Toy Green Army Man Halloween Costume

If you were once a kid like me, then you probably played with little plastic green army men.  They were one of my favorite cheap toys from childhood.  And if you have kids like me, then you are familiar with the movie Toy Story.  My favorite Toy Story character is not Buzz or Woody, but the little green men hopping around yelling 'hutt, hutt, hutt'.  When the annual halloween party that my family attends went with a Disney/Pixar theme, I knew I had to BE a toy green army man.

With the right clothes this is actually an easy outfit to make, is inexpensive, very original, and will be a hit at your costume party.

Materials you need:
Jacket - I used an Army BDU from Ebay.  Or try an Army Surplus
Pants - Army pants or any cargo pants that have leg pockets
Utility Belt - Another Ebay or Army Surplus purchase
Boots
Helmet
Panty Hose/stockings
Balloon
Toy Gun
Plywood scrap
Screws
Primer - aeresol
Green Paint - About 12 aeresol cans

Step 1 Select Your Green

When I began this project, I picked the cheapest, most readily available green spray paint I could find.  They were around one dollar per can and I used about a dozen.  You will also need primer.  The clothes just soak up the paint without it.

Next, I purchased several versions of green halloween facepaint to try to match the spray paint.  I was not happy with the results and went another direction (pantyhose).  More on that in step 5.

Comments

[PuckstoppingPoke]

I wanted to share an update with all the green army troopers out there. You can find my green army costume on USA Today online in the Pop Candy blog.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/popcandy/post/2011/11/reader-halloween-pics-doctor-who-muppets-and-much-more/1

Thanks for posting my picture, Whitney!

[SammyG852]

I followed your instructions and it paid off! Won a costume contest at a bar. Cash prize of $1000. Everyone loved it, so thanks so much for the instructions! I took pictures along the way too, and when I get some time, I'll upload the entire process as well.

[SammyG852]

Just an update, but I won my second costume contest in 3 days. On Halloween night I went out and won a $300 costume contest. I can't tell you how much attention I got all weekend. Great job on the instructions!

[PuckstoppingPoke]

Wow! I thought I was doing good for winning $100 at a work contest. Great job and great pose.

[lcanestrare]

First let me thank you for the amazing instructions...costume is underway and so far so good. I just have one question though. The host of the Halloween party we are going to is a bit OCD about the cleanliness of his house and I just want to make sure the paint on your clothes didn't leave any residue behind. Thanks again!

[PuckstoppingPoke]

To be honest, yes the costume shed a little dry green paint 'dandruff'. Not a lot, however.

[lbonita]

what did you use to do this?? I have an original soldier uniform but I dont know how to do this, I am not familiar with the word prime..is it paint or what is it??

[PuckstoppingPoke]

Prime is just a base coat of a special type of paint (primer) that covers better than normal paint. You can buy spray primer the same place you buy spray paint. If you don't use the primer first, then the color paint will just soak into the clothes.

[Sketch98]

You could wear a morphsuit

[boomerrang68]

Really great stuff guys..here was my green soldier.

[PuckstoppingPoke]

Thanks for sharing the picture. You look great. I'm glad so many other people of made their own costumes.

Is your outfit really that shiny or is just the flash? If so, how do you get it that shiny? It looks more like the toy that way.

[boomerrang68]

thanks..I used Latex paint.and man the fumes were killing me!hahaha..won first place at our halloween party!(like always)*wink*

[falloutman19]

I did this when me and my friends played laser tag not only were we awesome we looked awesome as well

[sherrycayheyhey]

The primer making the clothing stiff is a good thing! The army men are made of plastic so you don't really want dryer-fresh, flowy clothes anyways.

[gogglecrab]

Once I saw this I knew I had to needed to be this, I did it last year and it turned out great everyone loved it! this costume is so cool!

[lambsb]

LOL these all look great! However I don't see any paratroopers with the plastic loop on the helmet to tie the parachute to. I'll have to make one......

[Langarulz]

Me and my friend got a bunch of those guys and melted them together with a fire cracker.

(sorry for off topic)

[PuckstoppingPoke]

Every soldier has to meet his Maker one way or another.

[Langarulz]

lol

[callumg]

This a great article and was much needed for this year. The only thing I did differnt was to start off with white clothes thus eliminating the need to us primer. unfortunatley where I was going would be rather hot so I settled for a white shirt which I sewd on some lapels.

[PuckstoppingPoke]

You look great. And much more mobile than I was. How did you find makeup that matched your clothes paint so well?

