Man, was I a child of the ’80s. One year I went as a Ghostbuster (my dad and I made a proton pack with lights and everything.) Another year, I rented a full-body Alf costume. I ended up not wearing the mask because it was so damned hot that year (in New Jersey, no less).
Chestnuts roasted by Lackadaisical @ 08/19/2004 9:25 AM
The first costume I remember was a reporter costume, with a suit to big for me and an oversized toy camera.
The next year, me and my mom got a giant cardboard box, painted it black and strapped it over my shoulders. Yeah, I was trick o’ treating in a radio costume. That’s probably been my favorite overall.
I’ve also been a gladiator with an egg carton chestplate, a pirate to counter my brother’s Peter Pan costume, the Terminator, the Grim Reaper and an alien in a business suit. Good times.
Chestnuts roasted by Mr. Mr. Mr. @ 08/19/2004 9:30 AM
Let’s see….RAINBOW BRITE was a favorite…also your standard she-devil one year, and an angel the next (3 of us dressed up like hot angels and we dressed another guy like a pimp and called him "charlie") But one of the best was the year I dressed up as a tube of COLGATE Toothpaste. Won a prize for that one.
Chestnuts roasted by Muppet Baby @ 08/19/2004 9:54 AM
One year me, my sister and a friend whent as the Fruit guys from Froot of the loom. My mom taped 30 purple baloons on my clothes and I was a the grape dude.
Chestnuts roasted by Mr Mango @ 08/19/2004 10:01 AM
Some of my own…
I had a bunch of Ben Cooper-ish costumes, but they’re a blur. Mostly I remember the ones worn to school on Halloween.
In kindergarten, I was Dracula, and so was every other boy in class. Except for one, who cried throughout the entire Halloween party at school. Because. He was afraid. Of Dracula. This was also my first experience with blood capsules.
In third grade – maybe second grade – I so wanted to be ALF. Like, more than anything else in the world. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find an ALF mask – just the one-piece furry bodysuit, which I still own. Instead my parents got me this brown alien mask, and I was christened ALF’s cousin. Won a collapsible cup from a Boy Scouts Halloween competition that year.
In more recent years, I’ve been a transvestite murderous Santa Claus.
Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 08/19/2004 10:03 AM
Black Lightning (Afro and All!!), I got the idea from the SNL episode where "Sinbad" is the host, he shows up to Supermans death as Black Lightning.
Chestnuts roasted by Wills @ 08/19/2004 10:05 AM
One year I was Huckleberry Finn and my best friend was Tom Sawyer. Another year I was a retard. I’ve also been Ernest Hemingway (from his Key West fishing days as opposed to the African hunting safari days.) Then I was Chuck Norris and my buddies Olaf, Rick and Timmy were the Karate Commandos. I’ve wrapped myself up in tinfoil and strapped a funnel to my noggin to be the tin man when my girlfriend played Dorothy. College found me and my drunken buddies as the Reservoir Dogs. I’ve also been a crackhead, a tiger and snake eyes from G.I. Joe. My favorite, though, was being a mime b/c it really annoyed the crap out of people.
Quite an eclectic mix, eh?
Chestnuts roasted by Pedro @ 08/19/2004 10:05 AM
Halloween was always my favorite time. Growing up I was everything from Spuds McKenzie to George Bush (the first one). In recent years, my best costume has got to be my bachelorette costume. I dressed up as one of those annoying female bachelorettes who before their wedding night go out with their girlfriends to bars and clubs and get real drunk and annoying. I put on a veil and I even had one of those t-shirts with lifesavers on them (that whole one suck for a buck thing they do). I walked around the nightclub and acted real annoying and drunk and even carried around one of those blow up dolls. Even though my costume sounded gay, you should have seen all the girls coming up to me and even giving me dollars to suck a lifesaver off my shirt.
I do miss, however, the whole thrill of getting free candy when I was younger. I lived in a big neighborhood and I would start trick or treating early and hit every house. I would then go home and change my costume and go around again until like 9:30. I was usually the last one out and people would usually just give me everything they had left so I would go away. Ah, those were the days.
Matt, are you still going to post a lot of Halloween stuff this year with your new job?
Chestnuts roasted by King Chachi @ 08/19/2004 10:17 AM
Yes, there will be a 2004 Halloween Countdown same as last year. I won’t skimp on the holidays.
Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 08/19/2004 10:23 AM
Last year, I was Princess Zelda. My best friend was Link, and the rest of us were Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and Dr. Mario. We crashed a Game Stop and they kicked us out. Good times!
