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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.

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A Peacock Princess

When we were first contacted by Raygan’s parents, Raygan wasn’t sure which type of costume she wanted. She had been looking at our website of sketches and was drawn to the Cinderella Pumpkin Coach design. However, she had always had a love for Peacocks. So we suggested making something original for her that would be a Peacock Princess. 

Raygan loved the idea and we went to work starting on sketches and color patterns for her new chariot. We knew that everything would be based on the colors and designs of a peacock feather, so we gathered as many actual feathers that we could, and then fabric and felt that matched the colors the closest. All of the supplies were brought to one of our workshops where we had numerous volunteers working on multiple costumes. The team began assembling the parts of the costume.    

First step was to build a light PVC frame for the peacock throne that wouldn’t interfere with Raygan’s ability to drive her chair.  

Next, we cut out as many teardrop shapes of the different colors of felt. (Saphire, blue, emerald, and kelly green)    

We assembled them with hot glue into feather like patterns for the back of the chair as well as wheel covers.      

We began adding the actual peacock feathers on top of the felt teardrops.    

While all the pieces were being assembled, we also had some volunteers working on the peacock tule skirt that Raygan would wear. It featured an elastic waste band that Raygan would wear over bright blue leggings.  

Finally, the assembly began and putting it all together on the wheelchair.    

With all the pieces in place, here is the (almost) completed costume for Raygan. 

Before we shipped the costume, we decided that the costume needed a bit more bling. So in the photos below, you will see how jewels were added to many places on the costume. These were hot glued onto the felt parts of the costume and really helped elevate the costume to “princess” status for Raygan’s Peacock Princess. 

The final costume was shipped to Raygan and she loved it. She ended up winning a local costume contest with it. Congratulations, Raygan!!!

[walkinrollin]

Baymax from “Big Hero 6″

The Baymax costume was a bit of a technical experiment. We wanted to give the illusion that Baymax was flying and the child was dressed as Hiro riding on Baymax’s back, just like in the movie. But how do you make a 6 foot tall costume lay horizontally and be stable? We learned a lot of new techniques while building this costume. Here is how we did it.  

We needed a way to attach the frame work to Reese’s wheelchair. We created 6 attachment points since we were also using the wheelchair armrests for the last 2 points of attachment. 2 painted connection points at the bottom front, and 4 painted connection points for the back of the wheelchair.      

A PVC frame for the front of the wheelchair.  

Experimented with a 3D paper model to create the head of Baymax, and a paper model of the chest of Baymax ended up being too small to fit the frame we built. We needed to scale up the model to 128%.    

Building out the chest, head, hips and one thigh out of floor mat foam.   

Most parts completed and glued. Ready for sanding, priming, and painting.  

Baymax head 2.0. The head was too small and the detail was not as good. So we rebuilt it to match the scale of the rest of the body. We added a foam head inside the helmet to help keep the form.   

Pink insulation foam board were used for support in the legs. They are lightweight and rather sturdy. The costume began to take shape as we assembled it onto a wooden frame built to match the size and dimensions of the wheelchair.    

After caulking all the seams, we now started painting them red.    

All the red parts get their first coat of many coats of paint.  

Black fingers getting ready for fist bumps. Feet, joints and knees were painted black.    

A finished helmet, and the hands are assembled. Reese shows off his completed Baymax helmet.    

As we worked on the mechanism to hold the wings and support the weight of the arms, we needed to build a wooden frame in the chest of Baymax.    

Some assembly required. The neck was built to get just the right angle for Baymax’s head.  

The legs are built up from the ground.  

Completed legs with hips. Foam insulation is sticking out the top.  

Added spray foam inside the arms to fill in all the holes. Once the spray foam stopped expanding and hardened, we trimmed it back and then painted it black.    

The completed Baymax costume still on the temporary frame to match the wheelchair.  

When the costume is standing upright, it is quite tall. I am 6 foot tall just for reference.  

Add two tap lights to the feet with velcro. $4.00 for both lights. Almost a no-brainer to go this route to make the feet light up.  

Added some purple to complete the look. The finished costume made its debut at Kansas City Comic Con 2015.

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Building a Time Machine

One of the most iconic vehicles in movie history, is the “Back to the Future” Delorean. So building a wheelchair costume that captured the look and feel of this piece of nostalgia was a little daunting at first. But here is how we did it for 2 year old Noah. 

