Ghostbusters Proton Pack

I have been working on a big project lately that took me a couple of weeks to finish. My five year old twins have been on a big Ghostbusters kick. I am not exactly sure how it started since they have never seen the movie (my guess is it has something to do with their brothers and sister). They sing the song and build Ghostbuster stuff with their LEGO as well as saying lines from the movie. They have liked it so much I decided to buy the old Real Ghostbusters cartoon for them. They love it.

I'm not one to squash the love of such a great movie so I decided to encourage it. Some of my favorite materials to work with are cardboard and duct tape. Very verstile and can hold up to a lot of abuse. So I decided to make them some proton packs out of cardboard.

Looking at images of the packs online I realized how complicated they are. I wanted to do a simpler version so I cut out all the wires and just went with the general shape. I measured the twins while they were asleep so they were sized correctly. Then I started laying out and cutting the pieces for the pack.

Once everything was cut I glued things together in sections with hot glue and started wrapping pieces in black duct tape.

Added some black straps for their arms and some neodymium magnets so the proton wand could stick to the side of the pack. Also added a hook because I decided they were also going to get some traps for the ghosts too and they would need a spot to hang it from their pack

Once the main pack was done it was time to work on the proton wands. These are just 1 inch dowels glued into layered cardboard. One side features the opposite for the magnets so it can attach to the main pack. Used a yellow rope to attach to the main pack.

You can't bust ghosts without some other accesories so I built two traps (that actually open), PKE meter, and the goggles that Ray wears in the movie.

So after a lot of cutting, gluing, and taping they each have a pack with two accessories. I layed them out in the morning like it was Christmas. It was a big hit. They couldn't stop giggling.