Gadget Hey the bottom left of the princess liea pic. You got busted! Hehe you have a ton of sex toys right there. Awesome pic though. The rainbow brite pic is awesome too in a different way.

My grandma probably sewed her heart out on my aunt’s and uncle’s costumes because we had one nicely done tweety bird costume and that was pretty much it. It came with a huge head and it was packed with stryofome peanuts that I promptly took that off while wearing it. My elementary school had a halloween carnival where you played games for tickets inside of the various classrooms and then redeemed them in the cafeteria. I went for several years it was fun. You were supposed to donate a bag of candy (plus the price of admission, and the candy was supposed to be given to a teacher a week or two before) and at the door you got an orange trick or treat bag filled with candy. It was basically if you planned on coming then you brought a bag unless you were really poor lol. I remember I saw a simpsons keychain and I HAD to have it, I went back with enough tickets and it was gone, my sister got one for her keychain collection so I begged it off of her. There was this cakewalk where you walked around a masking tape cobweb circle until the music stops and the winner got one of those round store bought cakes. I think you could only do that a couple of times and it was expensive. They didn’t want the same person getting two cakes. They were halloween themed but also german chocolate and others. The teachers hosted the games like carnies it was actually fun. In my tweety bird outfit (which I hated wearing every year because it lacked creativity, so one year i wore sneakers with the outfit and called myself “rockin’ robin” lol I think i was the only one that “got it”

I also had a football player outfit, I had a jersey t-shirt (I believe for the giants, it was blue and orange) that I stuffed the shoulders with another shirt that I kept on pushing under the shirt, I was hoping people didn’t see it. I remember this god awful hick that was like “look maw! A football player!!” and “maw” was not as amused. Ha I think he was giving out fun sized butterfingers. I wore some navy blue mascara underneath my eyes, two lines, like football players, well kinda. I was probably 10, and my older sister was walking me around. a couple of people felt sorry for her and gave her a piece too (she would stand on the end of the walkway) I said “well she’s not trick or treating! She’s just walking me!” i felt it was unfair (which my opinions will change after I have to walk kiddies around) but they felt sorry for her like she was the starving kitty on the doorstep.

I also went as bartman, weird al yankovic, and probably others that I don’t remember. My grandma made the purple mask, we couldn’t think of a way to have spiky hair, we thought of cardboard but that wasn’t right. So I just had it over my normal hair. I took the mask off quickly because I was quickly being made fun of, this was in 7th grade I think. I was always being made fun of. I had some orangish yellow sweatpants, with blue shorts over that, and a light blue t-shirt. Also some bart like shoecovers. I fuckin loved the simpsons and I still do. Weird al I had some keds type of shoes that I made a checker grid on with a marker, I took an old burnette curly wig, I borrowed a hawaiian shirt, and I wore some black tightish jeans. A stoner kid (that rarely showed up to school let alone learn anything) ripped off my hair, I quickly took it back and put it back on. I got tons of “who are you supposed to be?” well if you havta ask you don’t know! I guess that is quite common with weird al costumes. This was 9th grade, a little too old to dress up and go to school. I went as bartman and weird al with friends. Wait I think I just went as a skateboarder (t-shirt, with long sleeved plaid designed shirt with hood, baggy pants, sneakers, bam skater) because I didn’t want people bothering me that much about it. I got braces so I had to give away a lot of my candy, but I traded some too. Tootsie rolls, gum, gummy candies, etc. I could eat milky way, peanut butter cups, anything not too gummy/chewy.

I feel bad because my cousin is 13 and he hasn’t gone trick or treating ever and I wanted to take him, hopefully he’ll go with friends and so I don’t have to make it my personal responsiblity to. Hopefully he feels he isn’t too old!! augh! I am just hoping my little buddy can go this year so he won’t be bitter like us and say he never went and boo hoo.

Ghosted by Goob @ 10/18/2006 2:35 PM EDT

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holy shit that’s fuckin long, well I hope that my post is amusing to everybody.

