Worst Costume Experiences?

Wore my Stormtrooper Armor for the first time on Halloween in a Chicago downtown bar. Underestimated the drunks as the rammed into me ever 5 minutes, jamming my pauldron into my neck and throat. While that wasn't happening the I was punched and slapped on the head and chest as if I was wearing real armor. For those that has worn TK armor for the first time, the experience of the gauntlets carving into my meaty forearm is one I'd like to forget.
 
Not an exciting RPF type of costume but embarrassing none the less...
My friends and I went out as a swim team one Halloween. all of us in matching speedos except one guy in a tracksuit with a whistle and clipboard (the coach). That in itself is embarrassing enough but while out at a nightclub, another friend of mine, not in our group, decided it would be funny to pants me.... so, there I was, right in front of everyone, naked minus the speedo around my ankles. That was fantastic...
Even better was bending over to pull them back up. I pity anyone who had to witness that.
 
On Halloween this year, I went as Captain America, and since I don't have a car and I couldn't ride my bike in a foot of snow, I had to walk six miles in a blizzard while carrying a steel shield and wearing a steel helmet, in pants that kept falling down.
 
Uck. I had a bad experience in my Lady Megatron suit at BotCon 2010 on the first day of wearing her. It was about 105 degrees on pavement that weekend, and the Con was in Orlando, just outside of EPCOT park of Disney, and we'd went down early to go have some fun in Disney first before hitting the Con that weekend. It was my first BIG con, so I was a noob all the way around, in my first full armor costume too, and we spent 15 hours inside Disney parks the first there, and another 12 hours in Disney the day before my first time in 'Meg'. Now, I'm kinda short, so in order to give myself a bit of a height boost in her, I found these 5 inch tall thick wooden heel boots to build the feet out of. So, here I am already tired from Disney walking, now I'm in these tall heels in this heavy costume, and it's HOT there....and my shoulder pieces decide that they aren't going to stay where they belong and the velcro keeps breaking apart and the glue holding it on MELTED and pulled away from the frame of the pieces while the costume was in the trunk of the car outside. My shoulders kept falling down every time I would move my arms or raise my cannon. It was awful. What was worse, the heavy vinyl exterior I used, the spray glue inside had started peeling from the heat too and causing some damage to the pieces. I spent that whole afternoon in the hotel after the con repairing her for the next day, and trying to fix the shoulder mounts to no avail. I finally had to go to a nearby Wal-Greens, and find some black elastic. I bought two packs of elastic and velcro, and wound up with the only way I could temporarily fix it by making two elastic loops to wrap around behind my head under my chestplate. It was tight as heck, and rubbed my neck and tops of my shoulders raw, but my shoulders didn't slip around anymore! I've since then come up with a better solution and re-surfaced the entire outside of the costume so I wouldn't have the peeling problem or the falling shoulders anymore.



Edited to add pictures as suggested!

Here we go, this is Meg on the first day, with shoulder malfunctions and little fan:
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The bottom of the lower legs is built to hide the added height I'm given in my boots by sitting down on the heel and in pictures it looks like just regular 1 or 2 inch heels there on me instead.

Now here is Meg on her better time, the second half of the time I was in the cosplay that first con, where the shoulders were cooperating with me and I wasn't nearly dying of aching feet anf legs in the costume (good thing for a mask that hid my face because I'm sure I wasn't all smiles that first day!)-

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This pic shows how much taller the costume made me than normal.(the helmet sits all the way down on my head, and is very thin on top so it's not the helm making me seem taller either, it's all those ridiculous boots...lol). The girl that was Lady Galvatron there was actually same height as me out of costume, or maybe even a little taller than me, and I was quite a bit taller than her in Meg:
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I won't go into where or when as the person I dealt with might be here.
When I was in the Army, we were asked to be at a civic event once as a unit and I was sent to keep an eye on some dismounts (that's mechanized speak for "infantry guys" or as we usually called them, "crunchies" for the sound thy'd make if we ran them down with our tracked vehicles). I had a Humvee, a Bradley vehicle and about 10 grunts in full combat gear. At that point, I had made the Captain's board and was just waiting to pin on, so I'd been around the block a few times before this. Also, I have been a historical re-enactor since I was 5.
One of the dismounts went into a 7-11 type store to get has a caffeine fix on, and turns out there was a con going on literally around the corner. He bumped into several stormtroopers, some comic-book types (I still have no idea what they were supposed to be) and a "Slave Leia" who REALLY shouldn't have been wearing the costume, as she weighed 300 pounds, if she was an ounce. This soldier had never seen people like that before and had no idea it existed as a hobby. They thought he was there for the con too and was surprised at how accurate everything was (go figure, that's your tax dollars at work, kids!). So one of them starts giving him greif for a 'crummy GI Joe outfit,' and the soldier fires back at the tights and overweight princess. They started talking smack and one said he had a knife. The soldier pulled out a REAL knife, an M-9 bayonet and started backing out of the store. The others thought that was plastic. Neither understood what the other was about.
I was walking toward the store when he came backing out. Talk about a WTF moment! They then jumped him and only through the grace of God he didn't cut all their hearts out before I pulled him out. A fight ensued, the other soldier saw their pal and me 'being jumped' and all threw in. The fight was really quick and one-sided (hey, were trained and wearing body armor, what'd you expect?). So finally I get to talk to one of them while I have him in a hold nobody was getitng out of. I'll never foget what he said:
"No s**t, you're REALLY soldiers?"
About that time, the cops showed up. Someone in the store called them. Two of the con kids actually thought we were going to jail, and they thought wrong. Never pick a fight with soldiers in a town where most of the cops are ex-military.
So I had to back and explain to my CO why we almost killed about 6 people dressed like comic book characters. As I understand it, my AAR for the event was copied and passed around that unit for a long time after I moved on to my next unit...
 
