Transformers Soundwave Costume

First off, I need to thank my wife for being patient with me as I transformed our apartment into an utter mess of cardboard pieces, stinking it up with burning glue and paint and long hours of me talking and obsessing over the smallest details of this costume. She is truly a champion and is worthy of a whole new level of praise for putting up with this. I’d also like to thank dannyeurena. Because he posted his method of building his costume, I was able to save so much time and expand on the ideas he presented. Thanks!

This year I wanted to making a really sick costume. I'm an artist and I wanted to push myself. I also didn't want to spend a lot of money on it either. After days of pondering what I wanted to be, I decided on Soundwave—not the latest crumpled soda can Soundwave from the Bay movies, the original toy/cartoon one. Hands down he was my favorite toy. He had a rocket launcher and came with his own army of minions. This robot was upper management. After some research of various depictions, and fabrications, I began building.

Step 1 Materials

The following list are materials that I used:

Building supplies

• Cardboard (thick) Make sure it is rigid
• Cardboard (thin)
• Chipboard
• 2” Packaging tube
• Paper towel tube

• (1) Metal ruler
• (1) Triangle ruler
• (1) Large matte knife with 6 blades
• (1) Small x-acto knife with about 25 blades
• (1) Pair of scissors
• (1) Medium sized cutting board
• (1) small tape measure
• (1) Glue gun with (24) glue sticks (This is a MUST!)
• Bandaids when you burn yourself with the glue gun

Painting supplies

• (6) Rolls of packaging tape
• (1) Roll of blue masking tape
• (1) Construction helmet
• (1) Can of spray primer
• (1) Can of house paint (white)
• (1) Can of spray glue
• (2) Cans of blue spray paint
• (2) Cans of silver spray paint
• Various color acrylic paints (cheaper the better; blue, yellow, red, white, black, silver, gold)
• Package of various sized brushes
• Masking paper

Misc.

• (1) Cheap pair of shoes (or use your own they won’t be damaged)
• (1) Backpack (won’t be damaged)
• (1) Gumball container
• (1) Reading light
• (2) Glow sticks
• (1) Yard of black stretchy fabric
• (1) 1” strip of galvanized steel
• (1) roll of adhesive cork
• (1) Translucent yellow folder
• Velcro (about a yard of it)
• (3) yards of 1” nylon straps
• Elastic waistband
• (1) pair of hockey gloves
• (1) small sheet of framing plexi (used to replace glass)
• Access to print services that can print on 11x17 paper
• Pop rivet gun with 1/8 rivets
• (1) sheet of 1” vinyl letters
• (7) plastic easter eggs

Comments

[laernmoer]

too cool.. you should have a dwarf friend walk around in a Rumble costume.. lol

[DeceptibotX]

Or maybe Ravage or Lasor Beak.

[pwhyt]

nice im gonna make it even if its alot of money

[Incrxtc]

Fortunately, if you dumpster dive for the cardboard, it's really cheap.

[DeceptibotX]

I agree with the dumpster diving. Most people will be squeamish, but for this and lots of other Instructables, it makes things a LOT cheaper and easier.

[MrTearApart]

I would like to say that your suit inspired me to make a transformer costume of my own. I ended up going on the transformers wiki and found a picture of Ratchet and went with that. Only problem was the feet, walking was pretty hard and funny at the same time! The headlights work and the ambulance lights actually flash red and blue. Thanks for the inspiration you gave me with your outstanding build!

[DeceptibotX]

As a Transformers Gen1 fan and one of Ratchet's No. 1 fans, I have to say this: Tha is awesome, and I wonder if you could get mistaken for him and be asked to repair a Transformation Cog.

[Incrxtc]

OMG! That is awesome. I love how you made the lights function. Great work.

[DeceptibotX]

All I have to say is "Ravage, eject! Operation: termination!" Great job! Transfromers Gen1 is one of my favorites!

[Team3313mechatronics]

Do you have demensions for this Helmet?

[Incrxtc]

It's roughly:
14 inches from the top of the crown to the bottom of the face mask.
12 inches wide from the cheek vents (the widest point) and
12.5 inches from front to the back of the helmet

The helmet that I used is a 3M Tekk Protection Hard Hat with Ratchet Suspension. I made sure to flip it the other way around to keep the bill of it in the back.

