Power Rangers Samurai Megazord Costume

Hello everyone, this is my first instructable post. I have been a huge fan of instructables for a long time. My son wanted a Power Rangers Samurai birthday party so I thought it would be a huge suprise for him! Enjoy!

The Video has NO audio. Sorry!

I decided that cardboard would be best to use because I have access to so much cardboard.. and it is free!

I searched for many different pictures of the Megazord online to reference during the planning and build.

I did a few sketches that helped me determine how large and how big I wanted the Megazord to be. Don't get too caught up in making it perfect, just get your ideas down on paper.

Materials needed:

Cardboard

Hot Glue gun

Hot Glue sticks

Scissors

Craft knife

Spray Paint - Blue, green , red, pink, yellow, black, gold, silver

Acrylic Paint - blue, green , red, pink, yellow, black, gold, silver

Packing Foam

2 Square milk crates

Old pair of shoes

Zip Ties

Mask http://www.michaels.com/10075518.html#q=mask&star...

I started with the legs... since this is the most important part of the build. I wanted to be able to walk and move fairly easily but not be too heavy.

1. I took a milk crate, flipped it over so the open-side is facing the ground.

2. Take and drill a hole in the sole of the shoe from one side to the other... Do this at the heel and toe. Make sure you use a big enough bit to fit a zip tie through it.

3. Put the shoe on top of the Crate and put the zip tie through the hole and secure it to the crate.

4. Walk around on the crates to make sure you are comfortable with the position of the shoe and tightness to the crate.

5. Once I was comfortable, I then took two of my tallest pieces of cardboard and wrapped it around the crate, hot glue the seams.

6. Next I added a Bunch of foam inside the cavity... Dont glue all the foam inside because some of iit has to be removed to get your foot in!

7. Just pack the foam in tightly around your leg until it feels comfortable.

8. I could not find a great pic for the feet, so I decided to just come up with it on my own.. I decided to use some left over scrap cardboard pieces for the feet/toe section..

The body was actually pretty easy to make.

1. Just a box with the opening cut to form a small triangle in the front.

2. Cut two arm holes on the side.

3. Cut a hole on the top for your head and a larger one on the bottom for your waist.

4. I added foam around where your arms, head , and waist on the inside for comfort.

1. I used 2 large boxes and one small box for the head.

2. The bottom half is a box with the bottom and top removed. The top half is actually half of a total box turned s sideways with the corner as the top.

3. I cut a hole just big enough for the mask http://www.michaels.com/10075518.html#q=mask&start...

4. I added foam around the face and added foam all inside the head for comfort.

5. I cut out the head dress from a piece of a stiff piece of cardboard so it would stand up.

6. I added two smaller boxes right above the face hole opening for design. The top triangle piece is just a solid small box turned sideways ( just like the top of the head)

1. The waist was created with 1 larger cardboard box and 2-3 smaller boxes.

2. The larger box was opened up and the bottom and top flaps were folded inside to make it a little stronger.

3. the two smaller boxes were added to the ends of the larger box for design purposes.

4. I added foam on the inside of the larger box, make sure you glue and pack the foam in tight so that it is snug around your waist. You may want to add some elastic or suspenders to keep it from falling down.. I had this problem after the costume was worn a few times.

5. The shoulder pieces were built with a couple of boxes. Since they were odd shapes, I cut out the faces and then used some more flexible cardboard to make into 3-d shapes.

6. The Forearm pieces were two boxes of the same size with holes cut out on each end for my arms to pass through. They were attached to the body with a piece of cardboard cut into a u-shape.

7. I added foam to the insides of the forearm pieces for comfort and they hold them in place.

1. I used black, red, gold, yellow, green, blue, and pink spray-paint and acrylic paint for the costume to match the original images I had.

2. The center animal head was made with a small piece of cardboard... I actually just started folding the cardboard to make it as close to the images I had.

3. I used about 3 coats of paint on everything. The details were hand painted.

I enjoyed creating this for my son and the look on his face was all worth it. I wore it during halloween in my neighbor hood and it was a hit! Everyone wanted a picture. Hope you all enjoyed my first instructable!