The Flash TV show Suit

Kurt Russell's Commander uniform had cooling ports in it for Sky High - but Kelly Preston's was too tight to layer anything between her and the suit so they had to pull it open and let it breath between takes.

I think the head is too big. That was the first thing I noticed about it.

yeah head is too big, whats up with the shoes....just not really a great effort. David does many great things but this is an older try and shows alot of shortcomings. He is an amazing sculptor, so get me wrong here, but this one misses...IMO
 
:lol:lol:lol...you guys are killing me. :)
That suit was made in 3 days and the entire thing was even fiber flocked....what a funny group of words.:cool
Trust me when I say that much would have been different had more time been available, but no one lives in the 'if' world so based on the end result shown... yes a lot of your comment are bang on the money but it still was a great 3 day effort...but could/should have been better. :) It was a one off for Dragon Con several years ago. One of those just for fun costumes...prove he could do it...and to stand out with something non traditional costuming wise. :)
Shoes were improvised at DC because he forgot to pack the ones he made so yes they were rather 'huh?' looking.:lol

Dave met with Robert Short a few years ago and Mr. Short was extremely pleasant and rather complimentary on the over all completed suit.

Rimma
 
Okay, for a 3 day effort, then yes, I AM impressed. To bad you couldn't hold up a sign saying, "Not bad for three days worth of work, huh?" :lol Though funny, I think many would have been very impressed.
Now if you told me you spent the better part of a year making this, I think I might have smacked you...in a flash!
 
LOVED the show...I'd been watching it in the mid '90s when it was re-running on SciFi Channel. Not long after I adopted a rescued Cocker Spaniel and named him Murphy (after one of the two cops in the show).

That original suit (and cowl) is the best-fitting, best looking design I've ever seen.
 
3 days... guess if i was was trying to put my stuff out there and show what I can do...i would never have done that! Guess I don't understand why. Oh well.
 
I've been watching this show as well and have been trying to figure out the intricacies of this thing... it's very elaborate! I love this suit, and it's killing me that I can't figure it all out!

In fact, I finally ended up emailing Robert Short, hoping that he'll respond with a few answers; even if he doesn't, at least I tried, and the stunt suits get so beaten up over the course of the series that you can make out seams and breaks in the foam, which helps me figure out how they were put together.

I definitely want to tackle this cowl in the near future!
 
Please do:thumbsup
I would love to see this cowl done.

Well, there are a few particulars to worry about. Flocking is a necessity, of course, but what about materials? The originals were foam latex, but most people seem to content with straight latex when it comes to repros of foam items. Nowadays, however, we've got PU foam and silicone, the former giving us an adequate approximation of the originals without the worry of organic compounds rotting, the latter most likely resulting in a superior product when it comes to durability and wearability.

I'm inexperienced with flocking, though, and don't know how various materials will take to the process... anyone care to chime in? I'm hoping to use flocking for a future project and am interested in the ins and outs of it.

Hopefully I get some answers from Robert Short regarding the suit's construction...
 
Universal Designs tackled the TV Flash costume in the past. Here's a link:

http://www.universaldesigns.ca/replica/flash.html

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SPOON!!! Looks alot like a certain blue superhero turned red. I miss that show.

-Kevin
 
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The maker of the original suit, Robert Short just sent me this and I wanted to share:

A Seamless Flash

I was no stranger to the character of the Flash when my agent called me about a meeting he had set up with the Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo, producers for a pilot for a Flash series. I had a full collection of comic's from the 60’s and had sporadically kept up with newer issues.

My initial reaction was; What can I bring to the party because they are just going to want a guy in spandex tights. That was my mind set until I sat down with the producers and they hit me with the fact that they wanted the character to look just like the comics. They knew it would take more than just a guy in tights. They showed me a redesign sketch drawn by Dave Stevens. who had created the Rocketteer. The cowl had been changed and the yellow removed from the design. When they asked if it could be done I said yes, of course. Then they added: Just like the comics......No seams. Though I said of course I found myself in the hall afterwards thinking “How the hell am I going to do that”!

It was this one request that shaped the entire development of the suit.

The one thing I did know was that we were going to have to break new ground. Unlike Tim Burton’s version of Batman we had no cape, no armor plating to fall back on and he would have to be able to turn his head. (if only we had Lucius Fox)

I did some preliminary design concepts which did not help the seam problem. My staff and I though around ideas but nothing stuck. Then my primary sculptor suggested flock. I got this vision of a superhero dressed as a snowy Christmas tree for a moment and then it sunk in. The stuff they coat automobile glove compartments with.

My staff, headed by Douglas Turner, dove into the research and came up with a local source for electro-static flocking, application guns and the adhesives.

At the same time we did a body cast of John Wesley Shipp, who would star as the Flash, and created a fiberglass replica of the actor to sculpt and tailor the suits over.

We tried coating all kinds of things with the flock but the main problem was that the factory approved adhesive was rigid. WE fell back on our make-up effects background and formulated a new adhesive for the flock based on a make-up adhesive.

Our original game plan was to build a foam rubber muscle under suit with a flock covered spandex suit over it. All that changed when we discovered that pieces of foam latex coated with only the flock were almost indestructible.

One of the things we did to stay true to the comic book was add bulk to the back of the cowl sculpture in order to achieve that pleasant rounded shape superheroes have to the back of their heads.

We then decided to leave the outer spandex skin off and treat the costume as a full body make-up appliance. This left us with a spandex undersuit which we would then cover with approximately 30 overlapping pieces of latex foam muscles, enabling us to fit the actor perfectly.