The first step was to build a base for the costume to sit on that wouldn’t interfere with Noah’s ability to drive his chair around. Since his chair didn’t use armrests, there were limited places to attach the costume. So we used a 1″ x 4″ board running under Noah’s chair that rested on his footrest and over the axle of his back wheels. The board was bolted through the slits in his footrest to lock it down. Then a PVC frame was built around the chair and over the back of his seat. We also built a shelf in the back for all of the time traveling components. This PVC frame allows for the shell of the Delorean to be screwed into the PVC pipes and not into his wheelchair.  

The shell of the Delorean was made out of 1/4 inch Bebond with an aluminum coating to one side. This gave the Delorean the stainless steel look while keeping the weight very low. We also added lawn mower wheels to the PVC frame, pointed down to give the illusion of the Delorean when it was flying in the 2nd movie. We could have used larger wheels to make the proportions better, but we wanted to make sure the costume would still fit through a doorway if needed. That determined how big of wheels we could use. Under the wheels, we added tap lights for nighttime effects, and blue cellophane for added blue lights. 

The next step involved adding the shelf of black foam board in the back, and grey foam board cut and folded to make the back end of the Delorean. We also added the hood to the Delorean made out of the same Bebond as the sides. The grill and front end of the car were also made of foam board. The side panels and hood were the only parts of the costume made with Bebond to help reduce the overall weight of the costume.    

Now that the initial shape and design of the costume were in place, it was time for all the details. The back fins were made completely out of black foam board and then hot glued together. They were shaped to simply slide down on top of the back end of the Delorean so they didn’t need to be glued to it. (This also allowed for the costume to come apart and easily shipped.) 

Different sized black boxes were made for the back to give some depth to all the components in the back. The Flux Capacitor was 3-D printed and made for a great touch of detail. An old vacuum cleaner hose helped as well. 

The next step were to make the graphics for the front and back of the Delorean. These were made in Adobe Illustrator and then printed as vinyl stickers to apply to the costume. They went on perfectly and added helped give a level of polish to the costume.    

Next step was to add the details and lights. We used blue foam board to make the glowing panels in the front and back. Then we ran battery powered lights behind the blue boards and as the tubes of lights running down the sides of the Delorean. The tube lights were attached with black Command Strip hooks (not in the pictures below). That way it was easy to remove all the lights for shipping and storing, but the Command Strip hooks stayed in place to you always knew where to put the lights back. Old computer cables were used wrapped in the same glowing mesh as the tube lights and plugged in to different sections in the back. The more things going on in the back, the better.    

The final costume with Noah and all the lights on. Noah made an amazing Marty McFly.

[walkinrollin]

The Butterfly Queen

When Zaylee first approached us at a convention about making a costume for her wheelchair, she wasn’t sure what she wanted it to be. But a few hours later, she returned to our booth so excited because she had come up with the perfect costume. She always had a love for butterflies and wanted to know if we could do a butterfly costume with butterflies all over. So we immediately got started on ideas. 

First thing we needed to do was come up with a concept. We knew that we wanted to do something very nature centered and woodsy. We didn’t want to use any panels of foam board or anything that would take away from that concept.  

Zaylee was thrilled with our initial sketch, but we knew this was just a simple concept idea that would have much more going on than just what was in the sketch. That would come later as a surprise for Zaylee. 

“The Butterfly Queen” costume was one of the costumes assembled during our workshop. We had plenty of volunteers willing to help on this one, and we needed them. We planned on assembling by hand, over 100 butterflies made of wire and different swatches of iridescent fabrics. This was a time consuming process but with all the volunteers, it went pretty fast as an assembly line process.   

Another group of volunteers were working on assembling the sticks and twigs together to make a frame work for all of the butterflies to be attached to on the wheelchair. There were round pieces made to go around the wheels. Then the completed butterflies were added to the sticks and spokes of the wheelchair. 

A fan of sticks were assembled to be on the back of the wheelchair looking almost like a throne for the Butterfly Queen. This fan extended above where Zaylee’s head would be so that butterflies could be surrounding her.     

After the costume was fully assembled, Zaylee was able to see it for the first time. What she didn’t know was that we added multiple fiber optic lights to the costume. There were fiber optic butterflies clips that she was able to wear in her hair. There was a butterfly crown for the queen that had lights on it. She even received butterfly wings that had fiber optics running through them as well. The entire costume looked great in the daylight, but it looked completely different at night with all of the fiber optics lighting her up.  

Thank you to the volunteers who helped assemble this Butterfly Queen for Zaylee.

[walkinrollin]

Inspired by Your Generosity and Willingness to Help

2016 has been all about growth. In the past 6 weeks, we have doubled the number of volunteers willing to help out. We have raised more money for additional costumes in the last month, than we raised the prior 11 months combined. We have been featured on radio stations nationwide, and television stations worldwide. We have been approached about setting up our first franchise location in Louisiana, and we have our first volunteers signed up from Europe. I never imagined this little non-profit we started in January 2015, would touch so many people. Thank you, to everyone. 

