Lego Lord Vampyre

Intro: Lego Lord Vampyre

I transformed my 5 year old son into the leader of the Monster Realm - Lord Vampyre from Lego Monster Fighter series.
The costume is 100% handmade using mainly a low density PVC foam board called sintra and joints were filled with Bondo. Styrofoam was used to sculpt the hair and the beveled rim around the head. The costume was spray painted and graphics were created in Adobe Illustrator and printed on adhesive vinyl. The only tools required for this costume were 2 types of x-acto knives, 1 heavy and one scalpel for circular cuts, a heat gun for curving the sintra foam board, a metal ruler, some clamps (optional) and a rasp for shaping the detail in the hair.  Industrial adhesive was used to glue together the sintra. (E-6000) as well as PL Premium and a little hot glue.

Comments

[gosphero]

Best costume Halloween 2012! And probably every Halloween before and after...

[1truedrum]

Thank you kindly. I'm deeply flattered.

[Jpc13]

Hi how did you attach the legs of the lego figure to the black pants? How did they stay up and on?

[Saiber77.]

any chance you are going to make an instructable out of this ? Epic costume! I would love to make a Lego costume for my son but most of them are disproportionate and while I am able to follow instructions and build stuff pretty well I am by no means an engineer nor handy with a caliper and tape for guessing my own dimensions.

[1truedrum]

Hey there, thanks for your message. There are some steps and pics of this Lego costume build posted. Outside of that, I do not plan on adding anything to the thread at the moment. I may do another Lego costume in the future, if so, I will try to include more details. If you do decide to build your son a Minifigure costume, you can send me an email through my website and I'll try to give tips, suggestions etc.

Thanks!

http://www.keithrsheppard.com/

[Saiber77.]

Can't believe it's been a year since I last logged in... lol. Thanks for your reply to my question, ended up not making the costume but do have a bunch of plain white double walled cardboard to mess around with. Hard to find the time to do it though without a clear instructable since I have no idea where to even begin lol.

[marbar1980]

What an AMAZING costume!
After seeing your post online a couple months ago, my husband and I started marking a costume for our daughter. We are not very creative so our just doing the lego man with the top hat.
Curious though did you find the template for his eyes and mouth online or did you design it yourself?

[1truedrum]

Thank you.

I designed the graphics used in the costume. I searched out images on goggle and also scanned the mini figure. I then redrew all of the graphics in Adobe Illustrator. Because my son was 5 at the time, I had to modify the distance between the eyes and overall facial graphics in order for him to have vision. You can also create mouth vision depending on the mini figure mouth.

[craineum]

Awesome costume! I am going to be doing lego costumes this year for my two boys. Few questions:

1. Where did you source the pvc foam board from?
2. Did you go to a local print shop for the adhesive vinyl?
3. Did your son have any issues walking?
4. How do the legs attach to him?
5. Did you attach the head to him at all for him to be able to turn his head and the lego head to turn as well?

Thanks!  And again, this is awesome!  Probably the best lego costume I have seen ;)

[1truedrum]

Good evening,

Thanks for the kind words. You have a lot of questions, I'll do my best to answer : )

1. I live in Toronto and I purchased the PVC foamboard (Sintra) from a plastic supplier. If you google the material perhaps you can find a supplier close to you. I haven't seen it in any retail/ art stores. If you find it, buy 1/8" thickness as it is lighter and can be cut with an x-acto knife. I twas $40.00 for an 8' x 4' sheet, enough to possibly do 2 lego costumes depending on the age of the child and the type of character you're creating.

2. you can go to a local print house for vinyl adhesive, call around and ask if they can do what you need. Verify that it is water-proof. I am fortunate that I have a neighbour who works in the printing industry who printed it for me - unfortunately it was not water-proof, despite his claim that it was. It rained heavily on Halloween and the ink on the graphics ran severely. Luckily I had more than one copy and replaced it following Halloween.

3-4. Walking is always an issue as it's just the nature of the beast. The Lord vampyre costume was my second Lego costume and was a significant improvement on the first (I'm working on a 3rd) I can post some photos of how my legs work and further explain the mechanics - it is quite simple, but well planned and measured.

5. The head simply slipped on with the neck resting on the shoulders. I added foam bumpers to keep the head snug so that he could turn his head and have the Lego head move with him. A better option is to glue a cheap adjustable baseball helmet inside to the Lego head which will secure you son's head and allow for movement.

Thanks again, if you want to give me an email address I can send images and perhaps templates directly to you. My email is
[e-mail]

[layasera]

You should have worn white gloves but none the less EPIC costume!

[1truedrum]

Thanks! My son did have white gloves that he wore, but they were kind of getting in his way and were a little big.

[poofrabbit]

OMG!!!!! There are a lot of Lego costumes on instructables and I honestly do love them all, but it's official this is my favorite!!!! It looks so much like the real thing and how fantastic for Halloween!

[1truedrum]

Thank you. To answer the other question, yes there is red fabric covering part of the eye cavity. I can't remember the name of the fabric, but he can see outof it, but others can't really see him.

[poofrabbit]

That is just plain awesome! What a lucky kid! I just can't stop smiling about this costume, I want one, lol. I also love that you got photos of him in the toy section, I bet you guys got stopped a lot!

[1truedrum]

The pics were taken at the Lego store. We did the same thing last year with his other Lego Mini figure costumes. There were some followers and one little boy wanted his picture taken with Lord Vampyre. Pretty cute.

[poofrabbit]

What a fun memory for your little tike!! I would have wanted my picture taken too! So super cool! I wonder how many people thought he was just a decoration until he moved. :)

[1truedrum]

Funny you should say that. One gentlemen thought I was walking alongside a robot - pretty funny. I posted pics on a Lego site and they at first thought he was part of the store until they saw his hands. You're pretty bang on. : )

[poofrabbit]

I'm not shocked! Hey congratulations on being featured! Love the additional photos you added as well! :)

[1truedrum]

Thanks!