Worst Costume Experiences?

My worst costume experience came when I was in my Darth Vader at a Children's Museum. Three Jedi were interacting with the kids on stage when I came in (part of a choreographed lightsaber duel). I got into a fight with them to Duel of the Fates and ended up killing all three, including doing a Force Push that was assisted by a nearly invisible cord on one of the guys.

After the little skit, we were hanging in a public area and showing off our costumes. A little kid wearing a home-made Jedi costume (dyed martial arts gi) and carrying a toy lightsaber walked up. He looked up at me and I looked down at him and said "hello, youngling."

He said, "you killed the Jedi!" I nodded and struck the hands-on-the-hips pose and said, "they were enemies of the Empire." He got an angry look on his face and let out a powerful keop as he stepped forward with a kenpo strike with his toy lightsaber right to my cod piece.

The spotters got there too late and Lord Vader used all of his willpower not to toss cookiees in his mask. You see, what I thought was a toy lightsaber was in fact a bokken that was covered in tin foil and had green cellophane around the blade.

I've taken plenty of nut-shots in the past having been in martial arts from twelve, but I was more upset about my costume damage. The sintra back of my codpiece was shattered, the leather split, the belt buckle face came off and the belt buckle backing was snapped in half. In total, about $230 and 4 hours of repairs.
 
i've had a few bad ones...the 2 that stick out the most

1) i was attending the NYC halloween parade, as i was walking across the street my handler who was supposed to hold my keys and watch my back, ran up to me and told me he lost my car keys....ok disaster 1.... next he totally took off on me and left me in the middle of a million people with no back up ..I have never felt that desperate in my life..i had to ask someone to borrow their cell phone so i could call my wife in NJ to pick me up...
Mind you, every block in NY was closed off and my wife had to make her way to find me in the crowd....it was pretty bad

2) NYC comic con last year, the execs at the fox booth asked me and a few others to stand on stage with adrian brody and take photos with the people as they got they sigs...ok we figured we would alternate and take turns on stage ...this way the lights from the green screen wouldn't bother us to much..sadly they kept me up there for 45 minutes...the rubber and foam in the suit began to heat up and i came within seconds of dropping. matter of fact i fell to my knees when i got clear of the booth...

good times....
 
i was suited up as the predator...he was a co worker who said he saw this girl he dated once and went to say hi, when he turned i was gone....big fat lie....

and yes the asswhoppin followed:behave
 
I was marching in a parade a number of years back, wearing a Death Star Gunner helmet... you know, the big black beetle looking thing? I was also carrying a flag pole with big garrison pennants hanging from it.

I had a bad cold.

About 1/2 way through the parade I sneezed pretty violently inside the helmet.

Now, if you look at the face...

dsgunner.jpg


And that big pointy nose that slopes back down toward your face.

Well, you can see where this is going.

For the next hour I tried to lean my head forward as much as possible to keep the... debris... from running back down into my face.
 
:lol :lol :lol

One of the bad things you can have as a female: Having your period while you're wearing spandex. I was lucky to be well equipped, but since I can be quite 'bad' I was constantly checking myself up. And the stomach ache...gah! But I kept on posing and smiling lol.

And nothing bad happened in the end :)
 
Flagwaver said:
...I've taken plenty of nut-shots in the past having been in martial arts from twelve, but I was more upset about my costume damage. The sintra back of my codpiece was shattered, the leather split, the belt buckle face came off and the belt buckle backing was snapped in half. In total, about $230 and 4 hours of repairs.
Click to expand...

Moral of the story: punch me in the nads all you want, but for the love of God, don't damage the costume!
 
Worst experience hmmm.

Handsy people while in costume...yeah happen to me a lot before I made sure I didn't go anywhere without a handler.

I just experienced the pain of full Victorian Period dress. Several layers of petiicoats, steel bone corset, appropriate undergarments...

and a photo shoot on the streets of Atlanta in Summer at Dragon*Con.

I sweated through to my outer bodice and looked at my companions, "We've got five minutes until I pass out."

Fortunately I made it back to the room before I swooned. LOL.
 
