myblobby
New Member
did you spray yours with plastidip
loui knight
New Member
Yes
myblobby
New Member
myblobby
New Member
im confused as today i purchased the 40 cm polysstryne ball and io have sprayed it with plastidip today but it appears to have melted the ploystryine did you cover yours with something first?
So I had kinda thought about this a while ago and have done a bit of research the past few days after reading this thread. Here's a bit of a braindump of my thoughts.
The sizing is crucial really. If a replica is more than about 10% out then it would be noticeably "wrong". Did anybody get an accurate measurement of a head? myblobby: you mention you are in contact with the owner of 2 costumes ("Scott" I think?) are you able to get them to measure the circumference of the head just above the collar, and then the length over the top of the head, from collar to collar?
It should be possible to get a decent estimate though, by careful inspection of videos and photos, although everything would need scaling for height if it's intended to be worn (and not just display) eg. I am 6', Noel is 5'8, so if I wore a screen-used costume the body would be too short and the arms/legs out of proportion. As mentioned below though, the newer costumes have a noticeably shorter head.
Here's a quick review of the various photos online, and from looking at some of the original shows:
- The obvious one is that the later ones almost certainly don't have a flip-top head, because that was only needed for the Gotchas and would add a lot of pointless stuff to go wrong (and in one episode Noel was injured by the costume, probably the edge of the joint). I think the flip-top one is identifiable by the collar being thick, and there was probably only ever one made. The ones with no flip-top head have a collar glued flat.
- This one seems to be a very early version. You can see the mouth is much larger. Also note how the spots are obviously glued on, and the arms have significant wear. I think it might have been fabric painted or sprayed with a coloured latex skin. Also note how the mouth is drawn/painted on, and not a hole
- On the original the mouth is a lot larger, it touches the collar and the ends are close to the eyes. If we look at a very recent one, from BGT you can see the mouth is much smaller and very hollow: https://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/resources/images/16752635.jpg (also notice how the arm holes are very well finished and tightly fitting, it's clearly made with a lot more care than the older ones!
- This is a still photo from the NHP set. You can see the mouth shape is the same, but the teeth are different. This might have been the original flip-head one: https://alchetron.com/cdn/mr-blobby-8dd9b1ec-f328-4f9b-9faa-3d340fc6733-resize-750.jpeg
- Another still, but note how the spot above the mouth is in a different place: https://alchetron.com/cdn/mr-blobby-21a4b4c6-1deb-4544-b5c3-d232af05920-resize-750.jpeg
- A studio still, this one is the same costume as outside the BBC centre, the mouth and spots are identical. Also notice the spots on the body peeling:
- Barry Killerby with what looks like a more modern costume, notice the head height is slightly lower and the mouth is inset:
- Looking at the BGT appearance, the head has a visible lump of some sort down the sides, and you can see a few fabric-type creases, but no fabric joins, which is a little odd! I'll see if I can find some press photos from that time
- Another interesting thing from the video above - the legs aren't quite long enough, when he falls over the legs pop out from the body, that didn't happen with the older ones. In a few shots you can see the arms pop out too, but there's an undersuit which hides the gap.
Materials:
- Looking at the Propstore costume, I think the head is probably a fibreglass base, extending down to the upper chest area. I don't know for sure, but that is the only plausible way to make something like that in the 90s, and was common for mascot costumes. The other possibility is they found something in plastic commercially available which was a tube shape with a spherical end the right size and chopped it up (think large industrial piping parts etc).
- The Propstore body has an upholstery foam base (looks to be 1" thickness) glued together, with some sort of fabric glued on top, which has then been painted with some sort of paint, probably latex based, or possibly dyed liquid latex. I think the older ones had much thicker paint, or a different type of paint used which made it shinier.
- Originally I thought the latest one used coloured fabric and wasn't painted, but given the BGT video above which has perfect colour matching, I think it must be painted again, it would be sooooo tricky to get such a perfect match in colour and sheen.
edit: I just found a hi-res photo of the latest suit, an appearance on This Morning, you can see that the body is definitely painted fabric, and the head definitely has a painted *fabric* outer layer (different to the others), the seam I mentioned above is almost certainly stitching. Given that's the only visible join, I assume it was a pretty stretchy fabric used (before the painting at least). I assume the base is solid underneath, because the eyes appear to be mounted flush:
(Also I'm surprised I didn't have an account on here already, I've read it quite a lot over the years while making random stuff, but seems I never made an account! My last project was this - a replica of Denise van Outen's fox costume from The Masked Singer)
The sizing is crucial really. If a replica is more than about 10% out then it would be noticeably "wrong". Did anybody get an accurate measurement of a head? myblobby: you mention you are in contact with the owner of 2 costumes ("Scott" I think?) are you able to get them to measure the circumference of the head just above the collar, and then the length over the top of the head, from collar to collar?
It should be possible to get a decent estimate though, by careful inspection of videos and photos, although everything would need scaling for height if it's intended to be worn (and not just display) eg. I am 6', Noel is 5'8, so if I wore a screen-used costume the body would be too short and the arms/legs out of proportion. As mentioned below though, the newer costumes have a noticeably shorter head.
