Well my little brother's birthday was coming up and I wanted to get him something good. His roommate and I have been (over his objections) altering his living room by installing a "party switch" which activates strobe lights, black lights, police beacons, etc. At the moment it's controlled by the wall, but I knew my bro would much rather have it activated by a switch inside a Shakespeare bust, like in the old Batman show with Adam West and Burt Ward. We used to love watching the reruns as kids and still get a kick out of it. The accurate replica is way out of my price range, and where's the fun in just buying it?

It seemed like such an easy build too, just jam the controller to a remote outlet switch into a resin bust, add a hinge and done! So of course I encountered more problems than I'd care to go over developing from my own lack of good planning. So consider most of this my recommendations on how to do it, along with what I actually did which is how not to do it.

Step 1: Materials and Getting Started

What you'll need:
A bust of Shakespeare, I got mine from Design Toscano (http://www.designtoscano.com/product/code/AH22672.do) but if you have a better source or can sculpt one yourself you may save a lot of trouble later on.
A remote control outlet switch. Home Depot, just make sure the controller is small enough to fit. Keychain is preferable.
Extra buttons, unless the controller itself looks good and is small enough to just stick in the neck.
Small hinges, like jewelry box hinges.
Spray foam (unless your bust is solid)
JB Weld
Solder and soldering iron.
Primer and paint to match the bust color (or of the desired color)

It seems so simple at this point to just put it all together doesn't it? DON'T. I can tell you there is an optimal order, I didn't do things in that order and everything was a lot harder than it had to be.

Step 2: Decapitate and Reattach

Using a razor saw, jeweler's saw, or handi-hacksaw carefully cut of the head. The closer to the beard or ruff the better disguised the line will be. Resin dust is very bad for your lungs so wear a particulate mask. Once the head is detached sand the opening.

Assuming your bust is hollow like mine you won't be able to simply screw the hinge in. Forget the screws it came with and get the longest thing that will fit your hinge that you can find. First attach the hinge to the body using JB Weld on both the screws and the hinge itself. Once that sets support the head in the desired open position (you can use hot glue to close the head, place the hinge, and then open it) and again use JB Weld to attach the hinge. AFTER the hinge is attached by JB Weld add spray foam around the screws to help support them. I did this in the opposite order and discovered the hard way that SPRAY FOAM IS NOT STRUCTURAL! It is just making sure the screws don't jostle, the JB Weld is doing the hard work. Once you're sure the foam has set try opening and closing the head to make sure it's in position.

Step 3: Seal the Gap

There will be a gap between the head and neck when the bust is closed. Add just a little spray foam around the neck line, then carefully dab off the extra. Wait until it sets, sand, and repeat until satisfied. Add primer to disguise it.
If you did a good job with everything up to this point the crease will be barely noticeable and just a bit of primer will keep the foam sturdy and the appropriate color. If you did it like I did there will be so much that the only way to disguise the primer is to just prime and paint the whole bloody bust.

Step 4: Add the Controller

Now unless your controller fits exactly you'll want to open it and solder new buttons with some reasonably long wires so you can just store the controller inside the bust and have the buttons available. I had a friend who is much better at soldering than I am do this so no pictures.
Basically though just solder wires to the back of the PCB where the original buttons are attached, then solder these wires to your desired buttons, there are much better instructables on this subject than I could ever write.

Anyway now you'll want to add the buttons inside the bust, a little spray foam around the inside of the neck, then a little around the buttons. Wait for this to set and then carefully carve or add foam until the one fits snugly in the other. Your goal here is to make the buttons removable so you can get to the controller when you need to change the batteries.
Mine was so full of foam because like an idiot I decided to just fill the whole thing with the stuff that I actually had to dig a channel for all the components.