I had a bunch of lofty — some might say far-fetched — ideas for this year’s Halloween costume. Owl with rotating head and glowing eyes. A giant honking Canada Goose, as a salute to Lake Merritt’s glut of geese. Oversized haunted kombucha scoby. (Don’t ask me how that last one was supposed to look. It was more conceptual, really.)

As the weeks began to whiz by, the reality of what it would take to execute a multi-textured, papier-mache-enhanced, and probably highly flammable costume this year began to sink in.

Cut to Halloween morning and still no costume. In search of some sort of visual inspiration, I visited the Depot for Creative Reuse and took a look through the cardboard recycling bin in the basement. And from a last-minute whirlwind of spray paint, aluminum foil, CDs and vent duct tubing, CatBot 3000 was born.

CatBot 3000

CatBot 3000

To make CatBot’s head, I spray-painted a medium-sized cardboard box, and reinforced the edges with chrome tape. The eyes are scratched-up CDs covered with a discarded plastic spools that I painted silver.

I found the piece that would eventually become CatBot’s mouth in a pile of packing material. It looks like it may have been some sort of keyboard cover at one time. The nose is an old bike reflector, and CatBot’s ears are just pieces of cardboard that I scored and bent, then covered partially with aluminum foil and attached with duct tape.

The classic Panazonic RX-5500 boombox, and CatBot lookalike

I kind of like the fact that CatBot’s face bears a bit of resemblance to a 1980s boombox.

Instead of spray-painting the larger box that makes up CatBot’s torso, I decided to cover it with extra aluminum foil after I cut the two arm holes in the side. The arms and legs are vent duct pipe that I cut to cover my arms and legs. I ended up duct-taping the duct pipe on my legs to a pair of old gray leggings. In retrospect, I wish I’d worn some of those industrial grade gray potholders on my hands and covered my shoes to complete the ridiculous effect.

Besides assembling the costume itself, the best moment was actually going outside and walking around the lake dressed as CatBot. Though I’d cut small slits around CatBot’s eyes for me to see out of, I quickly realized that I had no peripheral vision whatsoever, and needed assistance to descend the apartment stairs without injury. Bill, who was dressed as a wizard complete with flowing gray wig, scepter, and royal purple MC Hammer-style harem pants, guided me around the lake on Halloween afternoon.

In my new, anonymous CatBot identity, I felt a surge of giddy liberation, and began dancing around robot-style, waving to people in their cars, and giving joggers high-fives. I also learned that wearing ventilation ducting is quite scratchy and makes one extremely WARM.

Halloween’s over now. The duct tape is off the leggings, and the HVAC venting material is on its way back to the recycling center. One question remains, though: What to do with the rest of CatBot? Set CB out by the street and see who comes by? Dismantle CatBot, recycle cardboard, and return pieces to recycling center? Stage several portraits with CatBot appearing in various East Bay locales, a la the gnome in Amelie? Hmmmm.