Indulge me a moment, because I'm pretty danged proud of this: A homemade Dalek Halloween costume my son and I built this year.
This was a major project, taking the better part of a weekend. The toughest part was figuring out how the heck to get started. A friend had some great ideas: a chopped-up swim noodle for the "sensor disks" around the Dalek's body, and a laundry basket for the head. We used those.
At first, we thought we'd try a cardboard body. But while scouring a second-hand building supply warehouse for odds and ends to incorporate into the costume, I spotted a plastic garbage can. We didn't get the can there (they were all too grungy), but found a nice one at Ace Hardware. In fact, it couldn't have been better. Not only was it old-school Dalek gray, it had a rounded lid--just the right shape for a Dalek head.
Naturally, a toilet plunger was the only way to go for the Dalek's hand, while my son thought a whisk would make a great blaster.
And then there was the "eye" sticking out of the mask. For that, I cut up one of those floater things you find in toilet bowls. Not our toilet bowl. It's one of the items I picked up at the second-hand building materials place.
With all those pieces, some foam rubber to pad the inside of the head, spray paint, wire, bolted-on shoulder straps and lots of really toxic adhesive, we had ourselves a Dalek.
In fact, we'll have a Dalek for quite some time to come. This thing is practically indestructible. But it looks pretty neat just standing there empty. And if my 5-year-old daughter is looking for a costume idea once she gets a little bigger, it's available.
For comparison sake, here are some "real" Daleks:
