jayble's stable | Halloween 2005 & 2006

Halloween 2005 & 2006

November 13, 2006


	"I pity the fool."

I have a problem that started in 2001. As you may remember from my Happy Halloween article from 2004, 2001 was the year that I started to make elaborate costumes. In that article I described 2001 as my breakout year. While that may be true, it also started a 5 year streak of ridiculous costumes - each more ridiculous than the last. I do not know why I put myself through this horrific ordeal each year. In October 2002 I even took 2 non-consecutive weeks off of work, primarily to work on the Lion-O costume.

2005: B.A. Baracus (Mr. T)
The memories of 2004 were still fairly fresh when I started thinking about Halloween 2005. Again, after the lack of mobility in the Soundwave costume - and the last minute completion, I wanted to do something mobile (since I planned to go to at least two parties) and something that was still funny. I decided on legendary Mr. T. I grew up with T. I watched him on A-Team religously and no one knew how to get Rocky mad like Clubber Lang. My friend planned to go as Rocky in 2005 so being Mr. T was perfect.

Now, I originally planned to go as Mr. T not another incarnation. For those of you that don't know, there are several differences between Mr. T, B.A. Baracus, and Clubber Lang. The outward appearance and attitude may seem the same, but don't be fooled - there are differences. Regardless of which I chose, the three things I needed were a mohawk, gold chains, and a beard. It was still early October, so I decided not to shave for the month.


	"No, I don't hate Balboa. I pity the fool."

As Mr. T, I needed a red undershirt, blue-jean overalls, earrings, and red Chuck Taylor All-Stars. I ordered the shoes and then went shopping for overalls. Overalls are expensive. After dropping $45 on the shoes, I didn't feel like spending another $25 on overalls when I still had to fashion a mohawk and buy gold chains.

As I was calculating the math in my head it hit me: Go as B.A.! My friend Brian was in the army - I could borrow all the camo from him and the shoes were still returnable. I called Brian and his gear was clutch to a successful halloween. Now that I got the clothing out of the way, I had to worry about the critical Mr. T trademarks: mohawk and chains. After looking online I found a place that sold brown bald caps and after 4 years of seasonal trips to craft stores, I knew I could glue some foam on top and use velcro for the sides. I then went to a costume store to look for gold plastic chains. Foiled! They were too expensive since I would need a lot. Luckily, Home Depot saved me. If you ever need to make a Mr. T costume - go to Home Depot and load up on the cheapest gold plumbers chains they have. They are perfect.

The night of the parties arrive and there was a problem. I had shaved the previous week so I needed to hit a store and get a fake beard. At about 2pm, Brad and I decide to hit Fantasy Costumes. We clearly had our bad idea jeans on while making this decision. The line for Fantasy Costumes was around the block and they were operating on a one-in-one-out system. An hour later we were finally able to leave. Total buying time: 20 minutes. Total downtime: 40 minutes.

Was it worth the trouble? Most definitely. There is nothing funnier than walking down the street and hearing, "I pity the fool." It never gets old. Sadly, the mohawk did not survive the night and by the end, it had started to rip.


	"Kiss my shiny metal ass!"

2006: Bender
As Halloween 2006 was arriving - I had no idea what I would do for a costume. The Mr. T costume was perfect and I didn't have the motivation to work on anything else or even any ideas. I search online and came up with nothing. Furthermore, there were parties on both the Friday and Saturday of Halloween that planned on attending.

See this is problem with elaborate Halloween costumes. I set everyone's expectations higher and higher that eventually I was going to hit a breaking point. I felt I had hit that point.

And then something else hit me. An idea: Bender, the surly, drunk robot from Futurama. I was a great idea, now if I could only get it work. I start with a (now regular) trip to a crafts store. I could make a foam cylinder covered with grey cloth for the body. For the arms and legs I just need to get strips of grey cloth or duct tape wrapped around a black shirt and pants. The hand were simple enough, grey gloves. The head would be the trickiest part.


	The first incarnation

Thanks to my sister's help, the foam body turned out pretty well. I still needed to cut out the center to make Bender's chest compartment. I didn't even want to start that under I finished the helmet though.

Here is another problem that I have during Halloween. While I am creative, I am also a stickler for detail. When I made the transformers costumes, I made sure that the decal was as close to the original as I could get. There is not a single costume that I've made that has satisfied me 100%. I think anyone that creates anything knows what I mean.

Anyways. As the Thursday before Halloween approached, only the body was barely done. I hadn't finished anything else and furthermore, the odds of me finishing the costume by Friday evening were slim to none.

I thought this may happen so I also bought materials to re-make the Mr. T costume from the year before for Friday's party. After getting as much done as I could on Friday, I switched gears and focused on T. I finished the T wig in time for Friday's party.


	"Ahhh, what an awful dream. Ones and zeroes everywhere...and I thought I saw a two."

Saturday 9am. I had a LONG way to go before Bender was finished, or even near acceptable. I worked on the costume from 9am Saturday morning until 7pm that night with very few breaks - all short. The helmet turned out much better than I expected. I didn't think I could get the antenna finished, but even that turned out well. I even made a fake cigar (necessary for all Bender costumes) while I waited for the paint to dry on other areas of the costume.

Everyone at the party loved the costume and I ended up winning first prize in their costume contest: a heavy, solid, Emmy, which was very appropriate. My favorite part was when I did a beer bong in the Bender costume.

Was it worth it? Again, same as before, definitely. Even though I could only wear the costume for about 15 minutes every half hour (still better than the Soundwave costume), the reaction from my friends were great. I wasted at least $40 on materials that I either didn't need or messed up. In total, it took me about 60 hours to make the costume. I even wore it to a bar on Halloween night and won first place...a $40 Best Buy gift certificate...making the net loss on the costume about $100...but the look on people's faces...priceless.