Gather 'round kids and listen to the tale of a first time Stromtrooper at his very first Con...

A long time ago...how long? I got my first TK armor from the "Wookie Cantina".

The suit arived 2 days before I was going to goto my very first Con with the Empire City Garrison in New York City. I spent an entire day working on just putting the helmet together and attaching the velcro to all the pieces (everyone who's been a TK is probably grinning about now). The next day, packed up, and off I went. I stayed at the Hotel where the Con was, everyone I was to meet lived local and was going to meet me in the morning.
My big day arived and I got up early and put on my shinny new armor, each piece had been wraped lovingly in a terry towel and placed in it's own special spot in 3 totes.
I meet everyone in the lobby and and am made to feel welcome as a fellow trooper! Happy Happy joy joy! Honestly there's nothing like being part of 20+ Stormtroopers!
So we walk around a bit and then a Con person asks us to do some escort stuff with some of the celebs. So we all drew names from a helmet to see who'd we get...I draw Walter Koenig!
Anyways, meet up with him, chat for like 20 minutes back stage and I'm just in awe of all that's happening. So he says "Ok, let's run out on stage like you guys are chase'n me...it'll be funny!"
His name gets called, off he runs, me and the other trooper give chase...and I trip center stage.
I hit HARD...pieces of armor fly everywhere.
RAWR of laughter...

The next weekend we're on the Good Morning America Show...
I spent the night at another TK's house and we dremeled and hotglued and pop-riveted my entire set of armor into a more Trooper-friendly.
Sadly, I missed tapeing over ONE pop-rivt on the left knee. We ended up having to jog-walk 3 city blocks to the show. After the first 20 yards I knew something was wrong but kept going, we had to be there on time. By the 2nd block it flet like the rivit had rubbed into the bone on my knee. Block 3 was pure agony and I could feel something warm in my boot.
We did the show, I moved as little as possible, and when we were done and I pulled my helmet off and looked down, my entire calf armor was streeked with blood.
I never did get the stain off it or the boots and ended up getting a replacement piece and new boots. However, still have the scar to always remind me "CHECK EVERYTHING TWICE!"
 
Ooh, all these stories of battle scars made me remember another one...

So a couple years ago, the Ghostbusters of New Hampshire were in town at a small comic convention, and I decided if I was gonna meet them there I had to show up in costume, but I didn't have anything to wear. Also, the con was THAT VERY DAY, and if I was going to build something I only had eight hours to do it in before the con closed.

In a fit of inspiration, I realized I could throw on some dress shoes, black pants, a couple shirts, and build a Keymaster helmet.

With this in mind, I biked all over town, around 15 miles in total, looking for parts. I didn't have a car at the time. I found a colander at Walmart, nylon spacers, screws, and electrical crimp connectors at Home Depot, wire at Radio Shack, and the perfect glasses at iParty. With only two hours to spare, I biked home as fast as I could with this blackpack on filled to the brim with parts. It was only for a moment that I looked down at my tire because it looked like it was wobbling a bit, when I looked back up and saw an uncovered support wire from a telephone pole cutting straight across my path. I hit the brakes, but I still hit the wire and I flipped over the handlebars and landed on my back, on the backpack, on the concrete sidewalk.

Miraculously, I ended up with only minor scrapes and a small cut on one finger. The backpack, full of stuff padded my fall. A nurse stopped to check on me, but I told her I was fine and went on my way.

