Worst Costume Experiences?

I went back and added pictures to mine, as suggested. :)

I've had some bad stuff with other costumes before too, but really nothing to outrageous, (such as the leather pants I had on for my Lady Punisher outfit nearly shredding the leather outside because it poured down rain and I got stuck outside in it while carting the other costumes inside and the pants had to dry while on me and it started ripping the outside.) Once I made the alterations to Meg and re-did the outside vinyl that made her 'metal' exterior, and it took down a lot of the weight and problems, and I got used to the boots, and remembered not to walk for 12 or 15 hours the day before, I wound up actually LOVING the suit itself and modified the cannon so it sprayed not just one shot of confetti from it, but was now a six shooter, and had it worked so I could reload it while still in character and in suit, storing the extra sixshooter rounds in the inside tube of the cannon itself. Kids got a kick out of it, and so did a lot of my cosplayer friends too. I was able to last over 6 hours in Meg in one suit up at one time at Baltimore ComicCon after that. My feet hurt, but not near as bad.

I've been ganged up on by kids before....lol...I had one literally climb me in Meg at BotCon on the last day because I was 'the bad guy' and he was 'gonna git Megatron!'. LOL! I laughed it off after letting him 'fight' me for a minute and then chased him and 'shot him' with my confetti and he ran off giggling like a maniac. It was hilarious! Then I had this one little boy who was just the coolest. He run up to me and says 'Megatron? You're the bad guy but I don't care, you're still my favorite.' I think I almost cried under my mask as I got down to my knees and he run into my arms. :) So, there may be costume fouls or bad experiences, but the good ones like that totally make up for it. :)

UPIGregWhitesell.jpg

^Me and Kiddo at Baltimore ComicCon.
 
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I have plenty of “bad experience” stories, but I have one that just left me freaking befuddled. I was in my Halo armor at some tiny local anime convention because the voice of the Master Chief was going to be there. This guy comes up to me and asks for a picture. I naturally agree, it’s no problem. He then asks me if I will “Teabag him” for the picture. I tell him that is not going to happen. He starts getting irate with me, demanding that I teabag. I just shake my head and turn to walk away, he taps me on the shoulder, I turn back around, and the dude tried to take a swing at me. He misses and I get the heck away form him and tell security.

The guy tried to punch me because I would not tea bag him. You tell me how that makes sense.
 
That is just.....gross for one. And totally weird for another. I've had people in other costumes or just people who want pictures who want me to 'shoot them' or 'fight with them' for pictures, just posing and playing around, but never anything that drastic! Me and a couple buddies of mine actually were fighting around and acting out a little 'battle' on a small convention floor for the people gathered, but never did we actually hurt anyone or let it go too far, just simple stunts and stuff....take a swing at me here, Meg shoots them, we tussle a bit, I grabbed one Autobot character and was going to 'beat him' and others come to his rescue and we all ran off out of the room while 'battling'. In my son's Wheelie costume his slingshot actually is a working slingshot so he was 'shooting' at Devastator for cameras and the crowds, but his 'rock' was a bouncy ball, so it just bounced right off. I admit, I like to mess with kids who come up and want pictures. They want to pose with the Decepticon. Okay...well, we are bad guys, right? Mom gets their picture with me in a good pose with them, like I'm supposed to, then I play with them. I mess up their hair, take their hats off and walk away with them and let them chase me down for it, or do bunny ears on them or make silly gestures, poke them or stuff like that, just to be playful. Kids get a kick out of it and usually will play back. I had one kid laughing himself silly because Soundwave was rooting through his candy bucket after he got a picture with me and Matt. I'd pick up a piece of candy, study it, shake my head and toss it back in and pick up another and do it again. I waved it off like he didn't have anything I wanted, and next thing I knew here comes this little girl dressed like a pink skeleton that just HAD to have a picture with Soundwave (and was probably 7 or 8 and knew who I was! SCORE!) and was SO excited she ran off to find her brother to bring him to me too.

I have had bad things with kids too though. One thing with being a robot character, is you are completely covered, no skin showing, and face hidden, and some kids see that and get scared of it. I've had a couple of times where little kids were scared to DEATH of me and I had to back off and let them get used to me first. Most times, they eventually come up to me. I get down to their level and put my hand out and they will slowly come and want to look at 'the robot' but there have been two or three that just absolutely bawled and screamed with me just being there not even doing anything.

Anyone else get screaming crying kids because of being in a costume?
 
I was at a con several years ago in my "Space" Above and Beyond" Marine ground pounder outfit and some jerk stormtrooper kept pointing his plastic blaster in my face while I was talking to someone else. Eventually, I stopped and said to him, "Look, I'm in the military for real and I get really nervous when people point firearms at me, even plastic ones. If you do that one more time, I swear to God I'm going to take it from you and beat the [poop] out of you with it, you get me, son?"
From deep within his helmet, I hear a radio click on and a very sheepish reply of, "uh.... got it. Sorry."
I've had people in other costumes or just people who want pictures who want me to 'shoot them' or 'fight with them' for pictures
I was on a TV show once with actor R Lee Ermey (the Drill SGT from "Full metal Jacket," and he told me that many people want photos with him, with him choking them, like the phrase in that movie where he says, "now choke yourself". He didn't get why, and neither do I. The photos I have of him and I together have no violence of any kind. It'd seen odd to have to explain what that meant anyway....
 