Flagwaver said:
He said, "you killed the Jedi!" I nodded and struck the hands-on-the-hips pose and said, "they were enemies of the Empire." He got an angry look on his face and let out a powerful keop as he stepped forward with a kenpo strike with his toy lightsaber right to my cod piece.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this bit of story. It was hilarious! :lol
 
So I made a Green Lantern this year using more EL Wire than I care to admit, and the 1st night I wore it, I found out the limits of it's flexability. Half of my left arm winked out... The next night (after i'd "fixed" it) I had no less than three technical failures loosing a third of the lighting on the whole costume... while in a contest. :(
 
Going as a Ghostbuster to a Chicago con with a mainly plywood proton pack and trap on. I had a great time until the pack and trap came off at the car. The pack straps bruised my shoulders as well as killed my back. Also, since the ghost trap sat on my left hip and it weighing a decent amount, after taking it off I ended up walking funny for a few days not realizing I was compensating for the weight when walking around the con. Needless to say, everything has been redone and lightened.
 
My first time building boots, I wasn't sure what I was doing. (Isn't that always the case?) I constructed a two-part fiberglass shell, which allowed the foot to move up and down. It was intended to fit over a pair of existing shoes. Of course, this was a rush build, so no time to remake it if there were problems.

So, the shell turned out to be too small to fit over the shoes. I still thought I wouldn't have a problem (I threw on a pair of flip flops in my bag). Unfortunately, as is often the case during rush builds, when I finally put on the entire costume it was the day of the con. My feet barely fit in. What I wasn't expecting was how badly I had misjudged how feet are supposed to bend.

I ended up walking around with what were essentially immovable blocks of fiberglass that were cutting into the tops of my feet in places and bruising others. I stayed in it for about 3 hours total; had a great time. However my feet were black and blue for a week.

What made that interesting was I had my annual physical three days after con. The doctor shut the door and started to give me the whole domestic abuse talk. I explained the injuries away as "fashion related."
 
Back when I had more time than money I decided to make a full leather Peace Keeper uniform. Now this was when the last season of the show was ending so the costume resources were few and far between and I had to find and or create everything from scratch. Managed to get everything together and even create a leather holster for my pistol from scratch with the help of a friend. The last item I needed was the PK Jacket, and I went to all the custom tailors in my city to see if they would make me one. Found a guy that assured me he had made several Vulcan and Klingon costumes so he know about sci fi costumes. Provided him with tons of detailed pictured of the costume inside and out.

Spent the next three months following up with him each week to check on progress and he assured me he would have it done before DragonCon. The week before the Con he started to put it together and I went to pick it up the night before I was to fly out to Atlanta. What I was presented was a black and red sport jacket with the plastic clips the only accurate part of the jacket. Was so pissed I could barely talk, since I had prepaid for the jacket and there was no time to fix it. Spent the next 6 months trying to get my money back to no avail.
 
I had a few, breaking the arm lights of my quorra costume while dressing up for the con after staying up the whole night to finish the costume really broke my nerves (I had to fix the costume for the contest the next day). But mostly I had many bruises from wearing heels for hours or wearing heavy wings or being all stressed up because of people at cons that try to break the costumes D:
 
A terrifiying collection of stories, over the years I've had my fair share and experienced others misfortunes.

In the late 1980s a friend had vacformed his first stormtrooper armours, and we coundn't wait to waer them. They were not cut to fit and the resulting cuts and bruises were battle scars worn proudly.

I fell off the stage during the presentation of my mark 1 cybernetic battlesuit and nearly crushed Kenny baker on the judges table. I was dragged out to the green room and my leg swelled up where it had cracked into the table. I couldn't walk, but when I won best original costume, they took my suit out to accept the award. I still have that indentation.

During the release of the ANH special edition we hosted the premier evening and dressed about 16 people in our Star Wars costumes. One of our lucky friends got to be OOla, and on arrival at the cinema lept from the car only to discover that her bikini bottoms had become untied and they were still in the car. Like a trooper she got them back on and continued the night. yes.... it was like a reverse green tan.

Recently I had built a large mechanical pair of legs for a Steampunk costume exhibition, They were rushed, poorly made and highly experimental. I had 7 inch lifts in both feet, and had made the feet too wide, so I coudn't walk without them smashing into each other. I made it through the presentation and the audience appreciated the result, but on the way to a steampunk panel to discuss the exhibition the right foot started to feel a bit funny. Right in the middle of the main thoroughfare, the right foor shattered and I was left teettering on one foot, blocking traffic and trying not to come crashing into the floor. Fortunately Part of our group rescued me and pulled me out of the debris. I ripped that costume to shreds. stupid costume. But that failed build helped me correct a lot of mechanical issues for my new Bunny Mecha. And that worked like a champ.

