Transformers Group Costume

We would like to introduce Kian as Optimus Prime, Riley as Starscream, and Anita as Bumblebee.

Kian, our nearly 4 year old boy, who is obsessed with Transformers, insisted on being Optimus Prime for Halloween this year. Soon after, he decided that my husband Riley should be Starscream, and I should be Bumblebee. For the next two months, our living room was an all-out construction site!

The best thing about these costumes is that they cost very little. They consist almost exclusively of cardboard, hot glue, random scraps, and spray paint. Probably my most favorite part about making these costumes was my son's involvement. He loved helping cutting the cardboard, gluing pieces together, and spray-painting.

I'm bummed that I didn't think of participating in an online costume contest until after all the costumes were done, so I don't have all the pictures on how I created them, but I'll add what I have.

It was for sure a wonderful Halloween that created fond memories that will last a lifetime!

• A LOT of cardboard
• More cardboard
• Hot glue
• Spray paint (blue, red, silver, gray, yellow, black) $6.50/can
• Acrylic paint
• Painters tape
• Paper towel rolls for detachable exhaust pipes
• Magnets for exhaust pipes
• Playing toy ball gun ($2 from dollar store)
• Inside of aluminum roll
• Some pipe insulation (on top of Optimus)
• Wine corks (part of the wheels)
• Screws and bolts
• Modge podge for Starscream’s nose cone
• Soccer shin guards to attach Optimus’ back wheels $4
• Rollerblade hand protection for Optimus’ front wheels (can be taken off after Halloween)
• Caulk for caulking the edges of the costumes (only done for Optimus Prime) 
• Micro led lights $13 (for 5)
• Mini puck lights led $19 (for 6)
• Blue gloves for Starscream $8
• Red long sleeve for Optimus
• Blue pants for Optimus
• Yellow long sleeve, and black pants for bumblebee
• Gray long sleeve and pants for Starscream
• License plate printouts
• Fishing wire
• 2 little hinges for Starscream $4 
• A bent piece of a foam flooring tile for the inside front of Optimus Prime (to keep the cardboard box from pushing on my son’s neck) 
• I cut an old backpack apart and added the straps inside Optimus Prime so the cardboard isn’t sitting on my son’s shoulders.

I started out with Optimus Prime. The very first step of this project was to collect A LOT of cardboard. After I had enough to get started I had to measure Kian while lying on the ground in his "transformed" position. You will need the length from top of the head to the top of his bum, the height from floor to the top of his head, and the width of his shoulders.

Then the construction begins. For the Optimus prime costume I followed the following instructions very closely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7oamD4tRIA&t=82s

transformerskids on Youtube has some wonderful instructions on how to create transformers costumes out of cardboard for little kids.

I also added some old backpack straps inside the "body" of Optimus Prime to not have the cardboard sitting on Kian's shoulders at all times. A piece of gym-mat flooring by his chest, and a velcro strip around his waist held the costume nicely around his body.

After the body and head part were all glued together I started calking all the edges. That was a lot of work, but in the end it made the costume so much more durable. Of course it also made it nicer to wear as there weren't any sharp edges that Kian could get hurt on while putting his costume on and taking it off.

I created a flame stencil out of paper that I taped to Optimus Prime's finished "body". That made the painting quite a bit easier as we could just spray-paint over it, and touch it up with acrylic paint once it was dry.

The marker lights on top of Optimus Prime were made out of 1/2 inch pipe insulation foam. I cut them to shape and started spray-painting them. I very quickly realized that the paint didn't stick to the insulation foam, so I had to cut a few new pieces, and used a silver marker to paint them.

After the body was all done we worked on the front wheels/arms. We added my son's rollerblade hand protection to it as that held that costume part very nicely on his hand while transforming into truck mode, and back. I had ordered mini led lights in two different sizes as I thought that would bring the costumes to the next level. It was Kian's idea to add two of the smaller led lights onto the hand part of his costume. They fit absolute perfectly into the aluminum foil rolls that we added as his "wrist blaster cannons". We did have to add a little red sticker over it as the light would have been very bright when turned on.

