you'll never believe what my mom wants to try....

Me and mom were talking one day and she said "I think I might make a Star Wars costume....."

err.... okay.... I humor her:
"Which one mom? You'd make a great wookie "

She looked at me with a "gee, thanks " on her face.
"Now... I was thinking of making a jabba"

okay, fair enough... I tell her about the prop that the guys here made and she said "no... a real costume.. one I can wear in parades."

I dont think she's kidding

How can I help her follow through with this?
Tim

I admit I was SERIOUSLY worried when I read the title of this thread

Well.... it made you read it, didn't it? :

i don't think jabba is really very conducive to being a costume. he's just too big.

Originally Posted by HeadlessHunter

I admit I was SERIOUSLY worried when I read the title of this thread

Zurath, I'm not trying to discourage you at all, but frankly I don't know if this can be done and made to look like a right and proper Hutt. That is unless you build a float for Jabba to ride on with a latex head/face for your mom to control and forget about trying to emulate the scutes of Jabba's tail. Either way, you've got a lot of work ahead, but good luck with it.

I also think this a HUGE undertaking, I mean ESB Boba Fett is tough enough, but Jabba! And wearable!! I wish you success

All you need is for it to work on a chinese dragon wheels setup. basically the person walks on the inside of the head/body area, and has a trolley style bar to push, with say a 'fly by wire' cable setup on a squeeze trigger on the bars for both hands to control the arms to make them raise and wave at people.

You wont be able to make the head move really, but the tail is easy, but it will move on its own accord however, by framing it with a 2 wheel axle setup (ever pulled trolleys on a rope behind you or seen someone towing a car with a rope and no driver at the back) and they will madly swing side to side like a snake tail you will need to construct it with a metal frame, and you'll need to talk to they guys who made one on here for ideas etc..

Good luck with that

Wow, I am not sure how you guys will pull it off but if you give it a go post updates - I'd really like to see this.
=)
Good luck!

I'm totally stumped, myself....

I'm still not sure if she was seriousy, but I think it would be a cool project for me and her to do.

this shoudl be interesting in the long run...... I'm still trying to figure out if she was joking.....

I can only see this working with some kind of dias with whell that is moved from within jabba (flintstones style). with a skirt around the dias no one will see yer feet. IT might even work as a 2 person costume. One thing for sure if you go through with this you need to add a salacious grub puppet. I hope you get this project going I would love seee a life sized Jabba costume.

Oya manda!!!!!

what I'm wondering about is if the 501st would let it in as a denizen...........

If you could do it well I am sure they would, but I honestly don't see any reasonable way to pull it off without it costing a fortune and taking multiple people to operate it.

Can't convince her to start small eh? Like maybe a sand person?

I've been trying to talk her into a wookie or something, but she's set on a Hutt....

Me, I'm still throwing ideas for a Vader or one of the Fetts..... Once I get RL membership, then I'll work on a 501st character....

I think if it comes down to it...Your gonna hafe to smack her. Just plain and simple. She can't do a Hutt. Just, well, why do that? I'd seriously try and get her to do something else, like realy very ASAP-ish. Make her do something you can wear.

why something I can wear? If she goes Hutt... then a Fett would make more sense for me, no?

I'm going to show her the pics of the NEG's Jabba... see if she likes it.

Anyone have a link to the thread documenting the build of it?

Well, wasn't there Lumpy the wookie in the holiday special, maybe Jabba has a little Hutt, his name is Sluggo, he would just be a smaller version of a Hutt, one she could wear.... Maybe she could do an imperial officer.

Because when shes done with it, you can wear it.

I would say if you still want to make a Hutt... use the idea of a Chinese dragon as your base. I believe the mouth opens and closes on them and the eyes might even move too. Research how they make the frames for these dragon costume and work form there. One of the arms can be made stationary (attached to the chest)... if you ever noticed one of "Big Birds" arms rarely moved. It's because the puppeteer was using that arm to control the mouth while the other moved the active arm.

For the skin cover the frame with a layer of foam and a layer of stretchy material, quilt in a few warts and wrinkles and air brush the colors and details. There was photo of this on the web somewhere.

Of course these are all suggestions and just hypothetical. It's going to take a lot of trial and error but I think it could be pulled off.

start with the dais, Boxspring Frame on wheels. Use muslin like the old Theatre backdrops. This would keep it light. add a couple of light greeblies. I suggest looking at a few of the old vids , I remember a making of clip or vid with how they made the origional. Other than that I would say wire frame covered with something. Saw it done similar in my collage art clas with a horse. It was done very well.... But a LOT of hours were put in.

Fettenstein, that would be the one built by TDH members form the NEG.... I'm using that as a general design base.

I plan on goign with the chinese dragon design.... maybe a ball caster under the tail and around the base of the main body.... I'm just wondering if her knee would be up to walking a 2 mile parade...

Again, I wish you luck man

and again, I'll need it for something of this size.... no pun intended.

Ok, I started to think about this for a second. In Ep I and in Ep 4 SE, you see Jabba walk, well sort of. You might look at building him from that way. Just an out there idea.

Hence the "Chinese dragon" design.

Rig it up so she will be walking with Jabba on a wooden frame. Casters under the frame allow him to move... I'll talk her through the movements and everthing.... the tail will have a jointed skeleton of PVC running through it... with casters along the underside allowing it to move realisticaly.... maybe hooked with a cable running with the PVC to something in the body.... Simoilar to the cheap toy "terminator" hands... left cable pulled, tail swings left... same for the right....

So many ideas are flooding me...

This jsut might end well.

There are some females on this board my friend...ie Mirax....And then you can check out the Zam Wessel posts.

And tell your mother:

The Sniffer welcomes her to this great hobby!