Ghostbuster with Slimer and the Ecto-1 Costume

We are huge Ghostbusters fans (old and new movies/cartoons), and my 7 year old daughter Livi was so excited about the new Ghostbusters movie featuring women. It made her feel like she could be a Ghostbuster too! So she decided that she wanted to be Ghostbuster for Halloween. For the past five years her Dad (Luke) has made her costumes. (Beetlejuice, TMNT, Robocop, Doc Brown)

The Slimer part of Livi's costume was created from crack & seal expandable foam, including the tongue and teeth. Livi's Dad (Luke) sprayed a large ball of expandable foam onto a wooden dowel. After creating a large enough ball of foam (this was an ongoing process as he created the entire Slimer), he carved the body and facial features. The arms and hands were made using wire hangers, expandable foam, and gloves filled with foam. They were attached to the body, expandable foam added (as needed) and carved into the correct shape. The teeth are small pieces of shaped foam, and the tongue was a longer carved piece of foam. When the Slimer face an body were complete, Luke painted the body green, the mouth pink and black, the teeth white, and the eyes yellow and red. The end result was an absolutely awesome Slimer!! We attached the Slimer to the top of the Ecto-1 for trick or treating. We also wound up adding a bag of chips to Slimer because he's known to eat everything!

Every Ghostbuster must have a proton pack! Livi's Dad made the proton pack out of cardboard, plastic, wires, rainbow cable ribbon, stickers, a calculator, random switches & knobs, hose, wood, pipe, and batteries. He created silly (and maybe appropriate) labels that list some of what it can do, but also warns to "stay back". There are working lights in the gun (3, LED), as well as blue lights and red lights on the back of the proton pack.

We also sewed a "Livi" Ghostbuster patch onto her uniform, and attached a Ghostbuster work ID.

You gotta have a ride! The Ecto-1 was made from cardboard and lots and lots of layers of paper mache. When the basic car body shape was done and the millions of layers of paper mache dried, Luke spray painted the car white and red, with black windows. He used silver foil paper, stickers, and foamboard on the car, as well as the bumpers and license plates. The top of the car has a wood frame that holds various painted cans, cardboard boxes, lights, batteries, a megaphone made from poster board, and a spool of wire. The lights on the top of the Ecto-1 work (one spins) and were used when we went trick or treating. We brought a radio and played the Ghostbuster's theme song as we walked around our neighborhood. Halloween is our favorite holiday! We love making Livi's favorite characters and imagination come alive!!