LEGO Armorer Costume (The Mandalorian)
| A new Sci-Fi convention was supposed to start in 2022 that would feature a guest from the Mandalorian/Boba Fett shows. At the time I started thinking about doing a Din Djarin and the Armorer costumes for my wife and son. Unfortunately the convention got canceled before I started either costume. I really liked the design of the Armorer so the idea kicked around in my head for months. I made the decision to make this costume but I wanted to finish Charizard and LEGO Mario first since they were more important for the con. I had already lost valuable build time due to a water leak in my house that had me in a hotel for 5 weeks in March/April. On May 2nd, I was asked about showing off a costume on a local TV show to help promote Tidewater Comicon. Last year I had shown LEGO Moon Knight so I wanted to show something newer. Daredevil had only been seen at Hampton Comicon but they already had a Daredevil cosplayer signed up for this appearance. I agreed to show off the LEGO Armorer despite the fact that I hadn’t started the costume. The TV appearance was on May 15th. Fortunately I was able to take 2 days off from work so I started the costume on May the Fourth (great way to celebrate Star Wars Day). I tried to balance my time between Mario, Charizard, and the Armorer to get it all done. This gave me 11 days to make the costume with 1 of those days dedicated to picking up my daughter from college. 10 days to make the costume… I’ve done a costume in less time. | ||
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| The hammer is a significant prop for this costume. I traced the head of the hammer from a reference picture I found on the internet. Using 3/4″ PVC pipe, I made a core for the hammer. I then wrapped layers of foam around the PVC pipe to get a bigger diameter for the hammer head. When I made the hands for the costume, I put two screws in the hammer’s handle and drilled two holes into the PVC “palm” of the right hand. I then used a Dremel with a cutting blade to create two smaller diameter tracks off of the drilled holes. The idea was to slide the head of the screws into the two holes and then twist the hammer through the grooves to lock it in place. The hammer could be removed for weapons check or if the hammer became a problem (bumping into people or accidentally hitting someone). Fortunately the hammer was not a problem and stayed mounted on the hand all the way through the convention on May 20th. | ||
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 | I wish I had more in progress pictures of the helmet. Since I was on a time crunch, I didn’t take a break and document the build as much as I would like. I have one picture showing how I made the bottom half of the helmet. This was glued to a dome top. I made half of a LEGO head peg, that was glued inside of the dome/visor combo. After finishing the helmet, I got real concerned about it being too big and even thought about trimming it down. Once the torso was built, I realized that it was a little too big but still close to the proportions of a LEGO head and torso. | |
 | With less than 12 hours to spare, I finished the Armorer costume on Sunday the 14th. During a commercial break, the host even mentioned the smell of recent spray paint. Unfortunately the fur that I had ordered arrived 1 day too late to make it on the costume for the TV appearance. It was added in time for the convention. | |
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| If I had more time with this costume, I may have added sound to say phrases like “this is the way” or phrases about bathing in the waters below the mines of Mandalore whenever we spotted a Mandalorian without their helmet on. There were plenty of Mandalorians walking around and we got some pics with some at the Mandalorian Mercs table. | ||