Ghosted by Goob @ 10/18/2006 2:36 PM EDT

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Bea Arthur! HA! I love the show Maude, I would love for them to show it on Tv land (they used to) The Golden girls is one of my guilty pleasures (I am embarrassed to watch it in front of some people) that is such a funny show!

kingklash I didn’t have one, I guess I could of made one out of cardboard or got one at goodwill. But that would of been way too heavy. I am against acessories with halloween costumes, you don’t want to lug it around all night.

Ghosted by Goob @ 10/18/2006 3:57 PM EDT

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I would have loved to have seen some old photo’s of the Ralph Costume. I bet your mom still has them.

- I went as The Joker for like 6years in a row.

Ghosted by Joker @ 10/18/2006 4:51 PM EDT

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I went one year as Dolly Parton. Keep in mind I am 6 foot 4 and weigh around 220 lbs. Some guy at the Halloween party came up to me (gaotee and all) and asked where my boyfriend was and why I wasn’t wearing a costume. When I replied that I was Dolly Parton, he sighed stating “you mean those aren’t real” and proceeded to ask me to show him because he didn’t believe me. I proceeded to whip out the balloons I was using and took off my wig
the guy seriously walked out of the house and stayed in the yard for the rest of the night. I do not know of many 6 foot 4 225 lb. big chested women with gotees, but if I saw one, I sure wouldn’t try to pick her up.

Ghosted by Old E @ 10/18/2006 5:18 PM EDT

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That was a great article. I think everyone has a Halloween costume that stands out from the rest. I can only remember my mom dressing me as The Phantom of the Opera and sending me off to school. In retrospect I am suprised I survived that day. I should have been beaten with a sack of oranges.

Ghosted by Billy @ 10/18/2006 5:48 PM EDT

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Excellent update. You are excellent at recreating childhood memories.

One time when I was young and naive, I was in a last minute rush to get a costume. I found some fangs and I got myself a Dracula cape. One would assume this would be a no-brainer, easy win costume.

As the big day neared, I realized that I didn’t have any white facepaint, and couldn’t find it ANYWHERE. Somehow I thought that black facepaint would be ok and noone would notice, I would just be a VERY creepy vampire.

Yes, thats right, I went trick or treating as a black vampire, straight out of Blackula. Living in southern Ohio in a 100% white neighborhood, the costume was greeted by laughs and cheers. It wasn’t until many years later that I realized the implications that my costume implied.

I also got my candy stolen that years and I chased down the older kid and kicked her ass into a gully and got my candy back. Ahh, memories.

Ghosted by Bricker @ 10/18/2006 6:23 PM EDT

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Wow, you people post a lot. I have never posted here before, but I’ve been religiously following this site for years ‘n’ years.
Most of my Halloween costumes in previous years have been “slutty something-or-other,” (i.e., slutty angel, slutty vampire, etc.) Am I allowed to say slutty here?
Anyway, I wanted to be Elvira this year but couldn’t find a costume, and was too lazy to put one together myself. So I settled for Cher. I’m being Cher.

And I have to disagree with you, Kid Nicky … I think Matt’s best article is easily the three-part Worst Witch review.

Ghosted by Cheryl @ 10/18/2006 8:08 PM EDT

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My best costume was a homemade Maleficent costume. The silky/satiny horns were the coolest part. I think Marilyn Manson ripped me off years later in his “Nobodies” video. (I hope the link to the picture works.)

Ghosted by GloomyJack @ 10/18/2006 8:44 PM EDT

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Thanks Matt.

Old E, it actually kind of is a slutty Cher. I’m being 70s Cher, when she had a Sonny (and I don’t, *tear*), I’m not being robotic-voiced candy-colored wig Cher of recent years. Anyway, I basically just went to a thrift store and saw a really retro-looking striped dress, and it reminded me of Cher. It is pretty tight and short, so I guess that’s slutty. Halloween is really just an excuse for me to dress slutty and get away with it … anyway, I have boots that go with it, and I also got a really long black wig (I think it was supposed to be for a witch or something), and some fake eyelashes, because Cher’s eyelashes were ridiculously long. I have already resigned myself to the fact that nobody is going to know who I am. But they’ll be able to see lots of leg!

