About a week before Halloween, I got it in my head to try something that, to my knowledge, no one has ever done before without outside help: making a Sonic The Hedgehog costume. My intention for this costume is to make it look as close as possible like Sonic The Hedgehog, within reason. The costume will be complete with an accurate rendering of Sonic's head, white gloves, blue body, and red shoes. It will be a kigurumi-style costume (more specifically, fursuit-style), using the same bodysuits that kigurumi dollers wear. The only thing that will be missing from the costume is the gold buckles on the shoes, which I feel is unnecessary to the costume's overall look. I'll try to keep updates going as to the status of the costume, and post pictures whenever I can. If at all possible, I want to try to have it ready by Christmas, but the main deadline is Halloween of 2006.
10/27/05: Costume officialy started
I am currently using a plush Sonic figure I bought off Ebay for a model. To make the head, I will be using wire clothes hangers and solder (and paper mache, if necessary). In order to emulate the curves of Sonic's spikes, I'll have to bend the hangers in curved formations. Once the wireframe is complete, it will be covered in royal blue felt, with white one-way eyes. (From what I've heard, the illusion of "one-way" material, be it one-way mirrors or vinyl window decals, consists of having one side bright with a lot of light hitting it, and the other side dark with very little light.)
11/02/05: Shoes and bodysuits purchased
I found the shoes I want to use for the costume. Here is the link to those shoes These shoes are the closest I could find to looking like Sonic's shoes. Who knows, I might change my mind and make some fake buckles to put on the sides...
The bodysuits I'll be using are called zentai, made to fit over the entire body from head to toe. I ordered two--one blue, one fleshcolor; the fleshcolor one will be put on first, and the blue one will fit over it. Before the blue one is put on, though, the headpiece and arms will be removed, and a hole will be cut out of the abdomen area (anyone who knows how Sonic looks will know why). I currently have a bid going on Ebay for the white gloves.
11/07/05: Head wireframe completed
I've done about as much as I can do with the wireframe without making it too unbalanced; the main purpose of building the wireframe anyway is to hold the felt in place and allow it to curve in the way that it should appear in a 3D Sonic game (and, of course, have it fit properly on my head). The next step now is to cover it with felt...but I seem to have run into a little problem with this...
I also received the blue bodysuit today. THE COLORS DO NOT MATCH. So this means I'll have to find another color of felt, or perhaps another type of material. It's just a small stumblingblock; it shouldn't be too difficult to find something else to use.
In brighter news, I won the auction on the gloves, and I was informed that they were shipped today. The other color bodysuit should arrive tomorrow or the next day, and while I'm waiting for it and the other parts of the costume, I can go ahead and make the necessary alterations on the blue suit. I also decided against using one-way eyes; I won't be able to get a piece of one-way material cheap enough to substitute. So I'll stick to the plastic canvas, which I've already colored eyes on.
11/9/05: All Supplies Acquired
I went to Hancock Fabrics today to find something more like the color of the blue zentai suit. And since there aren't any pics yet of it, let me just say that the shade of blue in the suit is more of a cobalt blue (which is pretty convenient considering that cobalt is the color Sonic is SUPPOSED to be). A few minutes looking for the solid-color material, when lo and behold THE EXACT SAME MATERIAL!!! And boy was it expensive--$9.99/yard! I only needed enough to cover the head, so I only got 1 yd of it. I'll have to use the felt that I got earlier from Wal-mart for padding so the hanger wire doesn't show through or rip the material. But at least I got everything I need to finish my costume now. If everything goes as well as it has been lately, the next update should be the details of the costume's completion.
12/7/05: OK I lied on that last one...
...I thought I'd be done with it by now, but I hadn't had time to work on it lately. I did overlook one small, albeit critical, detail of this costume: Sonic Rings. How could I have forgotten such an important detail as the rings? I stumbled onto it from another cosplay website, where someone else doing a Sonic costume bought a styrofoam wreath ring and spray-painted it yellow. So that's what I did; I went to Michael's, got a wreath ring (if you're gonna try this, look for "extruded" rings for best results, and make sure it's about 12-14'' in diameter) and found some 24kt gold colored spray paint. I'm currently in the process of painting it right now.
As for the head, I've changed my mind again; I'm gonna go ahead and use paper mache. It's not gonna look right any other way, or it'll be too heavy for my head.
4/6/06: Found another alternative to paper mache
Apparently there is a cellulose-based material that, when you add water to it, it becomes moldable like clay and hardens to a plaster-like hardness. It is sandable and paintable. Sooooo.....this means yet another change of plans--using this material instead of paper mache.
Now this of course doesn't mean I'm ditching paper mache altogether; I still used it for the back spines and tail. I used the yard of blue lycra that I got from Hancock Fabrics to cut out enough material to cover the spines. Just covering the spines with the material wouldn't have been enough; the metal frame underneath would have shown through and they would look too squarish (meaning, not rounded). So now the spines are covered with paper mache and then covered with a sewn-together covering made of the blue lycra material. The metal frame kinda shows through, but not nearly as bad as it would have without. Plus I didn't have to paint it and thus have to worry about the colors not matching.
So the spines and tail are ready to be attached; shouldn't be too hard to put on, right? Well let's just say, try putting on spines that go on your back, making them look even and adjusted just right, all by yourself. This made actually making them a cakewalk. It took me about 4 or 5 tries and adjustments to get the back spines right, and the only reason that happened is because I put the blue suit on backwards. And even then, I only got one hooked in right--I still had to re-adjust one side (yes I said hooked in; the wires that makes up the length of the spines extend out and form a sort of "crosshairs" pattern that puncture the suit, and the stretchiness of the material hold the spines in place). But I got them now.
7/7/06: Sorry about the long delay, but...IT'S FINALLY DONE!!!
Yes, I finally completed the headpiece. It's not as smooth as I wanted it; thankfully, I painted the head with cobalt blue enamel paint, which is dark enough to make it look not so bumpy. If anyone wants to try using the cellulose-based paper-mache stuff (I used Celluclay, which I bought from Michael's), be aware that it doesn't ever seem to dry smoothly, no matter how well you mix it. It doesn't sand that well, either. Anyway, getting back to the completion, I hope to put some pics up soon, if I ever get used to the timer setting on my digital camera (unless I can find someone to work the camera for me).
So now, it's off to Ikasucon with both costumes. If anyone reading this is attending Ikasucon this year, be on the lookout for me in either costume. And please tell me what you think! w00t yay it's finally done! w00t
Pictures of both this costume and Human Sonic are located on my Yahoo 360 page.