How Clint Case Won Halloween with a Tauntaun-Riding Luke Skywalker Costume for His Son

The base of the suit, which allows Hudson's legs to masquerade as the tauntaun's back paws and give the appearance that he's riding the animal, was a frame of thin-gauge wire from Home Depot, shaped and fused with a MIG welder. Initially, Case balanced the tail out with a pickle jar full of change, then replaced the weight with a bundle of glue sticks to keep the tauntaun from tipping and avoid a safety hazard. Hot glue became Case's go-to, and he estimates he melted down about 100 sticks before the final fur covering was in place. For the front paws, Case used leftover motorcycle seat foam and coated them in a rubberized finish to give the look of real snow lizard claws.

Troubleshooting a tauntaun

Building the bottom was a challenge. A leather girdle attached a pair of pants, which Case made out of an old bed sheet he found lying around the garage, and the entire wire base was covered in polyester batting. Simply wrapping the boy's legs in fur wouldn't have the right musculature to mimic the beast of burden, so Case used materials to build up the legs more akin to a kangaroo's hind quarters. At one point, Case envisioned leather feet with individual toes and toenails, but Hudson couldn't move in the prototypes. “It was like he was walking in diving flippers,” Case says. Instead, the boy's shoes were covered in felt and the inside of the pants are lined with velcro hooks to keep the legs firmly affixed at the base. The hack worked so well, Hudson's shoes routinely stay put when he gets out of the costume. “That was kind of a nightmare every time he wanted to take it off,” which seems to be about five minutes after he's put it on, his father says.

The batting had some stretch, which made it flexible and easy to work with, but the final fur covering wasn't as forgiving, requiring layers that were carefully glued in place to blend into a nearly seamless finish. All said, the costume cost about $80 to build and weighs in at a slim 5 pounds or less, Case estimates. Realizing Hudson would be climbing out of the suit to ride on amusement park rides and get some air, Case's wife created a full Hoth Luke ensemble so he would still be in full costume when he emerged, leaving a pair of faux legs behind to complete the effect that the boy is riding a real tauntaun. “I knew he wasn’t going to want to be in it constantly,” Case says, “because he just wanted to get candy and ride rides. It was kind of more for me. I made that thing and I wanted him to look really cool in it.”

On a Sunday night, the ensemble was finally complete, and Hudson tried it on for the first time. On a whim, Case shot a 40-second video clip of the boy's joyous reaction, and posted it online. “I’m just going to put this on YouTube to see what happens,” Case thought. Then he went to bed.

Celebrity status

By the time the family got up to go to Disneyland's Halloween celebration the next day — this year, donning Hoth-related outfits complete with a baby wampa — the video was getting picked up by news sites and fans as far away as Germany were on social media clamoring for Case to build them their very own tauntaun.

So far, the original clip has been viewed over 570,000 times, and other websites, like costume seller Funidelia, posted their own versions. The Funidelia Facebook post alone captured 42 million viewers.

As Case and his family strolled around Disneyland, less than 24 hours after posting the video, Hudson was already being recognized from the 40-second clip. “It was weird,” Case said. “Everybody recognized him when we got there. 'Oh, that’s the kid!'”

Hudson was largely unfazed, with a laser focus on collecting treats and enjoying the rides that overshadowed his sudden celebrity status. But father and son were both ecstatic about the Hamill shout out. “We told him Luke Skywalker tweeted that he liked his outfit,” Case says. “And that was on my birthday. It was one of the best birthday gifts ever. I got a Twitter account just so that I could thank Mark Hamill.”

Kristin Baver is a writer and all-around sci-fi nerd who always has just one more question in an inexhaustible list of curiosities. Sometimes she blurts out “It’s a trap!” even when it’s not. Follow her on Twitter @KristinBaver.