The Greatest Halloween Costumes of All Time

I thought I was the cat's ass in Kindergarten with my Space 1999 set-up, but clearly there were some REAL costumes out there. Indeed, it takes a cool kid to wrap themselves up in a vinyl approximation of Vicki the Robot from Small Wonder. From Retrocrush via CSTB.

Comments

[esoterroriffik]

Awesome you found a Freddy Fender costume.

[Mark Allen]

What exactly *was* the point in the Halloween children's costume industry that someone said "We should just put a picture/bad-drawing/collage of the person that the costume is supposed to be ON THE FRONT OF A PLASTIC SMOCK"? Were they concerned that the plastic face masks with eyeholes weren't good enough representations to be recognizable as the particular celebrity/monster? My guess is that it was not the original idea, but more a design problem solved in the laziest way possible. Maybe. So curious.

Oh and that Village People costume at the end of the list hits a little too close to home in a few too many ways... that costume should not be for kids. Why didn't they pick the Indian or Cop instead? The front might as well say "THE MINESHAFT."

Oh check out this "Dirty Hippe" costume:
http://tinyurl.com/y5jon

[Mike Lupica]

Brian, you are still the cat's ass as far as I'm concerned. I can think of no way in which you could be toppled from said position.

[Parq]

Mark, the tiny url link is not to a costume, it's to a hopelessly kawaii flash anime thing. Not particularly on topic. On the other hand, my teenage daughter is gonna love it to pieces.

[Mark Allen]

Whoops - it's missing an "o" - try this:
http://tinyurl.com/y5jono

[E Baxter Put]

I actually wore that Kotter costume as a child. I didn't think it was weird until I read this post. When I was 4, I was Billy Jean King for Halloween(!?!)

[Pete]

I had a number of these myself. One year for Halloween I went as scenes from the life of Chewbacca, topped with the presumably severed head of Chewbacca. I guess I was some kind of memorial.

What's Ben Cooper (purveyor of this genre) up to nowadays? Perhaps someone could have him on for an interview.

[Fatherflot]

Oh yeah! I was Woody Woodpecker, the Caspar The Friendly Ghost, and finally (as a big boy who could choose his own costume) Bingo of the Bannana Splits!!!!

I too hadn't thought about these pre-fab costumes, always with the smock and the plastic mask, for many years. God, they do look hideous and creepy now.

By the way, here's a nice shot of the Banana Splits:

http://www.franklarosa.com/vinyl/BigImg/splits.jpg

Does anyone know if the old episodes ever show up on cable or DVD? There was a time when my life pretty much revolved around them.

[Dale Hazelton]

Certainly the worst has to be a large paper grocery bag topped with a smaller paper grocery bag with two holes....what I was for the Kindergarten parade because I forgot to tell Mom I needed a costume.

[James]

Fatherflot --

TVLand was running The Banana Splits show (the live action version) a few years ago, but I believe they've since pulled it off schedule.

[long time listener stu]

are we sure the Robert Blake "Baretta" costume isn't really a Guardian Angel Curtis Sliwa costume?

[Zap Rowsdower]

I remember going to Jamesway (our old, local version of K-Mart) and looking through boxes of these kinds of costumes back when I was a kid. For some reason, I picked "The Funky Phantom" one year (a horrible Hanna-Barbera cartoon character). What was I thinking?

[Halloween Costumes]

Great post. I just love Halloween, and I remember these old costumes...what classics. FYI Halloween is on a Friday this year....whoooooo!

[character costumes]

wearing character costumes is very enjoyable to do...everyone is given the chance to be creative for quite sometime...

[Mathew - Ganster Suits]

Oh My times were strange for a bit there, I cannot believe I actually dressed up in halloween costumes like this at one point in my life....lol. These were horrible plastic masks back then! Sometimes all it takes is a classic gangster suit in my opinion!