Lego Ninjago Costume

Both my sons ages 5 and 7 desperately wanted to be their favorite Lego Ninjago Characters for Halloween this year so they asked me if I could help them out. I was a little apprehensive at first but after searching the web I found many online tutorials with detailed instructions on how to go about making a lego minifig costume. Some of the better ones were found right here at instructables.com. The trick to pulling it off is getting the proportions right so that it looks like a proper lego minifig. So make sure to take proper measurements and use an actual minifig as reference.  I started with the heads, you can find many tutorials on this method online. Measure the size of your kids head (don't forget the ears) then I cut a bunch of circles from a sheet of styrofoam insulation which was found at my local big box hardware store. The amount of circles will depend on the thickness of your styrofoam. Then cut ovals out of the circles, this is where your kids head goes, remember those measurements we took? Then carefully glue the circles together and let it dry. Once dry, shape the head using a knife, saw, chisel, whatever just make it look like a minifig head. This will be messy so be sure to have a shop vac handy. After that sand it down (styrofoam sands very well) then paint it and let it dry. For the torso I basically made a box out of cardboard. I taped the pieces of cardboard together using double-sided window insulation tape, this can be found at most dollar stores and works well. I painted the boxes using craft paint (also found at the dollar store). The weather forecast for Halloween called for rain so I spray a light coat of Elmer's spray glue on the boxes and then wrapped them in plastic wrap to protect them from the rain. I'm no scientist but I figured that rain and painted cardboard probably don't mix very well? The tutorials I found had the pants made out of cardboard as well but I didn't like that. Instead I sewed the pants out of material, I figured that would make them easier to walk in and probably would last longer. I created a pattern and made very simple square pants that I attached to the inside bottom of the box body using velcro tape (also dollar store). I put small sleeve pockets in the feet of the pants in order to slide a styrofoam block to create the look of a toe. However don't make your toe as thick as mine. My sons stumbled on a few steps because of the toes before they got the hang of it. The hands were made from a coat hanger, cardboard and some paper cups. I shaped the hanger into a claw then used to cups to create cuff sleeves. Then I attached the cups to the hanger using lots of tape.  I shaped the hand some more with cardboard and wrapped it all up in black duct tape. Don't forget to cut holes for their actual hands (need those so they can carry their candy bags). The hands were the biggest pain and if you are creative then perhaps you can come up with an easier way of doing  them? Or go without but it does help complete the look of the costume. The shoulder pads were made from styrofoam, painted and then taped to the body with double sided tape. Finally the masks and heads were finished by wrapping and gluing material to the heads with Elmer's spray glue. The spray glue also helped to shape the material as it hardened and dried, giving it the wrinkles and folds needed to give it the proper look. The eyes were cut from duct tape, however I had to use the double sided tape to attach them as the duct tape didn't want to stick to the styrofoam. Also you can't see them but I poked breath holes in the mask so that my kids could .. er .. well ... breath in those things. The silver and gold crown pieces were made from styrofoam then painted and attached to the heads using double sided tape and a small finishing nail pushed through into the styrofoam head (not my kids head). Anyways they were a lot of work but they were a big hit with their friends and neighbors.