Danakin's CASEY JONES Mask & Costume (Post SDCC Update 7/22)

It’s not often I venture outside of Star Wars for my costumes but when I do I try to make it unique. I’ve been a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles since I was a kid and IDW’s recent relaunch of the comic series has gotten me back into it. I would love to have a Turtle costume but unfortunately that’s out of my reach, both financially and skill-wise. I realized I could instead do their human partner in kick-assery, Casey Jones! Thus began Project: GOONGALA!




As much as I love the original TMNT film’s Casey mask and costume, I decided I was going to pay tribute to the comics with the design of my costume. It will be an amalgam of both Mirage Vol. 1 (seen above) and IDW’s Casey (below).




The masks from both series are very similar which made my decision to stick with the comic look much easier. It also helped that I had a Pepakura file for said mask saved on my computer from a couple years back, which is what I used to start my mask.




After scaling it to fit my face, I printed this template and cut it out of thin cardboard for greater durability. Once assembled I began coating the front and back with bondo and resin. Here was the first pass.




Here’s the second pass, after lots of sanding and spot putty.




At this point it was easier to see the asymmetry so I got to work on that. I also cut out the eye and mouth holes.




Originally I had planned on making a mold and casting the mask in resin but an opportunity came up that allowed me to get some vacuum formed copies made and so I did. I shot some video of the process and have the clips compiled in this Youtube video:
Project: GOONGALA! - Vacuum Forming the Mask - YouTube

I was very pleased with the results. I feel pulling them from styrene made them feel more like a real hockey mask (just not as durable, of course).

Now, you can't be Casey Jones without an assortment of sports equipment to lug around. I picked up a nice golf bag (in Playmates' pale green!) and some clubs from Goodwill. I also picked up some cheap bats here and there but I had to make the hockey stick myself. Apparently there isn't a lot of hockey played here in Nevada, go figure...




I debuted my finished costume at Phoenix Comic Con at the end of May. It received an surprising amount of attention, I guess there's more TMNT fans out there than I realized. I brought a few different shirts to switch into throughout the weekend, including a hoodie for more of a movie-look (with wig!) and a bloodied t-shirt, complimented by a battle-damaged mask. Here's a couple shots from the weekend.