When I gt home, I then began to assemble the helmet. The first thing I needed to do was remove those darn handles. So, I grabbed a screwdriver and put it between the edge of the colander and the edge of one handle which was spot welded onto it, and pried it off. Then I went to pry off the other side of the handle, but it was giving me trouble and I was in a rush and when I finally applied enough force to get it to snap off... the sharp edge sliced right into two fingers on my right hand.

I quickly grabbed a first aid kit and bandaged myself up, and went right back to work, deciding the other handle could stay on and I'd just flip it around to the back and use it to route the power supply wires.

Made it to the con with half an hour to spare, and the costume was such a success I wore it in the Boston St. Patty's day parade and had it signed by Dan Aykroyd.

Oh, and while at the con posing for photos, I ended up having to pose with some slime made out of soap. Stung like a ***** when it got into the cuts on my hand.
 
WOW lots of stories of pain!! My worst experiences don't hold a candle to some of yours but I'll share anyway. These experiences weren't from general cosplay (hey that would make a great board name) but instead from last summer when I had the opportunity to be Batman at Six Flags.
First and foremost, I want to make it clear that it was a great experience, but here's two things that I'll NEVER miss:

First would be the cowl itself. It was rough, tight, and STURDY. Think of the tires on your car and it's like the same feeling. No zipper in the back. Doesn't sound like a big deal but shoving it on and ripping it off repeatedly all day long every weekend for the summer WILL mess your face up! My initial worry was the 'bat tanline' but that didn't happen. What did happen was a skinned nose, pulverized ears, and dozens of little cuts all over my face. When I went into the office every Monday morning people thought I had joined Fight Club :D

Secondly-- and this happened more than once unfortunately-- I'll encounter a group of women (it was always women, oddly enough, and usually attractive too-- which made it worse) that make it their goal to demean me. Like for example, they'll ask things like 'how old ARE you??' or 'So is this what you do to pay your bills?' You know, just acting like snobby b****es. So frustrating because I couldn't say, you know 'I'm just doing this part time; yes I have 'real' job". Would have LOVED to tell them off... but luckily for every group like THAT there was was another group that flirted! :cool


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My worst time is not as bad as most of the ones I've read.

Went to SDCC in 2010. I had been in 2004, 2005, and 2007 and had previously worn different Obi-Wan costumes, a Stormtrooper and my Darth Vader.

Between 2007 and 2010 I had made many upgrades to my Vader costume. One of them was building some new inner shoe lifts to give me an extra inch in height. I had tried them on and walked around the house and they felt fine.

So for SDCC 2010 I only take my Vader costume. I was planning on wearing it on Friday and Saturday. I was hoping this would be a big deal for me, maybe see my photo all over the net and hopefully on a few news sites. I was really excited.

Friday morning I suit up and we leave the hotel (me, my brother, and my 10 year old daughter). I climb in the back of the van and my brother drives us over to the train station.

Because of where our hotel was, and all the stops the trolley makes, I'm standing in these jacked-up boots for about an hour before we even get to the convention center. Then I have to walk all the way up, my feet are already hurting and I'm starting to sweat because I'm getting nervous about my feet holding up.

Once inside I'm burning up, but my helmet has a fan so I put in on hoping it will cool me down. My brother went off do do his own thing and my daughter is my 'handler' for the day as well as my photographer.

All suited up I enter the convention floor and I can't see anything. I'm getting great reactions and taking lots of pictures but I'm burning up, covered in sweat, I can't see (helmet lenses covered in fog), and my feet are killing me. I can barely walk, but I get next to a display and stand for more photos.

All of a sudden I can't see my daughter and I have a mini-panic attack. Worried that something might have happened I call out to her and she's right next to me, I just couldn't see her. This makes me so overwhelmed that I can't stop sweating due to nerves.

I've only been in costume for about 45 minutes to an hour and I just can't take it anymore. My ankles feel like someone hit them full-force with a baseball bat, I can hardly put any weight on them. I take my helmet off, take my cod off, and we find a place for me to sit down. I though if I could just cool off and rest my feet for a minute I'd be fine.

After about 10 minutes of sitting I realize I'm not having any fun, and my daughter is being a real trooper sitting with me but we're both missing out on the best Con.

So, defeated, I take my boots off and we start heading back to the trolley to go back to the hotel. I felt like a total loser wearing half a Vader costume (no helmet, gloves, or boots) plus I'm now wearing only socks and without the boots I'm only 5'8".

So my grand expectations were ruined, it was not meant to be. And to make things worse, somewhere in all that I hit my helmet and broke one of the tusks off and broke the fiberglass.
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I decided 'that was that' and after I changed in the hotel we went back and we had a BLAST Friday and Saturday. On Saturday we went to the Family Guy panel in the morning and the Mythbusters panel that night, both of which we could not have done had I been in costume all day. I ended up having a better time with my daughter without the costume, and I'm actually happy that I suffered an epic, horrible costume fail.

