Back in my day costumes came in a box!

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Krazylegz1485@reddit

How many people here know about "the Halloween Blizzard of 1991"...? Haha.

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Significant_Ad_8939@reddit

I remember it snowed in Michigan and we had to wear winter coats, mittens, and boots over our costumes, but it wasn't a blizzard there and we still trick or treated. I was in 5th grade.

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icy_sylph@reddit

I mean, as a kid in MI, it was basically a 75% chance that it'd be snowing on Halloween and you' be wearing all your snow gear...

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milesjames43675@reddit

Almost guaranteed in ND the only part of your costume you would see is the razor sharp plastic mask…the rest was under your snow mobile suit😂😂.

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Mail_Order_Lutefisk@reddit

Minnesota got like 8 foot of snow. It was brutal.

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tgrofire@reddit

Absolutely!!! I grew up in Northern MN and we always wore costumes that you could fit snow suits under 🤣 And yes, i remember that Halloween especially as there were snow drifts taller than me!

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Candid-Jellyfish-975@reddit

I was hitting the old side of trick or treating that year. But that's the first year I remember not going out. Just played in the snow and prayed for no school.

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monsterlynn@reddit

The multiple Evel Knievals lend me to think this photo is more late 70s than 80s, but the plastic costumes still track for 80s.

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Chade_X@reddit

Exactly!!! I knew I wasn’t the only who instantly thought of that.

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NPC261939@reddit

I can hear this photo. The crinkling of those horrid box costumes still haunt my dreams. It was like putting on a damn trash bag.

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Mail_Order_Lutefisk@reddit

If you left it in the sun for a month it turned into a pile of dust. Wait, how much microplastic do we have on average?

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NPC261939@reddit

Way too much. I don't think those cheap costumes were going to protect us very well from all the acid rain, and the hole in the ozone layer they were trying to frighten us with constantly.

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ElPeroTonteria@reddit

I can feel the sharp plastic against my face and that thin band of elastic

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Face_with_a_View@reddit

Sticking your tongue through the sharp little mouth slit.

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Seriously was it too much to ask for them to sand off the sharp edges? Probably attributed to us not having to grow up with warning labels. Even our Halloween masks were trying to kill us. We knew better from an early age

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sahurley@reddit

I'm flashing back to suffocating while trying to breathe through a hole that is 3/4" by 1/8".

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snotparty@reddit

i cut my finger one a cracked edge of a mask, those things really are scary

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DullNeedleworker3447@reddit

Yes. Getting your finger stuck in a broken crack and then having to pull it out.

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ElPeroTonteria@reddit

Although not sure how, I know exactly what that feels like.

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s6cedar@reddit

I remember putting up a new shower curtain liner for the first time and thinking “wtf does this smell like??” Then it hit me.

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midnight-dour@reddit

I’m almost positive whoever took this photo was never seen again.

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Random_Monstrosities@reddit

Yeah as a kid I never realized how creepy those masks are

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red286@reddit

You should check out pictures of Halloween costumes from the 1930s and 1940s.

They looked like something out of a horror movie.

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Tylerdurden389@reddit

I hated them back them cuz they were cheap and I hated how the string would pull on your hair.

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Random_Monstrosities@reddit

I forgot about that until reading your response then I could feel it

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graveybrains@reddit

The lighting and color in the picture are responsible for almost all of the creepiness.

Also, the corners of my mouth hurt every time I see it get reposted.

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idle_isomorph@reddit

I found them creepy. Its the eye holes for me.

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Always-just-a-friend@reddit

I dont know which Star Wars you watched, but I cleary remember Vader wearing a smock with his likeness. It instilled fear² to the Jedi and rebels.

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wafair@reddit

He ruled a galaxy, I’m pretty sure there were Darth Vader shirts around and he probably had one for his leisure time.

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fearless-penguin@reddit

If Darth Vader wants to wear a smock with a picture of himself… then one would be wise to just let the fashion faux pas slide. He’s force choked fools for less… just sayin’.

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GarminTamzarian@reddit

He does on Halloween!

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clandahlina_redux@reddit

We were too distracted by trying to breathe through them.

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Blue-Skye-@reddit

I was just thinking that.

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buttery_bunss@reddit

These kids about to purge.

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pheathervescent@reddit

The one n the left has to be David Duke

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monstermack1977@reddit

being he's blonde I think that's Bo Duke. No love for Luke Duke in the picture it seems...since there are 2 Bo Dukes. He was just a good ole boy, never meaning no harm

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JWStaples@reddit

I constantly tell my kids how bad our costumes were as kids. Smelly plastic/vinyl, masks that you could barely see out of, yet alone breathe properly.

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Sufficient-Quote-431@reddit

So here is the funny part, and I was 2 when I was dressed as a Yoda, the material that was used would instantly melt around any sort of flame.

At least ET pulled it off. I would run if I walked into a classroom and saw this.

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BlooShinja@reddit

Holderness Family “We Survived 80s Halloween” https://youtu.be/5H0pfc0rAzE

If you enjoyed this thread, you will enjoy this music video.

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ispeektroof@reddit

Don’t tongue the mouth hole.

gif

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NW_Forester@reddit

I remember having a homemade costume for Halloween and feeling poor. I wonder if that's changed in recent years. Like costumes are cheap as shit now and how many parents have time to make something homemade now.

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ThemanfromNumenor@reddit

For real…it was homemade or nothing for me too

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Rach_InOz@reddit

I was looking for the homemade crowd!! My mom used to buy the patterns and sew ours. She stopped about the time 2 became 3 😂

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VioletVenable@reddit

It was the opposite in my hometown — if you had a store-bought costume like the ones pictured above, that meant your mom worked outside the home (out of necessity, not by choice). Similarly, those of us who brought lunch to school felt sorry for those who had to buy theirs — but in other places, it was the opposite. My hometown was basically straight out of the ‘50s, though.

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Sanchastayswoke@reddit

Utah?

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VioletVenable@reddit

Hah, no — Missouri.

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HangryHangryHedgie@reddit

Yup. And it was usually morphed from whatever my sisters went as the year before. By the time I got to my last years as the youngest, I was handed a raincoat and boots and was told I was a fisherman.

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VibrantViolet@reddit

My mom always made our costumes. I remember going to JoAnne’s to pick a pattern. She made our Easter dresses and a few high school dance dresses, too. She genuinely enjoyed sewing, I should probably learn someday.

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Sanchastayswoke@reddit

Ours were always homemade and yes it made me feel poor too

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ThePicassoGiraffe@reddit

Or even know how!! Cosplay sewing ain’t for beginners!

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Sad-Praline1929@reddit

Our Halloween costumes were homemade. You could be a witch or a cheetah. And when you grew out of them, you were on your own with whatever you could find around the house. I envied kids whose parents bought them costumes.

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therobotscott@reddit

I never had one of those types of costumes. Mine were always homemade. But no matter how you feel about those types of costumes, at least the kids were all dressed up for Halloween, unlike the majority of kids nowadays.

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BalrogRuthenburg11@reddit

No one at my school wore costumes like that in the mid-to-late 80s.

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That-Dude-Smells@reddit

When I was in second grade mom got me one of those costumes, I was Mr T.

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WindTall5566@reddit

gif

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ykeogh18@reddit

I was in elementary school during the 80’s and Halloween was never like this. Was this photo taken at a school in the Appalachian mountains or something?

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polygonalopportunist@reddit

The fumes comin off this stuff was like gas form of BPA

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RichardCleveland@reddit

I can imagine when the teacher walked in hearing in unison "good morning Mrs bates" was creepy as hell.

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5uck3rpunch@reddit

Hell to the yeah! I used to love wearing my costume like that to school! I was Batman for like 5 years in a row.

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emilyMartian@reddit

I’m surprised I don’t have face scars from the sharp edges of those masks.

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graveybrains@reddit

We have a lot of opportunities to redo this meme, don't we? 😂

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BibFortunaCookie@reddit

Hell yeah! I was She-Ra (Princess of Power if ya nasty) one year. The plastic mask survived for about 6 months after. I played in it a lot. There was something so good about the gold color paint they used in the 80s. It looked good.

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Epicardiectomist@reddit

As we sat there huffing industrial fumes.

making costumes > buying costumes

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Volmara@reddit

“And could tear at the seams like tissue paper”

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SilentJoe27@reddit

I don't think the real Radioactive Man... wears a plastic smock with a picture of himself on it

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PsychologicalRace739@reddit

I had a road runner one in 1991 , last time I saw that mask/ plastic shirt with a cape combo

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Ronthelodger@reddit

One of the things that stands out to me was how cool the displays looked in store. As a four-year-old, looking at the wall of boxed costumes was a pretty exciting event.

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Always-just-a-friend@reddit

Fuck I forgot how creepy and garbage those old costumes were.

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Silverknightowl@reddit

That Smurf costume was my first Halloween that I remember trick or treating in.

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mdmale21921@reddit

Can still smell that plastic.

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Glittering-Station78@reddit

I distinctly remember being Optimus Prime with one of these costumes. Ripped the plastic outfit trying to put on a million layers of clothes underneath the costume.

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digitaljestin@reddit

Ow! My lips!

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Dakaf@reddit

The elastic string had about a one hour life span unfortunately.

