Bald Brain - Jumbo the Clown Halloween Costume

Jumbo the Clown Halloween Costume

I designed and built this costume between June and September of 2008 to be used as part of the Haunted Palace Theatre.

If you like Jumbo you might also enjoy my Body Bag Halloween Costume

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9

My original concept sketch. As I'm starting to build the costume, I'm still undecided about what should be in Jumbo's belly and how I want to use my own hands, which could either be used for Jumbo's hands or manipulate some fake arms and hands, or be used to animate a puppet in his belly. Since the sketch, I decided to make Jumbo's arms full sized instead of little mini arms.

At the Midwest Haunters Convention there were lots of vendors with high quality products. I was especially impressed with the masks made by Fearscape Studios. I can build some incredible costumes, including the masks if necessary, but for the amount of time it saves, I prefer to go with a mask made by someone else. And when I can find quality masks like theirs, it's a no brainer. Here's a photo of their booth at the convention. They call this one Chunk the Clown. I love it!

Day 1: It always starts with the framework. I was able to use one of my common designs that hangs the costume on my shoulders. I bent conduit so it loops over my shoulders and down across my chest. The conduit is attached to a piece of masonite that rests against my back, and I covered the conduit with insulation foam normally used for water pipes.

I bent a single 10' length of conduit into a not so perfect circle which will give Jumbo a 36" to 38" diameter waist. The circle is attached to the shoulder frame with a couple of conduit scraps. I'm getting better at bending conduit into all sorts of shapes, but it still can be challenging depending on the design.

I cut another 10' piece of conduit in half and used the two 5' pieces for what will become Jumbo's shoulders and upper arms. These will eventually be covered by foam to get the desired shape of a giant clown. I got lucky with the gray case being just the right size to hold up the frame while I work on it.

I had originally planned on making Jumbo stand 8' tall but changed that to about 7'6" so it can fit in the average room. Plus, if I made him too tall, then his waist line wouldn't look quite so large in relation to his height. I based the height of the waist and shoulders on my own proportions. After looking at the photos, I may lower the waist a few inches. I guess I'm all legs, but Jumbo's waist line needs to be lower to look right. This will also give me more room to expose whatever thing is hiding in Jumbo's belly.

The mask on top of my head in the last photo is another clown mask made by Fearscape Studios. I bought that one and a few others at the convention, but Chunk and 2 other masks still have to be delivered later this summer. I may have to hold off on some of the details around the neck line until Chunk arrives.

Day 2: Not much to show after a short night of work. I lowered the waist ring about 3.5" to get the waist and shoulder heights in better proportion. I did a little research online to find what the typical human body proportions are. Most examples referred to measuring the body in "heads". The typical body is 7 or 7.5 heads tall, with the waist at 4 heads. They also suggested that the human body looks better when drawn at a height of 8 heads with the waist at 4 heads. I decided to go with the 8 head proportions. So with the top of the head at 7'6" or 90", each head would be 11.25". This places the waist at 45" and the shoulders at about 79".

When I lowered the waist, I lost one of the points where the vertical shoulder pipes had been attached. So I made some adjustments, drilled a few new holes, and was able to send the shoulder pipes straight up instead of at the slight angle that you see in the first photos. This had the effect of narrowing the width of the shoulders by a few inches, which is actually an improvement.

Day 3: I started working with the high density foam to give the arms and shoulders some shape. The first 2 photos are of the upper arms. I forgot to take a photo of the foam before I glued them into the tubes. They had a trapezoid shape, similar to what you see in the third photo, but with wider widths: about 27" at the shoulder and 22" at the elbow. I use contact cement, covering the edges with a very thin layer, letting them dry until they are just barely tacky, and then pressing the 2 surfaces together. The second photo shows the details of the shoulder end of the upper arms. I cut out a flap that gets folded down inside the arm and glued to provide support and prevent the tube of the arm from flattening out. The third photo shows a finished lower arm and the shape of the foam before I glued it. They were 24" at the elbow and 15" at the wrist.

Don't I look dashing in my Fred Flinstone/Peter Pan/Leprechaun shorts? I've got style! But try to ignore that and pay attention to the costume that's starting to take shape. After the Chunk mask arrives, I'll cut out a neck hole for the mask to poke through. The upper and lower arms will overlap at the elbow which should give his arms better proportions. At this time I am planning to make one of his hands fully mechanical so the fingers can open and close and the wrist can bend. The other hand will probably just hang there at the end of the arm, but the lower half of both arms will be able to move about.

