Re: Budget Proton Packs
So this year, my friend and I decided to be Ghostbusters again, but the packs and gear from last time were in need of refurbishment before we could wear them again. As I've mentioned before, nearly all of my costumes and props are built to withstand heavily populated street parties, but still be economically conscious.
Back in 2009, almost all of our Neutrona Wands were damaged in some part, but since they were scratch built, it wasn't a complete monetary loss. It was only about $10 in materials for all 4, so I had no problem scrapping them. This year, I decided to build the throwers completely out of off-the-shelf hardware, and instead going for durability over accuracy. This mindset was used for all of the new gear I made.
My final thrower design is much more inspired from the wands from The Real Ghostbusters than anything from the film. I built two this year for about $20 in materials. All PVC, gang boxes, and electrical switches. The lights are battery powered Christmas LEDs spliced in with a high-intensity 9 LED array at the tip. Using the expanding PVC coupler, I was able to splice in a plastic test tube for the end and have it extendable. Side panels are cut from pieces of acetate. The meter on the right side of the face was sculpted and cast in clear red resin, with the LEDs plugged in underneath.
For the packs themselves, the only thing I really needed to repair were wires that had been pulled off. The first time making these, I made my own wire fittings out of wood. This year I replaced them all with plastic sprinkler fittings (found on clearance at Home Depot), and replaced the colored wiring with just straight black hoses. Inaccurate, but I like how it looks with the black wires and it only cost $5 in materials. New fake Clippards were made out of PVC couplers and caps with toothpaste caps.
The Power Cells I was using before (the rave sticks) always bothered me. As a last minute change I chose to replace them with static blue LEDs. Before ordering from Amazon, I went on a late night trip to Walmart so see what was readily available. I found LEDs labeled as "Blue Exterior Accent Lights" in the automotive section. I expected them to be more of a white than blue, so I hooked them up to my 12v battery pack that I used for Krang last year and I was surprised - The lights were completely blue, and also had a "chaser" mode. They don't "grow" like the actual proton pack lights, but way more accurate and better looking than what I used before. I wired them up and installed them in to the existing power cell housing. I had to rebuild a portion of the top-left of the pack due to the cavity left after removing the rave sticks. I just did a quick patch job using some vinyl strips I had in the garage.
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Low...A8B-408-000000E8FDB5A182_zpse456a612.mp4.html
Click above for Video.
I made two PKE meters, also inspired by Real Ghostbusters, out of PVC, gang boxes, a strobing pumpkin light and laptop stand from Dollar tree, and various bottle caps filled with resin. I modified the pumpkin light to extend the LEDs up the PKE arms, and wired in an additional LED to be always on, and connected the whole rig to a momentary pushbutton switch attached to the nameplate.
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Low...A8B-408-000000E8FDB5A182_zpse456a612.mp4.html
Click above for Video.
Ghost Traps were made with my usual method - Craft foam, and the handles are made from PVC. I used some of my leftover tubing from the packs to make a quick cable attachment for them. Lightweight, non-functional, but they look good on the belt.
I also made some quick ecto goggles - nothing special, just used Norm Gagnon's plans to make them from welding goggles.
The mini-Slime blower from 2009 was used again, this time with a clear hose (filled with slime) and some of the sprinkler hose and fittings attached, along with a Pressure Gauge from Dollar Tree. We ended up strapping this to the ALICE frame and hanging the blower off of the frame as well.
Overall, I spent about $50 on the refurbishment of two packs, and created two new wands, two PKEs, and 3 traps. We tested out all of the gear on last Saturday night, and sadly the PKE's did not survive. We had them on our belts and they just kept getting caught on things due to the design of the arms. At one point a girl bumped in to me so hard that she broke the PVC cement bond. Both PKEs were trashed, but I was able to hot glue them in minutes to have them back to acceptable condition, but clearly the durability isn't there. From now on we'll just be taking the packs and traps.
My pack had the shock mount ripped off at some point in the night, but I quickly made a new one out of some vacuum hosing and a wood circle. I had all of the damage from Saturday repaired in 20 minutes Sunday morning. Everything else - wands, packs, traps, and goggles held up great.
Overall I think the best strength of these packs are that I didn't put a lot of money in to them, but did a lot of scratch building from lower-cost materials. If something is damaged, I'm able to repair it at minimal cost.
On Saturday night we ended up winning third place behind a giant tree (who always shows up right at the contest, the leaves), and a Sexy Chucky. I'm still happy with third though - it's the first time we've ever won anything ($100 gift card) as Ghostbusters.
Thanks for looking!
- Rob
