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Rob,
A few years ago your site inspired me to get back into the Halloween spirit. This year I've been busy applying for college and I was unable to build a costume, however last year I was a phrenology head (that's the psuedoscience of feeling for bumps on someone's head to figure out their psychological makeup) which mocked our society. The top of the head is made of a giant 3' balloon, the head is paper mache and the frame is 3/4" PVC pipe connected to a backpack. The lower half of the head is held to he frame with zip ties and the balloon wound up sticking in with friction. During the day I let people write on my head with makeup, though I sadly don't have any pictures of this. Because the balloon was replaceable I was able to swap it part way through the day with another one which teased the school's deans. The year before I was the king of the knights who say ni from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Inside of the head (which is actually George Washington) was a speaker which I connected to an mp3 player which had the actual Ni sound bite. The harness for this is built out of 3/4" PVC (no backpack though as I wanted a streamlined look).

Thanks for getting me back into Halloween,
Henry

Halloween is by far my favorite holiday. Here are our costumes for 2007. I always love your Halloween costumes and website. Keep it up.

-David Bayer

Hey Rob -

Love your Halloween costumes every year. Thanks for giving us props last year for our Scrabble and Operation costumes. I think you'll like this year's as well.

http://tinyurl.com/32aj6y

Thanks again,

Nate and Jolene.

Hi,
this is the first time i"m submitting a picture for your halloween
contest. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to e-mail it to you or not but
I've included it.
I went this year as Beaker from The Muppets.
Below is a link to blog showing how I made it.

Thanks and happy halloween!

-- Follow the adventures - http://theadventuresofbudman.blogspot.com

Hi Rob,

I really enjoy your Halloween costumes. You've topped yourself with Schrute, I hope we see a video of the 'bobble'. Attached are 13 chronological pictures of my construction this year, a Piranha Plant from the Super Mario Bros.

I made the Piranha Plant head using wire and paper mache. I began with a rigid wire frame, which was easy to bend into a large sphere. I found rigid wire at Home Depot near the chicken wire. Rigid wire is a bit thicker than a wire clothes hanger, so it holds its shape very well. Plus it's cheap, I think I got an easy to carry small roll of about 50 ft for around $8. The chicken wire was around $5 and I have enough for next year.

I completed my paper mache before I read your easy to follow instructions. In the past, I've used spackling to smooth over small bumps. You have to sand it smooth, then spackle a bit more. After two coats, and two sandings, you can get a really smooth and perfect surface. This time I used Plaster of Paris because I had a large area to cover. It worked okay. I was rushed and only had time for one coat. And, sanding is boring. Next time I think I'll spread more paper mache layers like you suggest.

I used a painted trashcan like the Anna Nicole pill bottle, though a smaller size that cost about $18. I discovered that if you're painting plastic, and want to mask off an area, even low-tack blue painter's tape will rip all paint away. I even used plastic primer and waited 24hrs between coats. Unfortunately the blue tape still destroyed my project.

The solution, which worked great, was to moisten newspaper and just law it down on the area you need to mask. Make sure the newspaper stays moist so it sticks, but make sure the area you're going to paint is dry. It's easy to figure out. Newspaper has a nice straight edge, and it's cheap. After you're done spray painting, the newspaper peels off without removing any paint under it. I hand painted the small details like the teeth and the white dots. It looked great!

Thanks for the entertainment and construction advice Rob,
-Bret
San Diego

Hi Rob, attached is a pic of my Halloween costume, Luigi with question mark bonus box above my head.
The box is supported over my head using your backpack harness design, so thanks for the inspiration.
Love your site!

-Chris Sansone

Please continue reading page 4 of the Cockeyed.com Costume Contest.