This is how to make a 5ft wearable Pacman outfit, the one I made in the pictures won me first prize at an eighties party! It can be simply adapted to make the ghosts too, get a few of you to go dressed as Pacman complete with ghosts, (Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde), mayhem will ensue....

Step 1: Blagging Cardboard From Skips Makes You Look Like a Tramp But It's Worth It.

In life, there are always pills to be eaten and cherries to be collected, and I personally find that EASIER in a giant pacman outfit. You may have other reasons for constructing such a beastie, but whatever the reason, here's how I did it..

I started out by liberating a huge slab of solid cardboard from the local tip, and blagging another one from a neighbour, then blagging a further 6 Mccoys crisp boxes. (make sure that IF you use cardboard with logos on, you keep the outward facing sides logo-free, so no logos can show through the material you cover it with).

The Pac-sides were shaped first, string and pen to get a good circle, measure a third in for the mouth, and... cut. You can see the intricately constructed shoulder harness in the above picture, which was made by hacking a hole in the top of a crisp (chips for you yanks..) box for my head to fit through and taping the whole thing to the side. Technical stuff eh? I can tell you're impressed.

Step 2: Brackets Need to Be Made A-plenty

Cover the sides with cheap yellow material, I just glued it with a glue gun... make sure it's not TOO cheap or you'll be able to see the cardboard through it..

Next, below, you can see the DOUBLE strength cardboard brackets starting to be applied to the circumference of the pac. (yes i DO own a thesaurus.) These will hold the two pacsides together, hence the double thickness cardboard.

Step 3: Careful....

DO NOT, i repeat, DO NOT, forget to turn off your glue gun while occupied with another task. Especially when your glue gun is lying down on a fairly freshly laid NEW carpet and leaks glue all over the place and sticks itself to the aforementioned carpet and you have to constantly keep a magazine over that certain part of the carpet for the rest of your life so your missus doesn't see that you've ruined yet another carpet for the sake of a fancy dress party.. just unplug it. or glue it outside or something.. really..

Step 4: Getting There...

When you've taped all the brackets to one side, sit the other side on and do the same. You now have your basic structure and may try it on for size. Unless, like me, you taped brackets all the way around the whole circumference and didn't leave any room for your legs to stick through. In which case, rip the bottom few off THEN try it on. Doh!

Step 5: Final External Strip

Next you simply need a strip to go round the outside edge. If you use the same size boxes for the harness and brackets, then you won't even need to cut them to size, they'll already BE the right size, just make it the right length, cover it with material and tape it on from the inside. (it helps if you have a small person to help with the internal taping, or four-foot-long arms, or both.)

Step 6: Jawless Wonder

You may be wondering why I've not bothered to make a lower jaw for pacman. the whole lower jaw area is floppy and folds in on itself, and the next few pics might make the reason for this clear....

It was a bit of a job getting it out of the house, I destroyed one light fitting and scuffed some wallpaper in the process, thankfully cats are an easy scapegoat for such damage. If you don't have cats, or another easy scapegoat, MEASURE your entrance/exits, and make the pacman smaller accordingly. Or you could hire my cats off me.

Step 7: Jaw and Eyes..

In the pics above you can see the lower jaw that I made, and the same jaw just resting in place.I had to leave it like that until I got to the venue, making sure I took the gorilla tape with me to tape it in place as soon as I got there.

The eye was simply printed on glossy photo paper and glued into place. One thing I'd suggest is getting some black paper and covering the inside with it, it'd look far more professional for onlookers not to be able to see cardboard inside.. And if you could install some sort of battery powered fan inside, that'd save you from sweating like a PIG!

Step 8: Culprits..

The cats were interested as to what it was they were getting blamed for..

Step 9: Getting It to the Party

can be troublesome, depending on the size of your vehicle, proximity to venue, and detachability of lower jaw. (of pacman, not yourself.)

Step 10: Repairs WILL Be Necessary...

make sure you keep gorillatape or some other heavy duty tape nearby, as repairs WILL be necessary. specially if dancing occurs..

I think these people thought pac had had a little too much to drink, but twas not so, simply repairing the harness internally...

Step 11: Underclothing..

don't wear very much underneath it, it'll be VERY hot, particularly when dancing like a maniac, BUT I'd say AT LEAST WEAR PANTS. you WILL be tipped over at some point, revealing any exposed undercarriage. not good.

Step 12: It's a Winner!

first thing I've ever won!

Step 13: GO FOR IT!!

you could make ghosts too, by simply altering the shape of the outer sides..

total cost 17.00 pounds for the material. (although i recouped a fiver by selling pacman on ebay later!) worth every penny...