As a follow-up to my
earlier post about an idea for a fully-working Andalite costume, here is my idea for how a Hork-Bajir costume could work. It takes more cues from traditional character costumes, the kinds you would see at theme parks or furry conventions.
Like before, I'll start from one end of the body and finish at the head. Contrary to Romas Kukalis's illustration of Dak Hamee on the back of
The Hork-Bajir Chronicles, and ignoring David B. Mattingly's illustration of (Cassie morphed as) Jara Hamee walking on the inside cover of book 34 (because it's hard to see his/her feet)*, and
also somewhat ignoring Jake's (and others) description of Hork-Bajir legs...
I think Hork-Bajir legs (at the very least, in this costume, but outwardly, also in my imagination when I read the books), should be slightly digitigrade, but not have backwards-facing knees like the Iskoort. I hate backwards-facing knees. Besides, it wouldn't work for this (or
a) costume anyway. In my imagination, Hork-Bajir have forward facing knees, blades sticking out the back of their lower legs, a raised ankle, and the traditional "T-Rex" feet. Most Hork-Bajir are a mix between greenish-brown and tan-brown.
The legs I'm imagining for this costume are inspired by the digitigrade setup someone has invented here (first six search results):
http://russellt2070.deviantart.com/gallery/?q=digitigrade The user of this Hork-Bajir costume would use a similar system to walk with slight spring in their step. This Hork-Bajir costume would even allow for running (and maybe tree-swinging), unlike the Andalite costume. This leg system helps the costume wearer to reach a height of seven feet tall.
The outer surface of the costume is formed mainly by a smooth or rough-textured plastic surface that feels like reptile scales. The blades, at the lower legs, lower arms, head, and tail, are made of a sharp plastic that could actually cut some stuff if the user tried. It is not recommended that you use these plastic blades to amputate a leg or an arm, even if you sterilize the blades. Such an amputation should only be attempted by a real Hork-Bajir that is either a seer, or a human or Andalite in morph.
This outer surface rough plastic skin attaches to the user's body by way of a simple harness system. I'm not sure how else to further describe this.
The tail, like the Andalite tail, is operated remotely by someone else nearby. Alternatively, the motor that controls it (which is at the base of the tail in a small "empty" area that the user's body doesn't occupy) can be set to just simply hold the tail in an upright position, adjusting for body movement (left, right, stop, ect.). The tail (heck, the entire body, minus the legs) should look like it does in the three pieces of offical art that we have, mentioned above.
Like the Andalite costume, the Hork-Bajir costume has a(n optional) series of cooling pipes, although in this case the water pump/tank would have to be smaller in order to be hidden, much like real-world costume coolers. (The Andalite costume cooling system could reside in the larger "horse" body.)
The arms and legs attach to the torso by way of super-strong magnets, which can only be separated by a machine. (You don't want the arms falling off during a demonstration if someone deliberately tries to pull the arm off, right? That would ruin the
Disney magic "magic"!)
Regardless of whether you think Hork-Bajir have four or five fingers, the hands are a part of the arms (just like the feet are a part of the legs) and cannot be detatched. Since "5 or 4" is < or = to "5", there will be a Hork-Bajir finger for every human finger to go into. And since Hork-Bajir fingers are bigger than human fingers, this will leave plenty of room for a ring and pinky finger to fit into the last finger of the costume, if necessary.
You may also notice that Hork-Bajir arms are longer than human arms. There are two ways to deal with this, one of which is impossible with real-world technology. The first way is to have arms which are the length of a human arm (custom tailored for the user), which is a couple of inches shorter than a Hork-Bajir arm.
Boring! Why not use impossible
portal technology? You put your arm into the "sleeve" (Hork-Bajir arm) like normal, but then a mini-portal halfway down the arm (like, below the elbow) extends your arm further down so that it can reach the Hork-Bajir hand, making the entire costume arm be the right length! Amazing!
You probably already know this, but the Hork-Bajir arm blades point up when the arms are at rest. This is so that when the arms are raised, the blades point down and are perfect for grabbing onto tree bark for climbing. ("Duh!" moment over)
Now, we get to the most complicated part of the costume: The head! This is what will make or break the believability of the costume to observers/audience members. In the past, when a character's head has been much higher than the head of the costume wearer, or where the character is taller than a human, small translucent eye holes have been made in the costume, either in the neck or somewhere else on the body. For an example of this, see this picture (
can't find one right now) or watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHwrNRIVP-o (fast-forward to 9:42). The character you see is Zeke (voice of Dallas McKennon) of the Country Bear Playhouse at Disneyland (no longer running; the Country Bears are normally audio-animatronic robots inside a building). I suppose people wearing giraffe character costumes would have this problem too. The Zeke costume (from 1990) has a large translucent hole for the cast member to see out of, but other tall costumes just have two little eyeholes to see out of.
