How to Create an Affordable Mascot Head

You will learn how to create a mascot head on a limited budget.

Step 1 Gather Materials

Buy foam board at hardware store. For this project I used two 2x8 sheets of Owens-Corning InsulPink.

Comments

[cbundy]

Thanks for the amazing tips on the mascot head. I am very pleased with my Gizmo!

[edgukated]

Awesome Gizmo.
...timmy

[mamamick]

Oops! Here is the Stitch costume we made with your directions

[edgukated]

Awesome. Thanks for the posting. It makes we want to post more stuff on Instructables.

...timmy

[asianpanties]

Hello :O I had a question about how you cut it so it turned out circular,

[edgukated]

I don't really understand your question.

If you look at the pictures you will see 6 pieces of foam, each cut like an oval.

Are you asking how I drew the oval shapes or are you asking how did I make it rounded from front to back?

...timmy

[kiffakitty]

I would like to know both! I was looking at your instructable and love the design but I have no idea how you planned the ovals. Can you please create a template for this instructabl to show the exact size and shape of each oval (all 6 of them)? Or please include the lengths of the large and small diameters of all six ovals. Thank you so much for the great instructable! If I make it I will definitely post a picture!

[edgukated]

Unfortunately all of my stuff (including the Hello Kitty head) is in storage and I probably won't have access to it for a few weeks. I will get the dimensions for you but it will take me a while.

...timmy

[mamamick]

This is the mascot head we made with help from your directions. Our 16 year old son was assigned to dress up as Stitch for an initiation into a club. The costume had to be homemade. We were really glad to find some help. Thanks!!!

[carpfluff]

i have no idea if you know who nevershoutnever is, (they're a band.) but in a few of their videos they have a guy in a zebra head and a girl in an owl head. I want to make the owl ( actually i was hoping to just buy one, with no luck.) this really helps. thanks, timmy.

[hydropimp]

Yeah, that's why I was searching for this, I really want to make an owl mascot head.

[Morphone]

I am making a Deadmau5 head for Hallowe'en and I am using your instructable to do it! I could never be bothered to go through all the hamster ball cutting and all that, this seems so much simpler. I want to make the head 13'' round and was wondering how you measured inside cut for the head since for my project, no hard hat piece is being used and I want to make sure I cut it right. Did you just fit the pieces over your head and freehand it? I want it to be snug on my head without wobbling around since it doesn't have a hard hat piece. Or if you know of a store I can get a hard hat I'll get that instead.

[edgukated]

Suggestion 1 - do all of your cutting BEFORE you put the pieces together. Cut one peice at a time. start with the center pieces. If you have to you can screw them together temporarily with 3 inch drywall screws.
Suggestion 2 - it is easy to cut more, but if you cut too much it is almost impossible to undo your mistake. Cut a little, test the fit. Cut a little more, test the fit.
Suggestion 3 - use something like a hard hat. If you don't you will have lots of wobble. Harbor Frieght Tools has them cheap. Or you can go to Walmart and get a kids play batting helmet or play footbal helmet. Anything that fits nicely on your head. Your only other choice is to stuff the inside of the head with upholstery foam but that gets hot real fast.
...timmy

[Morphone]

Thanks. I am going to get the hard hat. But today while cutting it I did the head fit thing, going from smaller to bigger until it fit, and it's working nicely. Thanks.

[coldironchef]

There are glues available that are safe to use on foam. Most glues will say on their labels whether or not the glue is safe for use on foam. "No More Nails: Foamboard." Is a construction glue specifically designed to be used on exactly this type of foam. It will also stick to concrete, fibreglass, ceramic, wood and drywall. It's available at Home Depot. The only down side is that you need to use a caulking gun with it as it comes in a tube. There are other brands of this type of glue if you can't specifically find this one. It is used to put up insulation foam and any hardware store that sells the pink foam will also stock this glue. It's a heck of a lot stronger than white glue.

To help adhesion, roughen up the surface of the plastic helmet with a fine to medium grit sandpaper. This should help the glue stick to plastic. You are looking to remove the "gloss" of the plastic. You want to make sure the glue doesn't just "slip off" the smooth surface.

[jessicajetson]

Wow Nice job Awesome, cute you give me an idea for my custome party cool.

turn yourself into a cartoon

[LaurahhKay]

This is perfect, I go looking how to make a Hello Kitty head and I find it EXACTLY! Huzzah. (:
Question though, what are the measurments for the foam bits you cut out.? And how many?
Please and Thank you!

[edgukated]

As you can see in the pictures, there are 8 oval shaped pieces. The two in the middle are 22 inches wide (shoulder to shoulder) and 16 inches high (bottom of chin to top of head). Each piece of foam is 1.5 inches thick, so when you put them together the head is 12 inches thick (front of face to back of head).

The two pieces in the middle are the exact same size and shape as each other. The same is true for each layer out. In other words, the four pieces of foam in the front of the head are identical to the four pieces of foam in the back of the head.

