Pumpkins aren’t just for carving. You can turn foam pumpkins into masks and make them into characters – pirate pumpkin, ninja pumpkin, etc. – or do what Instructables user mikhalchuk did and create a mutant cyborg pumpkin costume! He incorporated electronics and embellishments to become a walking, glowing, gun-toting, scary pumpkin. And it all started with a pumpkin lamp from Target. Mikhalchuk cut out the lamp’s bulb and used a rotary tool to cut out random pieces of the pumpkin. He used aluminum sheeting to make the teeth and got really resourceful with the cyber additions:
From previous Halloween experience I know there is not much air behind this mask, so I also added a fan underneath its nose. It wasn’t necessary this time, but I think I’ll turn it on later.
From the same box of burned computer parts I took the CD Drive head assembly. It has these cool gears and moving laser head. Fortunately a DC motor powered both, so I figured I could use that as a cover for the right eye and even move it with short pulses to the DC motor in the future mods. I mounted this piece on standoffs right over the eye (the pumpkin eye, not human).
For the other pumpkin eye I chose ancient not-working webcamera. It’s spherical design is still used in many modern cameras, so it doesn’t make much difference what model it is as far as it resembled eye. I also glued in a flashlight instead of actual camera, painter it black with red arteries all the way around it. That camera is mounted on servo with the same idea to animate it in the future versions.
Since the head has so many features to control and power a thick cable is required for powering it. It enters the helmet from the bottom-right part of it and I used a bottle cap to make it enter the helmet cool way. This time I actually glued in not just the cap, but also the portion of the bottle it is screwed on. This way I can get better access to the place where all wires are soldered, plug have another cool costume feature. I also noticed for the future projects that this connection makes an excellent waterproof solution for places where you need removable cables to enter dry compartment.
He worked in several LEDs to illuminate the cyborg features and added EL wire throughout the costume.
Learn more about the build at Instructables.