Toothless Quad-suit Costume - Pep file download link

indiefilmgeek · Aug 6, 2012

After last year's massive ironman build for Mikey, I had promised myself no giant Halloween costume builds for 2012.

...but you know what they say about the "greatest plans of mice and men?" :facepalm

My 10yr old daughter asked me two weeks ago if I could build her a Toothless Costume. Yeah, the Night Fury dragon from HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON.

Now, this suit HAS been done someone already. And it's been done WELL! Here are two videos of this AMAZING suit by Jessica (or Monoyasha)!

That's highly impressive... And I would be THRILLED to work something out half as cool at that suit! But there are only 90 days until Halloween... which really has me worried.

And although it terrifies me (for goodness sake it involves sewing... I CAN'T use a sewing machine!!!!), I've agreed to at least try to do this. :behave

******

My first step was sketching out a plan. Here's Tia with some cut off crutches I picked up at the Thrift Store and my rough sketch of the plan (based on Jessica's costume).

And with that very basic drawing, I've set out to create this suit...

The arm-extenders are based on a set of crutches that I've modified to include a flat 'foot' - which is spring-loaded to simulate very basic front paw movement.

prototype extender

both feet attached

foot hinge test

close up

******

And after those were started, I found an old aluminum frame hiking backpack and stripped it down to the frame and harness. This will be the basis for the structural supports (mostly PVC) that hold the wings, head and tail in place.

parts

Tia testing it out

From the back

******

More to follow... but please, please understand that this will be a speed build -- for me anyway. It's not about a 'perfect' costume. But rather about be a cool costume for the time we have to spend on it!

:thumbsup

indiefilmgeek · Aug 6, 2012

Re: Toothless Quad-suit Halloween Costume WIP

For support, I have an aluminum backpack frame with harnesses that Tia will wear. I'll then build the neck (which will support the hollow head), the wings and the beginning of the tail. All of those supports will be built from PVC and shaped with a heat gun (which is WAY too much fun, btw).

Here's the starting supplies...

WINGS:

I started with the largest gauge PVC I bought and cut two angled pieces for the thickest part of the wing support (and the connection point to the backpack frame).

With those notches cut into them, it will hold these parts at the correct angle and also provide me a place to put a codder pin attachment point (which will allow the wings to be removed and re-attached easily).

Here's the cotter pin attachment point:

After that I built the other two sections with descending diameter pipe.

Here is the connection point (which I will strengthen with fiberglass later).

And then with another angle slot cut into the first (widest) piece, here's what the full wing looks like.

Once attached to the frame, here is what the full frame assembly looks like:

Attached and worn by Tia it looks like this:

Oh, and I'll point out my first major blunder... I totally MISSED on the shape of the first neck pieces! Here's a look at what I created:

That put the head WAY too low (as seen in the picture where Tia is wearing it - above)... so, I'll start with two NEW pieces of PVC and try again! :unsure

indiefilmgeek · Aug 6, 2012

Re: Toothless Quad-suit Halloween Costume WIP

First off, I must give HUGE props to 3D artist Graham Wiebe (WEBSITE). He was GREAT to work with on the model, and knew EXACTLY what I needed to make this pep work. I was able to open this +700 poly model in Pepakura and then unfold it with ease... even though I had almost NO experience unfolding.

At the 18" wide version I wanted to create the unfolded pep is 33 pages.

If you'd like to pep a version for yourself, I've posted my unfolded version of Graham's model on 4shared. Please, please remember to credit Graham for the model if you use it - and contact him for permission if you would like to use this model to produce something for the JY.
Toothless Head by Graham Wiebe - Unfolded by IndieFilmGeek.pdo

...related to this, if you're hunting for an artist to model something for you in 3D and Graham has time in his schedule, I'd highly recommend him! You can reach him through his website.

*****

So, here is the final pep...

And after picking up a couple large plastic X-mas ornimants for the eye's, I think I'm ready to harden this pep with some fiberglass!

Freaklord · Aug 6, 2012

Re: Toothless Quad-suit Halloween Costume WIP

omg. Best of luck to you, that looks like a fantastic challenge. I love Toothless.

I wish you were my dad. lol

Malnodnarb · Aug 6, 2012

Re: Toothless Quad-suit Halloween Costume WIP

YES!!! Always love following your build threads...good luck!

LeDragon · Aug 7, 2012

Re: Toothless Quad-suit Halloween Costume WIP

Love Toothless, actually my wife loves Toothless the most. I realt cant wait to see more of this. Hope she doesn't get claustrophobic.

-VERTIGO- · Aug 7, 2012

Re: Toothless Quad-suit Halloween Costume WIP

Oh man, this is awesome. How To Train Your Dragon is one of my favorite animated flicks, your kid is going to be a CHAMP if she makes it through the whole night of trick or treating walking like that. Good news for you though she's going to be so tired, she's just going to pass out when you guys get home. Question though, how do you plan on attaching the most important part? THE CANDY BUCKET!

indiefilmgeek · Aug 7, 2012

Re: Toothless Quad-suit Halloween Costume WIP

JacobRyan said:
Question though, how do you plan on attaching the most important part? THE CANDY BUCKET!

LOL!

Yeah, that was her biggest concern as well!

Because visibility will be a major issue, she will need a constant handler anyway. We've stated to talk about how that will work and why it's important for everyone's safety... but I still think she believes a handler's biggest responsibility will be carrying that candy bucket!

