If you need a simple idea for Halloween, you could use giant sheets of posterboard to become Pac-Man and some of his ghosts. If you wanted to take that to the next level, do what Instructables user techy101 did and build Pac-Man so that he can chomp everything in his path. He even built in speakers so he could play sounds from the game. He built a frame from PVC pipe and constructed the sides of the costume from cardboard. Here’s how he built the mouth (spoilers: it wasn’t simple):
The mouth was the bane of my existence for this project. I built two smaller pizza slice shaped frames that sat just inside of the main outer frame. I built a jig out of screws on my work bench to bend the CPVC in and then used a heat gun to make them hold the shape.
Once the two “jaws” were built, I installed them with steel wire and electrical tape at the back corner. This allowed them to be flexible, but to also hold in place.
For the movement I installed pulleys using steel wire and electrical tape, and fed the rope though them. This took the better part of a week to get working properly, so patience is a virtue. I didn’t want to have to open the mouth back up, so I also attached Thera-Bands to act as a retraction mechanism. After some tweaking they worked beautifully.
The jaws did have a problem with recessing too far into the suit, so I added “stops” for them.
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