We are HUGE Disney fans in our house and we especially love Toy Story. For a while, Toy Story was my son’s absolute favorite movie. So naturally we were excited when my son wanted to be Buzz Lightyear for Halloween. Okay, that was partly my idea but he was excited nonetheless, and so were we. Since we had such a fun time creating our Hot Air Balloon Wagon Costume the previous year we decided to continue the tradition and create our very own Toy Story Wagon Costume.
Once we decided on Toy Story as our annual family theme we were faced with the dilemma of what to use use as our wagon. There was nothing from the movie that stood out at first to me. I wanted something instantly recognizable and after some thought RC was a perfect choice. Since we had been watching Toy Story on repeat that year I knew the movie well and I was quite confident I could make a life size RC car and have our very own Toy Story Wagon Costume.
To gain some inspiration for RC I gathered lots of pictures, my son’s RC car, our Toy Story DVD and began my design.
The Materials
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For this costume you will need:
- A Power Wheels Car, Wagon, or Stroller
- PVC Pipe, fittings, and ratcheting tool
- Foam Board
- Styrofoam Balls
- Insulating Foam Spray
- Pool Noodles
- Felt – Green, Light Blue, Dark Blue, White, Red, Grey, and Purple
- Power Wheels Tires
- Industrial Hot Glue Gun
- Spray Adhesive
The Base
We really loved using our Mickey Mouse Power Wheels Car the previous year. It moved well, was easy to push, and perfectly contained our son so we started with that as our base. We really learned a lot from making our first Wagon Costume. We used the same process and many of the same materials for our Toy Story Wagon Costume.
The Frame
The next thing we did was create a frame for our car using PVC pipe and fittings. We shaped this frame a little differently than our Hot Air Balloon car frame. For RC we made a sloped front by angling the PVC pipe downward using the PVC fittings to create an angle. We also attached fittings to the front of the frame to later attach RC’s grill and also attached fittings in the back to attach the spoiler.
Car Body
To give RC some shape we created an overlay to the car using foam board. We put the board together using screws and an industrial hot glue gun. After assembling the foam into a car body I used a sanding block and sanded off any hard edges (this is messy, do this outside) to shape the body a little more like RC. Finally, I cut half circles where the tires were.
Tires & Axle
I really wanted this Wagon Costume to look like RC. RC has very large tires that extend past the width of the car body. We needed big tires but most of the options I was finding through my internet search were either too heavy or too expensive. I knew Power Wheels tires would be perfect for this costume. I went straight to Craigslist and found a Power Wheels car that was no longer working which was perfect because I just wanted it for the wheels.
Once I brought home my broken Power Wheels car I tossed everything but the wheels. I then spray painted them black and red like RC.
Pop created an axle by using smaller PVC pipe and black elbow connectors.
We attached the tires by inserting the axle through the side of the foam, and then slid the axle between the foam and PVC frame. To hold it in place we added insulation foam spray. We then secured the axle to the frame using clear zip ties.
Spoiler
We had already put fittings in place on the frame so that we could attach the spoiler to the car. To fit the poles onto the car we also cut 4 holes into the top of the foam of the car body. Next, we began creating the spoiler. The spoiler poles were cut so that two were longer than the others in order to give the spoiler an angle.
To attach the PVC pipe to the foam board of the spoiler we first screwed 4 PVC fittings to the foam board. Then, we used our industrial hot glue gun to secure the PVC fittings that we had just screwed in. Finally, we were able to attach the PVC pipe to the fittings. We placed the two longer ones in the back.
Grill
We created RC’s mouth, the grill, by attaching two pool noodles together using PVC pipe. First, we measured out how long we wanted RC’s grill. Next, we trimmed down one of the noodles to get the grill to the size we wanted.
We then cut a third noodle into 4 equal pieces and attached them to the grill using PVC pipe and fittings .
After assembling the grill I covered it with blue felt. I secured the felt by using spray adhesive and hot glue along the edges.
We secured the pool noodle grill to the car by attaching fittings to the back of the grill which we were able to connect to the PVC pipe we had already installed onto our frame.
The grill could be taken off and on for traveling.
Decoration and Styling
I really wanted to spray paint this car. I was set on it actually. My dad, however, knew that there was no way we would get a smooth look by painting the car. He suggested we use felt instead. I wasn’t too happy about changing my painting plan at first but ultimately this was a great decision. We covered the body of RC and the spoiler with green felt. I added white, light blue, and dark blue felt onto the car body and spoiler to mimic RC’s design.
For the eyes I covered two half circle styrofoam balls with green felt.
Next, I placed white and blue felt over top of the green to create the eyes. I then inserted a plastic stick into the bottom of the eye. Finally, I was able to insert them into the car body after making a hole in the felt.
Buzz Wings
To create Buzz’s wings I used foam board for the main part of Buzz’s wings. On each side of the wings I used a foam cylinder. I tried to model the wings closely to Buzz Lightyear’s actual wings and used felt to create the design.
I attached the felt using spray adhesive and hot glue. Then, I added elastic straps to the board so the wings could be worn as a backpack. The wings were very big and the elastic didn’t keep them on very well. To solve this problem I added a green velcro strip to go across my sons chest.
When my son was was not driving the car he could wear the wings.
When he was in the car we placed the wings in between the 4 spoiler bars. While challenging, this costume was so much fun to make. I will always cherish our memories from making our second wagon costume!