Costume is now fixed, I made new boot lifts and wore then for 4-5 hours last month at a local Con and my Vader costume in back in business.
 
Wonderful stories everyone, but can I make a suggestion to include a photo of the entire costume these experiences you all talked about happened in (thats if you still got any). I'd think that would make a bigger impact with the story in my opinion.
 
lol you know one of them did make the mistake of asking if I still lived at home with my parents (I don't BTW) so naturally I responded 'My parents are DEAD!' They fell right into that one :lol
 
lol you know one of them did make the mistake of asking if I still lived at home with my parents (I don't BTW) so naturally I responded 'My parents are DEAD!' They fell right into that one :lol

Hahaha... did you say it in the low Batman growl voice?

Did they feel bad?
 
Off the top of my head - last year the boots for my Mara Jade/Arica costume broke as soon as I got downstairs at dragoncon. Both of them, the heels broke within minutes of each other. I got to wear it a grand total of about 10 minutes.
A few years ago I did a costume that I figured would look better with a tan, so I got a spray tan before the con. The costume was also very low cut so I had to use a lot of double-stick tape. I went to pull the tape off afterwards and it pulled the tan off. I had huge white squares all up and down my chest and stomach - I looked very silly for a couple of weeks until the rest of the tan faded.
Mostly recenty while working on my Marie Antoinette earlier this year I was sitting in my sewing room doing some beading, went to cross my legs and got my foot caught on a needle stuck in the carpet. I thought it was just a scratch, but after 3 weeks of pain, one awesome x-ray and a minor surgery later they removed half of the needle from my foot. I got the rest of my beading done while sitting on the couch healing for 3 days :)


The first time my husband wore his Vader was at SDCC 06, and we were walking over to the con center in the giant crowd of people. One minute he's walking next to me, I hear an "oof!" and he's gone. He walked directly into one of those hip-high concrete barriers, direct hit to the cod-piece. Thankfully he didn't fall and nothing broke - and hopefully I've become a better handler over the years. :lol
 
Mostly recenty while working on my Marie Antoinette earlier this year I was sitting in my sewing room doing some beading, went to cross my legs and got my foot caught on a needle stuck in the carpet. I thought it was just a scratch, but after 3 weeks of pain, one awesome x-ray and a minor surgery later they removed half of the needle from my foot. I got the rest of my beading done while sitting on the couch healing for 3 days :)/QUOTE]

:eek I remember reading about that when it happened to you - on fb maybe? or here? ugh!! Made me want to :cry for you! WHat a nightmare.
 
Hahaha... did you say it in the low Batman growl voice?
Did they feel bad?
I was at the EMP museum in Seattle for the opening of the Galactica exhibit last year, in uniform with several other fans (I’m to the far right in both of the shots below). We were standing as a group with people snapping away photos of our group for the better part of about 45 minutes. After that broke up, a real soccer-mom type with a smug look on her face (who clearly wasn’t there for the sci-fi part of the museum) come up with her friend and made a very snide comment about how we must not have gotten enough attention as children. She seemed quite pleased with herself after saying, too. I stepped really close, looked her dead in the eye in front of her friend and said, “Look, I understand you’re one of those, ‘everything is about me’ types, but tonight it ISN’T about you. There’s zero special about you at all. Now you go home and think about that for a while.” I swear, all the color drained out of her face, she started tearing up and turned and ran away. Her friend just stood there is slack-jawed befuddlement before she took off in pursuit. One of the spectators came up and slapped me on the back and was laughing, saying that was the best comeback he’d ever heard. Now yes, that was pretty mean of me, but you just don’t throw down in front of strangers like that. I feel she got exactly what she deserved. At the time I quote Sam Jackson when I said, “I just thought it was some cold-blooded #$% to say to someone before I put a cap in their *****...”
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Great comeback! Maybe we should have a thread of the best put-downs for folks who are jerks to people in costume?

Don't mean to sidetrack this thread but I gotta share this one. I was at a con with my wife, I was in the Spidey suit when a group of really snotty teenagers walked up to us. " nice suit, love your package" one of the boys said to me, obviously trying to impress the girls in his group. " funny that's the first place you were looking" I said, " I think there's a different kind of convention for you here next weekend". The others in his group were laughing so hard I thought they were gonna &$ss themselves and we left him there with a dumb look on his face ;)
 
The greatest put down EVER and one no one ever seem to have a reply to is:

Hey I don't knock the D***S out of your mouth while you're working!
 

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