Day 4: After a month away from this project, I'm back at it again. The rest of the masks arrived from Fearscape Studios, including Chunk, so I am pretty psyched. The latex is thick enough to hold up its own wight when the bottom edge of the mask rests on your shoulders. That's a sign of a high quality mask. I found an old piece of metal rod that was part of a yard sign. I bent it into an "oval" that fit snugly inside the bottom of the mask. I glued a long strip of vinyl over the metal rod to secure it to the mask. The hard hat shown here is my first attempt at holding up the mask, but after getting it all done, I found it was too top heavy with all that conduit. I didn't take any pictures of the final solution, but it was very similar. It still uses conduit, but the pipes only go as far as the metal rod rim at the bottom of the mask because the latex can support itself. Also, my original plan was to have the mask/helmet remain a separate piece of the costume that could be removed. But I found that it was very difficult to keep it centered in the neck hole in the foam, so I decided to mount the hard hat. I attached a bar across the neck hole and sent a bolt down through the top of the hard hat. Now the hard hat is suspended just at the right point so when I slip the costume onto my shoulders, the hat goes right onto my head.

Day 5: The left arm and hand. My first plan was to build a fully mechanical hand that would open and close when I squeezed some kind of handle. But after getting about half way done with it, I found it was already getting to be too heavy to easily maneuver. So I scrapped that idea and went with a foam hand instead. I kept the wrist mechanism which allows the whole hand to flop when the arm is rotated. I can still achieve some basic gestures like pointing and beckoning you to come closer. The fingers are made from pipe insulation. I cut little pits in the foam so there would be more surface area for the glue. What I'm not looking forward to at this point is making the gloves to cover these huge hands. The dark fabric at the elbow joint is to allow the two pieces to easily rotate when they rub against each other. Without the fabric, the friction of the foam against itself prevented the two pieces from rotating smoothly. The perspective of that last photo makes his hand look much bigger than it is. It is a big hand, but just not as big as it looks there.

Day 6: A short night. I assembled the right arm and hand. I never enjoy making more than one of anything, but the results are sweet. I also attached the curved conduit that will form the upper half of the Belly Mouth. I just made up that name, but I like the idea of making the belly look like a giant mouth when it opens up. That gets my mind racing. The best part of the night was the short video I made of me testing it out.

Day 7: Today starts the task of putting some clothes on this giant. I was nervous that I might not have bought enough fabric, but it looks like I will have plenty. I had to figure out a way to hang Jumbo from the ceiling so I could measure and pin the fabric for his pants. Late at night when I walked down to my work area, I wasn't used to the costume hanging there at its full height and I gave myself a startle. Jumbo is HUGE! And with the fabric giving it the appearance of more mass, it is that much more impressive. I anticipate a fair amount of hand stitching on this costume which I never enjoy. Oh, you can also see the hands have been painted white. I did that one night this week but didn't count that as a days work. I had to paint them white so when I cover them in white felt, the different colors of foam on the hands and fingers don't show through.

Day 8: Sewing. Lots and lots of sewing. And then lots and lots and lots of hand stitching. Did I mention that I hate the hand stitching part?

Day 9: OK, so I am cheating here and compressing about 3 days of work into Day 9. The good news is, I am finally done with this costume! Time to celebrate!

Photo 1: The hand on the left is finished, the hand on the right is part way there. I used felt. First I sewed ten tubes with curved tips for the fingers. I stuffed a little foam filler in the ends to hold the round shape better. Then I used hot glue to piece together the rest of the gloves.

Photo 2: If you look just under the collar you can see 4 dark red dots. I cut out 4 of the holes from the pattern that sit at eye level and used Steam-A-Seam to attach a piece of red cloth that I can see through pretty well. That gives me minimal vision.

Photos 3-5: The flower has a security camera with night vision mounted in the center. Inside the costume the monitor sits in front of my chest resting in the blue electrical mounting box. Why? So I can see in total darkness! It's hard to tell exactly what you're seeing in photo 4, but I used a flexible camera tripod to hold the security camera in place. I actually combined two of the tripod legs to get the distance that I needed. From that point of view you can also see the elastic that stretches down to the fabric around the belly to pull it tight. You can also see a black clip with a dark red cord attached. That goes to the back of the head that hangs in the belly. It creates a good pivot on the head so the belly opens and closes more easily.

Photo 6: I bought an IR Illuminator kit (pre-assembled) from BG Micro and the suggested power supply. I bought a project enclosure and switch from Radio Shack to make it all professional looking. Finally I used the 3rd leg from the flixible tripod so I can aim the light. This additional IR light will increase my visiblity using the security camera with night vision. I tested it out and it really helps.

And then finally - lots of photos of the finished costume and a video on YouTube.