JT

[callumg]

Thanks :-).Well I started with the colouring of the clothes/equipment then took the hat to a fancy dress shop and found a shade of green that was exact. Obviously the more you put on the darker it will become. One thing I would do different is to do away with the gloves and just use face paint on my hands. I hate how pictures do not do these costumes justice as the flash picks out the white too much. I reality my clothes were identical to my boots.

[apachee]

Thank you for the brilliant idea. We used this idea at our college 'raise and give' day. We managed to get in the local newspaper, as well as winning the 'fasion contest' and raising a lot of money. Everybody loved us! It was well worth the time and money spent on making the costume.

[PuckstoppingPoke]

Your group looks great. Congratulations on winning the contest and raising money (for a good cause other than beer money, I assume). Thanks for sharing the photos. Its great to see so many different versions of the green army man.

JT

[handson_seattle]

I started with camo colored clothes and three coats of spray primer did almost nothing to hide the pattern. Ended up using watered down GESSO to get everything prepped, and it worked great.
Thanks for the great costume idea -- it won me two costume contests and $10 cash from standing still on a street corner! :)

[cambigfoot]

couldnt you die it green in a 5 gal bucket

[Transquesta]

Bar none the coolest 'on the fly' costume I've ever seen! GREAT job!

. . . Uh, not to be picky, but "pany" (as in "pany hose") is spelled with a 'T'. Thought you'd wanna know. :-)

[mastercloak]

took me about 7 hours the night before the day i had to dress up
-had about 3 different colors and brands of spray paint.
- took 11 cans to spray everything
-didn't have the paint or time to primer
i actually thought it was going to turn out to be pretty bad... but was actually pretty satisfied with the end result...though i still have green paint on my fingers.

[mpl74]

Thanks for the great costume idea! I first saw this while getting ready for last Halloween. I didn't have time to do it then, but decided I was definitely making this costume for this year. One of my friends and I ended up making these costumes for ourselves and everyone agreed they were some of the best they'd ever seen. Definitely worth the effort!

As for the paint colors, we reversed the order some people went in - we chose the face paint first and then found spray paint to match it for the uniform and props. Rust-Oleum's Meadow Green gloss spray paint almost perfectly matched the green grease paint sold at Spirit Halloween stores. Like others have said, expect to use a LOT of spray paint on the clothes.

[PuckstoppingPoke]

You guys look great. Thanks for sharing your pictures. Maybe one of these days we will have a whole bucket full of green army men out there.

[mpl74]

Thanks, Justin. Our goal was to have more people involved so we'd have a platoon of toy soldiers, but that didn't quite work out. A lot of people said, though, that these were the best costumes they'd ever seen. It was well worth the effort - we had a BLAST! Thank you again for the idea and the info that helped us put it all together!

[knex inventor]

i know that that picture was a toy soldier in a dolls house. lol

[RED___SPARTAN]

I found a dark green jacket and grey pants, am i gonna have to bleach it to spray paint it?

[dindanpacman]

 I had to bleach my shirt first, but the combination of bleach and paint was too much for the shirt so it ripped when i put it on. aside from the unbearable stench of bleach and spray paint, it turned out pretty awesome.

[dindanpacman]

 I also replaced the plywood with some of those UPS plastic envelopes which made walking a whole lot easier.

[w.bartlett]

I used the dollar store bristle boards with the foam in the middle, then traced my boots and cut out the foot print, then placed boot in and pushed up to just clear the sole and hot glued all the edges, easy-light -and is a snap to do.
Also I did the sand plastic army man costume as i had the tan pants and jacket already. I didn't want to use paint on my clothes, also saved me lo$t of cash as paint in Canada isn't cheap $6 a can, then I also used my empty cans and made a bazzoka, it's not in the pics but I will load one.

[PuckstoppingPoke]

This is great. Very authetic. Tell me more about the 'bristle boards'. It looks good in the picture, but I'm not sure what you're talking about.

JT

[w.bartlett]

Hi Thanks for the question.

It is the same size as bristol board and is a $1 it looks like vinyl but it's bristol board on both sides with about 1/4" white foam in the middle, some people use it for sign board for yard sales, or for school projects. etc. wall Mart also has it and sometimes in black ,it will be in the stationary department or ask.
This picture was taken so I could see the flaws I needed to fix before I wear it out. If you look close you can see where I cut the board and the white foam is showing, I just painted the edges and is now not noticeable. Hope this helps.

[w.bartlett]

Also you can't have more then an 1" or so at the front of the boot or it will interfere when you walk. It's the lightest and easiest to use.

[w.bartlett]

couple more pics