Worst Costume Experiences?

MegaCon 2001: The first year the Fla 501st had a booth, and we were small enough that we could actually store our bins at the table and suit up there. At the end of the day, possibly because of con purchases taking up valuable bin space, I had the bright idea not to change there but carry the bin back to the car first.

In armor, from the convention center, to the parking lot on the other side of an adjoining hotel.

It was raining, I was tired, my feet hurt, the armor was pinching, the bin was heavy, my friends were waiting for me at Hooters, and trooping just wasn't fun anymore.

I never wore TK armor at a con again.
 
Halloween 2001 or 2002: I put the armor on one more time to give out candy in the front yard.
The kids DID NOT RECOGNIZE THE CHARACTER. :confused

And then, in front of several of the little heathens, my belt came loose and fell to my feet, taking my codpiece with it.

Keeping an eye out for Pedo Bear, I went inside and removed the costume for the last time.
 
I was marching in my Chewie in a parade in downtown Seattle in 2006. 200,000+ spectators. It was pretty epic. All of a sudden a feel someone grabbing onto me from behind. I shake him off and see some drunken ******* grinning, with two cops quickly closing in behind him. This was my first experience someone trying to climb me.

At DragonCon 2009 and 2010, some little punk football fan tried to climb me in the Marriott atrium while in the Wookiee. Thankfully the aggressive security this year meant no football fans at DragonCon and a return to the safe environment that DragonCon was in the past.

You could probably write a book about the problems the football fans caused at DragonCon the last couple of years. I'm sure glad that seems to be behind us.

My first set of stilts were built by my dad from plate steel. I eventually replaced them with commercial drywall stilts. When I first got them I had assembled them the night before and failed to sufficiently tighten one of the bolts on my left stilt. The next morning we were trooping a Toys For Tots event at Toys R Us. It came apart and I fell down (the only time I have ever fallen on my stilts) in front of a bunch of kids. One little boy who looked to be about 4 came up to me and asked "Chubacca are you okay?" My friend came up to me and tried to "help" by grabbing onto the stilt even though it was still attached to my leg!

My first time in the Wookiee was DragonCon 2005. I had lots of stilt-walking practice but had always worn pants while walking on them. Well, the metal started chaffing on my legs and it wasn't long before I had nice big gaping wounds. I just clenched my teeth and handled it throughout the weekend.

DragonCon 2008 I was finally brave enough to have a few drinks while in the suit (stilts and all). My dad and I had a few shots of tequila and some beers up on our room before heading out. My dad, who served as my handler would disappear now and again and return with more beer and more tequila. We headed up to the 10th floor of the Marriott where we discovered there was a Battlestar party (Ruh-Roh!) where numerous unidentified drinks were given to me for free. We made it back down to the bar area and ran into Baltar and Helo from BSG who wanted our photos. We kept drinking until probably 2 or 3 in the morning. Didn't take long before we were plastered six ways from Sunday. The evening/morning ended back in our room with me passed out in my costume on the bed and my dad praying before the porcelain altar.
This was Thursday; the con hadn't officially started yet. It went downhill from there.
 
A few years ago at DragonCon I was wearing my Xena costume and was approached by a large & tall woman who asked for a picture. Having no problem with a photograph, I agreed. Her friend stood in front of us and as she was about to take the picture, the woman with me put her arm around my shoulder and her other arm behind my knees and picked me up. No asking and it happened *very* quickly. It made me extremely uncomfortable and it is something I would never agree to do.
 
I went on a pubcrawl dressed as Doc Ock (prior to Spiderman 2) I spent a couple weeks designing and implementing a way to do the arms. I devised an apparatus that would hold them in place around my torso and allow for them to move (or be moved) What I failed to take into consideration was these 2 things... 1) it weighed like 30 or 40 lbs...so by the end of the night I had basically messed up my back for a month and 2) I WAS ON A BUS THE ENTIRE NIGHT IN A COSTUME THAT WAS 5 FEET WIDE... that sucka got all kinds of wrecked!! *edit* It should be noted that the arms could retract back to about 1.5" away from the body and up to about 3.5 feet away from the body. I spent the majority of the time with the arms retracted :(

DocOck.jpg


Worst part was... at a bar in the costume contest and 2 women came up to me to ask me who I was...

Girl 1: "my friend and I have a bet... are you a ghost buster?"
Me: "No."
Girl 2: "Ha! I told you he was Elton John!"
 
Wow, this thread outta be a warning for preparation first time out in a costume. Seriously, some really scary stories here!

I thought the Elf Armor from LOTR's was bad, but all I got was a little sore and a little hot... and while the first time out I had to have it duct taped to stay on, it didn't break until I pretended to 'die' in it - which was for a performance, so I was okay with it.
 
It was raining, I was tired, my feet hurt, the armor was pinching, the bin was heavy, my friends were waiting for me at Hooters, and trooping just wasn't fun anymore.

I never wore TK armor at a con again.