In a radical departure from this customary character-"killing" decision, here is what I propose. First, are you familiar with virtual reality helmets? I suggested something similar with one option for my (idea of an) Andalite costume. The eyes that your audience sees are mechanical, can move around, and have tiny cameras in each of them. These cameras send an image to each of your eyes, and move around in sync with your eyes based on sensors situated around the inner edges of the glasses/goggles you wear.
Think of this: There's an... I guess you could call it an "augmented reality" thing (though not exactly like the Nintendo 3DS) where you wear hand glove sensors and a helmet with screens for each eye, and your movements control a robot elsewhere. When you move, the robot moves exactly like you (you're not allowed to walk), and you see the robot's hands as if they're your own. (I kid you not, this actually exists. I read about it in a newspaper article once. Look it up on Bing or Google.)
Anyway, back on track. The eyes of the Hork-Bajir costume are red and have slits for pupils, but each eye has a little camera in it. This image is fed down to the glasses/goggles you wear. You head is in the Hork-Bajir's neck. Because of this setup, you don't need ugly little holes in the neck. For extra precaution, a breathing tube runs from your nose up to the Hork-Bajir's mouth. More on that later.
As mentioned, there are sensors all around the rim of the glasses that track your eyes' movements, and translate these movements to the mechanical Hork-Bajir eyes. As a result, you see things exactly as a real Hork-Bajir (and other similar Earth animals with eyes on the sides of their heads) would see things. You can see wide to the left, wide to the right, and have a small amount of binocular vision in the center if you cross your eyes.
As an optional feature, a digital filter can be applied over your vision that simulates Hork-Bajir vision. I know it's not as good as human vision, but I can't remember if it's ever described in detail what Hork-Bajir vision is like. I may ask this again later in a reply post, but does anyone know if Tobias, Rachel, or Cassie ever described in narration what Hork-Bajir vision is like? (Or for that matter, have Ax, Elfangor, or Tobias ever described Andalite vision? Thanks!)
Briefly: There are two microphones in each of the Hork-Bajir ears (which are just small holes in the head) which amplify sound and deliver it to earbuds in your ears (amplifier hidden within the neck above your head). Because everyone knows Hork-Bajir have superior hearing!
The neck is attached separately to the torso after you've put on the majority of the costume, to allow for all the necessary hookups and connections. It uses the same super-strong magnets that the arms and legs attach with. If the user needs to use the restroom, there's a small removable (by weaker magnets and not zippers or velcro) flap in the private area that the user can open up and do their business with. (Time to use that button on your boxers!) If you're a girl wearing the costume, use a
FUD. If you need to do #2, you'll have to take the entire costume off, so plan ahead and do it ahead of time.
Speaking of male/female, the head blades on top of the costume can easily be rearranged and removed/added to change the gender of the costume. Like Jara and Ket said, though, there are other gender identifers of Hork-Bajir that humans don't know about, so we can't with good conscience include such unknown and hypothetical features in this costume.
The breathing tube from your nose to the Hork-Bajir mouth supplements the air you can breathe through your mouth inside the costume. Like with the Andalite costume, the user wears a small lapel mic that runs up to a speaker in the Hork-Bajir mouth (the head is a mechanical masterpiece of working parts), where the sound of your voice is amplified. If you'd like, an effect can even be applied to your voice (if you can't do it yourself) that makes your voice more gruff, like a Hork-Bajir would talk. Researchers are currently working on discovering a way in which an "Audio-Animatronic" mouth may be constructed that does more enunciation of words than just opening and closing.
What am I forgetting? Turning of the Hork-Bajir head and neck is controlled by your own head movement. I'm not sure of the technical details of exactly
how this could be accomplished, but my idea is that if you move your head up, left, down, or right, the Hork-Bajir head and neck will follow you.
If you walk into a sci-fi convention of any sort, or maybe into a studio backlot in Hollywood, expect someone to say something like this to you:
"Oh, did the producer send you? That's good work, but the look is all wrong. 
This is way too Alien for what I need. I was looking for something more E.T. Cute, cuddly. Not blades and chicken feet." 
To which you would reply (with a possible "gruff" effect artificially applied to your voice):
"This isn't a costume. I'm really an alien. See these blades, punk? 
Get out of my way while I find a tree to strip." 
I think that's it... I'll add more if I think of something or if someone else points out an omission. Let me know what you think!
*You can also see a Hork-Bajir walking image, by David, on the inside cover of book 42,
The Journey. This Hork-Bajir is Tobias morphed as Ket Halpak, though David's art is inaccurate in showing three head blades instead of two, but whatever.
See here:
http://www.hiracdelest.com/images/books/us-inside/full_size/42elephant.jpg
