My oldest son wants to be a Ghostbuster for Halloween. I wasn't sure at first how I was going to pull that one off. My mom stepped up to plate and offered to make the jumpsuit for him. My wife set to work finishing the details of it, like logos and final adjustments. I set ahead to build the proton pack out of whatever I had lying around in the garage.
So, the first step was to study some pictures of the REAL props and do my best to make something that would be similar in nature so that the average person understood what it was. I would love to get deeply involved in a project like that and try to replicate the real thing. There are lots of amateur prop makers who have built their own units and have done an exceptional job.
I decided to build mine out of empty cookie tins because this had to be light and proportional to my son's size. I attached the cookie tins and painted them black. Then I dug around the garage for various electronic parts to situate around the containers as close to where the real objects are on the prop units.
My wife added straps from an old backpack and I finished it off with some LED lighting and fake decals for final effect. I suspect that his costume is going to get a lot of attention.
Now, I mentioned that this backpack isn't furniture yet? When we are done with this prop, I intend to put the backpack into a custom made shadow box using various supplies I have lying around the garage so he can hang it proudly in his bedroom for years to come.
