I designed and built this 10-foot-tall costume for Halloween 2020 for about $100. The head is a giant plastic skull I found at a Halloween store, and I downloaded creepy scary sounds from Spotify and played them on a Bluetooth speaker attached to my waist. Although you can walk around in this costume, I decided riding a Segway would really make it look like the specter was floating down the road or sidewalk.
Using 1/2″ PVC pipe, build a tall structure to hold the head. Mount the skeleton hands on the ends of two pipes that you will wave around.
Attach the tall PVC pipe frame to a backpack. Wrap it with a cardboard tube, with cutouts for the ribs, to make the body. A camping lantern inside the ribs can provide a nice glow.
Drape the whole thing in white linen to obscure your figure and make the arms appear to be attached.
It took a little practice to wear the costume without crashing — it’s very top heavy — and riding the Segway was a challenge: turning, starting, stopping, moving the arms, watching where I’m going, etc. But with 20 minutes of practice during daylight hours I was ready for Halloween!
