Train

Answer from Piñata Boy

Thomas the Tank Engine is what I call a structured piñata, which means it’s made up of a bunch of individual pieces or sections that are attached together to form the overall piñata.  Looking at this piñata, you have

– the main rectangular body section
– the horizontal cylinder that forms the front of the train
– a low, flat rectangular box that the body of the train rests on
– the cab of the train that sits on the main body
– the wheels underneath
– the smokestack with an upside-down cone shape at the top

So what you need to do is create each of these parts and assemble them together to form a hollow sculpture of Thomas, and then decorate the whole thing.

Because Thomas is made up primarily of flat surfaces, I would use thin cardboard covered in papier mâché to construct the piñata.  If you can find thin cardboard boxes that are the right size for the back and the base of the train, that will save you some time; just be sure they’re breakable by a child with a stick.  If you use corrugated cardboard for this you’ll want to make sure you stab holes in it to weaken the walls.  Even thin corrugated cardboard is difficult to break with a stick.

The large cylindrical part can be made using a large sheet of thin cardboard that is bent around.  You can get sheets of thin cardboard like this for free from Sam’s Club or Costco.  Just pull them out from between the stacks of toilet paper or paper towel and they will let you take them home for free.

The wheels on this piñata look like they’re just flat circles, so you can use heavy corrugated cardboard for those.  The entire weight of the filled piñata will rest on the wheels, so make sure they’re firmly anchored to the base and won’t flatten out sideways under the weight of the piñata.  I would probably cut slits into the bottom of the rectangular base of the train and insert the cardboard wheels partway into those slits, then tape them in and apply papier mâché over that to really anchor them in place.  The smokestack could be made from a mailing tube or other cardboard cylinder.  If you don’t have a tube with a large enough diameter, you can create a cylinder with a wider diameter out of a couple of paper towel tubes.  Just cut them lengthwise and open them up a little, then bring them together side by side with the openings facing each other and tape them together lengthwise.

Good luck!