Oh ..... and spiderman got a hard-on in his costume.
 
You win.

Steampunk Steve said:
A terrifiying collection of stories, over the years I've had my fair share and experienced others misfortunes.

In the late 1980s a friend had vacformed his first stormtrooper armours, and we coundn't wait to waer them. They were not cut to fit and the resulting cuts and bruises were battle scars worn proudly.

I fell off the stage during the presentation of my mark 1 cybernetic battlesuit and nearly crushed Kenny baker on the judges table. I was dragged out to the green room and my leg swelled up where it had cracked into the table. I couldn't walk, but when I won best original costume, they took my suit out to accept the award. I still have that indentation.

During the release of the ANH special edition we hosted the premier evening and dressed about 16 people in our Star Wars costumes. One of our lucky friends got to be OOla, and on arrival at the cinema lept from the car only to discover that her bikini bottoms had become untied and they were still in the car. Like a trooper she got them back on and continued the night. yes.... it was like a reverse green tan.

Recently I had built a large mechanical pair of legs for a Steampunk costume exhibition, They were rushed, poorly made and highly experimental. I had 7 inch lifts in both feet, and had made the feet too wide, so I coudn't walk without them smashing into each other. I made it through the presentation and the audience appreciated the result, but on the way to a steampunk panel to discuss the exhibition the right foot started to feel a bit funny. Right in the middle of the main thoroughfare, the right foor shattered and I was left teettering on one foot, blocking traffic and trying not to come crashing into the floor. Fortunately Part of our group rescued me and pulled me out of the debris. I ripped that costume to shreds. stupid costume. But that failed build helped me correct a lot of mechanical issues for my new Bunny Mecha. And that worked like a champ.

Oh ..... and spiderman got a hard-on in his costume.
Click to expand...
 
Haha, steve you have some of the best scary and/or funny stories.

Never had a dangerous or embarrassing costume yet. Except forgetting mine in VA for this years Halloween in Baltimore.
 
I wore my jango fett helmet ( fitted with el wire ) to dj once because my daft punk helmet was in the middle of being fixed. I don't know why but that thing was so bloody hot I sweated like a pig during the entire set. Not the worst costume experience ever, but it really sucked.
 
Kithunter said:
oooooh black and blues?..... come on peeps!!!!! bring the pain.. share your stories and bruises.
Click to expand...


OOh! yes. Well I'm not sharing photos as they are really gross, but fantastic for my make up reference library.

So, I used PAX for my Shaak Ti The Force Unleashed costume as I was two hours drive from the hotel (truefax, long horrible story about that) was on the job as costume judge/wrangler for the contest at the con and did not have a partner in crime for fixing up my paint. I had tried all the other options available to me at the time. I had to full body paint even in areas not likely to be seen just in case of a wardrobe malfunction.
Four hours of painting myself (edit- I did have help with the very middle of my upper back, mainly to check for evenness. I am very bendy) and I was ready to go.




However testing even a whole arm was not enough to work out how difficult it was going to be to remove all the paint.



It took five steaming hot showers several face cloths and a lot of scrubbing. Yeah I had very little isopropyl Myristate due to a miscalculation of how much liquid I could bring with me.

I happen to also be on corticosteroids and have been for the last decade. Anyone familiar with this drug will be sure to know what happens next.

It looked like I had needle tracks by the hundreds up and down my legs and arms. Actually the layers of bruising on my legs reminded me of some sort of weird jellyfish.

The bruises lasted a week or so.



The worst part though was getting claustrophobic in the paint while at the venue and not having any means of removing it or getting back to the hotel in short time. Sigh.
 
Last edited:

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.

Similar threads

A
Magnoli Clothiers 'Night frock'. Personal experiences?
Replies
2
Views
371
Indy Magnoli
Indy Magnoli
immortalverse
Keanu Reeves costume SPEED - Boots and Shirt
Replies
0
Views
76
immortalverse
immortalverse
ImperialWalker
The Big Lebowski "Maude" Viking Costume Help
Replies
1
Views
170
greenmachines
greenmachines
Wells Sculpture
Mechagodzilla Halloween costume
Replies
8
Views
1,329
wampire
wampire
Jp panta
What would be the ideal fabric for Batman 2022's costume?
Replies
1
Views
257
DudeManGuy1019
D
Back
Top