......and on the opposite end of the scale, there's my friend Craig who literally troops in his TK roughly 80 times each year. Without knowing the actual 501st Legion stats, I swear he troops more than anyone, world-wide. Oh yeah, and he does this on top of a 40-50 hour work week and being a single father to a 13 year old daughter. :lol
 
I actually have a couple, but I'll start with one of the worst.

Me and 15 other friends wanted to do an entire danger girl costume stage show at comic-con masquerade. We spent almost 2 months building costumes (almost everything was from scratch) making an audio track, complete with professional mixing and sound effects, and choreography for the whole thing.

2/3rds the costumes went ahead with most of the women sewing up the last stuff in their hotel rooms the night before while me and my friend where literally taking shifts sleeping while the other worked to sand and paint the last pieces. I made a communications backpack from junk in 3 hours when we realized it was forgotten in the chaos. I slept during the drive as my friend got us there the morning of the masquerade and we barely got checked in as finishing touches were made to everything.

NOW COMES THE BAD PART! I don't know if they do this for every year, But all the contestants were shuffled into a TINY room with no heat almost an HOUR before the masquerade started. Then we all had to wait as they called everyone up on stage (we were near the end of the whole thing) and then we had to WAIT ALMOST ANOTHER HOUR FOR THE JUDGING AND RESULTS!!! The final tally that I remeber was almost 4 hours of waiting to - LOSE!!! No honarable mention, no fan favorite, no nothing. My friend who arranged the whole thing was so pissed he almost punched a few people who told him he had to wait till he could leave the "green room"

Now for my personal part of it, I was dressed head to toe in a heavy foam and leather costume that had no ventilation or fans, I was sweating almost as soon as I had it on and I stayed in most of it for the unbearable 3 hours of waiting, then we get up on stage and I had a mask that I couldn't really see out of and I had no time to seal the LED leads next to my face, so I was getting little electric shocks from the sweat touching the HOT wires and my FACE! Then I hadn't the time to figure out how to hold the helmet to my head, so I had a hat on that barely held it on. I then made a fatal mistake in timing on the choreography and hit the hat right off my head! I held the face on and got thru the rest of the stage set, but I personally think I lost us the show.

Then during the wait for the judging and such I realized I wasn't sweating anymore, which to anyone who had worn a costume for any length of time knows, I was close to dehydration and shock. As soon as we knew we hadn't won we raced to get me out of the outfit, but it was too late, I passed out while walking and they carried me to the hallway and then got me some more water to wake me. I barely got outside and called my friend (who I was staying with) to come and get me, I then puked on the sidewalk and almost passed out again. When we got back to my fiends house he asked if I wanted to go to the ER, I said no and then passed out on his living room floor.

I barely remember the next day other then my friends telling me it wasn't a total loss, The creator of danger girl gave us a personal high five (via e-mail) and we were hunted by fans who wanted to know who we were. There are still some days I mention this and some people remember seeing us and how cool the whole thing was to them.

Half the people from the group never cosplayed again.
 
I had pulled a couple all-nighters in a row trying desperately to make a con deadline, and after working so hard on a project there was just no way I could leave it and go after being so close to being finished. Well, if you're going to do that, and you're going to be in one spot for a long time, be sure you're comfortable and take care of yourself. Sounds obvious but I sat in a chair that was a little too tall and little did I know, between sitting on the floor in a weird position and the blasted chair, I was cutting the circulation off behind the knee. Not enough for anything to be numb, but boy did it suck when I went to stand up and between nearly screaming bloody murder and falling on my face, my ankles had swelled up so bad, they wouldn't move. This realization happend hours before leaving FOR the con, and we all know our feet hurt after tropping for a bit anyway so that is NOT the way to start out a con. I've never had such a thing happen, nor do I have circulation problems, but that is the only thing we could think of. Tried some ice and motrin in a panic then turned around and forced myself to walk and hobble so I could pack the car. That absolutely sucked and I thought I was going to have some kinda breakdown. I could've sworn they were broken and they looked it too. I won't ever be doing that again and it scared the bajeebuz outta me so the first day of the con between being sleep deprived for over 3 days, starved, and drained, was absolutely just plain miserable. I did finish the costume in the hotel room and it was a blast to wear but that was the most physically uncomfortable i've ever been costuming.
 
It was a while ago and for Halloween I decided to do something fun for the trick-or-treaters. I dressed up in an old Michael Myers outfit, made a harness out of an old back pack, some rope, and simulated a hanging outside my doorway. My house has shrubbery arranged in such a way where it kind of funnels people who visit straight to my porch and blocks view of the surrounding neighborhood. They are also large enough to kind of conceal where my door is at, so when you're approaching it, you can't see much around the bush from the little path that leads up to it. I was in front of the doorway and candy bowl was behind me. Kids had to get to me, get around me, to reach the bowl.

Anyway, back to the chlorophyll.

It worked great for the first hour so until one of the "harness" straps broke. One of the side straps slowly tore apart until it finally just gave way and it was important in dispersing my weight, so once it tore, gravity just pulled me down and the straps that were in my----crotch region--- made their way north. Slowy and sawing back in forth, due to the breeze that was coming through that night, that was swinging me back and forth. Same went for the torso straps.

