'Japanese Jetpack Costume' Replica

Okay, so I stumbled upon a gif of a japanese guy in an awesome jetpack outfit. Please take a minute to check it out here: jetpack costume win After showing this to a few people I have committed to building this for myself for Halloween. So I picked up some duct tape, a concrete tube, some spray paint, and I had some extra clothes lying around. I'm not 100% sure how to make this so I want to get it all working before the last minute.

So I get a semi-working prototype to convince myself I can do this, but then I stumble across the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zCHH2vkrek

My plans had to change (if I decide I want to be able to walk around withouth my jetpack attached... which I think I do for effect). Why am I writing here? Well I plan on keeping you updated with pictures as I go, but I also wanted feedback on how you think the easiest way it to integrate the clothing into the jetpack? I have a conceptual idea of how to do it, but I've never built tear-away clothing, not to mention tear-away that integrates into something else...

I look forward to building out this thread.

Cheers,
Jon

I have no special advice to give you, but this is most definitely a WIN costume. Hope you're successful and have fun with it.

You can do tear away clothing with snaps or dots of velcro. More elaborate quick change costumes are done with rings and fishing line holding the rings together.

Ok here is my idea, you can get a couple plastic garage sale signs from Home Depot or where ever, cut them and heat them up, then form them over something that is the general shape of your leg. Connect them with something, could be a hinge, but a piece of nylon webbing would be better.

And for the clothing,you will be always wearing the flame pants,and have the normal pants,cut them up the back side of the leg, attach magnets to both sides, so when you step out, they close back up.

MaulWalker, I never knew about the fishing line/ring combo for tear away clothing. I'm pretty sure that is what he is using in the video because you can see him motion to pull something away.

JDM Ninja, i love the leg mold and magnet idea. I was pretty skeptical when I read it, thinking that the magnets wouldn't be strong enough, but with the help of the plastic to keep the shape I think the bucky balls I have will work perfectly.

Last Knight, thanks :cool

I've been taking pictures -- I will post them when I get further along!

I wanted to update ya'll with what I have so far. I pretty far on a working prototype and I'm becoming confident that I can pull this off, as there was a lot of moving parts I wasn't sure how I was going to accomplish. There are two major parts, and I am going to try to be able to remove the jetpack when this costume is complete.

First is the jetpack. I made mine with concrete tubing. For my prototype, I attached them together with duct tape and made duct tape straps. I cut out just enough to slip my hips into the two chambers when I had it on my back. Prototype accomplished. I have a lot to do (spray paint, cone the tops, attach them together, attach hip straps and shoulder straps, and I'm sure more), but the funcionality will work.

The tear away pants and lifting legs were by far the hardest to conceptualize. JDM Ninja, your idea with the sign was great, but the signs at home depot were too expensive and I went with small (12"x36") sheets of tin with wire. I then bent them and cut them to, what looks like sweet leg armor. If you look at the left leg in the album (sorry I only had boxers on) you can see I extended the point at which I attached the lower portion of the leg. This was because it looked to me as I lost my knee when I lifted the leg, so I wanted to keep the bottom half of my leg below 'my knee.' Oh and also, the "belt" was a metal ribbon that was tough to bend. It worked great for the prototype. I still have a lot left to do here too (really attach the pants, use Velcro (for when I'm walking around) and magnets (for when I pull my 'legs' up) to allow my pants to seam on or off my leg, get the under legging flame pants, get the over-shoes and attach them, clean up the 'armor' to not bother my legs, and more. My idea for the upper part of the costume is to use an oversized shirt that I can slip out of the lower back when I slide into the jetpack and use suspenders attached to the pants to keep my shirt where it should be. I may need to add some cardboard to keep my chest from colapsing, but only tests will tell.

I hoped that made sense. Here is a link to the prototype album: Photo Album - Imgur

As always, let me know if you have any suggestions.

Cheers,
Jon

I'm having some trouble tying everything together -- literally. I'm at the point where I think I might need to find a backup plan .

The legs shift forward off my body nice, but the legs look very weak when in the 'lifted' position. IMO, they still appear to be coming off of my body, despite my many failures. Also, I'm having trouble tucking the shirt in because of the support straps that I use.

Enough whining -- I'm looking for constructive criticism. I'm thinking a good option to get this done is to make the jet pack a permanent part of the costume. This would allow me to hide some of the rough spots. What is going to hurt me the most is the legs not looking full when I pull them off my body. I have a decent mold but the pants slide around and I'm not sure how to keep them looking full...

Any thoughts/comments will be appreciated. It's coming down to the wire.

That if freaking hilarious. Subscribed to this thread for awesome pure win updates.

A very lightweight fabric and very bendable steel wire could make it look like the legs are still intact. Maybe even some very light mesh on the inside of the pants would work.

That if freaking hilarious. Subscribed to this thread for awesome pure win updates.

A very lightweight fabric and very bendable steel wire could make it look like the legs are still intact. Maybe even some very light mesh on the inside of the pants would work.