Gearing up for Halloween? Anybody?

[AntDog]

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays! I absolutely love it. Fall weather, all the ghouls are out, all the kids having fun; it's just a great time for me and my family.

I've been known to plan a Halloween costume a year in advance to be able to gather all the pieces together. However, I do hold a BFA for good reason, and can throw something nice together at the last minute...

Anybody have any big plans yet? What are you working on?

 

[AntDog]

Last year's "preparation" took literally 2 hours. My wife brought me a Jason mask (that sucked big time), so I made due.

This is what she brought me:



Hmmmm. It simply wouldn't do. It was the wrong shape, wrong color, no details, just blah. So, I broke out a few knives and used the bricks out front and roughed it up. Then I took some acrylic paints to it. The scuffs and little details added up...







Not too shabby, eh?

My wife happened to be thinking ahead when she bought me that crappy excuse for a Jason mask. She knew without a doubt that I had all the rest of the costume already. (Boots and coveralls basically, and Vaseline in my hair )

So, after I worked on the mask a while and put the rest of the chit on:



I scared the ever loving CRAP out of people that year. Kids, full grown adults - terrified. People would see me all the way across the street and scream! Or they would yell "wow, look at Jason over there!"

I had several groups of people ask me to pose with them or their kids for photos. I had to run to catch up to my family! It was very odd to me since I hadn't spent much time on the costume, but I have to admit it was pretty cool and satisfying.

The main reason that costume got a lot of attention is because it was "real". Real coveralls, real boots, the machete looked real (but I cut it out of 1/2" cardboard, painted it silver and splattered it with red paint), and I made the most important part (the mask) look as realistic and authentic as possible. If all of the components are realistic, you WILL pull it off.

I'm planning something big this year! Anybody else have any plans for Halloween?

Anybody have any cool photos of their costumes to post? I'm itching to get into October.

 

[orezona]

Nice.

No idea what's going on for our costumes in our household. For the last few years we've been doing "themes" where we all dress up. Last year was Alice In Wonderland. My oldest daughter was the Queen of Hearts, youngest Alice, Wife was the Cheshire Cat and I was one of the card soldiers.

The notion to do Peter Pan has been tossed around... Of course my wife suggested I be Tinkerbell. I think that would scare people more than your Jason Voorhesse costume...!

 

[AntDog]

Lol! That's very cool! I think it's awesome when families stick to a theme. It makes a much bigger impression the more people are involved.

I'd love to do something like that but it's probably an impossibility for me. My family's interests are all over the place. Especially my 4 year old daughter.,

Some days she wants to be a unicorn, then Cinderella, then tinkerbell, then all kinds of stuff I've never even heard of.

 

[orezona]

Uni-tinkerbella!

 

[Daniel Dorn]

I went as a crash-test dummy one year, using a full white tyvek suit and a white face-mask. People thought I was Jason, and I got tired of correcting them, so I was Jason, as well. I had some caution tape, and tried to make those yellow/black checkered circles all over my body, but they kept falling off.

I have one son who plans a year ahead, but changes his mind, based on what cool movie is currently out. I think we are back to a Pirate, which is always a good stand-by. My oldest son wore deer antlers (Rudolph) and a brown shirt. He wore a button with "This is my design" written on it. No one got it. I thought the button gave it away. (Hannibal, the TV show) Yes, it was minimal, but I thought it was clever.

Really, the planning will start soon, and I'm sure we will make several trips to Michael's and/or Hobby Lobby for stuff.

 

[Fish Boy]

I plan my costumes fairly early.

The last time I went out for Halloween, I was a zombie. I looked almost exactly like one of the things from The Walking Dead.

This year I'm going to dress up, but I'm done with monsters. I'm going to be David Lee Roth this year.

 

[AntDog]

^^^friggin awesome! What era? Hot for teacher, or current?

 

[Fish Boy]

^^^friggin awesome! What era? Hot for teacher, or current?

Era of 1984. My favorite album, plus he's more recognizable from then.

 

[Danke42]

Trying to get my daughter to be zombie Santa Claus.

Me; I scare all the moms by rubbing my head and telling them "I'm kid with head lice".

 

[GWashington1732]

I'm going to dress up like a clown and scare the living crap out of annoying customers at work. My boss lets me get away with way too much.

 

[bladesandbrews]

I love me some Halloween...always throw a big bash at my house, and go all-out with the costume. Last year I was the Shredder from tmnt (90's cartoon era), year before that was Machete (grew the 'stache out, dyed it black and everything)! This year I'm trying for Darkwolf from the '80s animated flick Fire and Ice (the character from my avatar)...I think it may be a little tough to pull off, but it if it turns out well, I'll post a pic.