Huggy Wuggy: From Video Game to Reality

I love the horror game Poppy Playtime, especially its Chapter 1 antagonist, Huggy Wuggy. I thought his design was so fascinating that I couldn't help but stare as he "game overed" my character. When I went to Megacon 2022, I had no intention of creating a life-size Huggy Wuggy costume. I mean, walking on stilts seemed out of my reach, and that amount of sewing was daunting. That's when I saw another cosplayer, @Theacreature, with their version of Huggy Wuggy. I knew from that moment that I wanted to create one too.

One problem: I had no idea where to start. I had some experience with crafting and sewing, but let's be honest, I'm a 3D modeler and 3D printer person at heart, so my sewing skills are pretty rudimentary. Luckily, fate intervened when I met my friend Emily.

Emily had worked on puppet costumes for the theme park industry and was eager to share her knowledge and help me with this massive project. She taught me new techniques for creating a life-size puppet costume that could move and interact with the people around me. With her guidance, we began to sketch out the design for Huggy Wuggy.

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DESIGNING AND MEASURING

First was measurements and sizing. We spent a good amount of time with the tape measure and figuring out how my normal human body was going to fit inside this massively tall and thin stuffed creature. Some elements had to give way for obvious reasons since I do not have pencil thin legs and the stilts were gonna add some width. Once we had everything fully measured and the proportions as good as we could get them, we started sketching out the Head pattern.

Once we had the head pattern all set up we moved on to making the patterns for my "Diaper" suit. This is the piece that I get into like a diaper and gives Huggy that torso volume. Once we had the pattern all set up, Emily took point on cutting and sewing this piece together at her place. Once it was finished, we test fit it and it was a perfect fit. It was also hilarious to walk around in.

Next was cutting and gluing the foam pieces for the skeleton of the arms and legs. To keep the loose nature of his arms and legs, we decided that cutting strips of foam pieces and then gluing them into a round shape and attaching them with some flexible carpet plastic would be the most ideal option. Doing this allowed his arms and legs retain their volume, but was loose enough that his arms would move just like Huggy's in the game.

After the base of the skeleton was made, we created a sock from some mesh fabric and slid the base skeleton into the sock. This made it easier to slide the fur overtop and also to help with my elbow showing through the costume when my arm was bent.

We originally made shoulder pads to help with connecting the arms to the torso, but it turns out in the end we didn't need it. Once we finished with the arm skeleton we test fit it with the foam base for Huggy's head to check on proportions. It looked great so we then went on to finish the sock for the leg skeleton.

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SO MUCH FUR AND BLUE DYE

One of the most challenging aspects of creating the costume was dying the fur. This was something we really had to experiment and learn as we went. I had never dyed fur or fabric before and Emily had only done it a few times, but on a much smaller scale. We had 10 yards of white fur that needed to be turned blue in a small two bedroom apartment. Luckily my apartment has two bathrooms with one being a shower with a nice shower door to contain the mess. Originally we decided to put the entire 10 yards of fur in my master bathroom's tub, but I was worried that we would permanently stain the tub. So I bought a giant bin from Home Depot and we were able to shimmy it into the shower. I had bought a ffew bottles of two different types of blue dye, but.....it was not nearly enough. Our original plan was to throw all 10 yards in the bin with the hottest water my shower could make. Well, that turned out to be a failure because not all parts got the same amount of exposure from the dye.

At this point we were panicking and thinking that we just wasted $200 worth of faux fur and that we were not going to get this project done in time. That's when I decided, we could try salvaging it by only dying sections of the fur for an hour and then moving on to the next section. This was a long and tedious process, not to mention messy, but after one long crafting day, we finally got the fur how we wanted it.

Next challenge was how are we going to dry all this fur. Well this problem was a little easier to solve, but it was still going to take time and be a messy process. I unfolded the pile of fur within the tiny shower and draped the fur over the shower doors. Then I grabbed a couple of fans and put them on full blast aimed at the first section. I left it for a day and when I came back, it was dry. I repeated this process until all the fur was dry. It only took a couple of days so that was an added plus. I then took the fur out of the shower and rolled it back up for when we were ready to start cutting.

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THE FUR PATTERN

When it comes to cutting your main fabric material using patterns that you had to create, it can be pretty nerve-racking especially when you only have one week before the convention. Luckily, we had made the measurements out to be as perfect as we could get them and I made sure to buy extra fur just in case we ended up with an issue. Once we had all the fur laid out and cut, it was on to hand sewing. Emily loves to hand sew so she took point on this and I helped with hand sewing the buttons for the leg and arm connectors. Hand sewing is not my most favorite thing to do. The only piece my sewing machine could handle was the yellow hands and feet. Luckily Emily's machine is slightly more industrial and is able to handle the fur pieces. After these were all sewn together we slipped them on over the skeleton pieces. I tested the arm pieces with the torso and it fit perfectly and looked amazing.

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HUGGY'S BIG NOGGIN'

While Emily worked on sewing the fur for the body, my main task was to create Huggy's head. We decided to make a lightweight frame out of EVA foam, then shaped the head using some packing foam that I had left over that came with my resin printer. I spent a good hour and a half using my heat gun to help shape his head. After I had his head shaped as much as I wanted, I stacked some packaging foam blocks within the head and hot glued a cheap bicycle helmet to them. The picture below is my testing out how well my head was positioned

within his noggin and if my face was poking out of his mouth (mainly to make sure I wasn't turning him into the Xenomorph).

