Halloween Costume - 2011 Thundercats Lion-O

[Zlosk]

I'm a fan of both the 80's Thundercats and the new series, and I aim to suit myself up as Lion-O of the new series for Halloween. One of the things I like about the new series is that the clothing and armor actually looks like a bit more practical. First off, here are some links to some Lion-O pics:

Initial outfit, full

Heavier armor, full front/left
Heavier armor, full front/right
Heavier armor, back

Child's outfit, front
Child's outfit, side

My goal is not to be 100% accurate to any one of the 3 variations, but to incorporate the design elements while trying to also make it "authentic" and useful for more than just Halloween.

Shirt: In all three variations, this appears to be a sleeveless shirt with a Mandarin collar, with edging (piping?) of another color. I've been taking various acrobatic and aerial circus classes for about 6 years, and would like the shirt to be able to handle acrobatic movements. However, I would also like to avoid modern stretchy fabric. If anyone has any info on patterns and/or tailoring this sort of thing, I'd appreciate it.

Pants: In all three variations, they are dark, fairly close-fitting pants or long shorts. As with the shirt, I'd like to use non-stretchy fabric but still be able to do acrobatics.

Belt: I like the belt on the inital outfit the best. I figure that it should be black leather. I plan to have the Thundercats symbol on the belt instead of just the red circle, but am unsure of how I should do it. I'm thinking of layering black and red leather, or perhaps painting a disk and somehow mounting it onto the leather. I have not done any leatherworking before, so suggestions on the thickness, what tools would be required, etc., would be great.

Spats: I found a site that described a method for basically making a duct tape dummy of your foot, and then slice it up to create a pattern. I believe they should be made out of leather, though some sort of canvas may also be good.

Armor: I believe Lion-O's torso armor to be of the style and even the color scheme of american samurai's "Riveted Japanese mail (karakuri namban)" post in the thread "Japanese chain garments as armor or kusari gusoku." over on the MAIL discussion board for chainmaille enthusiasts (of which I am one). For me, the chainmaille is the easy part. However, I don't have any experience in drafting patterns, nor am I familiar with this style of armor. Again, if anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears.

As a child, Lion-O wears two spaulders. In his initial outfit on the show, he wears none, and his later armor has one over his right shoulder. I'm going to skip the spaulders at this point.

Lion-O's later armor also has greaves. I'm going to attempt them, but if the first does not turn out, the spats will be changed over to gaiters to provide the necessary visual interest.

For make-up, I plan to use tanning gel to provide the skin color variations, Scarecrow werewolf fangs, and small elf ears. For hair, I plan to make a wig from leftover orange fur that I used to make the hair for a Beaker (the muppet) costume last year.

Finally, I know I'll need a Sword of Omens and a Cat's Claw. However, I'm more concerned about the outfit than the accessories. If anyone has suggestions, knowledge, or even good search terms to share, I'd appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

 

[rockeagle2001]

interested to see how this turns out! good luck!

 

[Zlosk]

I've started working on what I figure is the smallest, easiest portion of the costume - the spats. I found a lone sock whose partner had been sucked into a dryer wormhole, put it on, and proceeded to cover it in duct tape per the instructions in Festive Attyre's DIY Spats Pattern. After a lot of scribbling where I thought the cut lines (toe, heel, and along the inseam) and the seam line (vertical centerline in front) of the spat should be, I cut the duct tape pattern off of my foot (along the inseam line) using a pair of scissors. Once the pattern was off, I cut along the rest of the lines, flattened out the pattern, and added a few extra notes such as which foot it was, where I thought seam allowances needed to be added, and identifiers to show which corners/lines would match up with others. I traced the pattern onto a brown paper grocery bag, cut it out, and taped it up on my other foot. After running up and down the stairs a few times while wearing the paper pattern, the only damage is a few crinkles across the top of the foot. I'm confident that the pattern is a good fit and will work well in thick cloth or leather.

It probably will be a couple weeks before these are realized in fabric or leather, but hopefully I'll have the undershirt and pants patterns drafted and paper-tested by then. Please note that I am not a sewer nor tailor, and am winging this with a lot of help from Google and the interwebs.

 

[faille]

Cool! Just in case you haven't run across these in your searches, here are a couple reference pics that show some different angles of his heavy armor and the gauntlet. I like the idea for tanning gel and the spats are looking cool.

Since I'm always planning and never creating.. Cheetara 2011 version is one I would love to do (or Pumyra if she wasn't such a B.. that wrist crossbow thing is a dream!) Anyway, what I was thinking for Cheetara would be to modify an old pair of Vibram sandals, to get the barefoot look while still having something on my feet. Something to think about for yours if you want to wear in public.

That chainmaille is badass.

 

[Lady Mochi]

As far as making the armor, I might suggest using pieces of craft foam. Here are several tutorials that you can follow. I grew up watching Thundercats so I'm excited to see the finished product.

As far as the Claw and the Sword of Omens, I'm sure there are people on here who might commission them for you. It'd be rad to have a sword that has an LED in the jewel.