It’s almost Halloween, so I started to look around and see what tips I could find for automaton disguises. Here are the cooler robot costumes I found:
Awesom-O Costumes
Cartman pulls an infamous stunt as “Awesom-O,” the cardboard robot, in Southpark’s 8th season (2004). This costume is pretty basic: cardboard, a square head, gray gloves and a written “Awesom-O” somewhere on the torso should do the trick, with a spring attached here or there. This is one of the more elaborate ones I’ve seen. (It even includes a liquid dispensing component!)
Bender Costume
Bender from Futurama is a bit trickier to construct because of his metallic and streamline look. For details on how to make a phenomenal Bender outfit (left) check out the creator’s blog post.
Gort Costume
Instructables has an excellent, step-by-step guide for making a full Gort costume. ‘Nuff said.
Basic Robot Costumes
For a costume that is faster and easier to make than those above, I’d suggest putting together any of the following to create your own, unique robot disguise:
- cardboard boxes or gray/metallic clothing
- foil, to cover the limbs/boxes
- springs, knobs or other cheap hardware store gizmos to attach to the body
- anything shiny
- anything square
- old CDs or cassette tapes
- metallic paint, gold or silver, to cover the previous objects with
- antenna or wire, preferably on the head
- circuit boards
- clampers or grippers
- blinking lights (like the kind on key chains or holiday pins) or reflectors
- And finally, no robot, real or fake, is complete without a name, preferably a catchy acronym. Check out the Cyborg Name Decoder for help.
365 Halloween has additional tips on making a robot costume, and suggests using dryer vent hose, gauges and meters, and claws. I found a really excellent how-to claw tutorial (alas, this is for a Wolverine costume, but substituting shorter, blunter metal protrusions could work for a robot hand). The Coolest Homemade Costumes website has a gallery of home-made robot costumes, as well as details on how each was made.
Finally, robots are notoriously asexual, but Beyonce’s robotic exoskeleton is a good model for a (sexier) robot outfit.
For more inspiration on robot looks, check out this list from the Times Online of the 50 best movie robots. Good luck!
