Quoted from tartagliag

My costume this year....I'm a NINJA, MAN!!!!

tartagliag

'z. GROSS!

Stormtrooper.  Haven't worn it the last 2 years so it's time to get it back in the game.

A 35-year-old overweight pinball player with a bad back.

That costume pictured above is the grossest I've seen...PERIOD!

Quoted from wbradley

That costume pictured above is the grossest I've seen...PERIOD!

Ba-dum bum!

Possessed monk in robe - looking a bit too "Friar Tuck" for my own liking... (but those theatrical contact lenses are way cool, and I have an Aunt who is a seamstress and likes to make us costumes).  Kids as Clone Troopers (despite the fact that my eldest son has the coolest authentic hand made jedi costume - he wants to go in a store bought Clone Trooper outfit).  Well at least we have the large helmets, blasters and a few accessories that help bring it up a notch.

My halloween, "specialty" is our haunt however.  Each year I add something and try to make it from scratch (and spend a lot of time "haunting" Good Will stores).  This year I am adding a creepy clock that runs backwards and chimes 13 times ($1.50 at Good Will), and a new "scene" I like to call "Having a friend for dinner" which will feature two skeletons (a bride and her lover) having the groom's head for dinner (which is dummy head on a platter that rotates around and around - it's amazing the thing s you can do with a barbeque motor!). Floating candelabra, skeleton arms raised in a cheer with turn of the century goblets, lots of rats and fake fruit....  The display and graveyard is going to cover about 2-3000 square feet this year (along two front yards).  My specialties are a witch stirring a smoking green cauldron, a funny sayings graveyard, possessed teddy bears, a halloween trick or treater in a spiderman costume hung upside down in a giant spider's web (very ironic), a glow in the dark section for the little kiddies (otherwise they have trouble getting to the door (which looks a bit like a portal to hell), and thunder an dlightening  (real.  well, it's a light organ that flashes bright white halogens to the crackles of thunder (at three different frequencies and the sound follows the light like real thunder due to a delay in one half of the audio track).

It goes on and on.  I'll try to take some more pictures.  They have a contest in town but I purposely don't want to enter.  It started a few years back with the witch and has ballooned out every year.  The magic of it has been that I spend all of Halloween day (just after the kids go to school), so the yard is transformed instantly (and it all comes down that same night).  Reputation spread by word of mouth, we get at least 200 kids (in our small town) now.  I thought about skipping it this year - but they won't let me.   I have to pre-stage a lot the week before in the backyard.  There are real theatrical fog machines, lots of piping, a chiller, spot lights - most of it is just home made, re-purposed stuff.  But its getting out of hand.  

Some of you might find this bob burns documentary interesting - the guy is class and a prop collecting hero of mine - check out the video section...



http://www.bobburnshollywoodhalloween.com/

We have a neighbour in our community that puts out a huge display in their yard and garage every year. He usually sets up about 10 days before Halloween and there is a collection box for donations to the Sick Kids.  People are gathered around his yard nightly leading up to the big day.

We figure he must work in the prop business. Either way, he is doing great stuff.

Wayne, I hope you get enough traffic in your small town that you could possibly raise some charitable donations as well. Your display sounds tremendous and I am sure we would all like to see videos/pictures.

http://thornhillwoodshauntedhouse.com/

Thornhillwoods - good on him, but way too commercial and scarey for my tastes.  I like things that are homemade (or at least re-worked, I have one purely commercial item, a jumping reaper, because they are hard to make), humourous and appealing to kids 6 - 10.  OK they DO complain about the possessed teddy bear in a cage...

Where's that funny smiley thing that people out here post?

'This thread is worthless without pictures!"

Heres a pic of part of my costume - im sure you can guess what it is - my stuff is mostly in the UK and im bricking it that canadian customs open the packages up and messes with it - apparently it got through customs yesterday.



if it arrives damaged I havea  backup plan - but its a slightly less cool Teletubby