Voltron Costume

Voltron! Defender of the universe!  Definitely one of my favorite childhood toys.... so this year I decided to go big and try my hand at building a costume and also doing an instructable on it.
First i'd like to give a couple shout outs.... My girlfriend and our kids for putting up w my mess, madness and just plain craziness while I was attempting this. Love you guys soooooo much! They pushed me through this when I didnt think it was possible or if I could do it in time. Thank you, couldnt have done it w/o you.
Friends that pushed me through and came out to support me when I unveiled this thing at the contests.
Incrxtc and dannyeurena for giving me the Idea of building this and some great ideas and knowhow that goes with it.

I learned alot, and am very proud of how this whole thing turned out! I am already in works for my costume for next year.

I havnt seen an instructable on this costume yet, so thats partly why I picked it. I had actually started building soundwave as per Incrxtc, but wanted to push myself a little, and do something different.

Form Feet & Legs.... Form Arms & Body.... and I'll Form the Head!!!!

Heeeeeeeeeeere we go

*Note* Please see all pics as thats where you will find most of the visuals and instruction*

*Note* My camera was stolen on halloween night, so there are quite a few pics i didnt get to post, but I believe what I did have to work with will suffice anyone thats embarks on the journey of an Epic Costume!*

I have some advice for you here... make a space where you can work and wont be in the way of everyone in your home, you WILL be making a huge mess. Dont use your dining table (and dont work on the table cloth your girl just bought to hide the table you ruined!)
Fortunately, I was planning on refinishing the table anyway wink wink! I also recommend if you have children, to put your work away when not working on it ( lets be realistic, if you woke up in the morning and saw this on the table as a 6 year old, you'd play with it too!)
As far as supplies go, you can use just about anything you'd like.
Heres what I used....

Cardboard
Coroplast
Sheet foam (Foamies brand or Creatology foam from Michaels)
Hot glue (I used 150 sticks at least)
Velcro
Elastic or nylon strapping with buckles
Metal rulers or straight edge of sorts
Measuring tape
Scissors
Xacto knife
Box cutter
Packing tape (after using this on my dummy parts, I quit using it and went to all glue)
Pen
Sharpie (asst colors if you have em)
Squeegee
Spray primer
Spray paint ( asst colors for your job, I use the $1 stuff from Wal Mart)
Plastic white mask
Under Armor or equivilent, long pants and long sleeve shirt. ( I will dye them silver)
Anything else you can think of that you may need or use...
Last but not least..... your Imagination in full force!

This is an absolute must for projects like these. I spent HOURS looking for the best reference pics I could find. Once you have your ref. pics, and a plan as to where to begin..... you may be on your way to your best Halloween costume ever! Heres a couple of the pics I used while building mine. I also added my own bit of flair to mine just to make it my own, as well as make it appealing to the eyes of those around me.

I started with the arms and hands first. I began by taking measurements of my shoulder, forearm and hand/wrist. I can give you my measurements, but keep in mind I am 6'1" tall, so these more than likely wont work for you. My shoulder is 12" long, forearm is 9" long and the hands are 8" long. The boxes I used as bases are 4.5" and 5" on each side.
This is where writing down your measurements will save you. It took me almost 20 hrs to make the first arm, and 8 for the second. That just goes to show the difference in coming up with the idea, and making it happen. Also, I recommend that any patterns you make, you keep... It will save you time and hassle in the long run.
Once I got all the base parts made and fit, I was able to start painting and adding the foam details.
For the chest, I made 2 identical parts, and connected them together with shoulder straps, and velcro side flaps. It fits very snug and stays in place excellent. ** Be careful when taking on and off alot, as the velcro will separate the cardboard if your not careful**
I also realized after the fact, but velcroing the wings on wouldve been better than gluing. The wings make it quite difficult to move around without hitting everything with them.

For the feet I decided to use coroplast instead of cardboard. It's much stronger, is just as easy to work with as cardboard, and takes paint much better. I figured the feet would take a fair beating, so I waned to do everything I could to make them last.
I started the same as the heads, and worked outward from a box shape base. I am using an old pair of shoes for this as well so I can paint them to match and not see them. These were purchased new from Goodwill for just a few bucks. On the inside of the box shape, I placed the shoe and made a mark where I didnt want the shoe to go past. I then cut and glued a piece inside the box the give it support s well as keeping my foot from going any farther forward than I want for comfort when walking. Also my base measurement for this was 8" long & 4 5/8 square. I then worked out from there... To hold the feet on, I simply used a strap and velcro system that wraps around the back of my shoe.
For the legs, I started with a 7" sq box as the base. Same as the arms, I built all the base I could, and then painted and detailed with colored foam.
I glued elastic straps inside the legs to keep them on and in place, but still gives me pretty good movement.

I started the head with a base part that I cut a hole in to fit my head. One you have that, you simply build up from there to get the look you want. I measured my motocross helmet for my basic measurements on how I wanted it to fit. I got this done fairly quickly, as I had already built the 4 other heads previously. I would recommend using a strap of some sort to hold it on....I didnt do this and was straightening the head alot. It fit nice and snug with the mask on, but couldve used that little xtra. I also added foam around the head hole for comfort and snug fit.
The mask is just a plain white mask that I painted silver and blue. The mask was like 2$ I believe.
The body suit is under armour that I painted silver w silver dye.

I am super stoked on how it turned out! I had a blast wearing it, all the kids loved it, everyone at the bars loved it....I'd definitely call it a win.
I finished this with around 2 hours to spare before debuting it. I calculated about 150 hours total all in the span of around 3 weeks or so.
Another huge thanks to my family and friends for pushing me through to the end!! It was exhausting to say the least!
Hope you enjoy it!! Im already in the works for another epic costume for next year, I wont try to do it that fast this go around, thats for sure!