Cardboard Optimus Prime Halloween Costume

Table of contents

Abstract

Get Ready for Halloween! I made this project for school. My job had a Trunk or Treat and I wanted to design a costume simple but effective use of cardboard. It features lots of elements of cardboard cutting, gluing, duct taping, and spray painting.

Project

Halloween Hackathon 2026

Me dancing in the Optimus Prime Card Board Costume: https://youtube.com/shorts/feAf_WpiPKI?si=AWMApu36MHKfVLR0

Brainstorming:

Before creating this project, I wanted to design a costume with cardboard. It is one of my favorite mediums to use in projects. Cardboard is easily one of the easiest materials to mould, bend, cut, fold, glue, and manipulate. It's very malleable and can take lots of forms. 

I started this project on a Tuesday when a student at school motivated me to work on it. Essentially, it took 3 days, or three afternoons. 

Preparation:
DAY 1: I sourced free cardboard from Facebook Marketplace and found someone with alot of cardboard.

DAY 2: Buy the spray paint from either Walmart or Home Depot

DAY 3: Spray paint the entire costume and let it dry. 

Tools/Things Needed: 
Gloves
Spray Paint (Different Colors) Red, Blue, Black, Yellow, etc. 
Scissors
Sharp Blade or Safety Knife
Hot Glue
Duct Tape(s) Different colors
Cardboard
Garage or Backyard
Mask
Tarp
Various Circles for outlining

STEPS

Gather cardboard, draw cutout shapes for arms and head. Cutout the other shapes need to form the costume with scissors or safety knife. You'll need to measure and adjust to different shapes and sizes of cardboard. (Important): Try to measure first before cutting, I eyeballed it and I got stuck in the upper body and embarassingly asked my brother to cut me out. You need a upper body, torso, shoulders, legs, and arm pieces. You can mould cardboard and cut it the way you want it. 

Unpainted Cardboard

After you've finished everything and all the cutouts you can paint it. Make sure you have an open area to spray paint, you don't want to get things dirty or messy. A tarp usually helps with this. 

Final Paint Job

Me in Costume

I went to the dollar store to find a helmet I could modify but they didn't have anymore so I decided to buy a mask from Amazon. 

AiPi Smart Voice Assistant - AiPi

The electronics part of this project is the AiPi. Since I cannot talk like Optimus Prime, I can have the Ai talk for me. I downloaded an Optimus Prime voice in to the Ai Voice Companion and now I have and Optimus Prime Voice Assistant that can tell me the weather. 

References

Inspiration Costume Design
https://youtu.be/tRCSW1c6CII

AiPi - The ai companion
aipi.com