Futurama Costumes
Do you want a unique costume for Halloween? Why not Zoidberg...
Futurama, the long-running and popular cartoon by Matt Groening, has many interesting characters to choose from for a costume idea. A few of the characters are simple to do. Some of them require major do-it-yourself skills which I don't have, but I'll point you in the direction of people that do have the skills to make a complex costume. So come board the Planet Express ship and meet the characters.
Philip J. Fry
Fry is the delivery boy for Planet Express. He was frozen at the very end of the twentieth century and wakes up at the very end of the thirtieth century. He has gelled-up orange hair and wears a white t-shirt, jeans, a red jacket, and black sneakers.
Fry's clothing style is actually modeled after James Dean. There is an official Fry costume which includes a pre-styled wig, a jacket, and pants. It doesn't include shoes, though. Fry has black sneakers that are white on the bottom, like the shoes featured here.
Fry's Hair
The wig that comes with the official costume doesn't actually look very good. It looks like a mohawk and doesn't really look like Fry's hair. There is a custom-made Fry wig available on eBay. However, for the more cost effective option, you can buy an orange wig and cut it and style it to look like Fry's hair. The orange wig featured here would be perfect to style to look like Fry's hair. It's a good color and it's already a good length. I've also included a brain slug mounted on a headband. You can wear this brain-sucking alien with a Futurama costume or just wear one as its own costume.
Turanga Leela
Leela is a mutant cyclops who is the captain of the Planet Express ship. She has purple hair pulled back into a ponytail with the bangs swept to one side. She wears a white tank top with black pants and boots. Leela's clothing style is modeled after Ripley from Alien.
This wig is a darker purple that's great for Leela's hair and it's
long so you can put it up into a ponytail, and the bangs are
already to the side like Leela's hair. Scroll down to the bottom of
the page to see my styled Leela wig and cyclops eye all set up
together on a wig stand.
For Leela's clothes I have featured the perfect
white tank top from Amazon as well as some
black workout pants. Any black yoga pants will
do. These boots would make great Leela boots.
They have the straps like hers do.
And don't forget Nibbler! A little Nibbler would go perfectly with any Leela costume. The first Nibbler featured here is actually a purse. The second one is
just a regular plush.
Leela's Eye
Leela's eye will be the most difficult part of the costume.
A horse fly mask covers a horse's eyes with an opaque
material but still allows the horse to see out. You can buy
a horse fly mask and cut an oval out of it that will cover
almost half your face and draw a black dot in the middle
for the pupil. Her eye is an oval shape going horizontally.
Poke small holes on both sides of the oval to thread an
elastic strap through it to wear it like a mask.
For Leela's eye below I cut out an oval and cut away a little of the top part to make eyelashes (Leela has big eyelashes). I also cut a little divet in the bottom so it more comfortably sat at the bridge of my nose. Black marker colored in the eyelashes and pupil, and I used an elastic strap that came from a sleeping mask for securing it to my face.
Wrist Lojackimator
Leela wears a multifunctional armband on her right arm.
Use a piece of light-green construction paper and color the
large oval and two smaller circles with a dark green crayon.
Put the construction paper over a piece of poster board to
keep it from crumpling while you’re wearing it. (If you can
find light green poster board then that would be perfect.)
Amy Wong
Amy is the Planet Express intern and a graduate student from Mars who eventually gets her PhD. She wears a pink sweat suit that shows off her stomach and has short, black hair that's teased out. She wears pink boots.
This wig is already teased out a little, but Amy's
hair sticks out even more, so use hairspray. You
might want to hem the bottom of the hoodie included
in this sweat suit up, because Amy's outfit exposes
her stomach. As Fry pointed out, Amy's rich but she
"always dress[es] like [she's] doing [her] laundry."
These boots would make good Amy shoes. They go a few inches above the ankle.
Amy's Wrist Lojackimator
Amy has a small wristband that is light green with darker
green ovals going horizontally along her wrist. It’s a smaller
version of Leela’s except the ovals and circles go along her
wrist instead of up her arm. Just like with Leela’s, you can use
green construction paper over poster board (or just green poster
board) to make Amy’s wrist lojackimator for your costume.
Hermes Conrad
Hermes is the accountant for Planet Express. He is a proud bureaucrat who loves his job. He has brown dreadlocked hair and glasses and wears a green suit with red shoes. He usually carries a clipboard. For the suit, any suit will do with a yellow shirt and no tie. (It's really hard to find a green suit).
Hermes has short, brown, dreadlocked hair. This wig would be good. It's a little dark for his hair, but is has teased out dreds like Hermes's hair (Hermes's hair tends to stick out all over). And these red loafers would make great Hermes shoes.
These glasses are perfect for Hermes glasses.
And don't forget the clipboard!
Bender
Bender is the robot who works for Planet Express. He's a bending unit but often leaves the work to the people in the crew. As Leela describes him he's an "alcoholic, whore-mongering, chain-smoking gambler."
An official Bender costume has been released and is available on Amazon.
However, if you would like to make your own Bender costume then all of these links below have great instructions.
From DMC & ME, these are detailed instructions for making an award-winning Bender costume.
A detailed description of making a Bender costume.
"Blueprints" for creating a Bender costume.
Zapp Brannigan
Zapp Brannigan is the captain of the spaceship Nimbus. He is the one-time love interest of Leela, who quickly realizes what a horrible person he is. He crosses paths with the employees of Planet Express frequently, with Leela sometimes having to fix his screw ups.
There is an official Zapp costume available. It only includes his "dress," but he also wears white gloves and white boots. You might also want to wear flesh-toned tights with this costume.
There's also an official Zapp Brannigan gun to complete the costume.
Hypnotoad
The Hypnotoad is a toad that hypnotizes people, as the name suggests.
If you'd like to dress as the Hypnotoad for Halloween, here is a link to detailed instructions for how one man created his own Hypnotoad costume.
How I Made a Hypnotoad Costume
Halloween is my favorite holiday by far. And the best thing about it is always making my costume...
Zoidberg
Zoidberg is the Planet Express doctor. He has a very limited knowledge of human anatomy. He's a reddish-orange lobster-like creature that always wears a lab coat over scrubs because he's a doctor.
Available on Amazon is this ski mask made to
look like Zoidberg. It has the tendrils over the mouth. There are also some lobster claws for Zoidberg hands. These fit over your hands like gloves. A lab coat over some blue scrubs would complete the costume. Don't forget that Zoidberg always wears sandals.
It looks like the custom-made ski mask is sold out for now, but you can make your own with a regular red ski mask and the fingers of a red glove sewn onto the mouth hole. There are detailed instructions for doing this in the second link below. I've also featured some blue scrubs here to finish off the Zoidberg costume. These are available in many different sizes.
If you'd like to make your own Zoidberg costume below are some instructions for a DIY Zoidberg costume.
Making a Zoidberg costume.
Instructions for making a Zoidberg costume from a knit cap and gloves.
Extra Costume Props
Here are some extras to add a little bit more to your costume. These are a Planet Express patch that can be sewn onto clothes, some Futurama buttons, and a Slurm can with cards inside.
A Planet Express T-shirt would make a great addition to any
of these costumes, particularly Fry's costume. Featured here
are T-shirts with a distressed Planet Express logo. One of these
would go great with a Fry costume, instead of a plain white
T-shirt. The left one is only available in white, but the right one
is available in many different colors. They both have multiple sizes available.
And of course, there is the Planet Express shirt available
for women to use for a Leela or Amy costume.
Here is my Leela wig and mask on a wig stand.