How to Create an Affordable Mascot Head

Step 5 Final Assembly

Attach the remaining pieces. Cut holes for the eyes, nose and mouth (if applicable). Use sandpaper to smooth out the shape. Glue felt or any fabric on the outside to complete the head. Thick fabric will help hide rough spots and imperfections. If possible, paint the head with a latex paint which is the same color as the fabric (especially if you are using a thin fabric). Add ears, whiskers, nose to make it an incredible mascot head.

Comments

[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!

[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!

[milesk321]

 nice sounds easy