Rob Baranek and Dave Zyn have been responsible for some
of the most amazing anime convention costumes in recent years, from the
Ghidra that wowed people at Anime Central to the Go Nagai robot that was
one of the best of show winners at Katsucon. Those projects used one primary
construction material and one common tool to hold all of the parts together.
You'll probably find that stuff where you live or nearby, and it's not
rare or exotic. They use foam to make most of the costumes, and they use
hot glue guns to hold everything together. Joanne Fabrics stores and web
sites such as Foam By Mail are
good places to find the foam, the costumers said, and the glue guns are
available in most hardware stores. Does this kind of construction seem
fragile? Rob and Dave respond that their costumes are very durable and
hold up to the incidental contact you'll encounter in crowded convention
halls.
Remember the three-headed Ghidra that had the independently moving
mouths? Here's a sample head in cross-section to show its construction:
just foam with "bulkheads" and a metal strip to hold its shape. The tube
and pink items make up the mechanism which moves the mouth, using a hand
trigger not shown in this image. Plumbers' pipe also makes a good backbone
for the foam outfits constructed by Dave and Rob. What about the surfaces
of the costumes? That's also where the hot glue guns come in handy. After
choosing the fabric best suited for the costumes, the fabric is glued to
the surface of the foam - it's that simple, they say. Or maybe not...Rob
says to put the hot glue on the fabric, then stick it in the foam, while
Dave says to put glue on foam, then apply the fabric.
The simplicity of the hot glue and foam technique doesn't
include the need to have a good eye for shapes and a sense of construction
details, something that Dave and Rob have displayed in the costumes they've
made. These outfits can take weeks to make: Dave admits he'll work for
four hours at a stretch, watching anime at the same time, until he gets
tired or he doesn't want to burn his hands any more (one of the risks of
the glue guns). These costumers admit they make mistakes in constructing
outpost from scratch, but the foam and glue technique makes it easy to
cut away the incorrect section, get a new piece of foam and start all over
again. If one sheet of foam isn't thick enough, a second or third sheet
can form the correct shape. Minor adjustments can be made with a pair of
scissors. And there's little sewing involved, important for someone like
Rob who admits he can't sew.
