Creations

Halloween 2005: BlockheadCostume

Those of you who know me will know that I like to make ridiculous, over-the-top costumes for my parents’ huge Halloween party. Before I get started on what I did this year, I thought I’d point out that Rob Cockerham from cockeyed.com made an AWESOME costume this year.

Anyway, for Halloween this year, I had a few ideas that kind of fell by the wayside. Then, I got the idea that Gort, the giant robot from The Day the Earth Stood Still, would make an awesome costume. I tried going with that idea and my friend James even found a pretty cheap way to make an LED/histogram display that reacted to my voice. It would have been an awesome costume, except that it seemed nearly impossible to make. The more I thought about Gort, the more difficult the concept became. Soon enough, it was two weeks before Halloween and I hadn’t started on a costume. So, I thought of something else.

At that point, I had to resort to a “plan b.” That plan was to be a Blockhead from Gumby. Sarah had already picked out her costume, but my dad’s friend, John Sergio, was flying out as a surprise and I knew he wouldn’t mind being my twin. Originally, I had set out to make two Blockhead costumes but this costume proved to be more expensive and time-consuming than I had anticipated. Furthermore, as I progressed in making my costume, the less satisfied I became with it. My approach seemed shoddy and impractical. Maybe I’ll come up with a cool way to build Gort for next year.

There aren’t many photos of the Blockheads on the Internet. There’s really not that much information out there about them. I found that surprising. I had to rely on my memory in order to build the costume. First, I figured that since the original character had a flat body, I’d use foam to make a big body that I could wear. I also thought I’d be able to sit down in this costume. Perhaps with a different design I would have been able to. This costume actually fell apart shortly after I got to the party. Anyway, allow me to begin the description of its inception.

I started out with three sheets of foam from Jo-Ann. I took two and cut them exactly the same way in the shape of the front of the Blockhead body. Basically, I made it look like a concave lens with a cut down the middle to make some legs. With the third sheet, I cut two long rectangles to create the body’s sides. I used the sides and some safety pins to hold the whole body together. Armed with nothing but a pair of scissors, I used the “handyman’s most accurate tool,” the eyeball, to measure heights and widths and straight lines. It didn’t turn out too badly.

Once the pinning and cutting was complete, I took the body outside for its first coat of red spraypaint. Using a thumbtack, I pinned the body to the wooden beam holding up our little patio covering and just sprayed paint on until it ran out and my thumb/forefinger hurt from pressing the pressure release button at the top of the can. Unfortunately, I had run out of materials (I foolishly thought that one can of spraypaint would have been enough for my entire costume).

By the way, the costume was a surprise to Sarah as well. She had no idea what I was trying to make, as you can see in the pictures.

Soon enough, it was back to Jo-Ann to get more foam to cut for the head. At this point, I realized how much work I had already put into my own costume and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to afford (both the time and money) to make a complete costume for John. For the heads, I cut five 12” squares for each side of the head per costume. Using a second can of spraypaint, I painted each side of the head and used the rest for the body, since the first can of spraypaint didn’t do as good a job as I’d hoped.

For the eyes, I used some leftover foam from the body and heads. For the letters on the sides of the heads and the noses and mouths, I used some yellow felt that was 20 cents per sheet at Michaels.

If I could rebuild this costume, I would do the following:

The costume went over fairly well, but I just wasn’t very happy with it. It looks okay in the photos, but I kinda rushed the project and ran out of time. I built the heads on the day of the party instead of beforehand. I didn’t have enough spraypaint and each can cost a lot of money. Altogether, the costume (my entire costume and John’s head) cost around $30. I think I could have done more with that money than what I did. Oh well, you can’t make a great costume every year.

In order to surprise Dad, John was going to wear a monkey mask underneath his blockhead head. Kind of like the last episode of The Prisoner. Photos are below. The surprise went over very well and the weekend with him here was awesome. Also, my friends Greg and James flew out and I got to hang out a bunch with them. When I get some more time, I’ll post more pictures from the party and the time I spent with them.