We used the fiberglass body form at first but it didn’t capture the exact form of the actor when moving so Mr. Shipp was gracious enough to come in and allow us to attach and overlap the pieces directly on him while wearing the spandex suit.

The flock we used was electro static which meant that the suit had to be electrically charged some how. We found that by filling the suit with aluminum foil we could conduct electricity though the surface of the suit in order for the fibers to stand up correctly.

We realized that in keeping with the theme of no seams we chose the waist blend as the easiest thing to conceal. We made the top half a pull over jacket with the hood attached. Latex gloves, sculpted with a slight natural curve to the fingers and lightning bolt trim, which were slipped on over the sleeves. The pants, which included the boots as part of the same sculpture, were pulled on and zipped around the waist of the jacket to complete the outfit. By having the boots as part of pants sculpture we could get away from the look of boots pulled over the pants. There were no bottoms to the boots, which allowed Shipp to wear comfortable sneakers. The bottom edges of the costumes “boots” were held in place by velcro to the side of the sneakers. The finishing touch was the hand cut high density foam belt that covered where the top and bottom sections zipped together. The golden colors used were a basic Krylon spray paint.

The cowl was glued to the actors face in order to transfer as much movement as we could. The ear wings were sculpted separately and glued onto the cowl. For close up beauty shots the #1 costume had rigid fast cast resin wings and for action sequences some of the lesser suits had urethane flexible foam wings.

The insignia was a separate sculpture and cast in flexible urethane closed cell foam which was then glued to the chest.

To help sell the musculature of the suit we gave it airbrushed shadowing to enhance it’s outline. Fortunately Mr. Shipp was well toned and worked out so the contours of the suit echoed the look of the actor.

We had a total of 8 suits (8.5 if you count the one shirt without the cowl) and the ability to completely strip them down to the bare foam latex and re coat them as they begin to show wear and tear. The early suit was cast in white foam but the later ones were cast with red pigment added to the foam at the mixing stage.

Originally we used a stock crimson colored flock but soon switched to a custom blended burgundy color, as requested by the producers.

Most of the time we also included a cool suit under the costume for the actors comfort. There was always an on set attendant who would disconnect the tubing before each shot.

One entire suit was destroyed for a scene where the Flash falls face first into a massive coating of the Trickster’s “bubble gum” made from mytholcel.

The blue suit created for the clone episode was one of the original 8 costumes recovered in blue flock and striped down afterwards and turned red again.
 
Wow, Aquaman, thanks for the share.
I remember that clone episode and didn't realize that they recolored and reused it.
Great stuff.

Wolf
 
There is video out there of the suits construction and application. There was a special aired on it right before one of the episodes during the original run. I adored the show, but I remember loving that special even more. I taped it too, but unfortunately it was accidentally taped over.
 
Thanks for sharing the information from the maker of the original suit, Robert Short. It was great read.


I just want to point out something people here tend to forgett completly.
Some people think what they se in the movies are costumes just dressed on. People tend to forgett all the hours in glue, adhecive, make up and effect are in a movie costume, also there tend to be allot of replaceable parts due to wear and tear during filming.

So replicating a flash costume like the movies whould not be easy unless your willing to undergo all the work involved.

For replica costumes its sometimes a big challange to get a costume to preform and look like the orginal. The buyers expect the costume or armor to prerform the same as in a movie and look like it in every aspect.

I whould like to honor all doing costumes for their great efforts, and remind people wanting costumes to know there are some limitations and people got accept that fact unless they want a costume that requires people dressing you, waching over you, doing your make up and fixing your fingernails and provide you cooling drinks while holding a fan.

:)

Great work to the original maker, kudos to the replica costume makers (y)thumbsup
 
He also told me that it cost about $75,000.00 to make that costume!

And ur right, people forget that those movie or TV suits are very complicated and there is really no way to actually make one as seen on the screen.

Wouldn't it be nice to have someone to take care of u, give ua drink etc when in costume! LOL
 
He also told me that it cost about $75,000.00 to make that costume!

And ur right, people forget that those movie or TV suits are very complicated and there is really no way to actually make one as seen on the screen.

Wouldn't it be nice to have someone to take care of u, give ua drink etc when in costume! LOL

my point exactly...

People expect more from the replica prop makers as far as durability, quality and weabability.
The actors often have a hard time using a costume and in many times little movability and tear and wear happends often and parts beeing replaced. I reffer to Batman with Michael Keaton were the cowl was replaces countless of times... Imagine that happening to a costume replica owner...


Just remeber this armor and costume wanters ,the achivemens that allot of these costume replica makers provide is intensive labour work and with modifcation to suit and design to make it wearable and comfortable and for you to dress up on your own and still make it look awsome.

75.000 usd for the flash costume back in those days was big money. And they did a good work on that Flash costume. I also remeber saying to my self thats a SUPERHERO .... not only the costume but the overall look as seen in the comics. However the 90 have passed, spandex superheros are also a history saga and todays movies are trying to fuze the heros with modern tecnology armor plating or some sort of synteic reinforced material protection. I also belive we will se this for the new captain america. That his fish armor will be in a cevlar reinforced vest, in fact they just made a super protective vest with the fish shell design and it stops about everything that hits it.


As far as production cost:
Also people got to know that silicon moulds for a helmet cost arround 500 USD and it got limited lifetime for casting.
Imagine a whole suit with silicon moulds. And i dont dare to say how much we spent on the Ironman project.


PS! btw everytime i wear a costume i got someone to support me as well :p
 
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Well said. This goes for all props really. I think we have all seen what props from movies look like. Many times just awful! What prop and costume replica makers do is create something that is actually usable and durable! The time and effort is amazing.
 
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