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AWESOME-tober-fest 2013: Vintage Fangoria mask ads

Posted in advertising, Fangoria, magazine with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2013, costumes, Fangoria, Halloween, holiday, magazines, vintage on October 29, 2013 by Paxton

I’ve said before I’m a huge Fangoria fan. I still have all my old issues.

Here are some awesome mask ads from Fangoria magazine. Let’s put them in chronological order shall we?

First up:

A Monster Madness makeup kit ad from 1979 featuring several different types of masks. Three space alien designs, but check out C, on the far right. Does it look familiar? Maybe a bit like Darth Vader without the samurai helmet? The ad says the kits were designed by Dick Smith, but his name isn’t anywhere in the branding.

Ad for Don Post masks circa 1980. With the gear up to Empire Strikes Back that year, it’s not surprising that there are several Star Wars masks in this collection. Including a Bith cantina band member.

Massacre Masks ad from 1987. A fun ad showcasing not only masks but gaping wounds. It was always preferrable at the time to want to buy the goriest thing you could find in these ads and then wear them around your parents or other family members.

Nightmares masks ad from 1987. More gory, disgusting mask designs. Even back in the day I really liked the Letcher mask/hands in the upper left. I’m also in love with that “The Coffin” prop in the lower left. And the full size “The Corpse”? Yes, please. In 1987, those two items would set you back $875 plus shipping.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

AWESOME-tober-fest 2012: Movie Maniac Halloween costumes

Posted in A Nightmare on Elm Street, costumes, Freddy Krueger, Friday the 13th, Halloween, holiday, Jason Vorhees, Leatherface, movies, Texas Chainsaw Massacre with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2012, costumes, Freddy Krueger, Friday the 13th, Halloween, holiday, Jason Voorhees, Leatherface, movies, Nightmare on Elm Street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre on October 24, 2012 by Paxton

One of the best things about being a fan of the movie maniacs is being able to dress up as them for Halloween. Let’s take a look at some of the costumes that exist for some of our favorite movie maniacs.

Back in 1987, Collegeville released a Freddy Krueger “smock” costume similar to the old Ben Cooper designs.

(Via nightmareonelmstreetfilms.com)

It’s probably 100% nostalgic, but I love these costumes.

Next up is a Party City flyer from 2008.

Throughout this very large flyer with tons of costumes, there are a plethora of zombies and super heroes, but only two movie maniacs. And I’m only talking about one of those maniacs this year. Check out in the upper right, costumes for Jason Voorhees and Chucky.

You don’t even see those costumes on the inside of the flyer, only on the cover. I’m surprised these two are featured. Remember, this flyer was in 2008. The Friday the 13th reboot wouldn’t happen until the following year and Chucky’s previous movie was in 2004. By contrast, Leatherface had his reboot prequel only two years prior, so of anyone, he should be on the cover. Just strange.

Next up is a current Party City flyer from 2012. Not surprisingly, the Avengers are all over this thing.

This flyer is a little better in that it has four movie maniacs. Three of which I’m covering this year. Here’s the full page of scary costumes.

The movie maniacs are mostly on the second row (Freddy, Jason and Michael Myers). You can also see Ghostface from Scream in the first row. Again, I’m surprised there isn’t a Leatherface costume.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2008!!! Costume and Candy!!

Posted in AWESOME-tober-fest, candy, costumes, Halloween, holiday with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2008, candy, costumes, Halloween, holiday on October 31, 2008 by Paxton

It’s H-day, baby!! All Hallow’s Day. Halloween. Sam Hain Day. Black and Orange. Spooky Time. Creepy Crawlies. Dress up like a nutball and drink yourself into a blind stupor and wind up disoriented and bleeding on the back porch of some stranger’s house…with no pants (you have no pants, not the stranger, who may or may not have pants). I love Halloween!

Want to see my costume for today? Here it is:

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2007: Some of my awesome, awesome Halloween costumes

Posted in Elvis, Halloween, personal with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2007, costumes, Elvis Presley, Halloween, holiday, pop culture on October 30, 2007 by Paxton

I have always loved Halloween. I dressed up every year until I was in 8th or 9th grade. It was so much fun wearing costumes and hanging out with my friends going from house to house getting candy. Things have certainly changed. Today, the costumes are infinitely better but you can’t go out in your neighborhood to trick-or-treat anymore because of various nefarious individuals that may (or may not) live in your area. These individuals would love nothing more than to fool you into eating an apple with a razor blade stashed inside. What sick individual gives out apples for Halloween anyway? If that happened when I was a kid that guy would have gotten his own version of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition that involved nothing but toilet paper and raw eggs. Giving apples for Halloween is just WRONG, people. Write that down.

Anyway, my family was pretty good at documenting our holidays. I was going through some old photos and found some of my all-time favorite Halloween costumes. I have more pictures than this, but I may save those for another time. So, without further ado, here are some of my favorite costumes that I’ve worn throughout the years. Enjoy!

You can click each of the pictures for a bigger version.

Year Unknown – Spiderman. Yes, this is it! The Ben Cooper Spider-man costume. It doesn’t get much more vintage than this. Obviously I’m “shooting my webs” at a villain off camera. Classic, classic costume. You can find these on eBay now for anywhere between 20 and 100 bucks. Check out the boxed version of this costume here.

Year Unknown – Peter Criss (drummer for KISS). How about them jeans and JC Penney’s belt? That’s so rock-n-roll, man. I never really listened to their music, but I LOVED the whole KISS makeup gimmick. I loved they dressed up and spit fire and had these gaudy knee boots. It was awesome. And for some reason, my favorite was always Peter Criss, the drummer. I was walking home from school and found a large drink cup with a picture of Peter Criss on it and told Mom that’s who I wanted to be for Halloween. My mom was great, she used the cup as a guide for all the makeup. She did a great job, didn’t she? Years later she would do the same thing for me when I was a werewolf. She painted on wolf-like features. It was awesome, I wish I had a picture of it.

Year Unknown – Random Pirate. The costume turned out great didn’t it? My mom was great at making costumes out of crap we had around the house. Dig those funky yellow running shoes! So pirate-y. That ginormous sword was borrowed and I only held it for the picture. There was no way I was carrying that monstrosity through the neighborhood trying to collect candy. Check out my younger brother as Big Bird. Yes, yes that is embarrassing. He’s gonna love that. You can see another pic of this costume here.