Last Minute Bowler Hat Guy Costume

I usually don't dress up for Halloween. Instead I tend to focus on making my kid's costumes. However, this year my kids both opted for store bought (read: LAAAAMMMMEE!!!) costumes. I was going to just hang out on Halloween until I found out that my wife was also going to be dressing up so I decided about a week ago to not be the only stick in the mud without a costume. This is my last minute Bowler Hat Guy costume.

For those of you unfamiliar with Bowler Hat Guy, aka Mike Yagoobian, aka Goob, he is the "villain" in Meet the Robinsons. I use quotes for that label because he isn't really the main bad guy in the movie, his hat is. He isn't really a bad guy at all. He's just misguided and misunderstood.

Materials:

- Bowler Hat (what? you don't have one already? psshh!!)

- Purpel ribbon

- PVC fittings

- Black Spraypaint

- Casting acrylic

- Bike safety light

- Black Fabric

- Buttons

- Long sleeve shirt (black)

- Black pants

- Magnets

- 3 ring binder

Tools:

- Drill

- Sewing needle

I already had most of the materials because I like to hoard random things. I did not actually have the bowler hat but it was only $12.00 on Amazon. If you were to purchase everything else I would guess the total cost around $50 - $60. Not too bad compared to some store bought adult costumes.

I used 50 cents worth of PVC fittings to create a camera lens looking setup. I think it was a one inch coupler and a plug. This didn't require any PVC glue. I just jammed the plug into the coupler as far as it would go and it stayed put. Next, I painted the assembly black. After the paint dried I used my drill to machine out about a 1/2" hole approximately 1/8" deep in the back of the plug and glued a magnet into it. The magnet is used to hold the assembly to the hat without having to cut a hole into the hat itself.

I had some Castin Craft acrylic casting resin left over from previous projects so I used just a small amount with a green dye to create a small round lens. If you've never used this particular brand or material it's just a two part 1:1 mixture that cures to a clear plastic after about 24 hours. I purposely used a little less catalyst so that the lens would turn out slightly rubbery. This would make it easier to get in and out of my PVC assembly. After I mixed the acrylic I used another PVC coupler of the same size as my assembly as a makeshift mold. Make sure you use a good mold release because this acrylic bonds to the PVC really well if you don't.

Doris' light is usually green unless she is angry or in control of a human brain. I cracked open a plastic bike safety light to get to the gooey LED center. Inside is just a small circuit board with a simple pressure switch, battery, and LED. I love these things and use them fairly often. I'm sure I could make them cheaper than I buy these safety lights but I'm not so good at soldering and feel like I'm too old to learn that as a new life skill. When its time to put the costume on I will turn the light on, drop it in the PVC fitting and place the lens over it.

The last touch was a purple ribbon.

Bowler Hat Guy is on the cutting edge of fashion, of course. He wears the finest thread bare...uh, throw? Shawl? Cape? Towel possibly? This was pretty simple to replicate. I got 1 yard of black polyester fabric and sewed two buttons on it.

The rest of the garb is just a long sleeve black shirt and black pants.

Bowler Hat Guy is an organized fellow. He carries a concise list of his life goals in a whimsical three ring binder. Sadly I could not find a printable version of his exact binder cover but I think I cam pretty close with this one.

Clearly I do not share the same body..."structure" as Bowler Hat Guy.

I think this costume took me all of 2 hours total work time to make.