Hope that helps.

[dpolman]

Absolutley incredible. Best I've seen on this site so far

[sixsixzero]

Heres the link for my Voltron "able"!
http://www.instructables.com/id/Voltron-Costume/

[Incrxtc]

That is sick! It came out so good. Can't wait to read through yours.

[TubaJ446]

Awesome!!!, Soundwave is my favorite decipticon of all time!!! I have been wanting to make this. nice process BTW. Only thing I'll do different is that he(or"I"or whatever) will transform. And I was thinking of making a little bendy-camera-spy-thingy like he had in the cartoon

[sixsixzero]

Awesome Instructable! I came upon this by chance.. a link that said "10 costumes youll never make." Well, you have inspired me to give it a go.
I can pretty much make anything, but this has posed a challenge so far, mostly getting the measurements spot on for movement.

I gotta give it to you and Danny, doin this w/o any instruction is unheard of.
I will update and post pics, maybe do my own instructable!

Thanks for taking the time to post as you did, hopefully my costume will be up to par!

[Incrxtc]

I would love to see the pics. To give you a tip on how I got the measurements, I had someone take a full body picture of me, printed it out, and started grabbing a tape measure to myself to establish the scale of the picture. Then I roughly sketched the design on the printout the picture and used that as a basis for the measurements. It's not the most precise, but it will get you by. Good luck with yours. Prove to Instructables that is doesn't deserve to be on the "10 costumes you'll never make" list!

[sixsixzero]

Here is one lower leg almost ready for prime and paint

[Incrxtc]

Wow, great job! Keep me updated on your progress. I can't wait to see the finished product.

[sixsixzero]

(removed by author or community request)

[Incrxtc]

I know you can do it! Just work in layers. While something is drying, work on something else. if you are tired on doing one thing, there are some other things you can do to take a break.

[sixsixzero]

Changed my mind again! I am going with another of my favorite childhood toys...
Figured I wanted to push myself to do this on my own in my own way. I am using techniques from both of you, as well as myself. Using foam as well as cardboard.
You will see this done soon.. heres a peek, but Ill keep ya in the air untill I get more of it painted to post.

[Incrxtc]

Love what you've got so far. Go Go Go!

[sixsixzero]

Heres the red arm done....

[Incrxtc]

Wow! That came out really nice. I hope you are going to post an Instructable about this.

[sixsixzero]

Arms done! And yes, I have already started my instructables for this. I wouldnt be able to remember it all if I wasnt keeping track during project.

[jjoyride]

Would you consider selling? Or renting for an evening? Insurance/"dont dare damage this" papers would of course be drafted. Very serious here. Let me know at [e-mail]
AMAZING WORK!!!

[Incrxtc]

Sorry, there too much sentimental value with it for me to loan it out or sell it.

[esuratos]

awesome instructable. i've used this to miniaturize it for my son. great work on the instructions, along with the pics, easy to follow. by far my favorite instrucable here. thanks you for sharing this with us. i added a few photos so you can see how i tried to keep it all the same.

[Incrxtc]

OMG! That is the cutest. Well done, and excellent craftsmanship! I love the functionality of the rocket launcher. It's a very impressive adaptation of my costume. Thank you for the kind words and for adding the pics. I'm sure your son will have the coolest costume this Halloween.

[josh4790]

u are really amizing! for making this good job

[Incrxtc]

Thanks! Glad that the effort was appreciated. :D

[ngoley]

You are a god....

[David-Yezbak]

Whats the best way to cut the card board? because all the ways I tried doesn't work?

[Incrxtc]

I used a large box cutter for the big cuts and a hobby X-acto knife for the smaller things.

[d.i.y master]

this is just amazing i wish i had enough time or skill to make one (p.s soundwave was always the best)

[ekongpogi]

thank you! for sharing your project, I copied your method in building the foot and we won the national science quest contest. You and dannyeurena were awesome. thanks again.

[felixneko7]

how well do you see through the visor?

[Incrxtc]

It's like wearing a pair of yellow tinted firing range sunglasses. You can see out perfectly, but because it's so dark inside the helmet, it hides all the details of your face.

[lane29]

dontt trip!!!!!!!!