Tree Monster Costume Project Idea

 

This Morlock 2001 comic book I had in my collection had always planted into the back of my mind how cool it would be to actually make that plant monster as a costume.

For the precious few who follow my blog I'll give the heads up that I plan on doing just that this coming winter. We are only just getting into our spring now and after completing the Alien Mummy and Sarcophagus I'm already thinking ahead for another cool winter project. Ah hell, I figure it beats sitting in front of a video game all winter, so what the heck. Just like the Alien Sarcophagus it's something I've wanted to do ever since I was a kid.

So I've already started to think about what I want to make it out of, it can't be paper mache like the Alien Mummy and Sarcophagus as it's going to need to have some flexibility being a costume one can wear. So far my thought is along the lines of foam rubber and silicone, lot's and lots of silicone as I know I can get a pretty cool looking tree / bark texture with that.

The chest area looks like quite a mess of almost 'root-like' structures so I can probably use a combination of foam pipe insulation and round weather stripping or seal as that stuff comes in a few different thicknesses which will be perfect for making anything 'root-like.' Most of the main body shape I should be able to fabricate out of sheet foam rubber say one inch thick to give it some good rigidity but still have some flexibility even when coated with silicone spread all over and made to look tree-bark like. I'll probably be using a large toothed plastic comb to spread the silicone onto the foam rubber form and use it to blend in the roots.

So far I'm not sure how I want to do the hands, like if I want to make them much larger than human hands like the illustrations suggest, and if I'm going to go that rout I'll most likely need to make some sort of mechanical hand that can be made to open and close using wires and then fit that into the foam rubber hand like a glove. That will involve some metal work, most likely aluminum which I'm quite capable of doing and best of all it's cheap enough to buy what I need from places like Canadian Tire or Home Depot.

Also not sure yet how to approach the extra tendril-like appendages that look like they come from his sides. Might end up making them move as the arms move, again probably with some sort of cable through a light weight structure that can be manipulated a little, thinking of the way they did the Face Hugger tail in the ALIEN movies as I figure it would work quite well. 

In any event I have the whole summer to gather supplies and think about the details. So keep posted if you are interested on if I actually do it.... we'll see ;)