Despicable Me Dr. Nefario Costume

This is my Dr. Nefario costume that I built to accompany my daughter's Mega Minion costume.

When you tell people that your daughter is going to be a minion for Hallowe'en they immediately assume that you'll be Gru. Nope. I wanted to be Dr. Nefario. This instructable will show you how I whipped together a companion costume to my daughter's Mega Minion Mel costume. Having to build two costumes each year, means October is pretty busy. The costumes I have been building the last couple of years are a little easier for me to pull off, because I'm trying to pick ideas that only really need a mask and an outfit. Some of my previous builds are extremely involved, detailed and time consuming.

The mask is the heart of this costume and I knew it would be the hardest part, so it makes sense to get the hardest part out of the way. In previous builds I have had success with building on top of a hard hat. It's easy to wear and it makes a great base to attach stuff to. This year I simply formed some cardboard for the face, and spray glued some layers of 1/2" foam on top. I cut out a spot for the mouth and started testing some cardboard tubes for the googles. I also bought some light coloured fleecy material from the thrift store for the skin. It's nice to get a stretchy material to make it easier to install around the curves and details of the mask. I usually use spray adhesive to install this layer of skin. In this case, I had to add a couple layers in spots because the red colour of the Tuck Tape was showing through.

The goggles were the focal point of the mask. (ha ha) I discarded the carboard tubes in favour of some plastic containers. The diameter and tape was a little bit more proportional to the mask. I bought two magnifying glasses at the dollar store and lucked out with the fit on the end of the plastic containers. I also lucked out with perfect material to cover the goggles with. I just cut the bottom legs off of a pair of stretchy brown vinyl tights. Installing the googles was a bit tricky. I ended up having to peel back the first layer of skin I installed so that I could Tuck tape the cylinders to the helmet. I then re-installed the material over top and proceeded with assembly. I printed out some dark circles on photo paper to put inside the lenses. I ended up doing this twice because the lens flare I used on the first print made it look two much like pupils. after a quick do-over, I put everything back together with some hot glue and the brown vinyl material over top.

With the goggles in place, the next steps were pretty easy. I carved a nose out of foam, wrapped it and screwed it to the helmet. I cut some teeth in some styrene with a dremel and glued them into place. I carved and covered some ears in material and hot glued them to the side of the mask. I then used some cotton balls and spray glued them to the top of the mask to make the hair. I then used to sidewalk chalk to add a little colour and shadow to the skin of the mask,

The rest of the costume was pretty easy to put together. I bought some black chemical gloves on amazon and added the Gru logo with some yellow sticker vinyl. I lucked out and found a white lab coat at the thrift store, but ended up swapping it out at the last minute for a 3XL coat that would give me a litlle more size. Dr. Nefario is quite short and hunched over and my initial test fittings of the costume were not ideal, as I turned out to my quite a tall slender version of the doctor. If I were to do the mask again, I might consider not making my viewport out of the mouth. Anyway, to ad bulk to the costume, I put the lab coat over this thick lined suede coat, and glued a plastic ring around the base of the shop coat to give it shape. I added some plaid PJs and spray painted some cool looking boots I found black.

I finished this costume with a couple days to spare. I wore it to work and the scooter was in the shop waiting for me with fully charged batteries. I had asked that the Auto teacher get rid of it last year because the kids kept fooling around on it. I'm glad he held on to it. I added some leftover Gru decals and proceeded to drive around the school interrupting classes wherever I went. I even loaded up the scooter and took it trick or treating with my daughter. She had to wear this awkward sono-tube and I got to cruise around in style. I also added a basket on the front which allowed my to successfully collect some of my own candy. Forty-six years old and still trick-or-treating.