LEGO Man Costume!

Playing with LEGO's is past time for many and I decided to make my very own life-size mini-figurine costume for Halloween. When I planned this costume, I was making two for myself and a buddy so I started working on this costume three months in advance to have ample time to create this. But lucky for you I will be describing the process so you could make it over a weekend.

Step 1 Materials!

Tools needed:
-Scissors
-Handsaw
-Pencil/Marker
-X-acto Knife
-Steak Knife
-Measuring Tape


Supplies:
-2" and 8" round containers/bowls (for eyes, mouth and hole for head)
-Large boxes
-12" Cement form tube (found near construction materials)
-3/4" Styrofoam Insulation (found near fiberglass insulation) *
-2-3 cans of Yellow spray paint * (Krylon's Sun Yellow is a very close match to LEGO yellow)
-2-3 cans of red/blue/green/other spray paint (color of body, your choice)
-Sandpaper (400ish grit)
-A sheet of copy paper
-High-density foam
-Spray glue (preferred over hot glue because of styrofoam)
-Packing tape
-Gorilla glue
-Speaker fabric (the kind you see out of but not others)
-A strip of Velcro (the hook side)
-Yellow Kitchen gloves
-Long sleeve shirt (matching to body color)
-Jeans

*Here's the deal about spray paint and styrofoam. Spray paint cans contain an aerosol that loves styrofoam and dissolves it on contact. I will explain how I overcame this and improve the durability of the head in a later step.

Comments

[Bradenboy12]

Thanks! I love this instructable!!!! I wore it a costume party and won! :)

[mathiemom]

I think that latex spray paint is a simple low cost solution to the styrofoam destruction problem.

[teethdoc]

Everyone loved the costume. I even took it to work. Everyone wants to come see the Lego dentist now!

[Kaged Kombat]

Lego figurines have such flexible professions. Looks terrific! My only suggestion would be to paint on the "clothes" you'd wear. Maybe even put a mask on!

[teethdoc]

I placed 2 coats of a product called MagiKote on the styrofoam making it a hard, paintable surface. You can pick it up at Hobby Lobby. It takes a little more time but I think this looks better than the tape method.

[Kaged Kombat]

Thanks for the tip, anything to make the radius smoother is a step in the right direction. If I knew about that stuff in the first place, it would have been a big improvement over the tape.

[friendscottn]

Lego Dance Off. Thanks for fantastic instructions. Everyone said they loved our costumes.

[Scubajet]

It may have been a little longer than 5, but not much. The cardboard for the bodies was pre-colored from Hobby Lobby, so that saved a bunch of time not having to paint those !

[Scubajet]

Thanks for great instuctions - kids had a blast !! I could've used an 8" tube for the 4 yr old, but it looked cute to have big head/little body. They have the heads in their rooms as reminder of a great Halloween. You're the Man.

Totals (2 costumes)
$50
5 Hrs. not including paint dry time

[Kaged Kombat]

They look great! You made them in record time too.

[dschori]

thank you for the awesome instructions! our son was the hit of the street tonight. we had people asking us to make them a costume.

[Kaged Kombat]

I got that too, thats the main reason for making this, so everyone can easily make it themselves. Sounds like your son had an exciting night!

[cward10]

Thanks for your instructions! This costume really made my son's Halloween (he declared it "The Best Halloween Ever") and he was a hit with everyone. Our small town has trick-or-treating downtown with the merchants and people were yelling at us from across the street.

[Kaged Kombat]

Now that's awesome! I remember walking around a neighborhood with mine on and getting the same attention. Lego men are definitely a crowd pleaser. Glad your son had great time with it!

[mrcourt123]

I'd like to add some info that may be helpful:

First, it took me approximately 15 hours to crank out two of these (one for me, and one for my wife). So, while you could do it in a weekend, it would be a loooong weekend. I did the construction of the heads one weekend, made the bodies in a night, spread out the spray painting over 4 days, and then finished up the heads in an hour or two.

The total cost of materials was approximately $100 to build 2 costumes. I could have gotten away cheaper because I didn't need a second can of spray paint for any of the colors (I did 2 coats of paint on both the bodies and the heads and they came out great). Also, I had to buy an exacto knife (actually, I used a box cutter and bought extra blades). So, all in all you could probably tackle this with about $75-$80 for two costumes. I figure store bought costumes can get pretty pricey and this was WAY better, so it was totally worth it.

