Prototype Big Daddy

Source: Bioshock 2

Worn to:  MCM London Expo May 2010, Minamicon 16

Worn by: Matthew Felder

Awards: Best Powertools, sponsered by Black and Decker Minami 16

Inspiration for this costume

Matt really liked this character when playing Bioshock 2, so when I said about my plan to make a Big Sister we decided to make it a group.

Making Details

The helmet, tank and other metal parts are all made from plastazote and painted with latex. I needed this costume to be as lightweight as possible, but even with that is was heavy! There are two fans in the helmet which keeps the wearer cool.

All the lights in the costume are made from soldering LED’s myself. The biggest challenge in this costume was containing the liquids in the tanks on the back. I used bubble bath for the liquids in the end- they gave the right colours and consistency. For expo I scrapped the liquid in the tanks and replaced it with reflective card- it made the costume much lighter and less of a risk during transport.

The drill was made using plastazote with a rod support down the middle. It was powered by a cordless screwdriver so it would be easy to rotate in either direction. The glowing hand was made with LED’s set into hot glue to diffuse the light.

Final Thoughts

I wasn’t happy with the proportions of this costume as the helmet was made separately to Matt. We reduced the size considerably for expo, but Matt’s body shape is too tall to really wear this. We could pad him out with foam, but then the costume would be too hot to wear comfortably. There aren’t many pictures of this costume as we didn’t get a chance to do a proper photoshoot.

We preformed a skit at Minami 16 in bioshock costumes. Check it out below!