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Mail_Order_Lutefisk@reddit

If you lived somewhere cold you were lucky to get ten minutes outside. We all knew Challenger’s o-rings weren’t gonna hold…

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BritOnTheRocks@reddit

Oh, I thought there were two Evel Knievel costumes, but I see now it says Dukes of Hazzard so they must have been some kind of General Lee / Bo Duke mashup?

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Mail_Order_Lutefisk@reddit

I just zoomed in. You’re right. The front of those is just the stars and bars.

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HangryHangryHedgie@reddit

I have a pic of me in preschool where everyone is in one of their, and I am in a home-made Mickey Mouse costume. I'm the only one you can tell the identity of! My mom said the other parents gave her weird looks due to 1: I am a girl (tomboy always) 2: Teacher Leslie thanked her for making my costume.

I had hand me down costumes pretty much from then out. I was amazed how many things my mom could make out of one white fleece bodysuit.

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_Internet_Hugs_@reddit

I can smell the off-gassing from here.

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lillychr14@reddit

Don’t forget that the tiny mouth slit was always razor sharp

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mudley801@reddit

I can still smell those thick plastic costumes

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EverybodyBeCalm@reddit

I have the Superman and Spider-Man costumes from this brand still. If my kids try to wear them they’ll probably crumble.

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thevaginalist@reddit

I was Leia and I thought that costume was the most awesome thing

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Historical-Crab-2905@reddit

Ben Cooper

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Elviraismymom@reddit

Looks like ai! But I remember these days so well!

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Heel-and-Toe-Shifter@reddit

Dunno about you, but I personally loved feeling my condensed breath against my face!

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pink_faerie_kitten@reddit

My mom never did a store bought costume/mask. We had fun every year picking out stuff from our own closets or dress up clothes, and makeup. The year my sister was a clown, she wore my dad's dress shirt and tie and makeup. When I was a cat, my mom took my winter hat and added rubber bands to make kitty ears. I went as Poochie one year and wore my mom's big sunglasses on my head (does anyone remember Poochie? She was a cute punk and white puppy from the mid '80s). Very fun.

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MrKal-El@reddit

I can still feel the pain of cutting your tongue on these

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ihatecatboys@reddit

The era of Collegeville Costumes is unmatched for Halloween nostalgia, granted there are some EXTREMELY cursed ones out there, such as the Benji one.

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sfcameron2015@reddit

Yes! I had a care bear and a Wonder Woman.

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Honest_Marsupial_100@reddit

I hated those things

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HerRoyalRedness@reddit

My mom was personally offended by costumes from a box so she sewed elaborate costumes for my brother and I.

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mzamour@reddit

I was in the Smurf costume hahaha that's which one I had

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cellrdoor2@reddit

No plastic for us. Just homemade and sometimes vaguely culturally questionable things.

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xxlouserxx@reddit

analog horror

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ExtraDistressrial@reddit

Literally had Vader costume. For a second I was like, "wait, is that me?!" And then I saw the other one toward the back, and the longer you look you realize we had like three options for costumes and damn man...

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C0BRA_V1P3R@reddit

I remember those costumes having a very distinct and overpowering smell to them.

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Tight_Cheetah_4474@reddit

I had to make my own costumes because after a couple times I Hated the smell!!! To this day when I smell that weird plastic smell it triggers me.

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BosomBosons@reddit

polyvinyl chloride

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eaglewatch1945@reddit

Primarily your own sweat and labored breath.

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MotherofaPickle@reddit

Your costume came from a box? Were you rich, did your parents not love you, or both?

My mom made all out costumes. I do the same for my kids now.

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cortesoft@reddit

Yeah, I don’t remember ANYONE having a purchased costume when I was a kid. They were all hand made.

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stamata_tomata@reddit (OP)

I think these were the cheapo option if you were buying a costume. I remember getting mine from toys r us, I don't recall the price but I remember my mom steering us away from the fancy face paints and costumes with props towards these 2 piece plastic costumes. Now that I think about it maybe she didn't want to deal with an elaborate costume that required time (love 😂) to execute

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Strange-Employee-520@reddit

Yeah, rich kids did not have these 😂 I love that it makes the photos so unidentifiable, I zoomed in to see if the Raggedy Ann was me. It's not. But I'm positive my first grade class would look the same.

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DirtRight9309@reddit

yeah these were definitely the blue collar option. if mom had time to sew costumes she was either an overachiever or didn’t have to work.

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FriendlyNative66@reddit

My mom had 4 of us to deal with and we were close in age. I feel bad for her after having 3 to deal with. There's plenty of love but not always enough time.

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Croused@reddit

gif

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Unabridgedversion82@reddit

Holy shit there needs to be a horror movie revisiting this. This is scary af...

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mclovin314159@reddit

Guaranteed to haunt my dreams.

