I quickly built this low-budget Commando Cody costume for a sci-fi short spoof I produced for the 1991 KGUN-9 TV company video festival. I revisited if almost 30 years later to wear to the 2019 Rose City Comic Con.
1991 - Captain ballistic
My version of this character was named Captain Ballistic. I was probably inspired by early episodes of MST3K that ran several installments of the Commando Cody serials.
I fabricated the helmet from fiberglass with a generous helping of Bondo.
His control unit is balsa wood covered with styrene plastic. I used Letraset for the labels, finished with surplus knobs.
The jet pack is an assortment of PVC drain pipe, plastic cups, a 2-liter Pepsi bottle, a L’Eggs plastic egg and other junk that was cheap mounted to 1/8″ masonite. I repurposed the faux Alice pack frame my friend Bryan had fabricated for our Proton Packs. I also reused the pistol belt.
As I’d be desaturating the color video for my spoof I was able to use a cheap maroon windbreaker for his jacket.
For his full-body flying shots I fabricated a little helmet and jetpack for my Mego Klingon action figure, hung by very obvious wires (which was actually a disservice to the excellent work of the Lydecker brothers).
2019 - Commando cody
I thought it would be fun to dig the old costume out of the closet and wear it for a day to the 2019 Rose City Comic Con. The determining factor was finding a cheap jacket a Goodwill that could plausibly pass for Cody’s. I reworked the jetpack by removing the Alice pack frame and hiding the straps underneath the jacket.
I made a super quick and dirty ray gun from another L’Eggs egg, a Super 8 reel, an old slingshot handle, and a TV part.
Maybe 3-4 people, mostly Boomer males, recognized the costume. Some thought I was The Rocketeer.