Spongebob Costume (Universal Studios)

[IndyFanChuck]

I was thinking about getting some help and advice on a Spongebob costume. We have SO MANY charity events going on here, and I thought that Spongebob would be the best character, and besides Care Bears and Wall-E, Spongebob is her fave! I bet a lot of my fellow parents on the Forum can relate! :lol

Now, I searched online and most of the "for sale" costumes were cloth (meaning the "Sponge" part of the costume) and looked TERRIBLE. The custome online costumes were equally bad.

Yet the Universal Studios Spongebob is a BEAUTIFUL costume! Well done, looks great, and I just bet someone on here has the inside scoop on the costume and can help a brother out!

I was hoping I could get some advice on three things.

1.) What can I (we as a team) make the "Sponge" part out of, besides cloth so this costume can last a few years.

2.) How can I keep the costume on my body - anyone can tell me "suspenders" - but I would like a bit of advice. I would hate to not plan this out accordingly.

3.) Anyone have a friend who works for Universal Studios? I would love to know WHO actually makes the Spongebob costumes. If it is some kind of hush hush thing, just PM me and I will gladly talk offline about it!


Any other advice at all. I have seen some pretty terrible custom Spongebob costumes. I am going for the GOLD on this one. All help and advice is appreciated! I really hope someone here has a friend or contact at Universal Studios! :thumbsup


Here is the official Universal Studios Spongebob costumes, from a google search:

 

[FakeBritishAccent]

I'm no Universal Studios insider, but I'd imagine that you could use some type of styrofoam to form the main sponge body, shaving it to shape and smoothing it with Bondo or even drywall spackle...but the sanding and smoothing of Bondo will take a lot of time. Cut open the blacks of the eyes and cover with black pantyhose for visibility. Glue on clothing made out of felt or fabric. I'd leave the bottom of the box open and rig a harness out of football shoulder pads and a "skeleton" made of PVC pipe. You could form the arms out of felt or fabric and then stick two lengths of PVC pipe into them that you'd hold from the inside of the box to move. Modify an old pair of shoes with a lump of styrofoam, shave it to shape and cover with fabric. Thrown on a pair of yellow leggings and you're all set.

-Jonaas

 

[Sixxgunn13]

What happend to the boba fett costume?

 

[moviebuff5]

For somthing that large, you might want to use a backpack frame with padded waist belt (for hiking). I think your shoulders would get pretty tired with suspenders. You could also use the ALICE frame for the GB proton pack, but I don't know how comfortable the waist belt is, and as I recall, the frame is heavier than most backpacking backpack frames.

 

[IndyFanChuck]

I would love to have the Fett costume, but so many people have had to work on thiers for years. I'm not THAT interested. lol The Boba Fett costume is one of the single most expensive costumes you can make. I made all the contacts, but the prices were.... not worth it to be honest. For a costume I might wear 6 times a year, to pay 5,000$ for that. It's not in my budget.

Now Spongebob, my daughter would love it, it should be far less cost prohibitive, and I could do just about any charity event without worrying about children knowing who I am.

It really doesn't matter, I just lost interest in two costumes last year because of the cost. The Boba Fett and the Colonial Marine.

I am more into my daughter and having fun with her and with things she likes. That, coupled with the Charity work I'd like to do.... Spongebob is more appropriate. Plus, my church won't allow ANY weapons for anything, but Spongebob they would allow. It's a win, win, win costume for me.

Anyway, I'm still hoping someone can offer advice from the Universal Studios costume!

 

[Cleverlilminx]

Let me do some research, I can't help you with how they made the exact costume your looking for but I might be able to something close to what your looking for and no it won't cost $5000! :lol

 

[Firefoxm31]

that's sure looks like cast foam rubber to me,that would keep it fairly ;light and flexable... pretty cool, my son adores Sponge Bob too
we did the yip yips( sesame street Aliens) last year for Holloween
Will

 

[bleyd]

Dunno what happened to my previous post but here's another.

I'd try using upholstry foam. They come that large and would make the costume VERY lightweight especially when hollowed out to wear. OR use insulation foam blocks. It appears to be two main pieces. The leg section looks to be worn like regular pants with the yellow undersuit for the legs. The sponge body sets on top and sits on the leg part. Maybe the pants are worn with a suspender type suspension system and the top attaches somehow. If you could afford to do it in foam latex that WOULD be the way to go as suggested. I was imagining it was assembled like a gonk would be. All the weight at the bottom. This would also, IMHO, make it easy to take quick breaks in the back to cool off if doing long visits.

 

[Laffo]

It's Cast Foam Rubber. I don't know if this one is covered or not but the one I saw up close was covered with Lycra.
Laffo.

 

[Sixxgunn13]

I hear you...lol

A Fett is pricey...:unsure

I hope to see this costume come to life!! I always wanted to try this one.

 

[Bradleyfett]

I worked as a costume tech years ago at Universal and actually did some repairs on the Spongebob costumes back then. Back then, the outside was actually yellow sponge with some painted highlights, although it looks like they use something else now. I know there is someplace you can get large sheets of yellow sponge because we used some when I worked on Double Dare 2000. We had sheets of it that were probably as big as sheets of plywood if not larger.

Mark