Chestnuts roasted by Paladia @ 08/19/2004 10:32 AM
My favorites were Luke Skywalker, Indiana Jones, Vampire, and Marvin the Martian. I spent lots of time and money on the costumes (Halloween is my favorite time of year) so the costumes come out very well. My very favorite, though is my Freddy Krueger costume. The mask was design for me by a costume design artist, the sweater and hat are replicas from the films, and the coup de grace is the working metal fingerblades glove. I studied Robert E.’s moves from the films and implimented it into my actions. I went to the mall and freaked half of the people out, especially when I would stand very still and jump out at the unsuspecting marks. The couple of haunted houses I went to were fun because almost all of them had Freddy, but they sucked compared to mine. I got some good job offers for the season!
I am currently working on a Batman suit and an Ash costume.
My biggest project is my design for Darkness from the movie Legend. I can’t wait to make that one, but it will be quite expensive.
Chestnuts roasted by Stilewalker @ 08/19/2004 10:33 AM
This is fun
I remember being the obvious princess when i was young, with the plastic face mask and plastic dress to wear over my snowsuit (gets cold here in oct), musta ben about 5 or 6 then
When i was 12, my brother and i grabbed a bunch of boxes, i took a huge one, painted it orange with a pumpkin face and went out as a pumpkin, while my brother took 3 boxes, painted them gray and he was a robot. Unfortunately, it rained, so my costume melted and i went home early
The, when i was 18? i went out bar-hopping as Jim Carrey’s THE MASK. Green face makeup, yellow hat and suit, the whole nine yards…quite awesome
I’ve been a witch and and old granny and i tried punky brewster one year lol.
fun times!
Chestnuts roasted by -Jen- @ 08/19/2004 10:38 AM
Lets see been a few good costumes over the years. Almost always a vampire since kindergarten. But for those few years that I wasn’t I was an arrey of stupid things. Most of them made up. But the best non-vampire year was 4th grade.
The previous summer we were at an old run down theme park in Indiana. One of their gift shops sold whips. Seeing my healthy obsession with Indiana Jones I convinced my mom to buy it for me. A few months later we found a old fedora-esqe hat at the end of our drive way. So that halloween I dressed as Prof. Jones himself. There was a the yearly halloween parade of elementary kids through the school and surrounding neighborhood, with all the parents and folks lined up to watch. So to give a good show as a I walked I was cracking the whip, like any good archeologist would. My theacher freaked out, after a few blocks, she ran up, I almost cracked her good. She kinda yelled at me to stop it before I hurt someone. But you know what it was worth it. Indy kicks ass.
Chestnuts roasted by Indy fan @ 08/19/2004 10:55 AM
I was once Lucas from "The Wizard." I kinda didn’t have a powerglove so i glued a regular NES controller onto a regular winter glove.
Chestnuts roasted by The Travo @ 08/19/2004 11:14 AM
Halloween is my most favorite holiday!
Last year i went as Jean Grey from X:Men – i liked standing in traffic and sticking out my hand and using my ‘mental powers’ to stop cars.
year before I was Lara Croft – thigh holsters and all…
year before that i was the 1-800-Collect Chick (eva savealot)
year before that i was Trinity from The Matrix (sensing a theme here?)
This here I’m gonna be Illyria from Angel.
ok. it’s all an excuse for me to get to roam around New Orleans in a bodysuit and guns…
Chestnuts roasted by Melinda @ 08/19/2004 11:16 AM
I love Halloween, so I try to dress up every year (doesn’t always happen).
When I was little, I was – a clown – a storm trooper – a witch – a scarecrow – a penguin – a bunny – Little Jack Horner – Ross Perot – a migrant worker – Ronald Reagan.
As an adult, I’ve been – a cricket player – an India Indian woman – and my favorite – Che Guevara.
Chestnuts roasted by Alison @ 08/19/2004 11:28 AM
Bret Hart. That was a fun year.
Followed it up with the Undertaker the following year. It was about 10 years ago when he was all dark and Halloweeny. Good times.
Chestnuts roasted by Chris @ 08/19/2004 11:29 AM
Just as an additional comment: I still cannot understand the old (and possibly still around) Halloween costumes where it was a cheap, plastic mask attached to an even cheaper, plastic smock with a picture of who you were supposed to be. For instance, if you were Megatron, it would be a Megatron mask and the smock would have a full-body picture of Megatron on it.
