I remember losing smoke stacks my first time around with a prime. Last year I used velcro on the smoke stacks so whenever they came off I could just stick em right back on, worked great.

One thing that really sucked last year was I took my helmet off near the end and was doing lots of dancing, I turned around and it was gone. It was alright though the costume really took a beating, had a few drinks spilt on it. I wound up crashing at a friends house and came into work the next day with the costume lol, it was killer.

One really cool thing about that costume, I had originally built it to have the chest open up and have the matrix inside but I couldn't get it to work the way I wanted it, so I ripped everything out and installed 2 speakers, the red thing on the underside of my right arm is an mp3 player which hooked into the speakers, had the mp3 player filled with various quotes and tf music, nothing beats walking up to the club with the movie theme blaring out of your chest  .

Oh and zailand, doesn't matter for size, just a matter of finding a transformer that matches your body, or just adjusting the proportions accordingly.

 

Well tonight I added a lot of stability to the costume. I'll try to post up pictures every couple days of the progress.






Here's a couple of body shots. You can see that I added some strength to the shoulders. I also added some pieces for the mid-section. There is also now a velcro'd bridging piece between the front and the back of the costume which goes in after it's put on to add extra strength.




Beginning to transform  



Shot from the back where you can see the roof, and underneath that there's the "doors".




Here's 2 shots with the doors folded out.



Finally a shot with the roof folded over. Where the hole is I plan on having a piece that slides up which will hide my head.




Another 2 shots of the roof.



Here's a shot with the piece which will pop up to hide my head, it will be a few inches in the air and will look like the thing on top of classic prime's cab.




Finally two shots with the legs behind. Not where the legs will really rest after transforming but thought I'd toss them in just for some reference.

 

Alright, finally got the pictures from my gf's camera. This one's gonna be a huge post. There's a few WIP shots, besides that it's the documentation of my day at the movies, starting from the initial trial of the costume, going all the way to wandering around the mall.

 

Damn! I missed Optimus Prime at Metrotown, very cool costume man!  

 

Good Work, D_Fool!                  

 

Thanks, it was a lot of fun to build and wear.

 

Very neat, man! That is one hell of a costume! Mucho kudos for getting the thing to transform - and safely, mind you. You should take that to Otakon, or one of the Japanese Anime 'cons. They love cosplay at those outings; you might be able to win some swag for your work!

 

Is it just me or is that a whole lot of Asians in your mall??

 

hah i was just going to say, dont take this the wrong way, but i guess it was so uniquie Asians took pics of YOU haha

 

Oh man I just can't stop laughing...you rock man.

 

Have you ever seen someone having as much fun---What a great idea, that would be so cool to do!

 

I'm jealous. I have a soft spot for Asian girls. Well, not entirely soft...

 

Awesome costume, man. Superb work!

 

Darn, I knew that place was familiar!! Awesome costume btw.

 

Yeah I was surprised I actually got some free swag from a few of the stores. Got a bunch of free TF comics, as well as some gift certificates for an anime store.

It was seriously so much fun to wear, wasn't sure what the reaction was going to be like but everyone loved it, took us forever to get from one side of the mall to the other lol.

There's a big event in town here called anime evolution, gonna have to look more into it might wear it there.

 

That's all sorts of awesome. It's awesome on a stick.

And your g/f is pretty.  

 

Sweet costume, but one small critique? I think it'd look even better if you wore a red long-sleeved turtleneck under the costume, that'd cover up your bare flesh-colored arms & neck...

But really, that costume kicks all sorts of ass... Congratulations on a job well done! You deserved all that free swag!

 

You're my hero!  

 

My gf found this link on the web that has some good shots of how the transformation works.

http://madaboutmovies.net/?p=714

 

That's fantastic work right there!

How long did the whole process take from conception to finished product?
Were your plans freehand, or did you have some diagrams and schematics to help you along the way?

If you're in the Boston area, there's an Anime convention every year, if you're interested PM me and I'll get you info asap.

 

The idea for the transformation popped into my head at work, so I sketched down the general idea before I forgot. For a month it was lots of planning and just figuring out how pieces will fit together and how all the joints will work, that kind of stuff.

After that I just hammered each piece out trying to make sure they all fit together. The previous costume I did, I actually modelled the pieces in 3d studio and then drew up schematics in photoshop. Then printed the layout and put it down on the material to use as something to trace.

I've actually been planning on writing some software to help aid in the process and make the turn around time a lot lower, basically it would allow the user to design in 3d and then generate all the outlines and whatnot to be printed out. I've just been too busy with other projects to really get moving on it.