Shades · Aug 7, 2012

Re: Toothless Quad-suit Halloween Costume WIP

I smell EPIC.

bhodie · Aug 7, 2012

Re: Toothless Quad-suit Halloween Costume WIP

Ouch my back...

I love this statement "I had promised myself no giant Halloween costume builds" I have said that the past two years. LOL

Looking forward to this build!

Kevin Gossett · Aug 7, 2012

Re: Toothless Quad-suit Halloween Costume WIP

This is going to be another excellent build!

As far as the candy goes, what if you had the mouth stay open with the "throat" being the candy bag? Place the candy in the mouth, it gets "swallowed" into the bag. Although, if she hits a big score (which of course she will in a costume like that!) that could potentially get heavy...

Eveningarwen · Aug 7, 2012

Re: Toothless Quad-suit Halloween Costume WIP

I hope my kid gets as into Halloween and costuming as yours are. Even with all the hard work that goes in on the parent side it just looks like so much fun!!

Definitely following this thread! It's already turning out epic. Also she has some determination lol! That is not an easy suit to walk/amble around in for hours. I envision some wanting to stand on two legs Toothless moments heheheh.

indiefilmgeek · Aug 7, 2012

Re: Toothless Quad-suit Halloween Costume WIP - Head pep file posted!

Thanks for kinds words!

Kevin, I LOVE that idea! You're probably right about the weight though. Right now I'm killing myself working with aluminum and limited my PVC usage all in an attempt to keep the full suit as light as I can get it. This thing is going to awkward already... the least I can do is try to keep it light weight!

Eveningarwen, I totally agree about the walking upright! Luckily this character did that in the movie, so as long as she plays up the awkward shuffling 'animal walk', she should be able to 'walk' between houses at least and then just drop to all fours when she really wants to impress folks! :lol

electraflier · Aug 8, 2012

Re: Toothless Quad-suit Halloween Costume WIP - Head pep file posted!

Dude! I don't know what you do for a living, but if it is not props or special effects, you are in the wrong profession! Going to watch this as well with a much excitement and wonder as the Steam Punk helm! WoW!!!
M

indiefilmgeek · Aug 8, 2012

Re: Toothless Quad-suit Halloween Costume WIP - Head pep file posted!

electraflier said:
Dude! I don't know what you do for a living, but if it is not props or special effects, you are in the wrong profession!

:lol

I actually work for large movie theatre chain. I'm in the marketing department and coordinate in-theatre promotional materials with the studios. The most high-profile part of that job is probably programming all those trailers you see before the movie starts. Each week, my boss and I negotiate the allocation of our entire circuit's screens for every single movie that opens.

I consider myself a very lucky guy. I have a job that I love and in addition to helping me pay our bills it allows me to 'play around' with my hobbies! :love

indiefilmgeek · Aug 11, 2012

Re: Toothless Quad-suit Halloween Costume WIP - Wing work updated!

Did a bit of work yesterday on the suit...

First off, I fiberglassed some re-enforcement for the joints and connection point for the wing frames.

I also hit the outside of the dragon head pep with fiberglass.

This turned out disastrously... I should have added supports inside before the paper got 'wet' with the fiberglass resin. As it was, the entire back (bottom of the head) collapsed into a warped mess. I recovered what I could, but it's badly misshapen at this point. :confused

I'll have to see what I can do once it's fully hardened.

*****

On the quad-suit... It's progressing slowly.

I got both of the arm-extender foot-pads done last night!

That heavy garage floor mat foam is bolted to the foot, and then I've capped the bolts with more foam just to disguise them a bit (not too concerned about the bottom of the dragon's 'paws').

Also, I've decided to use a $5 - 3" ACE wrap to make the elastic bands that hold her arms into the extensions.

*****

I also started work on her back 'feet'. These will also have the same heavy foam bottoms, but they will require her foot to be 'elevated'. Here's a picture of the aluminum support being tested-out by Tia.

I'm hoping to get both back 'feet' done today so I can get Tia into both them and the arm-extenders and film a little video of her moving around in them.

:thumbsup

indiefilmgeek · Aug 13, 2012

Re: Toothless Quad-suit Halloween Costume WIP - Wing work updated!

Here is what the head looks like with the fiberglass resin cured on the outside.

And here is what the bottom of the head looks like... It's very warped, but I think it's fixable while I'm re-enforcing the inside.

*****

I finished up the back feet for the dragon (or Tia's shoes). These are based on paw-pads the same size as front arm extensions pads, but they also need to adjust her feet into a shape that will allow her back legs to be transformed into animal-looking hind legs.

So, here are all of the 'feet' in one picture...

*****

Next up is creating the shape of the legs with foam. I started with one of the front legs (arm extender)... I cut foam out and wrapped it around the frame.

Toothless has legs that get wider at the base and have very, very narrow 'toes'. They also have an angle on the back of the legs. The back side of these would have spines running down the middle of them and the front of the 'toe' area would have short round 'claws', but here's what the basic foam shape looks like:

And from straight-on...

spydrwebz · Aug 14, 2012

Re: Toothless Quad-suit Halloween Costume WIP - Wing work updated!

WOW! Just WOW!

Graphic Jordan · Aug 14, 2012

Re: Toothless Quad-suit Halloween Costume WIP - Wing work updated!

Jon, you never cease to amaze me with the talent you have. You're truly an inspiration for us all, and one hell of a dad!

EnderX · Aug 21, 2012

Re: Toothless Quad-suit Halloween Costume WIP - Wing work updated!

Have the other kids decided what they want to do yet? I can see you 4 builds deep in short order! Hahaha

Toothless Quad-suit Costume - Pep file download link

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