Anyone else get screaming crying kids because of being in a costume?

Yes! All the time.
I do lots of volunteering gigs with a local mascot group. I don't know what it is about mascots, but kids are either delighted or terrified... there is no middle ground.

There is a rule with mascot volunteers that you A) do NOT approach children... let them come to you and B) if the kid looks scared, wave and walk away. But Parents are determined to get their photo with the big puppy dog and will drag their screaming child towards you saying "It's okay! It's not scary" and shove them in your face.
I think I have contributed to many a child trauma over the years
 
My experiences as Chewie have mostly been great. I've a had a few screaming kids who's parents insist on getting their photo in spite of the fact that there kid is terrified. Most kids are pretty good and want to hug the big dog-man.

Most adults are good as well, but I've had a few oddball reactions that I will share:
  1. At an anime con (yeah I know) one of the teen girls starting licking the Wookiee hair on one of my arms. Suffice to say if she knew how much sweat, rain, engine exhaust (parades) and so on had gotten on that hair, she wouldn't have thought that was a good idea.
  2. At DragonCon 09 and 10, I had a football fan guy try to climb me into my arms without asking. Really pissed me off.
  3. I was marching in a parade in Seattle in 2006. A drunk tried to climb me from behind. I shook him off and turned around to see what the hell was going on. He was obviously ****faced and two cops were approaching him from behind.
  4. A couple of kids tried to sell me a joint at a Make-A-Wish fundraiser that took place in a mall. I was walking back to the dressing room for a break.
 
I once spent months restoring and re sculpting a stormtrooper helmet i bought from a friend only to realise later it was too big and in a fit of depression cut it to bits and fired it into the bin. I never told the missus straight away, I think it may have affected my abilty to produce young.
 
A few years back I was at a local bar wearing my Speed Racer Outfit and anyone who knows what speed racers outfit looked like, they would know that he wore some nice, form fitting white bellbottoms. I was hanging out at the bar, sitting in a stool drinking some Shiner Bock Bohemian, I went to take a sip and someone came up from behind and drunkenly hugged me telling me that they loved my costume, but didnt realize they made me spill my beer in my lap when they did so. I did the best I could to get the beer dried off from my pants using club soda and towels, but, for the rest of the night(I was only wearing boxers underneath and had no extra clothes) I was walking around with this nice, yellow/orange stain on my crotch that just screamed " Hey, look at me, I pissed my pants!" It didnt help that the bar was well lit and everyone could see my nice "pee" stain. It was all fine, I just told everyone that I had some tuning done to the Mach5 and the newfound power made me wet myself!:lol
 
I generally don't have issues but when I do...they seem to spiral. I wore my Zam gear to a 501st event in a mall. For whatever reason, I forgot to wear underarmor. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal until about 45 minutes in and I could feel the heat on my inner left knee where the neoprene seam was rubbing. Once I got out of my gear I could see how badly it was cut and bleeding. I still have a scar. Whether it was because of the lack of underarmor or just a bad day....my pants wouldn't stay up. I could feel them sagging and with that gear there is no pulling them up without taking everything else off. It never got worse than a little sagging but it felt awful. Right near the end though topped it all off. We did our last wander through the mall and the nuts and bolts that hold my shins to my foot guards decided to go one after the other. I left a trail of bits and ended up kicking one of my foot guards a good distance down the mall by accident. And while getting out of my gear I realized that my right hand had swollen up enough that I had issues getting my gauntlet off. I ended up with a deep bruise to my thumb that lasted for weeks. Just one of those days it would have been better to stay home.

At this past DCon I had an epic fail with makeup. I was doing partial legs, full arms, upper chest and back and my face. The makeup went on horribly and I ran out before I was done. I hadn't thought of packing more fabric to help out in that instance and no matter how much we tried to make it work it just wouldn't. So I spent the next hour or so washing it all off and cleaning up the bathroom.
 
Recently i was pulling duty as a dementor at a movie industry ball, I had hung up a couple of dummy dementors on either side of an entrance and I was in the middle ( not hanging) The head of the costume is way above my head and I operate the arms like a puppet. ( the number of people who talk to the "head" is disturbing)> I was spooking people as they came into the Harry Potter themed event and most reactions were a brief squeal and "cool". However one young lady dressed to kill wasnt prepared so as she swept through the platform 9 3/4 curtains I did my thing and she lost it. She screamed enough to wake the dead and then collasped into uncontrolled sobbing. Some people just really don't like Harry Potter I guess. I felt bad though.
 
