Help whit Megatron material

edited April 2016 in Fabrication

HI every one!

A few years ago I made a big Optimus Prime costume just like the seen on Universal Studios, sculpting Styrofoam and putting a layer of fiber glass on it.


Right now I want to start a new transformers project: Galvatron. But I want to go to the next level of fabrication.

I need your help to identify the material used in the fabrication of this characters. Any clues?

Live show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4gdkt9eo7Y


A few shots

Comments

  • Some parts of his costume are likely a lightweight flexible foam for comfort and mobility.

    Other parts could be light weight vacuum formed shells (possibly backed with 2 part expanding foam), fiberglass, or cast urethane plastics.

    It's hard to know the exact materials without physically examining the suit.

    The key to a suit like that is making everything as light weight as possible so the performer (who as you know is on stilts) can move around without throwing off their balance or tiring out too quickly.

    What I would really like to see is the internal mechs for those arms.  I'm curious how the forearm control works given that the performer (who's face is in the neck of Megatron can only put his arms so far into the shoulders. 

    /Chris
  • Hey Cris,

    I use Styrofoam cover in fiber glass for torso, back, and arms, legs are vacuum formed in HIPS, but I think it could be more lightweight to get that kind of movement.   About the movement of the forearms, I think could work a parallelogram arrangement and for that, the arms must have a rod coming from the shoulder to give the support necessary for the movement.  In this picture I see the hand of the performer holding a grip, maybe is a hallucination :)

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