Tron: Legacy Costume 

Can you tell me how you cut and folded the EL tape to the desire shapes? Because they have a lot of videos on how to cut, tilt and solder an EL wire but I don't know how that would work with EL tape. Also, did you use more than one inverter, connector? how many voltages was it? Did you use batteries to power it?

@Icetigris It all depends on what you want. If your design is all straight, you just piece a bunch of tape together - but it'd be VERY time consuming to build, and you'd have gaps or ugly overlaps everywhere. For curves, circles, shapes etc. like in the movie, you've got to CNC shapes out of a big sheet of EL and have them laminated. This doubled my cost. The tape (not counting the EL wire), connectors and drivers were about $450, but, I've a bunch of extra left over for other projects too.

Correct - the thin stuff on my shoulders and legs is EL Wire. The fatter bits are EL Tape. It's actually CNC-cut from a large sheet - I designed the different shapes to scale in Illustrator and they used that to layout and cut the shapes, which were then laminated.

@mustaceJon well, you _can_ cut EL tape, but a) you have to seal the ends you cut somehow, b) it severs the connection. The way I got the fancy shapes on the front and back with the sharp angles was by not having it cut at all. What I mean is, all my complex shapes were stamp-cut, or CNC'ed from a giant sheet of EL. Those pieces where then sealed in the protective plastic (laminated) and then I cut them out of the lamination. The thing is - you have to wire each individual piece individually.

that is some beast cosplay right there

@Arigostly lots of time doing research, calling companies, learning about the technology, designing the suit (in Illustrator) ordering all the pieces etc. - (probably 20 - 40 hours of research, shopping etc.) then about 14 hours to build the whole thing the day before this video was shot. Most of that time was spent striping wires and soldering.

That is AMAZING!!!!

That is amazing! Love the costume! Question though, I know the thin strips are el wire but what about the thicker lit up strips? What are those?

Thats badass

THAT'S COOL BRUH, I WISH I HAVE ONE

@ANOTHERHOLEINYOHEAD Holy crap your criticism has cut me to the quick! What ever was I thinking! There goes my hopes and dreams of being a costume artist in Hollywood! Your heartfelt prose has really helped me see things for what they are! Thanks!

How did you make the lights into circles? Cut it? Or is it really that flexible? Neither sound really likely with electronics...

@SILchinsta The only wire was on the arms and legs - the rest was EL tape. The wire was about 1/8" in diameter.

What did you use for the thicker strips and the circles? They don't seem to be EL wire.

@SuperAwesome2002 Thanks! Heh - it's not a Transformers logo, it's the Demon logo (it's a crash-suit by a company called Demon).

@wraevn Are we talking hundreds? Thousands? I'm just wondering because (as you can imagine) I'm considering the EL tape route.

@kakashibrimah Think of EL material in terms of sheets of EL paper if you will...this paper gets cut into any shape you could possibly want, then laminated between 2 sheets of plastic. It takes a small score (cut) that divides the shape into 2 regions (almost imperceptibly) You pierce each region once w/ a metal connector, hook them up to a driver, and voila! Give the guys at Light Tape Innovations a call - they're super helpful.

I was curious which vendor you purchased the EL tape from as well.

how thick of el wire did you use? and aprox how much el wire?

@kakashibrimah The circles (like all the EL tape pieces) are stamp cut out of a single sheet of EL tape.

@Icetigris A LOT. WAY more that I wanted to spend, but, figured it was a once-in-a-lifetime thing.

How much did the custom EL tape cost you?

@ollyfricker1 Yes and yes. I worked with the company that did all of the EL tape for the movie - Light Tape Innovations - you can find all the companies I bought stuff from at the bottom of this page: uxd . me / tron.

but how do you but the tape?

how did you get that suit?

theres supposed to be a three on ur leg/boot

@SoulDrinkerKatara Go here for more pics and links to the vendors I used: uxd DOT me SLASH tron

@wraevn Yeah - no worries - I'm not deleting posts or anything - I just think it's weird. But, such is the age of teh intarwebz.

El wire + light tape

@Arigostly Or u can just use EL Wire to make all those lines.I can make 1 with in 1day

@Lexandreax kay, have a cry

Fortunately for me, not my kid :-)

mommy daddy look! =]

i will buy this off you

Nice costume... but haven't seen any data so big belly... you must be google daabase.. XD

@bixanajoana apparently so are your fingers - having trouble w/ the caps lock key are we? But seriously - all the fat comments - really? I weighed 200 lbs (185 now) - not skinny by any means, and no, I don't feel the need to constantly run around in spandex, nor should I - but really? I guess this is teh intarwebs chock full of many, many 13yr olds w/ nothing but time and their bedroom in Ma & Pa's basement but still...I'm a bit overweight deal with it - or I'll sit on you :-P

@GTAIVGUY100 the person who posted the video said that the kid was annoying and if that kid was me saying mom, mom, mom look at me for the whole video i would still say its annoying

@thexyn Ok. That's funny now. :-)

@jar0fdirt63 hahahah cute

@joeyfur1 Fortunately - it wasn't my kid...still annoying though.

@joeyfur1 You're so rude.

your wife is like meh.

@thexyn Fat?! HAHAHAHAHA!

Grow up and grow some hair!!!.....lol..........