Catbus costume

Inspired by Studio Ghibli‘s animation “My Neighbour Totoro” and Adam Savage’s one day Totoro costume build, I created a 4-person Catbus cosplay for our family to take to festivals as a street art piece.

How Catbus came into being

Our family are mad fans of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli and our kids grew up watching My Neighbour Totoro. The Catbus in this movie is inspired by the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. We all love the crazily imaginative Catbus and the whimsical combination of magic, cosy friendliness and helpfulness Miyazaki transformed it into. And we’d always wanted to be able to ride in our very own Catbus

And so, with the help of my family, I decided to turn that dream into a reality. Because the family that cosplays together, stays together!

Our Catbus is nearly 7ft x 4ft from head to tail and took about 3 months to build. Designed to be a 4-person costume, it operates a little like the Flintstone’s car and also has a wagging tail. It’s roomy and lush inside and his luxurious fur coat is thanks to Emma’s Bears / Fur Addiction.

Catbus was a family team effort. My daughter Maia contributed her knowledge of fursuit costume making to collaborate on his skin, and sculpted his nose out of foam. My son Kai was the ultimate roadie, helping to lug the skin and take it on and off multiple times for fittings (believe me — it’s heavy and like wrestling a dead bear). And of course my partner in crime as always was my engineering husband Adam, who had the challenge of ensuring the frame was well-constructed and of making it all work.

“Once upon a time the creators believed that it could be done and “Catbus” in all its glory will magically appear at Ironfest in the not too distance future, because this is what fairy tales are made of.”
— fellow Ironfest furries member

Catbus at Ironfest

Catbus made his inaugural debut at The Kingdom of Ironfest’s ‘Once Upon a Time’ festival, as one of the Ironfest Furries & Characters – Catbus was the biggest fursuit of all! The purpose in bringing this character to life through the costume was to bring joy, surprise and playfulness to people. He was extremely popular with adults and children alike and everyone wanted to pat him or ‘ride’ in him.

“Awesome job guys!!! Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for next year :)”
— festival performer

I observed that many adults loved Catbus and wanted to play with him, but immediately determined him as being “for kids”. They often only gave themselves permission to play if they had children or were explicitly invited to engage with Catbus.

We had multiple offers from people to get in and operate him, which was great when he got too heavy for people or people got tired. We were all very tired and footsore by the end of the 2 days. He’s very heavy!

“The Catbus was a fabulous attraction at Ironfest. Riding in the Catbus was my highlight of Ironfest this year. Thank you for the opportunity.”
— fellow Ironfest furries member

Catbus at Burning Seed

We got a grant from BOSS to take Catbus to Burning Seed Zoophemism at Matong State Forest. Burning Seed was an awesome experience – the amount of effort people went to with the art, art cars, theme camps and spaces was absolutely mind boggling. We felt very privileged and humbled to be a part of that with Catbus.

Our highlight was taking Catbus to Art Cars at Sunset Island and running around the packed dance floor with him – then parking Catbus with the other art cars. He looked pretty small compared to the fire breathing double -decker Bhima the Dragon bus!

“I loved seeing this trundling around. Fantastic idea!”
— festival goer

Taking Catbus out for walks around the paddock and spreading some furry joy was lots of fun. And again, we had plenty of people who wanted to step in and drive / crew for him, as well as play with him.

“It was FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!”
— festival performer

After returning from his adventures at Burning Seed, Catbus needed a grooming day as he was covered in dust and burrs. His legs and tail had a vigorous brush and beating to get all the dust and burrs out of his fur. He was also suffering from broken struts and a bad case of flop ear so some repair work was done to create a more robust structure for his ears.

Catbus at BOSS Decompression

We were invited to bring Catbus along to the BOSS : Burners Of Sydney and Surrounds decompression party (a kind of Burning Seed after party), where he made lots of new friends and once again found himself some new crew.

“Catbus is the coolest thing”
— festival goer

But Catbus is very heavy and it’s not easy to take people for rides in him. Inspired by the amazing art cars at Burning Seed and we’re now working on Catbus v2.0 – turning him into a wheeled, pedal-powered vehicle that is easier to operate and can take people for rides.

Read more about the creation of Catbus on Medium. And visit Catbus’s Facebook page.

Catbus performed at

The Kingdom of Ironfest’s 20 year anniversary ‘Once Upon a Time’ festival, Lithgow, April 2019
Burning Seed ‘Zoophemism‘, Matong State Forest, October 2019
BOSS Sydney decompression party, Manly Dam, November 2019

Catbus was planned to attend Ironfest and Burning Seed in 2020, Modifyre, QLD and the Canberra Kinetic Sculpture Race in 2021 but all were cancelled due to COVID. Future appearances are TBD.