BabaGeek: Halloween 2009, Yoshi Mascot Costume - The Head

Here I am, I have not forgotten my destructoid crew... nor the costumes for my kids. This is just the start of the story.


After some research and careful planning we decided on making a Yoshi mascot costume. A mascot costume being something a little more than just your average suit. Yeah I could have just tweaked a dinosaur costume, or made a yoshi hat, but I like a challenge, and I wanted it to be proportional. The other reason I thought I could pull this off is I have my mother-in-law helping me with the sewing (and she is awesome at it). This would be a combined build of ingenuity and tailoring.

I am a fairly good 3d artist so I felt confident that I could recreate Yoshi based on some imagery I found online, along with some drawings I made for sizing purposes.

With the head being the most challenging part I started with it. After the success of last years costumes I knew that I wanted to make the costume fuzzy and cute. So it was going to get covered in fabric again. I decided to construct the head out of wire and plastic mesh for the foundation.


I started with the front view outline and then slowly built up a wire frame of Yoshi's head. This took a few hours (not to bad).


I then cut out the plastic mesh to lay over the wire frame and attached it by weaving a thin wire. This took FOREVER. Looking back I might have just been able to use yarn.


All the while I was testing the fit on my boy... but... I didn't really let him carry the weight until I got towards the end. It was heavy for him. It was a little over two pounds, and when you weigh just 32 pounds... that's heavy. I hadn't worked on the mounting or anything yet, so I figured it just needed to be stabilized.

My solution? I thought 2lbs was too much for his head to support, so I decided to let it rest on his shoulders and then have a stiff harness system that would come down his chest/back and attach to a belt.


What the hell was I thinking. Well... I was thinking that I have just spent a long time and I didn't want it to go to waste. I probably could have added a head support system to help. But at this point I was feeling like a terrible Baba for making my son wear such a monster of a head, and it didn't even have its skin yet. It would be great for someone that is older, but for my 4 year old... yeah, not a solution.

This video should get the point across...



After sulking about my failed first attempt I tried to talk to my son about choosing a different costume. The conversation went something like this:

"We might have to do something else for your costume" I said.

"Why?" he responded.

"Because this is too big and heavy for you."

"You will make it lighter baba." stating with complete confidence.

"I don't think I can make this one lighter." Feeling pretty low at this point.

"You can do it." As he walks away.

This was one of the first times I really got to see how my son looks up to me and thinks that I can do anything. I remember feeling that way about my dad, mom, and older brothers. What was I to do? Shatter that image at 4 yrs old, or man up and figure it out. I obviously choose the latter.

So I got to researching and after some good advice and more idea's I started over... with precious little time left.