Star Wars Tauntaun Costume: Hoth or Bust!

November 15th, 2009 by: Technabob

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I’ve seen some pretty impressive geek costumes over the years, but this one might just take the cake. This precision-engineered Tauntaun costume has to be way up there at the top of the list.

Created by Scott Holden for the recent Zone Ball in Sacramento, this Tauntaun not only looks great, it actually walks. Scott modeled out the original plan for the behemoth costume using SolidWorks, and then built out a stilt mechanism to stand on while walking around in it. And no, those aren’t the rider’s real legs dangling there on either side – they’re actually hidden inside standing on the stilts.

He built the Tauntaun’s main body using PVC pipe and fabricated custom stilts with snowboard bindings to hold the wearer’s feet and legs in place while walking.

Scott created a custom silicone mold for the head, and airbrushed the details on a final foam cast form. To give the beast its fuzzy coat, Scott covered it with layers of faux fur, fastened to the body with zip-ties.

Check out the video below to see the costume in action:

You can check out the complete build log here. All I can say is wow.

[via Make:]