...timmy

[three-stripes]

where do you put the battery compartment?

[edgukated]

I carved out a space inside the head. Nothing fancy, just a simple hole that was big enough to hold the batteries. However, one important thing is to leave the cord long enough so you can remove the entire battery pack from the head. It makes it easier to change batteries without having to reach inside the head.

[three-stripes]

okay, i wish u had a picture cos its hard to imagine.
but thanks ^^

[hayley123]

may ask what are the 2 holes cut at the top of each piece?

[edgukated]

I wanted to have air flow in the head. I wore it for many hours each day. So I put holes near the ears and I mounted small fans (taken from some old personal computers) and mounted them inside near the holes. I then used some 9 voly batteries in a chain to power the fans. They really worked great.
...timmy

[DJLittleMike]

How do you see out of this? It looks like Hello Kitty's eyes are too far apart for a person. Are there holes that you can't see in the picture?

[edgukated]

Answer A - the way that it is designed here, you can only see out the eye holes.  Which means that you cannot see straight ahead of you. I wore this head for 8 hours a day, three days in a row, walking in and around thousands of people. It wasn’t easy, but it was fun. The hardest part is when people want to take a picture with you because you can’t see when the picture is done (unless they use a flash).

 

Answer B – you would have some limited visibility through the yellow nose if you use a sheer fabric. I have done this with other mascot heads. I did not do it with this head because the eye hole visibility was sufficient.

 

…timmy

[DJLittleMike]

Hey Timmy,

Thanks for the response. So it basically acts as slightly sideways/forwards portholes? Is the front far enough from your face to do that? They look black. Interesting, indeed! :D

[edgukated]

Yes - portholes is a good description.  I just posted 2 pictures, a closeup of one eye hole from the outside and a picture from the inside.  As I walked around, I would often move my head up and down, & side-to-side so my brain would have a complete picture of the world in front of me.  The biggest problem is that people would run up to me and glomp me without realizing that I did not see them and was not expecting a hug.
...timmy

[WhiteTigerTails]

You know, you can use a piece of semi, transparent white fabric for the eyes, so you can actually see in front of you...

[DJLittleMike]

I can picture how random hugs might suck. Haha. Okay, so yes, those new pics definitely make it clearer. Looks very hard to see out of, though still pretty cool. Thanks again!

[eulaliaaaa!]

We did something like this for our First Lego League team for our school.  W were the WHS Brickmasters.  We made a Lego head for our mascot, and the person who was wearing it was perfect! It was funny to see how many people wanted pictures. We won first place overall in the competition.  It probably had something to do with our mascot.  Moving on to state!

[eulaliaaaa!]

By the way, we didn't just win first place overall, we were the GRAND CHAMPION!

[FlameTakuya]

Is that... an Ouran High School Host Club costume you/'re wearing?!

But other than that, awesome tutorial. I'm planning to make a mascot head that is like similar to this, and was just wondering, how many sheets of foam did you use for this?

Also is there any alternative foam that can be used, as I doubt any of the hardware shops around here carry this brand, would styrofoam be advisable?

[edgukated]

1 - yes it is an Ouran High Host Club costume.
2 - like it says in step 1, I used 2 (2 feet by 8 feet) sheets of solid foam
3 - I know that every large hardware store (Lowes, Home Depot, etc.) will have the solid foam insulation sheets.  And I would almost every smaller hardware store will have it.  Some time it will be blue, some times pink.

Regular (white) styrofoam will work but it is much harder to work with.  I tried it and did not like it.  It was more fragile, and very messy, and drywall screws do not work as well.   I highly recommend that you look around for the pink or blue solid sheets.

...timmy

[FlameTakuya]

Ooh, only two sheets? Well then I may be able to afford this after all! Apparently a local shop does sell the blue kind, but they're pretty expensive and I was afraid I may not have enough money to buy them...

Thanks very much for the quick reply!

[fatalyersinia]

Wow... I saw you at Anime Boston and started following and my pack of friends blaring obnoxious mashups from video games and the like followed me. xD

It was great. 

[xander1062]

Didn't I see you at Animé Boston? XD

[edgukated]

I'm not sure.  Did you see me?
I was there. And I was the only person dressed as Ouran High Hello Kitty.
...timmy

[Drakeler]

Nice job, I think I'll use this for making my Robbie the Rabbit costume. (The Robbie from Silent Hill :D)

[burntbob]

I've tried contact cement with foam and everything melted.... I didn't think of trying a casein glue--great idea.
There's construction  foam glues that come in cauking gun tubes  that would work but the elmers glue is easier to clean up since it's water soluble.
Great Instructable.

[edgukated]

The biggest problem with elmers glue is that it takes forever to dry.  24 hours is the minimum but you should give it 36 hours if possible.  That is why I use drywall screws to give the glue extra time to dry.  The Shoe Goo does melt the foam a little but not enough to affect the integrity of the piece.