#GIVINGTUESDAY  Over the past few days, we have been showcasing some of the costumes we built this Halloween. These have been for #GivingTuesday which is today, November 29th. This is to help promote this day as a day of giving to a charity. Please help us spread the message and let people know about Walkin’ & Rollin’ Costumes and what we do for kids. We have been running this campaign on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram sites. 

I look forward to 2017 and all of the new opportunities that will open up for Walkin’ & Rollin’ Costumes. I want to thank everyone for their continued support and help in sharing with others what we do. It’s through everyone’s excitement that we have been able to grow in the way that we have and the more kids we can help, the better. We have some “BIG” things planned for next year, so be sure and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to get the latest information. 

www.WalkinRollin.org 

Thank you, Lon Davis Owner Walkin’ & Rollin’ Costumes

[walkinrollin]

An Amazing and Humbling First Year

It has been one year since we launched Walkin’ & Rollin’ Costumes and had our lives changed for the better. We didn’t know what kind of attention or impression we would make on the world. We hoped we would get some smiles from the kids that we helped, but we never expected the amount of love and support that came our way. We were humbled every step of our journey. 

In January 2015, we decided to take our love of building wheelchair costumes for our son and expand it to start making costumes for other kids in wheelchairs and walkers. We were asked to showcase our work at Planet Comicon in Kansas City. So for the first few months, we worked on many designs for costumes and built a special costume our son to wear at Planet Comicon. Our booth featured multiple costumes on display, plus posters of many more costumes we had made over the years. We hoped to send a little spark into the city letting people know that we build these costumes for kids in walkers and wheelchairs, free of charge to the families. Every single person that stopped by our booth was amazed at what we were taking on, and each one of them opened their wallets to make a donation, or to sign up to help build the costumes later that year. We were amazed by the generosity of the Planet Comicon attendees. We were even featured on the evening news and made national headlines. 

We launched a Kickstarter campaign in the summer, to help fund the cost of 5 costumes for kids in special needs equipment. We were hoping to raise $1,000 over 30 days. We ended up achieving that goal in only 2 days!!! We announced that the more money we raised, the more costumes we would be able to build. We ended up raising just under $3,000!!! We were featured again on websites and even in a few European print magazines.

We were honored to be invited to the Kansas City Comic Con in August where we debuted our most ambitious costume yet, the Baymax costume from Disney’s “Big Hero 6” movie. Our son wore the costume for three days and loved all the attention he was getting. We received even more attention and it helped us recruit artists from the comic con floor to design new costumes for us. We received many more donations and had more volunteers sign up for our upcoming costume builds. 

By the end of August, we had selected 10 kids from the many that sent requests in, that we were building custom designed costumes for their wheelchairs. We sketched out the designs and had the parents approve them. Then we had our first Costume Workshop hosted by the Kansas City Woodworkers Guild. They donated a large space for us to build 6 costumes with about 35-40 volunteers from all ages. We had a second workshop where we finished out the remaining 4 costumes and had them all either shipped to the families or delivered locally.

All of the families had their costumes well before Halloween and sent us pictures and letters of smiling children, laughing in their costumes. It was amazing to help out, even in such a small way. Some of those costumes even won costume contests for the children.

Right before Halloween, we received another special gift. Finding My Way Books had been working on a children’s book about our son, Reese, and the costumes we build for him. The book was finished and is now at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. It is titled, “Reese Has A Halloween Secret” and it shows our entire process of how we come up with a costume idea, our research on how to build it, how we gather the supplies and how we all work together as a family to build the costume for our son. This same process is what we do with every costume from Walkin’ & Rollin’ Costumes. We take pride in what we do and hope to grow into a larger non-profit company for 2016.

Our goals for 2016 are to find more volunteers willing to help, feature additional workshops where volunteers can come and learn how to build these costumes for these kids, have additional artists around the globe help design these amazing costumes, raise additional funds to help support this endeavor and hopefully some corporate sponsors willing to sponsor 1, 2 or more costumes. 

Last year we made 10 costumes, but there were many more requests that came in. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the resources or volunteers to help make all of them. We hope to get to a point where we don’t have to turn kids away and can easily make each costume for each special child.  

Help us achieve our goal for 2016 by donating, volunteering and sharing our story on social media. Find out more about Walkin’ & Rollin’ Costumes at www.WalkinRollin.org. 

Thank you, 

Lon Davis Owner Walkin’ & Rollin’ Costumes