Creativity | Pac-man Arcade Costume
2016 / Halloween
This year after a trip to Walt Disney world, I got the idea to build two things for Halloween. The first was to decorate my car like the Haunted Mansion for my children’s school trunk or Treat. The second was to make my eldest sons Halloween costume from scratch — this would be the first time I ever did anything like this and I was super excited. After a few conversations we came up with an Arcade Machine; specifically, a Pac-Man Machine.
So, I needed to do some visual reference research. I googled images of original Pac-Man Machines to get a sense of their shape and so forth. Then I started to sketch a few ideas and landed on this one.
At first I thought I would have slits for arms but the costume would have been too small to really show off the arcade part. I measures my son’s shoulder width and height from his waist to head. Than off to a trip to Home Depot. I ended up also picking up Liquid Nails Projects Adhesive and light weight insulation foam for the body.
I grabbed 5 or 6 long pieces since I wanted to make sure that if I messed up I would have some back-ups. When I got home I started measuring and cutting away.
Once I got the basic shapes I started setting them up and glueing right away.
The next step would be to start painting it. And add the area for the joystick. I actually experimented with spray-paint but what I quickly found out was that it literally eats away at the foam. So,I settled on some basic interior house paints.
To bring it to the next level I started thinking about the graphics and details. I found an arcade joystick and happ buttons on eBay so I got them right away. I created the game control area and installed the joystick.
I continued to paint some more but the next biggest part was the Pac-man graphics. I was able to find vector graphics online and print them at a local Staples after a little measuring and photoshop work.
It bring the arcade to life, I wanted to add some lights. I found these great multicolor LED’s on eBay. They come is a long stripe and are battery powered — PERFECT. I installed them to the top of the inside and they would cycle through multiple colors.
Also we noticed, after testing, I needed to add a way for him to get his hand out to get candy. So, I created a sliding door in the front. Oh, I also added a cool sound effect so when you click on one of the buttons it will play Pac-man sounds, you can see it in this video.
I am adding some last details now so once it’s completed I will post the final costume.
