Illusion Costume - Man Carried Away in a Porta Potty

Every year, my youngest son plans his costume with one goal in mind...

Win. The. Contest.

We go to a Halloween costume contest every year and he feels he must win or die trying. I believe we are going on about 4 years in a row of 1st place!

This costume has the illusion of a person being carried away inside a porta-potty.  Here it is from the side:

And here it is from the front:

Supplies:

Wardrobe Box
Spray Paint
Cardboard
Duct Tape
Box Cutter
Large Zip Ties
Belt
Disposable Painting Suit from Lowe's
PVC pipe and fittings
Mask
Construction hat
Foam or some kind of padding
Pink Tights
Stuffing 
Pants and shoes

I used a wardrobe box from a moving company for the potty one more large box to construct the roof and the interior shelf.

I cut open the bottom for his legs and a door in the front that opened as well as a U shape from the bottom of the back to accommodate his body in the back - remember, his legs will serve as the moving man's legs in the back:

(this is the cut out in the back and the loop of zip tie that will hold the man)

 

Using duct tape and cardboard, we built up the inside to form a shelf to serve as the "potty".  We used the measurement of my son's lower leg to determine the height of the shelf - it was about 8 inches deep with a U cut into it for a toilet seat:

(zip tie toilet paper holder)

 

About 3 inches up from the center bottom of the front and about 10 inches up from the center bottom of the sides I attached 3 large zip ties, leaving them looped to the inside by not tightening all the way down:

This is how he carried the box - he wore a belt around his waist and we looped strips of fabric from the zip ties to the belt and tied around the belt on 3 sides.  All the weight was around his waist which left his hands free to hold a newspaper.

To build the man in the back, I made a cross using 1/2 inch pvc (my all time fave crafting material) to create a neck, shoulders, arms, and back - make sure the width of the shoulders is equal to the width of the box so the arms will reach around to the sides:

A ball of grocery bags taped to the top will hold the mask, and you can pad the arms to fill out the pvc to look like a body.  Slip the arms into the painting jumpsuit with the opening in the front.  Let the legs hang down and slide the bottom of the pvc through one more zip tie loop in the center of the back of the box (see the photo at the top of the page):

 

If you don't have the mask and hat, you could just pull the hood up like this. (mental note, style my hair and fix myself up a bit before allowing my picture to be taken!)

We stuffed girls pink tights with stuffing to make the legs and put them into some jeans and shoes.  Pull the pants down to make it look like his own legs on the potty.  Hold a newspaper and make it seem like you don't realize you are being carried through the room.

Here is the finished product in motion: