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.

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

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!

awww, thanks for the link. this is for you.

there’s an offical australian site (i think it’s australian, i might be dumb and tipsy). http://www.atmosfear.com.au. they’ve apparently made numerous sequels to the game headlining the various characters… humm…

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….