This picture shows the “eyes” for my Mysterio costume that I ended up using. Nothing fancy, just two squares of 1/8″ craft plywood painted to match my bracers/gloves/boots and some black paint using an eye pattern (modified) from wikimedia commons. They were held on using magnets (epoxied to the back) which worked 99% of the time. (The 1% was when a large wind gust caught my cloak and the whiplash threw one of my eyes to the street…luckily the magnet behind the cloak got caught on the magnet on my cowboy collar used to connect to the glass globe so I didn’t lose it…)

I had planned on having translucent eyes with strobe lights behind them. As it turned out, just etching an eye onto acrylic didn’t make it visible enough. I tried going over the etched part with a purple sharpie, which sort of worked, but then the LED strobe lights were visible behind it. So I added a diffuser (white paper) which made the eye more visible, but blocked a lot of the strobe light power. Eventually I gave up and went with the current model.

One sharpied eye, one plain acrylic

I also did not have time to finish the Mysterio Fog generator backpack. My (new) plan is to mount the strobe lights facing downwards from the backpack, so that the fog will “strobe” with blue flashes. Two other improvements I need to make for next year include a fan and mic/sound system.

I need a fan in the cowboy collar to blow (dry) exterior air into the globe, to counteract the condensation from my breath and keep my head cool. This will allow me to walk around in the costume without having to take the globe off every minute or two.

It is also impossible to hear what people say when inside the globe (their voices get hidden by the echo of all the other noise, the globe is a very good sound board), and difficult for people outside the globe to hear me. I have a voice effects circuit finished (another thing the costume lacked this year) that I plan on adding to the costume. If I’m wearing a microphone, I may as well have an ear piece that is linked to an external (perhaps directional) microphone to allow me to communicate from inside the costume.

I actually enjoy the technical elements of the costume more than the costume elements, but I had to finish things up (such as the Jumpsuit and Eyes) quickly for Dragon*Con this year. I plan on making a better jumpsuit next year (darker green fabric, with black grid lines, plus pockets!) in addition to all of the technical improvements. Longer term plans…….working Dr. Octopus arms!