Pee-Wee's Big Adventure Clown

You're right! The base at WHYLouisville is the same as yours. I must have been thinking about a different clown pic. Measurements would be great though!

I believe the vinyl is lime green, maybe lemon yellow, and classic red. The hair reminds me of a costume beard that we had as kids.

My hat contains stuffing that makes it stand up. A wire from the hat went through the head and connected it to the head support.
 
Here's an image of my clown's head and the interior showing the fiberglass that I applied to the inside of it.
Head.jpgFiberglassedHead.jpg
 

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Cool, keep the photos coming! I'm going to attempt to get my new base and atleast the clown's legs / lower half built this weekend (I'll send dimensions as promised too). I did find marine vinyl at the fabric store, although not exactly the right colors yet. The quest for 70s craft hair continues too ..

Does your clown have a white plastic torso? I suspect all these newer clowns do. The older clowns seemed a lot thinner, I am guessing they didn't have this (in the Oddities episode linked above, you can see there's atleast no plastic on the back when they reach inside).
 
I looked on eBay for the marine vinyl. It appears to be a little cheaper than craft store pricing.

My clown does have a white plastic torso. It's not in great condition though. I believe it is also in the wrong place. There is some evidence (stapled broken pieces) that it used to start at the shoulders. Now it starts at the waist. It's in pretty bad condition in general. I am thinking of replacing it with part of a circular plastic trash can.
WhiteTorso.jpg
 
I added my center support and foamed the inside. I filled the head to about 2/3 full. When I came back an hour later, twice that much was sticking out of the neck! No damage to the head though. I trimmed it this morning and it looks pretty good. I will probably apply some fiberglass to the foam to seal it for molding purposes. Its nice and rigid now as hoped. I still need to fill in some minor chips with plastic repair putty and do some sanding.

foamed_head.jpg
 
PeeWeeFan said:
I filled the head to about 2/3 full. When I came back an hour later, twice that much was sticking out of the neck! No damage to the head though. I trimmed it this morning and it looks pretty good.

See, I told you, Ha, Ha, I'm glad it came out good, keep up the good work!
 
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I had a local shop take a look at the vinyl outfit on my clown. To make a pattern from it and reproduce it, they quoted $400 (not including the cost of the fabric). Cost of just the hat would likely be around $80.

Looking at the pics from the movie, the hat appears to be the same style. I'm still trying to figure out the colors though. Do you think they are red, green, and yellow, like the most commonly found clowns and the vinyl has just faded?
 
Wow!, $480 plus material seems way too salty to me, there's gotta be someone else that would do it for less, it's a baggy clowns' jump suit for crying out loud, not a very complex pattern, is it really that necessary?, unless your're trying to restore the original clown, you're going to cover it up with the polka-dot suit anyway, seems like it's just added weight that will put undue stress on the motor and moving parts.
The hat colors are probably the stock red, green and yellow they came with, that's faded from the California sun, but I just watched the Blu-ray and it sure looks like orange, green and yellow, with a red ball, maybe they made a new hat too, ya never know.
 
The $400 included the hat. If someone were to buy the vinyl hat alone, it would be $80. The vinyl suit isn't necessary at all. I was just curious and thinking about restoring mine to its original state. I'm sure the price is based on the fact the vinyl is hard to deal with.

The hat is definitely the same style, but the more that I look at it, I believe it may actually be a non-vinyl fabric (which would be much cheaper to have sewn!). I'll have to watch the scene a few more times. The rim does look like orange though.
 
I was thinking the same thing about the hat, it doesn't look like vinyl to me either, and they definitely stuffed it with cotton or something to make it stand up
 
These older model clowns had red/yellow suits with orange trim; the hats were orange/yellow/green. As far as I know, they are all vinyl since they're built for outdoor use. I can't remember if yours came with a hat, but mine and the others I've found pretty much have the exact same hat as the movie (except orange got replaced with red whenever the color scheme of the suit changed).

I agree it probably makes sense to just replicate the hat and not the entire suit.
 