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mrrunner1981@reddit

I remember one of those costumes I had. I was Willow.

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ThePicassoGiraffe@reddit

My mom refused to buy me these. “Im not paying that much for plastic. I’ll make one thats better” and she did. And they were better costumes too. My son wore my brothers TMNT costume because she still had it and it was in amazing shape

Thankfully I was not the only kid in school whose parents felt that way so I wasn’t alone and didn’t get made fun of

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Nwsamurai@reddit

Did anyone else get shamed by other kids for coming to school in a home-made costume?

It was only like two years that I remember this style of costume was popular, but in my school, those were the only acceptable costumes to have. Just so happened to be one of the years I put together my own Luke Skywalker costume. It wasn't great, but it didn't deserve to be looked down on by cheap plastic crap.

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Anjapayge@reddit

I showed my husband and he never had one of these because his mom made him and his brother costumes. They were the family that all had a matching theme. While my sister and I were in these costumes and my dad would make us walk getting as much candy as possible.

For my kid, I do a little bit of buying and she creates her costume.

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Finger-of-Shame@reddit

I wanna see the two Evel Knievels duke it out with the two Vaders.

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RiverRemarkable8503@reddit

I was He-man if I remember correctly

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LongPorkJones@reddit

I could never speak in one of those. Always ended up cutting my tounge.

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softshrew@reddit

We always had homemade costumes

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sleeperninja@reddit

I’m in there somewhere!

It was this until Nightmare on Elm Street, then I was working on my Freddy cosplay for YEARS.

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Leather_Scientist963@reddit

Yeah …..big nope

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No_Perception_4330@reddit

Trying to explain Evel Knevel’s costume wasn’t technically racist to my son was … awkward.

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Intrepid_Elk_4351@reddit

Back in style Halloween 2020

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Jenaaaaaay@reddit

This is terrifying and I lived through it 😂

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hamburgler26@reddit

If this horror movie doesn't exist, it should.

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Sad_Egg_5176@reddit

Reminds me of the bus scene in Trick or Treat

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JackTheKing@reddit

All those parents loved them.

I was always a hobo.

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DooficusIdjit@reddit

Ethery tongue leth with a thore on that thay.

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clipbored@reddit

I was that exact Smurf in second grade.

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RocknRollCasper@reddit

I had a Scrappy Doo costume when I was 3

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DirtRight9309@reddit

Not mine! my mom practically lived at Minnesota Fabrics

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Significant_Ad_8939@reddit

They did, but they were too expensive. Instead we were various animals throughout the years. My mom made headbands with ears, drew on our faces, and pinned a homemade tail to the back of our footie pajamas. Then the next year my little sister was whatever animal I'd been the year before since she had the pajamas I'd outgrown. The ears and tails got reused/repurposed. I remember being a bunny, cat, dog, bear, and tiger through elementary school.

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ShortBrownAndUgly@reddit

I still remember my he man plastic mask

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Dickrubin14094@reddit

Is this a picture of a serial killer convention?

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SilentKnightOfOld@reddit

I don't think the real Radioactive Man wears a plastic smock with a picture of himself on it

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forevasleep@reddit

Unsettling

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cronokun@reddit

I’m pretty sure I had that smurfs costume one year

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keefkola@reddit

It was never that deep

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lavasca@reddit

My dad was in charge of costumes. He’d buy the mask and make the garment which sometimes involved a staple gun.

Dad was in it for the candy. He mapped out where we would trick or treat based upon where we’d get the most candy. I inadvertantly tattled and my uncle revealed that Daddy was not supposed to be eating lots of candy.

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Shortbus_Playboy@reddit

Y’know what?

I will happily don an 80’s costume again if I can get 80’s candy again.

More Nerds flavors, bigger Gobstoppers in more colors, the long Jolly Ranchers, candy cigarettes, and on and on, lol

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Quizleteer@reddit

Purchased from Toys R Us, all plastic. I was She-Ra two years in a row.

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FigureFourWoo@reddit

Great taste.

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thedrinkinggeek@reddit

I can smell these in my brain, And now I feel trapped in it. JFC these things sucked. lol.

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LassieDear@reddit

My brother had that exact Darth Vader costume the same year I had a Hoth Leia costume, and yet there's not a single Ewok so I'm identifying this as 1982. Also the costumes with the stars says "Dukes of Hazzard" yet at first glance I thought it was supposed to be Reagan or something, what on earth

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upstatestruggler@reddit

HA I also thought it was Reagan and wondered why he was blonde

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Not_a_werecat@reddit

Man, we were too poor for the box costumes, but my mom could sew like a champ.

She made me the coolest costumes! The very best was a pterosaur when I was 5ish. Had a paper mache head and wings and everything. I wore that thing all year literally until it fell apart.

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