We’ve actually seen a baby in a Power Loader costume before, but it doesn’t get old. There’s something very creepy and unsettling about seeing a baby in control of a multi-ton machine capable of crushing an Alien Queen like a bug.
This one was built by Carsten Riewe for a Karneval Parade in Germany and it’s a dead ringer for the Caterpillar P5000 exoskeleton power loader from Aliens. But instead of Ripley, his 13-month-old daughter is the one driving this thing. Hopefully she isn’t a temperamental child and won’t destroy the whole town or anything because she didn’t get the toy she wanted. Nah. Don’t worry, her dad is behind her as the real driver.
The costume is a nice piece of work, and took about 100 hours to build. The arms and legs are full moveable and the top-light and LED are powered by a 12 Volt battery pack stored in the backpack. The on/off switch is in the left arm. There is also a Bluetooth boombox in the backpack to play mechanical robot sound effects or music.
I am quite sure that those who grew up in the 1980s must have had their lives impacted after watching the Aliens franchise, especially when Sigourney Weaver made Ripley into a household name as the person who swore at an Alien queen, while ensuring she has the relevant physical firepower when strapped to a Caterpillar P-5000 Power Loader. Well, since Halloween is around the corner, we have this unique costume that is a replica of the Caterpillar P-5000 Power Loader, while there is a place for one’s baby to be seated in what looks like Ripley’s operator chair. Needless to say, the parent or guardian of that child will be “operating” the Power Loader, so to speak, and it does look like one of those nifty costumes that might just be transformed into a mass produced version if the idea catches on. We do wonder whether the lighting used could be too bright for baby’s own good in the long run though.