Ghosted by Cheryl @ 10/18/2006 9:41 PM EDT

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Bricker, I too had a costume experience like that, and I wish I could find a picture of it. When I was around 8 or so, I went as Steve Urkel for Halloween. Keep in mind that I was very much a skinny little white kid. We didn’t have any black face paint so we had to use this weird rusty red stuff, and I was pretty pissed; Urkel was black, not East Indian.

Looking back on it now I’m pretty embarrassed that I went one Halloween in blackface.

Ghosted by Ronald MacKinnon @ 10/18/2006 9:48 PM EDT

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Hrm… I went as a member of DEVO last year. Complete with energy dome and whip.

This year I’m going as Cthulhu.

My favorite costume evar would have to be… a lost boy. I built a large milk carton, put my head in it, and wrote “have you seen me” under where my face was.

Ghosted by TRUKK NOT MUNKY @ 10/18/2006 10:03 PM EDT

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This is my favorite Countdown entry so far.

I’ve been keeping up with the entries and blog posts, but it’s hard to find time to keep up with all the comments. Sorry, dudes. I was also excited to see the Marc Summers entry. Awesome.

Ghosted by Rainbowfeet @ 10/18/2006 11:47 PM EDT

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OK this article almosts scared me because Matt and I are roughly the same age and when I was in second grade I had my parents help me make an ALF costume for halloween that year. Matt’s costume was by far better than the hack job I put together but I am fairly certain we used the same rubber ALF mask. I wasn’t able to get my hands on a full on fur suit I had to settle for butchering one of those generic kid costume Lion deals. We cut the tail of it off entirely then cut the bushy tail end off and safety pinned it to the ass end of the lion suit to give me the cute little ALF tail. If I ever found any pics of me in that get up I would prolly have to say it was a crappy job but back in the day I was damned proud of it. The one thing I remember is going to my little town Fall Festival which also had a costume contest that year which my dad entered me and my alf costume into. Out of maybe 30 other kids I made it into the top 2 but in the final judging had to settle for Second Place I still have the stupid ribbon I won around here somewhere too. I think that I was seceretly very bitter at losing because I can remember the whole thing vividly EXCEPT I can’t for the fucking life of me remember what the kid that beat me wore let alone what made it better than mine. My only guess is my poor fragile childhood mind blocked it out….or its just decade of pot smoking clouding my memory either way the irony is me and matt got the same idea on what was likely the same exact year lol.

I think the following year I was on some kind of astronaut kick and so I went as a spaceman and the year after that was Batman but insteead getting one of those pseudo pajama batman costumes I decided to use my beloeved Playmates Batman Armor set with the plastic chest plate and cowl and the gauntlet that shot little plastic dart things. I wore that thing alot as a kid but using it for halloween let me walk around the neighborhood wearing it without feeling like a complete retard for a change

Ghosted by The Krypt Angel @ 10/19/2006 1:06 AM EDT

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The Halloween costume of the past that still stand out for me is a California Raisin. It actually kinda sucked to be walking around in that hot hot blanket-like outfit singing Motown songs all night.

This year I wanted to go as Hank Venture from The Venture Brothers. However I couldn’t find enough people to serve as other members of the Venture ensemble. Hank wouldn’t work on his own.

Ghosted by buckly @ 10/19/2006 12:31 PM EDT

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I have “Atmosfear.” I never heard of “Nightmare.” My parents had these Friday night “dates” with my best friends’ parents where they would all get together and played cards or something, so every effing Friday night Laura and Amy and I would sit in the dark in the living room with candles and play “Atmosfear.” I think our parents thought we were starting a coven or something. I was never afraid of the Gatekeeper and I loved the scary music and stormy background on the tape. Do you remember this… “Who’s turn is it next? Hands up! You could have two free turns ORRRRRR… you could point the finger at the maggot in the lead and send him to the NEAREST BLACK HOLE!” I STILL love that game and wish I had someone to play it with me who wouldn’t make fun of it. :p By the way, I found this link if you’re looking for some “Atmosfear” nostalgia.

