Jurassic Park-style Tyrannosaur 'Snaps' Costume

[Inkydragon]

Hello! This is Snaps, a Tyrannosaurid that lives at the UA Museum of the North in Alaska.
A year ago I set off to create him with the help of some vey talented exhibits crew.
I wanted to give back to this forum, since several threads on here helped us make crucial decisions on the design choices of this project.
I will try to post progress kind of regularly, and hopefully I can help other people that might be embarking on a similar dinosaur adventure

 

[Yrien]

I am definitely following this thread! One of my dream costumes (someday, when my skill level is a bit higher) is a dinosaur like this.

 

[Steven Nedry]

Awesome costume!!!

 

[Inkydragon]

Thankyou for your support and enthusiasm I can't wait to share all the steps! Feel free to ask any questions if any stage is unclear.

This is how things got started. A big to-scale drawing of Snaps, hung in the exhibits hallway so we could compare and measure his bones, skull and frame.
(I ended up making his head bigger)

Here we have the skull sketches and the skull base constructed of foamie and stiff felt, fastened with hot glue, staples and zip ties.

Yep, he looks ready to chomp on some people.

I used a softer yellow felt covered in hot glue to bind the left (red), right (yellow), lips (black) and top/bottom (blue +green) together.
The wire mesh provided a stiff reinforcement, held in place by zip ties and hot glue.
The foam-wedge lip was to provide 'bump' padding in case of a rapidly-incoming child, to reduce any hurt.



My more punky interpretation of what Snaps might look like

 

[Moongazer]

I'll be watching this thread intently!