An Ant-Man and his Ant
The Ant-Man costume has been one of our most popular costume to date. It was the first costume we made that featured moving parts, none of which were motorized. They were moved simply by the child moving in his wheelchair. Here is how we did it.
We started with a basic PVC frame around the wheelchair that would hold the legs, head and back of the giant ant.
We were also handling the initial brainstorming of how to make the ant legs move.
On top of that, we began building the helmet out of foam floor mats. There were so many pieces of the helmet. We used Modge Podge to seal every piece of the helmet.
The unpainted helmet constructed without the eye lenses.
The secret to making the legs move? Roller Blade Wheels! Roller blade wheels were cut apart and each wheel was screwed into a PVC cap.
Here are the pieces that make up one side of the Ant-Man Antony legs, with Roller blade wheels attached to each leg.
A board was placed on the Masonite wheel cover to serve as a bump for the Roller blade wheels to lift each leg up individually as it rolled over the bump.
The wheel cover is tied onto the wheel of the chair with zip ties.
The legs are attached with the Roller blade wheels resting on the Masonite wheel cover.
Additional PVC is added to the front and back with posts to hold up the foam carved head and back end of Antony. The foam is then covered in batting to smooth out the edges.
All the pieces are ready to be painted black.
Black fabric was wrapped and sewn around the foam sculpted head and back end.
The eyes for Antony were made from a clear plastic ball that were spray painted on the inside. The antennae (not shown here) were wooden dowel rods spray painted black and inserted into the top of Antony’s head.
The completed Ant-man and Antony wheelchair costume.
Here is the completed costume in motion.