I've been discussing reproducing the head with some more experienced folks than myself, and they highly recommend rotocasting. If rotocasting were done, the head would be one complete piece, have better detail, and be much stronger. For those interested in a clown head, what is the approximate price point that everyone is willing to pay? I would be providing them in paint-ready condition.
 
Hey, PWF: Rotocasting seems like the way to go to me as well. Wish I could play along … but … but … but … (I'm with Brownie) … THAT CLOWN FREAKS ME OUT! Love that DB got this thread going and you guys are sharing information back and forth. I enjoy checking in on you guys and again and am glad someone is documenting this thing.


No interest in having a full clown or a full head but wouldn't mind having just the face. It would look cool painted up with the evil clown grin and hanging on the wall like a mask. (That's all the clown I could handle in my home.) Keep it up you guys. -- BB
 
Based on feedback received, I will be able to offer heads for $180 (excluding shipping). So, they are comparable to a tiger siren. For the animatronic portion, I recommend the purchase of the lifesize animatronic Pennywise. They can be purchased for $200 online. They debuted just last year, so they can still be found. Entertainment Earth states they will have some available beginning in August. Pennywise has the same motions as the Pee-Wee clown (YouTube videos exist if you want to see it in action). The only exception is that instead of waving with the right hand, he waves with the left. Also, his light-up eyes and soundtrack would need to be deactivated. Pic of Pennywise animatronic below.

Pennywise.jpg
 
No interest in having a full clown or a full head but wouldn't mind having just the face. It would look cool painted up with the evil clown grin and hanging on the wall like a mask. (That's all the clown I could handle in my home.) Keep it up you guys. -- BB

That's a cool idea. If you have one normal face and the evil face, it would almost look like drama masks. When the master tool is completed, pulling just the face off and making a mold should be easy enough (much cheaper too!).
 
Seems like we're on the same page, I was looking at Pennywise and thought the same thing, I was going to post it, but you beat me to it.

I wonder how hard it would be to convert it to a righty, and you'd have to get a new open hand for it
 
Seems like we're on the same page, I was looking at Pennywise and thought the same thing, I was going to post it, but you beat me to it.

I wonder how hard it would be to convert it to a righty, and you'd have to get a new open hand for it

I was wondering about changing the handedness as well. As for the hands, I would simply replace both with white gloves. The ones on it probably just screw on/off. The shoes could either be painted yellow, or they could be replaced by yellow costume shoes. There are costume shoes on eBay that look identical to those on the Pee-Wee clown.
 
I am almost done with my base and bottom half of the clown, I'll post a bunch of photos and measurements this weekend (it snowballed into a bunch of new tool purchases and taking my clown almost completely apart). I found some hand truck wheels that look pretty close, might order a set of those too.

Do you know which motor on Rex Engineering's site corresponds to that part no. 97? I don't see anything with that part number listed, maybe you have to call them since it's custom. Any idea what their price is? I'll probably order two so I have a spare.

Not sure if you have the original shoes, but they are also just hollow vacuum-formed plastic painted yellow. I'm going to attempt to make a mold and vacuum form a copy of the shoes, although you could certainly use costume shoes and be close (I'm trying to stay as close to the original as possible).

I'm still debating whether the movie clown had the original suit on underneath. I mailed the prop master, but he didn't remember anything (except that they only used one clown for the shots - I also asked him if it was the same clown from 'Night of the Comet'). I suspect it would look too thin without the suit. But during the 'evil face' shots, if you do frame-by-frame, you can see up the waving hand's sleeve a little bit. The ruffles definitely aren't there at the wrist .. can't really tell much about the rest of the suit unfortunately.
 
The motor is not on their website. You will have to call them. If I remember correctly, the price was $100 (before shipping).

My clown does have its original shoes. Let us know how the vacuum forming turns out. I might be interested in a couple pair while you're at it. I did start buying some material to make a vacuum form machine, but not quite there yet.

After looking at the Night of the Comet clown closer, I'm pretty sure the suit was non-vinyl. It just does not have the shine that the vinyl ones do. Take a closer look and see what you think. I believe the Pee-Wee clown is wearing a suit underneath, but the ruffles were removed.
 
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