Speaking of Halloween...

[Bizarro Amy]

I've never had a store-bought costume. Either my mom made them or I would, by sewing and putting together stuff I had, plus the occasional hat or jacket from the thrift store. When we were younger, my mom would actually take my brother and I to the fabric store, look through patterns, and pick out stuff we wanted. Also when I was a kid, the pre-made costumes were crappy. They usually consisted of a mask and a plastic tunic, printed with approximations of muscles and other costume details, or even worse, the character's name across the chest. I hated those and vowed that I will never purchase one for anybody's kid. I can't wait until my nephew is old enough to trick or treat, so I can make him a cool costume.

[Titan4ever]

They usually consisted of a mask and a plastic tunic, printed with approximations of muscles and other costume details, or even worse, the character's name across the chest. I hated those and vowed that I will never purchase one for anybody's kid.

Everybody where I grew up in Baltimore wore them. Yeah, I gotta admit I always hated the fact that the store-bought costumes had to advertise exactly which character it was supposed to be. I can remember how lame the 6 million dollar man and Batman suits looked, yet wanting one of them just the same. Mom never sewed even though we had a machine, so most of my costumes were closer to street wear or from thrift stores, chosen to resemble who/whatever I was trying to be.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I had a combination of bought and homemade costumes over the years. My mom saved my first cloth Batman costume. It's hanging in my closet now! I also have an older version of the same suit. This one is a two piece I picked up at an antique store that was closing. Later she made me a really awesome homemade Batman costume when I was 9 or 10. I still have the shirt and cowl.

The glaring inaccuracies of the Ben Cooper costumes is what makes them so charming now. Batman with a bat-symbol on his head (repeated in that recent Easter basket mask that used the Ben Cooper mold), the word "Batman" in his logo on his chest; Superman with an "S" belt buckle (of course now that's not really wrong); Spider-Man with yellow outlined webs and a big fuzzy tarantula on his chest! The list goes on and on.

Chris

[toys2cool]

I'd really like to get into collecting the Ben cooper costumes sometime this year