After I had my head placement where I wanted, I went to work on his big red lips. The secret ingredient here was pool noodles from Party City. I cut one side of the noodle length-wise and slid it over the cut-out mouth. The only issue with pool noodles is there is a foam texture and Huggy's lips are supposed to be smooth and shiny. I had seen a few cosplayers using foam clay so I thought to give that a try.

I bought some non-toxic water-based foam clay off of Amazon and thinly applied two layers around the lips. It was heavy at first because the clay is full of moisture, but after the 24 hour period it was extremely light. Another great thing about this foam clay is that it is sandable, so I was able to sand away some of the fingerprint blemishes and smooth out some of the divits that were left in. I noticed a few areas that needed a couple more passes with the foam clay and in-turn a little more sanding, but after I finished with them his lips were looking pretty great.

Next was to paint the lips. First I added a couple of layers of primer then 3-4 coats of bright red glossy spray paint. I figured since his lips wouldn't be moving it didn't matter if the paint was flexible or not. After the few coats of paint his lips were all finished. Next was adding all those really sharp teeth. I ended up running out of the foam clay off Amazon and picked up some from Michaels. I do not recommend since it is not non-toxic, doesn't sand well, and does not have the same consistency/feeling as EVA foam after it's dry.

I still shaped all the teeth with it, though even if my hands smelled weird after. To attach the teeth to the lips, I just grabbed more of the foam clay and sculpted his gums and they adhered to the teeth. I let that dry for 24 hours then painted the gums and teeth. Another issue with the Michaels foam clay is that the acrylic paint did not want to stay adhered onto it. Moral of this is use the non-toxic foam clay off of amazon. Emily was a little jealous that I go to do the sculpting so she sculpted his 2nd row of teeth. After everything was painted and dry, Emily added the black mesh behind the teeth to hide my face. Then we finally added the "spit" to his teeth which was just clear fishing line and hot glue attached to the teeth.

Next was creating his giant eyes. These were pretty easy to be honest. I bought some large DIY ornament balls off of Amazon and then masked and spray painted two halves with black and white Plastidip from Home Depot. After they were dry I placed them on the base head to judge where they will go after the fur has been added. At this point Emily and I were super excited because Huggy was starting to really look like Huggy.

The final addition to the base of the head was some small fans that would help keep me somewhat cooler in the costume. I just come some small USB fans and zip tied them to some wooden dowels that we stuck into the side of the head to keep his mouth away from my face. To power these Emily added a pouch to the back of my diaper suit and I placed a battery pack that the fans could plug into. Luckily these fans are not so loud that I can't hear anything, but when I have the suit on Emily needed to talk a little louder for me to hear.

Once we had the base of the head finished, the next step was to cover it with fur. By the time I finished the base of the head, Emily had already cut and sewn the fur for the head and all we needed to do was slide it over top the base of the head. We were super excited when the base of the head was finished, but when we put the fur overtop....we lost our minds. I walked around testing the finished head and we took a few pictures and videos.

During this process, Emily gave me a few stilt walking lessons. Let me just say it was probably one of the most terrifying things I have done in my life, but eventually I started feeling more confident with longer legs. In one session I went from shaking and not being able to move to walking and turning around with only holding one of Emily's hands as support. By the next session I was walking forward and making turns without any support. Now mind you this was just me and the stilts without any pieces of the costume. The next session had me put the diaper and the torso fur on and walk around with the stilts. It was a little harder because the diaper keeps my legs apart and makes it so I'm more front heavy. Once I figured out where my balance was and walking around next was adding the giant head. This was a major challenge because my visual range was very minimal and the head is so massive that I had to find where my balance was again. Also, the head is so large that even the slightest of breeze threatens to make me lose my balance (not to mention we did this in the dark because we get off work at 6pm and it was already getting dark when we left the office). After this session I felt like I was more ready to take on the whole costume and Emily was confident that I was going to be able to walk in the costume by the time the convention rolled around.

The next time I was on the stilts it was to test out if all the pieces of the costume fit and stayed together. Let me just say that this costume is HEAVY with all the fur attached. I probably weighed close to 180 pounds with all the fur and the stilts on. Also I looked a little silly because I couldn't put the head on in my apartment. I barely fit with the stilts as it was. The picture we took shows just how tiny I am inside the costume.

Finally we had all the pieces together and the night before we brought Huggy to Megacon Orlando we did a dress rehearsal in Emily's apartment parking lot. We may have scared a few drivers, but it just proved that our Huggy cosplay was going to be a hit at the convention. I felt pretty comfortable in the costume, but I couldn't see where the ground was because it was dark out and the black asphalt looked like a black void. I also got a feeling for how hot the costume was going to be, but I wasn't worried because I new that Emily would keep track of the amount of time I was in the costume at the convention.

Overall, the process of creating my Huggy Wuggy costume was both challenging and rewarding. I learned new skills and ended up with a costume that I was incredibly proud of. If you're thinking of making your own puppet costume, I would highly recommend seeking out the advice of someone with experience in the field, but also try to do some research to see how to learn it yourself. I do recommend having someone certified in teaching stilt walking to teach you if you are going to learn in stilts this tall.

Below is our picture with @TheaCreature at Megacon Orlando on Saturday when we debuted the Huggy Wuggy costume.