Costume inspiration can come from anywhere. Web sites, movies, television and most definitely cartoons.
This week's costume lesson can be summarized thus: Don't write off a character with potential just because said character is not humanoid.
Weirdly-shaped costumes can be more labor-intensive, but the results are well worth the effort.
Especially if said effort involves Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
There are many different possible approaches to an Aqua Teen character costume. I chose a fairly simple approach with Frylock.
First, some reasonably believable fake french fries of proper size must be found or constructed.
Five swim noodles, $1.50 each at Kids R Us, proved a worthy investment. Obviously, yellow noodles would be best, but spray paint can make any noodle a yellow one.
As a bonus, the cardboard box displaying the noodles happens to be human-sized and reasonably Frylock-shaped. I quickly discovered that it's also free for the taking, if you ask nicely.
Get your treasures home, cut the noodles into smaller pieces (Not halves! Make sure that they are irregular in length, like real french fries) and start spray-painting.
With the 94 cents stuff from Wal-Mart, it took me two cans of yellow on the noodles and three cans of red to cover the printing on the box and get an even, bright color.
After everything's dry, cut out a rectangular eyehole near the bottom of the box.
Try it on first, so you can figure out where your eyes will be.
Two smaller eyeholes will work, but are more difficult to cut and provide a smaller field of vision.
Invert the box and attach the swim noodles to the bottom with a thick, strong glue.
I used Shoe Goo, which is closer to rubber cement than glue. It's thick enough that you won't have to stand around holding the noodles upright while you wait for it to dry.
Next, cut out a triangular piece from some scrap cardboard for the beard. Attach with duct tape, or liberal amounts of clear packaging tape.
This will get covered up, so use as much as it takes to hold the piece securely.
Image search until you've found a picture of Frylock with your desired facial expression. Print this as a guide for drawing the face on your costume.
Cut brown construction paper to shape Frylock's beard, and cut the shapes of his eyes out of white printer paper.
Attach with glue or paste. Be careful to avoid wrinkling or bubbling of the paper.
Now, with a fat black marker, completely outline the beard and eyes and add in all of the details: pupils, mouth and sarcastically arched eyebrows.
Congratulations, you are now the owner of your very own Frylock costume.
If you prefer another character or another method for making Frylock, check out the Op/Ed section at TeamTotallyAwesome.com.
In one article, there are some instructions and pictures from their own Aqua Teen costume party.
The quality of their costume results is, of course, totally awesome. Many more inspirations are just a Web search away. Remember, your only limit is how far your imagination will go.
Be the first to comment on this article!