His back wheels are attached to soccer shin guards. When creating the wheels pay attention in which direction the cardboard bends easier, as you do need a lot of bending done. I was looking around our house for objects I could use for the inside part of the wheels. I wanted them to look more realistic. I used a part of a wine cork, and little pieces of mini hot glue sticks. After gluing them into place and adding the silver spray-paint I was very happy with the outcome.

After all the big parts of the costumes were done we added a chest part that Kian was able to open up and close. They stayed shut with little magnets. No actual hinges are needed as a piece of ribbon worked great for that part. I printed out a chest piece for him that he called his "heart" when opening his chest.

Kian's most favorite part about the costume were the exhaust pipes that were also attached with magnets and turned into his blaster gun when taking them off and attaching them to each other. We created those out of cheap plastic ball guns from the dollar store, and a couple paper towel rolls. To make them stronger we modge podged newspaper to the paper towel roll and the plastic guns before spray-painting them.

I created Kian's helmet out of cardboard and craft foam. Pretty much just built a little frame/crown around his head and patched it up in a few the areas.

As a final step we added a couple number plates to the body, glued a couple led lights to the front of the truck, and fine tuned the truck and the helmet by adding some lines and designs with a black marker.

When starting to build Starscream I realized that I might run out of time, and won't be able to make a costume for myself. I assume that that's the main reason why I didn't take the time to take pictures of the process of Starscream. This costume was my biggest challenge. I started this costume following the instructions of the transformerkids Youtube videos, but realized very quick that 1. I can't put that much time into it, and 2. a male full grown human body is very different from a little kid body.. I was still watching the instructions on Youtube, but modified a lot in the process.

The frame of Starscream was for most part built out of long paint stirring sticks that you can get at any store that sells paint. As I didn't have enough I cut some other draft-wood pieces to size that I had at home.

The nose of the plane was a little challenging, and hard to get looking like I imagined it, but with adding modge podge and newspaper I got it close to the shape I was looking for.

For the transformation part I used craft fishing line first, but that ripped after just a couple times transforming from airplane to Starscream, so I got some fishing wire that my husband's uncle uses for his big fishing tournaments. That did the job. I used the insides of little lego wheels to keep the wire from rubbing too much on the wood and cardboard that it runs around.

On these pictures you can also see that by the time we started Starscream my son started working on his own cardboard projects aside from our big Halloween project ;)

Well, I did have time to create a costume for myself as well, but by the time I started crafting Bumblebee I was already a little cardboarded out ;) For this costume I was just winging it. I did watch quite a few instructions online, but once I started I just went after it. The only pictures I took in the process were of Kian helping with the spray-painting. He had so much fun! And for a not even 4 year old kid he did so good!

Bumblebee has pretty much 3 big pieces (and the wheels). The front part that has an opening to stick the head through, and that will just sit on your shoulders, the middle part that just falls on your back when standing up, and the back of the car just hangs behind your legs. The back wheels are attached to the costume. The front wheels have a strap attached that you can just hold onto. When transforming you pull the wheels towards you into the right spot of the car. This costume was definitely the easiest and the fastest.

In this first picture you see me the night before Halloween crafting my Bumblebee mask and my husbands Starscream helmet as I have totally forgotten about it. Somehow I got them both done in a very short time, and completed with that our costumes just in time.

All of our costumes are able to transform into car/airplane mode. Big shoutout to @transformerskids Youtube channel that made creating these costumes a little easier that having to figure all the steps out by myself.

This was definitely the most work I have ever put into a Halloween costume. I very, very roughly estimate that there is about 80 hours of work into the three costumes…though it would not surprise me if it was actually more. Nights and weekends were busy at our house. Was it worth it?? ABSOLUTELY! These costumes will be remembered for many years to come!

The last thing that I want to mention is the way people reacted to the costumes. My parents in law literally scheduled an international vacation around seeing the costumes’ completions, and they were blown away. We made numerous stops at family gatherings, a restaurant, and senior living facilities. If the smiles and laughter shown by all was not enough to know how much people enjoyed them, the literal standing ovations by many certainly did the trick!

I hope you enjoyed our costumes too!