Lowri Davies

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Introduction:

This year’s Dee Tour party theme was ‘P’. As has become tradition, Aber Uni? Canoe Club found? themsleves a theme within the main one;? this time it was Pacman!? James ‘Pieboy’ Allred? came up with the plan and as such found himself with the task of constructing a Pacman costume, while I was elected Ms? Pacman. The other Aber-ites would be fruit beginning with P or the ghosts (aka Poltergeist)? from the game. With a grand? dream of having a? game of human-size Pacman? in the event? marquee, we all had our work cut out!?

Requirements:

• Lots and lots of cardboard boxes
• Bumper size roll of duck tape
• Yellow poster paint
• Red poster paint
• 3m thick red ribbon
• Yellow T-shirt
• Black marker pen
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Ruler
• String
• 10 man hours

Method:?

Firstly, hand in any major pieces of coursework and have a good ol’? cuppa tea? to recover from the inevitablely? obscene hour you stayed up until in order to get it finished.

Right, that’s enough faffing… time for some real work!

Draw a circle? on the two biggest? bits of cardboard you can find, by attaching string (the same length as your desired Pacman’s radius)? to your pencil and putting? the other? end in the centre of the cardboard. Get an adult to supervise while you cut out the circles along the lines.

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Pick a point about a third of the radius and, using your ruler, draw two lines? from? this point to the edge of the circle with about? 70 degrees between them then cut along the lines? to create the mouth. Use the first circle as a stencil for the second circle to ensure they line up.

Next, we constructed a spine. This will stop Ms Pacman rotating while you are busting the moves on the dance floor and give? her structural integrity. I created two prisms and attachached one to each side piece using duck tape, ensuring the prisms? were lined up with on another and in line with where my back would be when in the costume. Cut out? two pieces of cardboard the length of the spine and the width of your shoulders (or widest part of your body) plus? 5cm. Attach the two side pieces by sticking these? two bits of card? either side of the prisms. You should now have a single structure.

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Ms Pacman is starting to? take shape!? Before we put an outer shell on her, she needs a structural bar across the front and shoulder straps between that and? the spine. Time for more cardboard and duck tape!

The final stage in construction is to give her a outer shell, I’m sure you can work out that this requires more cardboard and ducktape! Ensure there is enough space between the back of? her throat? and the spine for you to stand in before layering her mouth… If there isn’t you may be forced to? have a crotchless pacman! Luckily, this wasn’t the case this time.

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Painting – beware this can be messy!!

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Just a few tweeks left, including her big red bow (attached using ducktape doubled back).

Results:

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Plenty of photos are online:
P Party
More P Party
Friday Night
Sock Wrestling

Evaluation:

As Pieboy now lives in Luton, Pacman was constructed seperately. He chose to wear the costume over his head and use? yellow paper to cover the outer, which both initially looked better. The water based paint didn’t cover the duck tape very well and could have done with another coat – but we were already 1.5 hours late to meet the others and the paint had to dry before going in the car!

However? Ms Pacman stood the test of time, while her husband couldn’t handle the effects of beer consumption, pacporn, ceilidh dancing and? drum and bass – lightweight!

Rumour has it there was an ambulance called…?

I have never put such time and effort into a fancy dress costume, but Ms Pacman was? an excellent investment of my time and was part of a most excellent weekend.