Now, what kid would think that’s cool? Whose eyes lit up when they walked down that particular aisle in K-mart or wherever? I would have rather gone as a ghost, or possibly a vampire for another year in a row, than buy one of those things.
In fact, I had an idea where a person should buy a white shirt, affix a full-body picture of him/her on it (complete with his/her name in big, bold letters), and pretend that their face is the mask. See, possibly even cheaper (yet more creative) than those other masks.
How I hated them!
Chestnuts roasted by Lackadaisical @ 08/19/2004 11:29 AM
Matt – Exciting news for you (if you haven’t already heard). Golden Girls will be on DVD in time for Thanksgiving. Including commentary by the Rivers’ (Joan and Melissa) on the outfits everyone wore. Click my name for more information
OH YEAH! I was the Kool Aid Man one year and my girlfriend was a brick wall. I made the costume out of foam and I could barely fit through doors. It was awesome. This year I’m gonna be Mayor McCheese.
Chestnuts roasted by Zombie Cop @ 08/19/2004 11:45 AM
Aside from the old Collegeville and Ben Cooper costumes, I’ve always loved trying to peice together my own stuff. Past few years, I used a red/black robe, a cheap skeleton costume, and a couple of cardboard props, and take my nephews and neices Trick or Treating. Some folk will give you candy just for making the effort of dressing up along with the kids. I have a bright orange gun that uses a camera-flash type device in it, and thats good for running down dark streets firing it at random rugrats. This year, I’ll buy a couple new costumes at Wal-Mart, and see what I can do with my cut-down glow-in-the-dark hockey mask (very Spawn-ish) and a voice changer box. But you know, to this day, the smell of new vinyl still reminds me of Hallowe’en. And my Birthday the next day.
Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 08/19/2004 11:53 AM
Oh, Halloween… the best holiday of them all…
When I was ten, I went as The Phantom of the Opera. It was a pretty bad-ass costume, too– picked up the mask at a Halloween shop, borrowed my brother’s balck fedora, and dug up a burgundy-lined black velvet cloak my mum made my dad in college (I come from a rather eccentric family).
Then I got older and went as Magenta from The Rocky Horror Show/Picture Show. Apparently I never outgrew the goth thing…
Chestnuts roasted by Pirate7L @ 08/19/2004 11:56 AM
THAT’S the bonus feature on the GG DVD? Ick.
Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 08/19/2004 12:04 PM
Ah! Halloween…My Christmas! I’m lookin at going out this year…and I’m 21! (c’mon…it’s FREE candy!) Anyhow, I’ll list what costumes I can remember, plus my fav. The earliest I can remember is being Snoopy (one of those plastic smocks with a picture of snoopy on it, and a plastic snoopy mask) my brother was one of the California raisins (my mom took some purple fabric, made it look like a raisin, bro had purple face..the whole 9) other costumes I can remember were Freddy Kruger (crappy New Nightmare Freddy!) I know this is gonna piss some people off, but in ’99 I put on a black trenchcoat and said I was a member of The Trenchcoat Mafia (yes, I am a sick bastard!) I was a zombie one year, a year or so ago just threw on a skull mask and trenchcoat. My best costume had to have been The Joker. Was around the time first Batman movie came out. I had the vest, pants, face done up, even used that stupid hair colouring spray to make my hair green. I still got the picture in my house…that was probably my greatest costume!
BTW lookin forward to the Halloween countdown Matt!
Couple of my favorite costumes were from pretty recently. Bout five years ago I was dating and artsy chick who was really into halloween. What she did was take some green face paint and other such stuff and she painted my face up all zombie like with puss bubbles and scars and stuff. The kicker was a fake screw we put the bolt end near my right temple at an angle and the pointy end came out my left cheek. My own brother didn’t recognize me. Couple years after that I was dating another artsy chick (ended up marrying that one) and she painted me up as Darth Maul, we even bought a sweet black cloak to go with, had the horns and everything
Chestnuts roasted by OldSchooler @ 08/19/2004 12:12 PM
This entry was posted
on Thursday, August 19th, 2004 at 9:23 am
and is filed under General.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Posted by Matt on 08/19/2004. E-mail me!
Chestnuts roasted by 
Man, was I a child of the ’80s. One year I went as a Ghostbuster (my dad and I made a proton pack with lights and everything.) Another year, I rented a full-body Alf costume. I ended up not wearing the mask because it was so damned hot that year (in New Jersey, no less).