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I designed and built this 10-foot-tall costume for Halloween 2020 for about $100. The head is a giant plastic skull I found at a Halloween store, and I downloaded creepy scary sounds from Spotify and played them on a Bluetooth speaker attached to my waist. Although you can walk around in this costume, I decided riding a Segway would really make it look like the specter was floating down the road or sidewalk.

Project Steps

MAKE THE FRAME

Using 1/2″ PVC pipe, build a tall structure to hold the head. Mount the skeleton hands on the ends of two pipes that you will wave around.

MOUNT TO BACKPACK

Attach the tall PVC pipe frame to a backpack. Wrap it with a cardboard tube, with cutouts for the ribs, to make the body. A camping lantern inside the ribs can provide a nice glow.

COVER IT UP 

Drape the whole thing in white linen to obscure your figure and make the arms appear to be attached.

It took a little practice to wear the costume without crashing — it’s very top heavy — and riding the Segway was a challenge: turning, starting, stopping, moving the arms, watching where I’m going, etc. But with 20 minutes of practice during daylight hours I was ready for Halloween!

Conclusion

This article appeared on our community projects site makeprojects.com and in Make: Volume 82.