For almost 3 hours, I was suspended 5 feet from the ground, hanging from a few straps that were supporting me in all the wrong places (to put it lightly). To make a long story short, I wound up having rope burns that stretched from the top of my shoulder blades (and some parts of my neck) that wrapped around to the front of my stomach and a few in some "unpleasant places" for a year. Just in time for the next bash I threw for Halloween.


Was it worth it seeing kids scream and run away from the slightest of jiggles? Was it worth it getting mentioned briefly on the a morning radio show the next day? Was it worth the rope burns?

Meh, not really. But it is fun to reminisce about. :behave
 
you mean you were this close to lucas and did not euthanize him for all that he has done to us! god how sad is it that the fans themselves had to go in and re edit out all of the crap he put into the original trilogy to get the perfect blu ray set that he will never give us ! i downloaded it yesterday by the way and all i have to do is watch it on the ps3 :>


wait... theres a fan edit that took out all the cg altered crap?!?! where can i download this?!


as far as my wors costuming experience, it was at momo con last year and was the first time i had ever worn my tk armor, and i had done a super quick strapping job, and it literaly started falling appart... and i had made some quick shoes out of rainboots that i sprayed white, and they were the most uncomfortable things ive ever worn. also all the pintching got pretty bad, at the end of it i was bruised and bleeding in a few places xD
 
Only one so far. Doing an event at the local walmart where i forgot to put my blaster in the car. The only one available was a super heavy display model...4 hours carrying around a 12 pound blaster. sore in arm muscles i didnt know i had.
 
A few years ago at DragonCon I was wearing my Xena costume and was approached by a large & tall woman who asked for a picture. Having no problem with a photograph, I agreed. Her friend stood in front of us and as she was about to take the picture, the woman with me put her arm around my shoulder and her other arm behind my knees and picked me up. No asking and it happened *very* quickly. It made me extremely uncomfortable and it is something I would never agree to do.

Gah. What's with the creepers at Dragon*con?? I had some girl come up to me, when I was dressed as Silk Spectre, and ask to pop my garter in the picture. I said, no thank you. She bent down and tried to do it anyway -_-.

Other notable accounts for me, is coming to find out the terrible misfortune of being allergic to Spirit Gum AND red food dye. Used red food dye this past October for a Zombie walk, since it was a great blood substitute. Got a rash all down my neck the following day -_-.

And Spirit Gum makes me itch like crazy. Anyone else have this problem? I have to use eyelash glue, but even that will mildly aggravate my overly sensitive skin.
 
And Spirit Gum makes me itch like crazy. Anyone else have this problem? I have to use eyelash glue, but even that will mildly aggravate my overly sensitive skin.

Hi. Not to hijack but briefly have u tried pros-aide instead of spirit gum? Also there are a series of fluids you can apply to your skin specifically for sensitivity to adhesives as a base layer. I'm away from home at the moment and can't recall the name of the fluid, but I'd u r interested pm me and I'll dig mine out.

Hope that helps!
M
 
The main reason I am in this hobby is because this is my best social outlet to meet people, particularly women (Yes, I realize how sad that sounds). I have never been much for the casual bar scene and costumers/prop builders are some of the only people left with any imagination. My parents actually met at a Halloween party and often think I’ll find my special someone at a costuming event one of these days.

That said, the worst experience I have is when I meet a nice girl at an event who is really into costuming and after talking about how we each got into and enjoy the hobby she will have her boyfriend who is “too cool to wear a costume” take a picture off us.
 
About two years ago I was a gymnastics coach. On Halloween we were aloud to dress up and were having a Halloween party for the kids. My costume that year was Elizabeth Swan from Pirates of the Caribbean. Not really thinking about all the jumping, diving, climbing, running, and spotting I was going to do. I used metal boning in the corset. I had great posture all day but my back was KILLING me by the end. I was also amazed my costume held up great and is still in use today. No busted seams or zippers. Talk about great seamstress work!

P.S. The hair style didn't hold up as good as the dress. It was down after my first class!
 

Attachments

  • My Elizabeth Swan.jpg
    My Elizabeth Swan.jpg
    59.9 KB · Views: 365
Hi. Not to hijack but briefly have u tried pros-aide instead of spirit gum? Also there are a series of fluids you can apply to your skin specifically for sensitivity to adhesives as a base layer. I'm away from home at the moment and can't recall the name of the fluid, but I'd u r interested pm me and I'll dig mine out.

Hope that helps!
M

I haven't, but now I'll definitely look into it! Thanks!
 
mine is when i am trying to gather reference material for a project and people you know have reference material will not share said reference...........
 
I was walking back to my hotel room at chicage comic con and my foot slipped off of the foam inserts in my pred feet and I went face first down what felt like a flight of steps! Come to find out it was only 3 steps Yep!! 3 freaking steps, almost made it, LOL!! Ripped the suit hurt my pride and made a complete ass of myself in the hotel lobby!

GOOD TIMES!!!!
 

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.
Back
Top