EASY DIY Optimus Prime Costume (Rescue Bots)

My son Mason who is 3 years old (almost 4), wanted to be Optimus Prime for Halloween. He has been watching Transformers Rescue Bots for a few years now, so I knew I wanted to make the Rescue Bots version. I have made his last two Halloween costumes and I was really excited to make this one!

So I sat down to do some research on it and Googled "DIY Optimus Prime costume" and a bunch of images popped up that seemed really hard to do and also really hard to trick-or-treat in looking quite boxy and hard to move in, so I just used them as inspiration and came up with my own version aka the EASY version!

Supplies:

2 cereal boxes (I used large Cheerios boxes)
1 additional cereal box to be cut up
2 small boxes (I used Keurig k-cup boxes that I had laying around)
Duct tape: red, blue, metallic silver (I found mine on Amazon)
2 empty paper towel rolls
Cotton balls
Black construction paper
Gray paint (I mixed black and white together because that's all I had)
1 pair of blue gloves (I found these on Amazon)
Optimus Prime mask - DIY or store-bought (more on this below)
Optimus Prime logos (printables below)
Plastic for windshield (optional, see below)
Hot Glue Gun
Mod Podge
4 small LED flashlights (optional)
Blue sweatpants (I found mine at Walmart)
Red Shirt (Already owned a red fleece from Kohls)

Instructions:

Body:

 

 

To start, I took 2 large Cheerios boxes and taped them using the red duct tape, making sure the tape was very smooth and little to no wrinkles. I did two layers to make it opaque. 

Then I simply made little shoulder straps out of the red duct tape to make it stay on the shoulders. Note: leave the opening large enough to fit the head through. 

Shoulders:

 

 

I taped 2 Keurig boxes with blue duct tape. Then I taped the shoulders to the body. 

Waist:

 

I taped sides to the body portion using silver duct tape (because I ran out of red), leaving enough space so arms could fit through. Like a shirt, ya know?

Windshield:

 

 

I made the windshield graphic in Photoshop and Cody, who is the main character in the show rescue bots, is sitting inside of Optimus prime. (Click images above to enlarge and save to your computer)

I printed them out, cut them and then used the red duct tape to make a border around the each picture. A detail I added that is optional is using some clear thin plastic, mine was from two cheap IKEA frames I had laying around, as the "glass" for the Windows. It gives it a nice reflection like it's real glass. Totally optional. Then I simply duct taped the Windows to the front of the body. 

Truck grill:

My muse in the background :)

 

I started off by taking a piece of a Cheerios box and I cut out the shape of the grill using my son's toy as reference (you can find a photo online if you don't have a toy). Then I cut little stripes out of the Cheerios box to fit on the shape I made and hot glued them down overlapping them like shingles as I glued them down. Then I cut any excess off the stripes to keep the original shape I made. After that, I created a border and glued that down and trimmed it up again. I was left with a little tiny truck grill which I taped over with metallic silver duct tape and used my fingernails to carve out all of the details underneath the tape. It turned out pretty cool! And again, just tape this down onto the body where you think it looks good. I also added a piece of red duct taped box behind this piece as you can see in the photo above to make it look more like the front of a truck.

Headlights:

Cut out the shapes from cereal box. Tape them with metallic silver duct tape and tape them to either side of the grill. So easy!

Wheels:

 

Cut out 4 circles from a cereal box. The easiest way to get a perfect circle is to trace around a bowl. Do this again with black construction paper. So now you have 4 box wheels and 4 construction paper wheels. 

Using gray paint, paint the wheel details onto the black paper. Be creative ;) 

Also using black paint or a black marker, paint/color the side of the box that will be the back of the wheel. This way both sides will be black. 

Once the black marker/paint is dry, Mod podge the paper wheels to the box wheels (the side that's not painted/colored black) and mod podge over the top of everything too to seal in the design. Let dry. 

To attach the wheels to the sweatpants, I had Mason try on the sweatpants and I figured out where I thought they should go, then had him take them off and hot glued them on. I only put glue vertically down the center and no where else, so the wheels could keep their shape and also stay in place. 

 

I did try to make blue boots out of boxes, but they were awkward and hard to walk in. This version is SO much easier to make and easier for little ones to walk around in for trick-or-treating.

Pipes/exhaust & smoke:

 

Tape around 2 empty paper towel rolls with the metallic silver duct tape. Tape onto back of the body. Add "smoke" using pulled apart cotton balls and hot glue. 

Felt Optimus prime mask (optional):

 

 

I had a lot of felt hanging around my house, so I got a piece of blue/turquoise, yellow, and gray. Using, you guessed it, a cereal box I cut out the shape of the mask then cut out the eyes. I used blue felt as the main color, then add gray and yellow for details. I added an elastic to the back.  

 

To my surprise, Mason didn't want to wear the felt mask on Halloween, he wanted the big heavy Optimus prime voice changer helmet (a $20 eBay find!!) which looked super cool, so I was ok with it. 

 

Logos:

 

 

I added a small logo just above the windshield and a large logo to the left shoulder. The images I used are above. I printed them, cut them out and mod podged them onto the costume. Couldn't be easier!

 

 

Lights (optional):
 

 

I picked up 4 small silver LED flashlights from the Dollar Tree and taped them to the top of the costume. I really think this made the costume come to life!! And bonus, it helped light the way when it got dark during trick or treating plus we knew exactly where Mason was at all times, double bonus!. He loved this extra little feature, I highly recommend doing this! I think I'll add a lighted element to all future Halloween costumes!

 

 

 

The end.

 

That's it! It seems like a lot, but if you pace yourself over about a month, it's super easy! :) Any questions, let me know below in the comments!

XOXO,
Sara