The Claw Machine Costume

This is my daughter, Sophie. For her school's Halloween dance party, she wanted to be something unique so I told her to come up with an idea. She's always loved claw machines even though they frustrate her to no end! I'm not one to say 'no' to a design challenge so we went to a craft store and very inexpensively, made her this costume. The box is made up of foam board, painted red and taped together with duct tape. The back panel is wrapped in a gold foil paper. The 'windows' are cellophane. The claw is made by painting two headbands and hot gluing them together. I used an old telephone cord and suspended both with wire from a foam panel for realism. The joystick is made up of a toy ball that her brother had, a sturdy straw we had kicking around the house, and the 'drop' button is a mayonnaise jar lid. The box that the joystick and drop button are sitting on is attached to the main structure with zip ties and there's a flap in the front for Sophie to stick her hand out. She wears the costume by climbing in through the bottom. Inside, I velcroed a piece of black material and cut a hole out for her head. I also velcroed some straps so she could wear it like a backpack. I load her stuffed animals through the top.