Samus Aran is a definitely a character I would classify as a badass. Besides being fierce, the intergalactic bounty hunter from Metroid also has practical and awesome armor. Replica Props Forum (RPF) user Talaaya built the Varia suit from Metroid Prime 3 by 3D printing many of the pieces. The finished costume is just as badass as Samus. Behold:
Talaaya spent several months working on the project and initially planned to make the armor using the pepakura method. Pepakura is essentially fancy and sturdy paper craft, and as you can imagine, folding the paper into place is incredibly time consuming. It’s also not precise. Luckily for Talaaya, her friend Matt Serle bought a couple of 3D printers – specifically the ZPrinter 450. She only had to pay for materials but estimates that still cost around $1,200 just for that. Still worth it since there’s nothing like the accuracy you get from a 3D printer. Matt spent hundreds of hours on the project.
That’s only the beginning of the build though. Talaaya documented the entire process at RPF and at Reddit. She only 3D printed the helmet, shoulders, chest, arm cannon, and forearm armor pieces. The rest of the suit was made from craft foam and covered in Worbla. She used a magical combination of Bondo, gesso, and Apoxie sculpt to coat the Worbla and smooth it out before adding paint. Yes, cosplayers are amazing.
See more photos of the finished costume and some of the work in progress shots in the gallery:
That strip of duct tape on the left shoulder makes this.
How much would I have to pay you to make me one?!
The whole costume cost her well over 1k, imagine what it would cost for her to make anyone else one.
far less in materials. You’d mold and cast the parts from resin. still expensive but you can get multiple suits from a set of molds.