The costume is a bit cumbersome. Nearly no peripheral vision and the head can get very hot (even with the vent hole). It wasn't great for conversations at dark parties and bars, but the head was nearly indestructible so it came on and off very easily and everyone wanted to try it on anyway!

Overall it was a HUGE hit. Everyone loved it and everyone wanted a picture with the Lego people! I highly recommend making this. I am not very handy or a crafty person, but the instructions were fantastic and it came out great!

[Kaged Kombat]

Great information and costume! That was about how much I spent when I made mine but my friend and I split the costs. Also these costume can be re-purposed to just about anything you want in the Lego universe.

[jsorensen1]

Have to comment on the stench of the spray paint.... building this for my son's Hallowe'en costume this year and although I've varied my process somewhat, still spraypainting the head but have found the fumes to be overwhelming. Don't know whether it will go away in time for the big event or not....

[Kaged Kombat]

If you let it bake in the sunlight/heat, the fumes will dissipate after a day. But it will take a few more days for it to disappear completely. It is a bit to late to suggest that you could paint with yellow acrylic paint. It would take a bit longer, but there is no fumes to deal with.

[jsorensen1]

Thanks Kaged Kombat! Yes, I'm running a little late - I'm sure a future follower will benefit from your suggestion (and my mistake). In Canada, at Halloween, we're not overly "heat" based so we're going to cross our fingers, add a Bounce sheet or two, and hope it's usable by tomorrow afternoon. :)

[Kaged Kombat]

You're very welcome. I'll also suggest anything that gives off heat will help. Hair dryer, bathroom heaters/radiators, etc. Just don't over do it or the paint may peel. Have fun!

[ostomesto]

I got first place in my middle school costume contest! Thanks so much for making this it helped alot!

[Kaged Kombat]

You are very welcome. Congrats!

[nmcgrath]

ok how long does this take and how much styrofoam do you need to buy?

[Kaged Kombat]

If you were dedicated, you could crank this out in a day. The only thing is the paint will have to cure overnight. The styrofoam I bought came in a package of three sheets I believe, that is plenty.

[Dimitri808]

i just used a black panty hose lol it works great though

[Destructions]

You can use the hard styrofoam found at hobby stores, it comes in 2in thick sheets. I couldn't find the blue tight cell foam for insulation so i went with what i could find. To smooth it out you can use lightweight spackling, it fills in the texture of the foam and protects it from the spray paint. You can give it a light sanding with a high grit count paper and make it extra smooth.

[mgk731]

Great directions! I'm only half way done, but it's looking good so far. The only change I've made is instead of using tape to attach the top and bottom foam, I added an extra half inch (adjusted the concrete form cut accordingly), shaved it down to slide in the concrete form, and gorilla glued it. Seems solid. We'll see how it looks when I get done with the paper mache that yoyo suggested. The only question left is, do I want to dance...or make lego legs...

[Kaged Kombat]

Thanks! Sounds like you know what you're doing. Dancing anything besides the robot would be difficult with the original mini-fig legs, but you could make them skinnier to your liking.

[eagle19]

so you just took a regular box and cut it up into separate pieces and put it back together like this?

[Kaged Kombat]

Pretty much. The only thing is that the front and back portions have the sides angled. Once you find a box big enough, you should be good.

[phireant]

Awesome Instructable. We were getting stopped at parties and asked where we bought them. Thanks again!

[phireant]

I forgot to add this link to some construction photos. http://warfieldninjas.com/2010/11/lego-costume-construction/ 
Hope this helps people out. Did do this in a day, kinda rushed because we had just got invited to a party the next day if memory serves me right.

[RetroTechno]

This picture is cracking me up!

[Kaged Kombat]

Bravo!

[Randomguy65]

Wow!!!! This is sub worthy!! You get a sub! :-)

[aecter]

Hey thanks for the instructions. Our costumes were awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeZN7Gic4bY

[Kaged Kombat]

That was awesome! I've never seen a LEGO man move like that before.

[aleksonpayr]

Thanks for the awesome instructable. My brother and his friend loved it!

[Kaged Kombat]

Looks great!

[RetroTechno]

Great Instructable! I didn't have time to do the body or the stub on the top of the head, but everybody at the party loved it anyway. I opted to not cut out the eye circles. Instead, I used a marker with the paper as a stencil.