Doc Ock kid's costume - help with tentacles

squirk

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My 5-y.o. stated that he wants to be Dr. Octopus for Halloween this year - specifically, the comic-book version with the green bodysuit and yellow gloves & boots.

He might change his mind nine times between now and October, but on the off-chance he doesn't, I'm trying to pin down now how to go about tackling the tentacles.

My first thought is to use pool noodles for the tentacles, but that brings up three questions: 1.) how to make them bendable to hold a given shape (wire? Spray foam in the middle?); 2.) how to spray the noodle itself to look metallic without having the paint crack/flake; and 3.) how to securely "mount" the noodles to the back of the costume so that nothing falls off.

Any suggestions? Is there a better way of going about this besides the pool noodle? Thanks!
 
Thanks! That got me thinking about using the black drainage pipe instead. And actually, my son is thinking about comic-book Doc Ock as seen in Lego Marvel Superheroes, in which the tentacles also happen to look like drainage pipe. The Lego version also sports the white lab coat, which could hide any mounting setup.

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Thanks! That got me thinking about using the black drainage pipe instead. And actually, my son is thinking about comic-book Doc Ock as seen in Lego Marvel Superheroes, in which the tentacles also happen to look like drainage pipe. The Lego version also sports the white lab coat, which could hide any mounting setup.

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If I remember, I saw adam savage doing a foam build for patton oswalt and adam explains how he built it. i remember it being pretty easy and pretty quick. let me rummage through youtube and ill see if i can find it for you (i think it was on tested, but will ocnfirm)
 
That's awesome. Thanks! Curious about the arms - for the electrical wire, did you use some heavy-gauge stuff from a big box store? Did you stuff the pipe with anything to keep the wire from rattling around? How did you mount the couplings to the ABS? I am guessing some kind of mechanical fastener instead of chemical for reliability's sake?
 
That's awesome. Thanks! Curious about the arms - for the electrical wire, did you use some heavy-gauge stuff from a big box store? Did you stuff the pipe with anything to keep the wire from rattling around? How did you mount the couplings to the ABS? I am guessing some kind of mechanical fastener instead of chemical for reliability's sake?

Yes, it was a heavy gauge electrical wire. It was some scraps we had lying around and unfortunately I don't recall the exact gauge we used. We added flex foam-it (2 part expanding foam from Smooth On) in the pipes - very lightweight. We just used epoxy to mount the couplings and it held up just fine.
 
Thanks again! Sounds like 5/16" armature wire is what I would need, and the plate/harness deal seems to echo what TJ & Co. did.
 
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