Here's a quick review of the various photos online, and from looking at some of the original shows:
- The obvious one is that the later ones almost certainly don't have a flip-top head, because that was only needed for the Gotchas and would add a lot of pointless stuff to go wrong (and in one episode Noel was injured by the costume, probably the edge of the joint). I think the flip-top one is identifiable by the collar being thick, and there was probably only ever one made. The ones with no flip-top head have a collar glued flat.
- This one seems to be a very early version. You can see the mouth is much larger. Also note how the spots are obviously glued on, and the arms have significant wear. I think it might have been fabric painted or sprayed with a coloured latex skin. Also note how the mouth is drawn/painted on, and not a hole
- On the original the mouth is a lot larger, it touches the collar and the ends are close to the eyes. If we look at a very recent one, from BGT you can see the mouth is much smaller and very hollow: https://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/resources/images/16752635.jpg (also notice how the arm holes are very well finished and tightly fitting, it's clearly made with a lot more care than the older ones!
- This is a still photo from the NHP set. You can see the mouth shape is the same, but the teeth are different. This might have been the original flip-head one: https://alchetron.com/cdn/mr-blobby-8dd9b1ec-f328-4f9b-9faa-3d340fc6733-resize-750.jpeg
- Another still, but note how the spot above the mouth is in a different place: https://alchetron.com/cdn/mr-blobby-21a4b4c6-1deb-4544-b5c3-d232af05920-resize-750.jpeg
- A studio still, this one is the same costume as outside the BBC centre, the mouth and spots are identical. Also notice the spots on the body peeling:
- Barry Killerby with what looks like a more modern costume, notice the head height is slightly lower and the mouth is inset:
- Looking at the BGT appearance, the head has a visible lump of some sort down the sides, and you can see a few fabric-type creases, but no fabric joins, which is a little odd! I'll see if I can find some press photos from that time
Materials:
- Looking at the Propstore costume, I think the head is probably a fibreglass base, extending down to the upper chest area. I don't know for sure, but that is the only plausible way to make something like that in the 90s, and was common for mascot costumes. The other possibility is they found something in plastic commercially available which was a tube shape with a spherical end the right size and chopped it up (think large industrial piping parts etc).
- The Propstore body has an upholstery foam base (looks to be 1" thickness) glued together, with some sort of fabric glued on top, which has then been painted with some sort of paint, probably latex based, or possibly dyed liquid latex. I think the older ones had much thicker paint, or a different type of paint used which made it shinier.
- Originally I thought the latest one used coloured fabric and wasn't painted, but given the BGT video above which has perfect colour matching, I think it must be painted again, it would be sooooo tricky to get such a perfect match in colour and sheen.
edit: I just found a hi-res photo of the latest suit, an appearance on This Morning, you can see that the body is definitely painted fabric, and the head definitely has a painted *fabric* outer layer (different to the others), the seam I mentioned above is almost certainly stitching. Given that's the only visible join, I assume it was a pretty stretchy fabric used (before the painting at least). I assume the base is solid underneath, because the eyes appear to be mounted flush:
(Also I'm surprised I didn't have an account on here already, I've read it quite a lot over the years while making random stuff, but seems I never made an account! My last project was this - a replica of Denise van Outen's fox costume from The Masked Singer)
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SGTBASH
New Member
While i never got round to even starting my Blobby (though i also have a half polystyrene ball knocking about lol) I think covering it in a lyrca fabric before spraying it might help. I know Phil Fletcher said something like that when he was attempting a Blobby a few years back
SGTBASH
New Member
Actually being 6’ might be a good size for wearing a Blobby suit. It’s weird Blobby’s height sort of changes between costumes. They definitely refined the costume by the late 90s when Barry Killberby was performing Blobby full time, Thankfully Blobby appeared on so many shows you can guesstimate quite well. For example I’ve got a picture of him when he appeared on the Generation Game & he looks to be same size as Jim Davidson who is about 6’. Compare that to when he shows up on Live & Kicking & Jamie Theakston is 6’3 & is clearly taller than Blob. & for fun his appearance on Dick & Dom in da Bungalow where he towers over them.
In terms of owners of suits I know the person who runs the MrBlobbyCollection page owns a theme park Blob. I tried contacting them but I got no response, I believe the person myblobby may have been contacting is Scott Harrington who actually owns 2 Blobby’s (lucky lol) I believe he runs this Instagram https://www.instagram.com/h.house.of.ho?igsh=MWpnNDYwNDh5emwxeQ== which I found by shear luck a few years ago. There’s actually some good blobby pictures on that profile. Also in my Instagram travels I found someone who has one of his eyes but I can’t remember the account name.
In terms of owners of suits I know the person who runs the MrBlobbyCollection page owns a theme park Blob. I tried contacting them but I got no response, I believe the person myblobby may have been contacting is Scott Harrington who actually owns 2 Blobby’s (lucky lol) I believe he runs this Instagram https://www.instagram.com/h.house.of.ho?igsh=MWpnNDYwNDh5emwxeQ== which I found by shear luck a few years ago. There’s actually some good blobby pictures on that profile. Also in my Instagram travels I found someone who has one of his eyes but I can’t remember the account name.
