Where to start?

I am planning on making a full Transformers costume for TFCon. I'm not exactly sure as who yet, but I'm narrowing down the ideas and possibilties. This will be my first non-human cosplay, so I'm not sure where I should start then to ask you guys. I know I've browsed the tutorials on here and I do want to do the fabric over foam method. Other then vinyl, what materials do you recommend? How much craft foam should I invest in getting? What kind of glues should I get? Is there anything else I need to know before I begin to draw out this costume and start it?

Some of the ideas I had to do my first costume:

G1! Bumblebee
G1! Rumble
G1! Prowl
Animated! Perspector
Animated! Swindle
Rescue Bot! Chase
Beast Wars! Cheetor
Prime! Ironhide
Prime! Vehicon

Of course, I have a lot of other ideas, but I think these are probably my top ones. So what costume do you think would be the easiest to start for my first? All input would be appreciated! Thanks~!

I would love to see Rescue Bot Chase.

As far as amount of materials, it would be a good idea to start with your measurements so you can figure that out. I think hot glue is OK for craft foam, although I personally have no experience with it.

I have heard several of the costumers on here say that 4 way stretch spandex is better for the fabric choice as it is more forgiving.

I let others put in their 2 cents worth though.

As for characters, my vote goes to Cheetor.

Nobody can really tell you how much of a material you're going to need because we don't know what the design is or what your measurements are, but for Mirage I think I used no more than 5 yards of 60" fabric. Of course that's with mistakes, and having some left over.

As for foam, if I didn't make a single mistake on Samus, I would use less than 32 square feet (a 4x8" sheet). But that's a pretty form-fitting suit, too, which TFs rarely are.

Hot glue works best on the high-density closed-cell foams when it's really hot, because it melts the foam itself.

Also, moved to Costume Discussion.

Thank you so far for your votes. As for craft foam, can I buy it in huge rolls? All I ever see is the small sheets at Joanns.

I bought my roll from here: http://www.closedcellfoams.com/minicel.html

1/4" thick, 2LB weight, 2 full sheets. They actually sent me the wrong thing, and then the correct product wound up taking too long to get here, so they sent another, which wound up leaving me with 120 square feet of foam for $50. A little bit of a hassle, but way more than worth it in the end.

The thicker sheets you see at Joann's are actually 3/16" in thickness, and the 1/16th inch difference is actually noticeable (for me, anyway, probably also due to whatever difference in density there is between the craft foam and minicel). If 1/4" is too thick, you might try their volara: http://www.closedcellfoams.com/volara.html Volara isn't as silky smooth in texture as the rubber foams, though, and not as dense.

Foam Mart seems to have revamped their site, so I'll find out what/where everything is when I can go into their actual store and ask. Right now I can't make much sense of what's there based on the product names...

You might try calling up these guys too: http://www.foamorder.com/closedcell.html

Thanks. The only problem now is trying to decide who do so I can start sketching up the costume!

My recommendation is to pick a character that is more boxy. Those are a little easier to do for a first time mech costume. My first costume was G1 Swindle, who was basically boxes. For the helmet, it's easier to use a plastic kid's helmet of some kind to base your work around. You can try either US Toy or Oriental Trading for cheap plastic helmets.

Yeah, Cheetor would probably be one of the harder costumes to make on that list. I think the Prime ones would be too, though. Geewun is probably the best place to start if you haven't done these before.

I would be ALL OVER Swindle or a Vehicon. Of course, knowing my previous rigs, I am biased. >____>

Haha, Mirai.

Rumble should be fairly easy, even though he has some rounded parts, but those shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

I have a friend who made Frenzy for her son, but I don't know if she is still on this forum or not.

Megagirl? Naw, she left the forum back sometime last year. I do miss her snd her adorable son, but because of internal personal issues between us and ECC, I am hesitant to make contact.

I think I can figure out the issues and who with. :/

That's too bad but her work log is still up, isn't it?

*nods* She's a genius.

http://z4.invisionfree.com/transcostumers/...p?showtopic=713

Ah, so that stuff that happened was related to a particular group (and their politics)? Learn something new everyday! Anyways...

But yes, about logs of members who leave on less than friendly terms, I keep a particular eye out on them for a time after the falling out to see if there are any... preservation efforts that need to be made so their information is still easy to find. Thankfully, no one's bothered to do any such deleting of stuff.

Um you /could/ say that. Or just say things were getting clique-ish and some of us being essentially excluded. Which led to a big blow up.

But anyway, LadyBug, take a look at her work log if you decide on Rumble. Or even if you don't, there are a lot of good ideas there.

Y'know we're here for you, Firebird~

We try as hard as possible to not be clique-ish, and as far as I am aware, we never from upon anyone no matter where they are in this world. c: We've never turned away members either. Like, ever-ever.

Unless they are trolls.

Dem can just GTFO.

Thanks guys. I've always felt at home here.

Er - hate to ask, but keep it on topic please. This is my first major costume. I need all the help I can get.

Naw, sorry love. We shoulda bounced away with the off-topic-ness.

Still rooting for Swindle and Vehicon here-! I need either of them for Lockdown/Breakdown photos.

If you do go with a boxier character, I highly recommend having some sort of cooling system in place, or some way to get out of the costume quickly if need be. Prolly wouldn't hurt to have some sort of water delivery system in place to keep from getting dehydrated.

Reason I suggest this is that I had a costume I wore to a convention (back when I was more heavily into mainstream anime) that lead, along with a few other factors that all fall under the "Den is a Derp" category, to my almost passing out in the middle of a crowded ballroom. Nothing ruins a con experience like having EMTs fussing over you.

What would you call Swindle's main color? To me, it kind of looks like a toss between gold and mustard yellow.

When I made my Swindle figure, I kept the clay in a tin I labeled 'peanut butter'. So...brown-ish? I made it with a lot of orange and just a little bit of blue, I think...so...I'd go with orange-y brown, then.

I would consider Swindle to be tan or khaki, personally.