# My homemade Stalkaround costume.



## Mollins (Sep 18, 2005)

wow, that looks IMMENSE!


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## Ray A Rottin (Jun 8, 2005)

"I caught a fish THISSSSS BIG!"  

Oh my God, that's HUGE! Very cool!

I'm still workin' on mine, hopefully I'll have some pictures shortly.

Nice work sbbbugsy!


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## Wolfman (Apr 15, 2004)

Will Yao Ming be coming to the Haunt this year? That's him under the costume, I presume?
Nice effect, very original, I'd love to see it "after dark".


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## RyanTuomi (Aug 31, 2004)

Do you have any pics of under that robe? I am just starting to make one myself. I have the basic ideas down pat but I am afraid of all that tailoring.

I hope the wife can help


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## sbbbugsy (Sep 24, 2005)

RyanTuomi said:


> Do you have any pics of under that robe? I am just starting to make one myself. I have the basic ideas down pat but I am afraid of all that tailoring.
> 
> I hope the wife can help












The joints at the shoulders and elbows are eye-bolts.

The neck is held in place with an eye-bolt the same size as the aluminum tubing. And a hose-clamp is all I use to keep it in place.

A hinge is on the top of the helmet behind the tube and the bottom of the head in front of the tube. A peice of clothes hanger metal goes from the helmet to the head to allow the head to tilt (Placed behind the aluminum neck tube).

U-bolts hold the frame to the backpack (could also use hose clamps).

Duct tape as needed.  

I used about 18 yards of material for the robe. Cut into three equal pieces and sewn together. I'll finish tailoring it when I am fully satisfied with my design.


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## RyanTuomi (Aug 31, 2004)

very nice - I like what you have done. I got into making one myself which I am about to make a thread about.


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## sbbbugsy (Sep 24, 2005)

I've been wearing this costume for the past week at the Melbourne Florida Jaycees' Haunted Trail and it has been great! I just picked up a megaphone to give the big costume a big voice.


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## RyanTuomi (Aug 31, 2004)

very cool. I bought a Monster voice changer which I am going to rig up in mine. Do you find it really hot inside?


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## sbbbugsy (Sep 24, 2005)

My material was fairly lightweight, so I had sufficient air. It was just tiresome to stand/walk around for hours, sometimes leaning on a tree. Plus, the backpack has a Camelbak built in, so I could get water anytime I wanted it.


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## sisvicki (Jan 30, 2004)

Wow . . . this is large puppeteering, isn't it? Has anybody made a how-to for this? I would really love to make one of these. How do you see out of there?


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## sbbbugsy (Sep 24, 2005)

*Stalkaround Costume*

After I was satisfied with all the mechanical details, I draped some lacey white fabric down the front and pinned on a black tie. I cut a hole in the black material and was able to see through the white lace.

Construction is fairly simple. I'll post a few pics soon showing the details; have to pull the costume out of storage first.

Basically, all you need are the following:

1. A good hiking backpack with a bar that runs up behind the head. Here is the one I have:

backpack

2. Find one of those plastic hollow skulls. Make sure it has a solid base and is life size. The light-up yard decorating ones are good. Get some weights because you will need to make it heavier in front so tilting the head is easier.

3. Eighteen yards of black fabric. Cut into three strips six yards long and sew together to make the robe.

4. Two pieces of 5/8" hollow aluminum tubing, six feet long each. For the arms.

5. One piece of 5/8" aluminum tubing, three feet long. For the neck. You can cut to fit later.

6. One piece of 3/4" aluminum tubing, six feet long. For the shoulders.

7. Two BMX bicycle grips.

8. Eight small eye-bolts for connecting the shoulders and elbows. Make sure that they are long enough to mount through the aluminum tubing.

9. One large eye-bolt that has a big enough hole to allow the neck tube to fit inside.

10. A helmet with a strong chin-strap and extra clearance above the top of the head inside. (you don't want any bolts poking the top of your head.)

11. A couple of small cabinet hinges. Not the square or rectangular type. Get the ones that look like small wings.

12. Some hose clamps that will fit around the tubing.

13. Four U-bolts for connecting the shoulder tubing to the backpack, two on each side. Or, you can just drill holes and bolt the whole thing together normally.

14. A bunch of tie-wraps for holding things temporarily while you construct the costume.

15. A metal coat-hanger. To control the head.

16. Duct tape is handy.

17. Silcone glue. To mount the BMX handles to the control poles.

18. Some pillow foam padding for the arms, shoulder and chest.

19. A mask and creature reacher hands.

20. Small eye-hooks for connecting the coat hanger wire to the helmet and head.

Simple construction guide:

1, Cut the two 5/8" poles in half. Take two of the pieces and bend 90 degrees about six inches from one end only. these will be your handles. Glue the BMX handles here.

2. Take the 3/4" tubing and make two bends so that it matches the width of the backpack frame. This will extend the height. The two bends become the shoulders.

