How to make a Yoshi costume

For my school's sports carnivals I like to dress up, and as green house captain this year, I had to do a good job. I made a Yoshi costume for the swimming carnival, and I think it worked pretty well.

By the way, I recommend NOT doing it during the hot Aussie summer like I did ;)

Step 1: What you need

This is the equipment that I would recommend.

Head:
   • 2 beach balls (somewhere between 40-70cm diameter, depending on head size)
   • Glad wrap (cling wrap, saran wrap, whatever you call it in your country)
   • Newspaper
   • Flour
   • Water
   • PVA glue
   • Cardboard
   • Green paint, white paint and red paint or red tape
   • Black permanent marker
   • Strong tape
   • Clothes pegs/clamps
   • Scissors/knives
  
Tail:
   • Cardboard
   • Masking tape
   • More paint
   • Elastic
   • Stapler
   • Glad wrap

Body:
   • Green shirt (preferably long sleeved)
   • Green gloves
   • Long green pants
   • White material/shirts
   • Large brown shoes, I used a pair of ugg boots
   • Backpack and a brown covering for the shell

  

Comments

[enicewander]

Alrighty, since its so late in the year i cant find any beach balls and i want to do this for my costume (Since its so flippin awesome) is there anything i can use as a substitute for a beach ball? please reply ASAP :):):) =)

[enicewander]

Well i found some beach balls and used them, didnt get to finish the tail so i feel like such a failure, but it turned out pretty awesome, i used regular paper (printer paper) for one of my balls and it worked great =) mine doent look as nice as yours but i feel good about it, thanks for this tutorial man its awesome, the only remark i have, is you might want to be a bit more clear about how to put the nose and head together

[Macyoshary]

Thanks, it makes me really glad to know someone found it helpful and actually went and made it! I'm happy it went well for you :)

Thanks also for the suggestion, I'll try and tweak it a bit when I get a chance :)

[Macyoshary]

Thanks!
The closest substitute would be something like an exercise ball.
An alternative which would be harder and messier is if you could get some fairly strong wire you could make a wireframe ball and then paper mâché over it.

I can't really think of much else at the moment, sorry!

[insomniaSAH]

Yoshi wears a saddle, not a backpack xD

Otherwise awesome job, did the head very well.

[Macyoshary]

Wow, it took me over a year to understand your comment :P
Typo fixed ;)
Thanks for the compliment!

[renscan2]

tHIS IS hilariously funny.

[nellerae]

How heavy was the mask?

[Macyoshary]

I'm not sure exactly how heavy, I could weigh it if you want.

Because of the weight distribution you can see that the front dips down (which was also how I saw), but I wouldn't say it's "too heavy". It was lighter than I was expecting.

[nellerae]

The reason I ask is because my son wants to be Yoshi for Halloween. I would have to down size the head but I was just wondering cause he is pretty young and I don't want him to be uncomfortable the whole night.

[Macyoshary]

Ok, I think it'd be alright. Like I mentioned in the instructable, it helps to put a sponge in the back to prop it back a tad, reducing the pressure on the back of the head and letting the shoulders do a bit of work.

[draco drago master]

would a basket ball work?

[Macyoshary]

Yes, but in order for the head and body to be in the correct scale, (or even to have a nice fit for the head), a bigger ball is needed.

I did a prototype using a smaller ball, and it worked ok, but would've fitted a 2 year old or something.

[sportsmangi]

Good job.

[Macyoshary]

Thanks, I just saw your camelback instructable, I was considering making one to wear with this, but I didn't.

[sportsmangi]

cool this would be great for a gaming convention i'll definitely be considering this for Halloween though.

[furnissb]

great job, not very practical for a swimming carnival but, cant wait for what you come up with for the athletics carnival.

[cowscankill]

That is awesome! Love it!

[Macyoshary]

Thanks!