How to Make Dr. Horrible’s Freeze Ray

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog came out in 2008, but it’s still inspiring costumes (and I still know the words to all the songs). Norwood Cosplay made Dr. Horrible’s epic Freeze Ray using plywood, chrome pipe, copper pipe, plastic PVC, and a few other odds and ends. To make it extra intimidating and super villain-like, they added LEDs and other lighting — including a car turn signal indicator. They explain:

A car turn signal placed inside the outer box created a chevron pattern of lights like a loading light. The turn signal was wired to a repeater switch to continually turn on the signal. Without it the turn signal turns on once and then shuts off, requiring the whole device to be turned off and on again. We ended up covering the repeater with a couple layers of craft foam to keep the clicking noise of the repeater down. In a quiet place it’s hardly noticeable and in a crowed convention hall you can’t hear it at all.

Two LED strips were fed through the two plastic tubes that stretch across the front of the boxes. Two waning red LEDs were fed through the small copper tube at the front of the box. The turn signal, the two LED strips, and the waning red LEDs were all wired together to the toggle switch on the back of the freeze ray and were powered by a 4-AA battery pack. The flashlight was clipped to the inside end of the chrome pipe and the end was removed so it could be wired to a large battery and the button in the lower handle.

Read about the entire build across five detailed posts at Norwood Cosplay’s Tumblr.