Ghosted by broomstickjockey @ 10/19/2006 11:33 PM EDT

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oh gosh! “nightmare” was the precursor to “atmosfear”…. same characters (though all were only n ames inscribed on tombstones), and same premise – i THINK. there was the video, and the gatekeeper.. though i remember him being way more involved in “nightmare” (i.e., he did a hell of a lot more than say “take a fate card!”). another awesome aspect was that he became progressively more old/rotted looking as time progressed.

was was the goal of atmosfear? i played it ONCE, and can’t recall. all i remember is elizabeth being so fucking COOL looking (yet finally realizing in the silly, illustrated instructions that her shredding mass of teeth was some kind’f metal facemask.. but, still, how goddamned cool.

“nightmare” involved something like writing down your worst fears on little pieces of paper, putting them in a pot, and whomever reaches the end first gets to pull one of them out of said pot, and try and guess whose fear it was. i guess they were seriously banking on not knowing what your friends’ handwriting looked like….

Ghosted by michael @ 10/20/2006 3:23 AM EDT

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Yeah, I did some research on the rest of the games last night. I WANT THEM ALLLLL! But I like that the characters were a little more fleshed-out in “Atmosfear: The Harbingers.” The goal was the same in that as you described in “Nightmare,” the only difference maybe being that you only had the first ten minutes of the game to “become” a character by landing on their provence, or else you became a Soul Ranger. And, you’re right, you get back to the hub first and you roll either a one or some other certain number and you get to pick a fear out of the Well and if it’s not yours, you win. Not a bad plot, though a little confusing.

Another thing I liked about the Gatekeeper in “Atmosfear” was that he would giggle and make farting noises between ordering you to raise your hand and flip off your friends.

I bought my “Atmosfear” second hand from eBay, so I didn’t get the awesome dice.

Thanks for the links! I was so obsessed with the game when I was a kid that I actually researched all the characters. They all exist in legends and myths (except for Hellin, of course). I thought that was pretty effing cool!

Ghosted by broomstickjockey @ 10/20/2006 12:44 PM EDT

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Does it make me pathetic that I almost started crying while reading this article?

The only other XE article that’s ever done that to me is the one on C-3PO cereal.

Ghosted by Hellpop! @ 10/21/2006 3:16 AM EDT

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This thing’s so old I doubt that anyone will read it, but that’s okay. I actually was ALF for Halloween. I was older than Matt, but it was the same costume.

My family was stationed in Japan, so everything was on a delay. On my Halloween, ALF was cool, but maybe not as cool as he would have been a couple years ago. The process of getting the costume was pretty much the same, except I didn’t actually throw a tantrum. I just begged and begged and begged. And luckily, this ALF was a body suit and mask together, no need to worry about one part selling out before the others (althought I think there were separate masks on sale).

Here I should point out that, being on a military base on Japan, all the kids shop at the same ONE place, the Exchange. It sounds strange, but it’s true, it’s like, you have JC Pennies and nothing else.

I think I saw one kid wearing the same costume, but that was it. Overall, it was a success. I didn’t have the following or adulation that Matt had, but that’s probably because ALF just wasn’t as hip by the time it made it overseas to us (to help contextualize this, we knew about the Simpsons, but we weren’t able to see them. When I got back to the states, they were on season three and from my pen palls I think they got it on AFES – Armed Forces TV or whatever – the same year).

I actually did go trick or treating as ALF. It was warm and by the end of the night I was totally drenched in sweat. It was all fine as long as the costume kept me warm, but fearing that I would catch pneumonia, my mom made me take off the costume and do the last of my trick or treating in my regular clothes (my little sister was there too. I don’t know what she was, but she definitely wasn’t ALF!).

On the last house I begged for candy the person questioned my lack of costume. While shivering, drenched in sweat in the cool night breeze, my reply was something akin to “I was ALF but I got all sweaty and my mom was afraid I’d die of pneumonia so she made me take it off.”

I don’t think I’ve ever worn a completely store bought costume since.

Ghosted by mike @ 01/21/2007 2:32 AM EST

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