister

[seamster]

That is really, really cute! It makes me wish my wife and I had a girl. We've only got boys, so we tend to stick to the boy-characters.

[=D]

I am so going to make this for Halloween this year! But I'm stumped on how I should make the base structure... I'm 5"6-7, and I can't find a planter big enough for my torso. Does anyone have any ideas on how I can make it? Or would I just have to go free hand... I've considered those big buckets, but they don't have the tapered shape, just a straight cylinder. Any ideas would be appreciated! And kudos to your chestpiece!

[esteve13]

We used those big buckets for like partys. it worked out just fine you just have to mess with it a little but it worked.

[Rich Morgan]

I used a cardborad barrel.  You can usually pick them up for free from hardware stores or warehouses.  I am very happy with the result.  I built a Buzz  10 years ago, after seeing this instructable I decided to re vamp mine.
 

[Rich Morgan]

Here is a couple pictures of my re-vamped Buzz. Thanks Seamster for inspiring me to do the upgrade.

[097346001]

Also what are the black things around your hips?

[Rich Morgan]

I used the foam tubing for insulating pipes. I cut a small piece of wooden rod (about 4 inches) hot glued half and stuck in in one side then when it dried I the same to the other side. It made a nice light weight hoop. I made 5 hoops for my costume. They are not conected to each other but they sayed stacked together for the 3 hours I was in it.

[097346001]

How did you make the things on your shoulders and elbows? Or what are they?

[Rich Morgan]

I used mini basket balls for the sholders and smaller mini kick balls for the elbows. I cut 2 holes in the sholder ball at 3 O'clock and 6 O'clock positions. This was very uncomfortable so i end up cutting out every thing inbetween these two holes and hot glued the sholder balls to the bicep. (I turned the ball inside out to use the smooth texture vs: the rough texture of the basket ball). I did the same for the elbows except the holes were cut in the 12 and 6 o'clock positions.
Make sure the firs hole is cut around the needle hole where you inflate the ball

[097346001]

What did you use for the pants and below the tubes? Thanks

[seamster]

If I were to make one for me, I'd go freehand like you say. You should determine the circumferences you want both the top and bottom of your chest piece to be, and decide on a height. With some basic math you can figure out the dimensions, and how many cardboard slats you will need to cut out and tape together to make the basic chest piece shape. I hope that helps. Good luck! Let me know how it turns out.

[=D]

It's going fine so far... but it's just a bit of a pain not having a base for the basic structure. Oh well, it's happening. Should I just use duct tape to strengthen the whole chestpiece? And how long did this whole costume take?

[seamster]

Well, to build the chestpiece structure it probably took 4 or 5 hours.  But that's working off and on when I had bits of time to work on it.

The top circular piece of cardboard strengthened everything quite a bit.  If the bottom is flimsy, you could add a ring of cardboard to the inside as well (as long as you can still slip the entire thing over yourself to put it on). 

I wouldn't use duct tape to hold everything together.  Certain parts will just work better and end up stronger if you use hot glue (I can't give specifics, because I'm not sure of what you've got so far.)

[=D]

I finished the chestpiece! It took me about 6ish hours to finish, but I still have to paint it and make the arm pieces and such. I also want to put in an actual laser pointer (or just a red light) since that would be pretty awesome.

I agree, the top circular piece added a lot of structural integrity, but I didn't do anything about the bottom. It's not going to be a huge problem, as it isn't SUPER flimsy, and if I add another ring I won't fit inside anymore haha. I was using spray paint for the white, except it showed too much of the masking tape edges, so I went on to using acrylic instead. I haven't finished yet, but I'll post pics as soon as I'm done. Surprisingly, I didn't use a lot of hot glue, just a bit here and there, but I usually use quite a bit in other projects. I just used cardboard and a lot of masking tape, and some duct tape and hot glue. Here are some pics:

[rosvill7]

hello how are you, very good that disguise I'm delighted as I can get more information is to ask my son for this difraz fietas

[seamster]

Looks like it's turning out great so far.  Nice work.  

To cover up the tape and smooth things out on mine, I first painted it with a couple of really heavy coats of latex house paint.  (I notice that I failed to mention this in my instructions...)  THEN I spray painted it white, and added details with acrylic craft paints.  Probably too late to mention that now.  Oh well.  Anyhow, yours looks great.  You definitely need a bright red "laser" on your arm...  you're going to make arm and leg pieces, right?

Be sure to post some finished pictures.

[jayray13]

What is the last image a picture of? from the top or the bottom? Thank you!

[tsunnamii]

awesome!!!

[DestinyCrisis]

Its alright, but I think Ican use the picture to figure the pattern out.
Would you know what I would need to measure for it? (Ex: The size of my neck,etc...)

[seamster]

Well, this was made to fit a four-year-old...  So you would need to make it slightly bigger than mine.  You may need to just sketch out a pattern and see if it works. 
It may take a little trial and error on your part, but you can do it! 

You might have to make one, make changes as needed, and then make another and another till you get one you like.  That's how I do it.  Good luck!

[salinap323]

Oh my, these would be perfect centerpiecesfor my sons bday party if i stick a bowl in the middle. and have balloons flying out of them! Are you willing to make and sell? They are sooo cute!!!

[artpsychopedia]

Wow....!!! I'm definitely saving this page for next Halloween!

[maraxypaz]

omg those are so awesome! you make it sound so easy but i see it was alot of hard work!

[seamster]

Thanks!

[DestinyCrisis]

Do you have a template for this?
I would really like to make my own! :3

[seamster]

Shoot!  I don't.  This pattern got thrown out after I was done with it.  But if you take a look at the cutting mat grid, you might be able to get a pretty good idea of the dimensions.  I guess that's not much help though.  Sorry! 

(I did start including PDF patterns with my more recent sewing projects though, if you're interested.)

[cindo123loser]

 Amazing!
Much much better than store-bought :)
Much better quality as well, not that creepy polyester stuff

[Flyinseamnky]

agreed!