3. Drill holes through the 3/4" tubing about 3/4" below the shoulder bends and mount two eye-bolts.

4. Using the two 5/8" pieces WITHOUT the BMX handles, drill holes about 3/4" from the ends. Mount eye-bolts at each end facing opposite directions. Open the eye-bolts and connect to the shoulder eye-bolts and crimp closed again.

5. Using the two 5/8" pieces with the BMX handles, drill holes about 2" from the bend; this will give you a little extra leverage for raising the hands. Mount the eye-bolts with the holes pointing towards the body.

6. Connect the handle eye-bolts to the arm eye-bolts and crimp closed.

7. Bolt the 3/4" tube to the backpack and adjust it for the height you like. The backpack I have also extends and I raised it up all the way. This completes construction of the arms. Test it out and adjust as you like.

8. Mount the large eye-bolt at the center of the top rail between the shoulders. The hole must face forwards. This will support the neck tube and head.

9. Mount a hinge on the top of the helmet so that the neck pole is in front. Mount another hinge on the skull so the the neck pole is in the back. This is important to aloow good head movement.

10. Connect the last piece of 5/8" tube to the top of the helmet in front of the hinge and secure with either hose clamps or small bolts. Then slide the pole up through the neck eye-bolt.

11. Put the costume on and have someone place a hose clamp on the neck pole just above the large eye-bolt. This will keep the weight of the head off the helmet and allow the pole rotate left and right. Cut the neck pole off so that you costume head is at the level above the shoulder you like.

12. Mount the head on the top of the neck pole. Make sure the pole is behind the hinge.

13. Connect the coat hanger wire at the back of the helmet about 3" from the hinge with a small eye-hook. Crimp the ends closed. While facing straight, have someone cut the top of the wire and connect it at the base of the skull about 3" behind the hinge. Crimp the ends closed. The wire will be running next to the large eye-bolt, but don't worry. It will still work when you turn your head.

14. The frame is now completed!

15. Mount the creature reacher hands and secure to arm poles. I left the plastic poles in the hands and used hose clamps and glue.

15. Pad the arms, shoulders and chest as you like to fill out the costume. Make sure to not interfere with the head/neck motion.

16. If you weighted the head right, it will tilt forward almost on its own when you tilt your head. You just use the coat hanger wire to tilt it back up with the helmet.

17. Put the robe on and apply any finishing touches you like. Be careful if you alter the robe to make sleeves. I messed up my first time and did not allow enough room to control the arms.  

18. HAPPY STALKING!  

Steven


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

My homemade "Stalk-around" costume that I made 20 years ago was just some plywood cut out to go around my shoulders, sort of like football shoulder pads, padded with some foam cushion, duct taped on to the plywood.
I made a huge skull head by gluing foam-board insulation into a block and carving it with a hot knife and a torch, assembling the block around a pvc pipe that fastens this into the plywood assembly previously mentioned.
I found some really boney-looking large sticks along the road, painted them like bones and drilled holes on their ends and wired them together for the arms, the big, boney hands were made from smaller sticks, some car-Bondo helped too.
I wired a 1/4 inch steel rod to each wrist, painted the rods flat black, these are to make the arms move without being so obvious about it, of course a shredded black material made up the chest- shirt .
I even built lifts from threaded steel roods and 2by 4's with sheet metal bolt-adjusted straps to hold them to my shoes!
I scared SO MANY kids that October with this costume.
I concluded that my "Costumes" were more torture devices for the person wearing it than anything else.
a short woman paid me $25 to rent this costume the following October to wear to a bar costume contest .
I would have liked to have seen her trying to make this costume work! It should have been entertaining in and of itself.
The next year I tried this again, making a much better-looking skull carving and pvc bones and a hump on her back, added long black wig and a purple-print dress.
I still have both of them here on display.


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## sisvicki (Jan 30, 2004)

sbb - thanks! I've been looking at a puppeteering site but your instructions are definately something I could follow!
Pretty sure I can get a backpack on ebay.

Gym, how did you see out of yours?


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## sbbbugsy (Sep 24, 2005)

On construction step number 8: The hole should not FACE forwards, but be in front of the 3/4" tubing with the hole facing UP.


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

Sisvicki, I had ragged black material hanging down in front of my face, funny thing is, most people were so enthralled looking at the entire monstrous costume that they never seemed to look for or even think about looking for my face, but then this was over 20 years ago and certainly nobody around here had ever seen such a design of a costume before.
I caught "Hell" for days afterwards from parents of little kids who threw screaming fits until the parents removed them from the downtown area where the costume contest was being held, I actively meananced no one, mostly stood in one place just moving slightly, turning slowly, walking slowly, but kids 90 feet away were letting their adult guardians that it was time to LEAVE!
My neighbor across the street from me had a spoiled child who screameds late into the night almost every night (and she was plenty old enough to NOT be doing this), she was scared of the "Big Skeleton", so her Dad carried her right up to me and asked if I could say afew words to her to let her know that it's "Me"?
I spoke to her by name and then said, "I live right across the street from you!"
)Maybe this information would work to make her think twice before she set about screaming all night long just be cause she could?
The girl grew up a smart , nice young woman who loved coming through my haunted house.


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