Inexpensive child's muscle suit option?

[RedTwoX]

My 5 year old wants to be The Tick for Halloween this year. Being five, he's a little slight of physique, so I thought the costume would look better if I bulk him up a little bit. This is not critical to the costume, but if I can find a good, inexpensive method I'd like to do it.

Yea, I have googled and found a blue Power Range, Hulk, and Spiderman costumes with sewn in muscles. My experience is that most of these are polyester or some other artificial fabric which can not be dyed. If anyone knows of one that is cotton, I'd love a link. I'm not beyond throwing money at the problem... just not too much money :lol

We live in Texas. It is not neccessarily cool by the time we get to Halloween. I don't want to bake my kiddo, so comfort is a consideration. I've though of building up the muscles with craft foam, but that's going to get hot... isn't it? I've not actually worked with the stuff before. What other material might make good muscles?

Thanks in advance for any help you good folks can provide.

SPOON!

 

[OdiWan72]

There are superhero costumes for childs, which already feature some kind of muscle suit IIRC.

Otherwise foam, tape and a spandex over-suit are your friend

Markus

 

[penwiper]

I wonder if you could do something with pantyhose and polyester fiberfill?

As for the pre-made muscle costumes - would you have to dye them, or could you just paint them, instead? Fabric paint should stick to pretty much any type of fiber.

 

[hankey01]

Cant one of those muscular costumes be worn under your Tick Costume?

 

[Uncle]

You might try to find a Deluxe Mr Incredible muscle suit and put a sky blue Lycra bodysuit over it. The Mr I suits should be cheap if you can find them.

Or, if you're really ambitious, the tutorials at thehunterslair.com can show you how to tint liquid latex with acrylic paint and spray the Mr I. suit blue and "skin-like". I've used this technique to make a Warcraft Orc suit.

 

[bleyd]

My Mother made a Hulk costume for my nephew one year. She used upholstry foam carved it to the shape she wanted with an electric knife then sewed it onto a shirt.
Check second hand stores too. I found alot of muscle suits for kids there for cheap. Well, I did AFTER Halloween but you may have some luck.

 

[RedTwoX]

:cry there I go over-engineering things again. Now that it's mentioned, just putting the blue Tick costume over any muscle costume is the obvious solution.

Thanks for the all the options. The help is much appreciated :thumbsup

 

[paulv70]

You could also get one of these: Muscle Chest Child Shirt Costume

I wear the adult size with my Batsuit cut the arms off another one for my legs.