Interactive Vintage Robot Costume

My robot halloween costume was inspired by a variety of vintage toy robots. The construction is basic boxing with foam board and hot glue so much of the fun was in finding lights, gizmos, and objects that suited the style and could be fairly easily attached. The objects themselves really helped steer the direction of my original robot design. All the electric elements are wired through holes in the foam board and attached to either their own battery pack or through the Boo Box, a device for creating simple sychronized audio and electric programs. I created 2 programs, one for the large red button on my chest, and one for the "secret" button on my shoulder.

The robot's head consists of a cylinder made of plastic attached to foam board discs, and wrapped in 2-way mirror film. This looks reflective from the outside and a large panel cut out of the plastic allows for clear vision from the inside.

The candy dispensing feature is a simple tube that runs to a secret panel in my back, where a friend can open it and drop in a prize at the right time. Not very high tech but simple and effective. Although most of my materials were fairly light, the cumulative weight of the upper structure was substantial. I used backpack style straps attached to the inside of the torso which made the costume quite easy to carry. I also custom fit all of the peices to my body, taking careful measurements, which resulted in suprisingly good mobility. Most of the separate pieces (arms, hands, thighs, feet, etc.) are attached with straps and velcro, making them relatively simple to put on and remove.

I put in a large effort and about a month of time building the robot but I think I ended up with something fun, colorful, interactive and unique.

Materials:
1/2" black foam board (gator board)
1 mm Sintra (PVC board)
clear plastic packaging domes
12" clear plastic display dome
toy gears
display motor from http://www.hankscraft-motors.com/
cheap sound active LED ipod speakers
2 battery powered sound active plasma disks
3 pre-wired EL wires
one demo button from a set of Christmas lights
one large illuminated push button from http://na.suzohapp.com/
individual LED's
battery operated real neon cocktail tray
set of color changing LED ball Christmas lights that came with a demo battery pack
shiny fabric
1/2" upholstery foam sheeting
carpenters knee pads
clear flexible ducting hose
vending capsules
2-way mirror film
Rosco brand sparklene (glitter film)
controlled by a frightideas.com Boo-Box 8
powered by individual batteries and one master 12 volt battery
velcro, hangwire, lot's of hot glue, VHB tape, a few screws, ribbon and cardboard tubing