Giraffe Hydra Costumes

Project Overview

Perhaps the silliest project I’ve done to date: making a costume (costumes?) for my plush giraffe hydra, the cutest cursed object to exist (thanks for that, Josh). I named my giraffe(s) after my 3 favorite celebrities that have committed tax evasion: Martha Stewart, Nicolas Cage, and Wesley Snipes.

Process

Martha Stewart

The hardest part of this project was figuring out how to make each head look like its namesake when said namesakes are, you know, humans and not giraffes. I decided the best way to accomplish this was to go with as iconic of a look as possible. For Martha, the standard housewife look (complete with “can I speak to the manager?” hair and pearls) made the most sense, but I also wanted to capture the fact that Martha was so named because of her namesake’s tax evasion conviction - most easily done by leaning into Martha’s post-prison, er, activites.

Martha’s hair is made with felt and tied on with clear elastic string; her necklace is made with pearly beads and the same elastic string; and her joint is made with green felt wrapped in white crepe paper, attached with a jewelry back that allows for placing it in the giraffe’s mouth without sewing or gluing.

Nicolas Cage

Next up was Nic Cage, and what Nic Cage look is most iconic if not “going to steal the Declaration of Independence with the boyz”? We made Nic’s satchel out of some scrap fake suede fabric I had on hand, and chat helped sign our stand-in “Declaration of Independence” (the real D of I having been stolen, of course, by Nic’s own namesake).

fun fact: Jeff Goldblum was present at the signing of the original Declaration of Independence as well

But I felt that we needed something else to truly capture Nic Cage’s ✨ essence ✨ - enter the googly eyes. For folks who don’t follow me on twitch, “bonus eyes” is a long running joke on my channel born out of a particularly hilarious round of Gartic Phone. This joke has led to multiple stickers, and has bled over into conversations in other chats - it’s even led to one of my streaming friends sending me a container of emergency ~~googly~~ bonus eyes, which have come in handy on more than one occassion.

“why are you like this” is a question I ask myself often

And nothing seemed to encapsulate the unhinged energy of Nicolas Cage better than a whole lotta bonus eyes. You can see the results for yourself.

Wesley Snipes

Last up was Wesley Snipes. While Mr. Snipes has a lengthy and robust filmography, it felt most right to use this opportunity as a tribute to his finest role of all: Blade. Blade’s look is also so iconic, that it can be conveyed with as few pieces as possible: you just need a pencil thin mustache that only Wesley Snipes and John Waters can pull off, a set of vampire teeth, and the most 1990s sunglasses you can find. Again, wanting to avoid any attachment methods that would permanently alter the hydra (such as gluing or sewing), the sunglasses are attached to Wesley the Giraffe’s head with another jewelry back, and the teeth and mustache are simply taped on.

Project Summary

All in all, this was an incredibly fun little project to work on, especially to stream it. If you want to have your own giraffe hydra plush, head on over to Let’s Game It Out’s merch store - I can’t guarantee that it’ll come with it’s own rap sheet, but I can guarantee that they’re friggen adorable. And while you’re at it, make sure you catch up on the origin of the giraffe hydra over on his YouTube channel.

I love you, my cursed baby (babies?)