My worst costume experiences...Hmm...Does getting your coat stuck in an escalator count? XD
I made a long coat for a steampunk bounty hunder costume for a small convention back when I was thirteen...I was walking up the escalator then I felt it pull, and heard that oh-so-terrible ripping sound. It tore the whole back off of the coat...Needless to say the convention center was not happy. It was pretty embarassing, especially since that was one of my first conventions.
In more recent costume mishaps, at last year's Dragon*Con I wore my Star Trek TNG uniform, and since I put my rank pips on in the mirror at about 4 am that morning, they were on the wrong side for the majority of the day. I was mortified!
 
I wore my Lady Amalthea costume at AWA for a couple hours. Went to some panels and whatnot and I started to notice some discomfort on my heels. By the time I got back to my room it felt like the insides of my shoes were wet. I pulled them off and blood was actually puddled in the shoes. It didn't leave scars but walking was a challenge for a couple days after. I had a similar problem with my Witch Hunter Robin costume. I made braces out of wire to hold my hair up in her style and the base of the braces dug into my head like crazy. One side of my head had a huge knot for about two weeks before it finally started to go down. These days I'm a little more careful to test out the comfort of my costume components before I commit to wearing them for several hours at a convention.
 
In 2009 I made my first Ghostbusters costume and pack and wore it to work( I worked at Fry's Electronics at the time. They had a costume contest and I won fourth place). I didn't have enough time to properly assemble my scratch built particle thrower, so I used electrical tape to attach the bottom plate to the body of the particle thrower. The tape came apart and the proton gun crashed to the floor. It was a little banged up, but not to badly. I wasn't happy with either the pack or the jumpsuit. The jumpsuit was a light blue mechanics jumpsuit, and I only had a week to build my pack.

Last year I wanted to make an Armored Vault suit from the Fallout 3/Fallout New Vegas videogames. I ended up using the aviator suit I had intended to use for a new GB jumpsuit because my mother wouldn't help me make a vault suit. Then on the way to work, I crashed my bike and tore the heck out of my jumpsuit. The left shoulder armor kept falling off. So hopefully I can do a better revision this year.
 
At a science fiction convention, Forrest Ackerman was a guest of honor. I wanted to do something a bit obscure, but still something I felt certain he would appreciate. So I found a suit at a thrift store about three sizes larger and taller than I would wear. I even wore a name tag I had made that said, "Hello. My name is Robert Scott Carey.", which also included a silhoette of the main character as seen in the opening credits of the movie I attempted to represent. When I met him, I had explained I had worn the "costume" because I had believed he would appreciate it. He looked at me oddly, even after I had pointed out the name tag. I realized the attempt of trying to be clever was too obscure even for him to realize I was "The Incredible Shrinking Man".
 
I am so glad I found this thread before I made any costumes for myself. So far, I've only made them for others. This should really be a stuck thread on the first page, so that anyone can find it easily. While the stories are entertaining, they are also extremely informative about the perils of being out in public in costume. The best teachers are the ones who keep their students entertained while they are learning, after all!
 
My wife and I went to Toronto fan expo in2010
I had on a spiderman suit by Ollie when he was
Still in business. I worked out like a mother€£¥•*^
and was looking pretty cut at the Marvel costume
Contest where there we're many other notable costumes
Competing

First prize was an X-men comic signed by
Stan Lee..........and we all lost out to a girl in a purple mini
skirt and a green trench coat dressed as Gwen Stacey. They're
We're audible coments of disbelief throughout the crowd :(

Similar, but for last Halloween. My Iron Man lost out on $500 to a sub-par quality duo of Bender/Zoidberg. While I loves me some Futurama, the contest was "judged" by crowd reaction...

Iron Man "wins".

Announcer is instructed to announce Bender/Zoidberg as winner.

Bender/Zoidberg wins.

Not a total bust, I snag $200, but people were pretty confused lol. My thought was bar owner wanted to "spread the wealth" to as many people as possible as opposed to the audience-cheered-winner. WOMP WOMP.
 
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.

If this was at NH Granitecon, I remember you. Glad you got that signed my Akroyd. My friend and I thought your costume was hilarious and well done.
 
Yep, it was at Granitecon. Thanks. :) I may be there this year as well, but this time as 2015 Doc Brown. Apparently they're going to have one of the movie cars there.
 
When i first started with the 501st i hot glued my TK together with a low heat gluegun. needless to say the hot alabama sun soon melted my thigh pieces and i spend the rest of the troop with my arms atmy side (holding my thighs and cod piece in place). very uncomfortable
 
Phew...Some of these stories are really hard to beat physically.

But a real ego blow for myself had been at a past convention where I was dressed in a buisness suit two times larger than me, with a badge on my chest that read,"Hello, my name is Robert Scott Carey", and have the convention Guest of Honor being Forrest Ackerman, who I had been certain would get the character I was attempting to portray had been the "The Incredible Shrinking Man", but didn't, was my most epic fail.

I guess some costumes can be too obscure.
 

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