Let's step away from the Dukes for a minute and talk about something else I love. Dressing up for Halloween. To me, Halloween isn't that much about scares and gore, though I love seeing scary movies--- it's about being someone else. With the help of my mom and girlfriend, I have had some award winning costumes over the years. Let's take a look at some.
2005 saw me dress as Captain Jack Sparrow. This was before you could buy the complete costume in stores. Natalie and I put the whole costume together from scratch.
Starting in 2005, I let my hair grow pretty long. It was obvious that I should work my hair into my costumes. In 2006, I was the Immortal Hulk Hogan. I found a nice muscle shirt and built from there. I got a toy belt and found some yellow boots that I took a red sharpie to. The shirt and bandana are licensed products.
My buddy Chad was the Juggernaut because of the popularity of the Juggernaut Bitch video on youtube. We used the same muscle suit and tore up some orange and brown clothes. I think we did a pretty good job.
A friend of mine, Jake, guaranteed he would be the guy with the best costume there. He dressed as me. Blond wig, Superman shirt (he said he couldn't find a Dukes shirt), jeans, and flip flops. I was honored. He was dressed as the guy with the best costume. Hulk won me a few awards.
Finding an even bigger muscle suit in 2007 led me to dress up as the most powerful man in the universe, He-Man. I had the hair for it.
My buddy Tom was Buddy the Elf and Mark was Pee Wee Herman.
I made the sword and shield out of wood.
This was about a year before Mattel brought He-Man back in a huge way with the Masters of the Universe Classics toy line that continues today. I sold this suit to a costume creator after I won some best costume awards. He hoped to use it as a prototype. I'm not really sure where it went after that.
I saw this is stores this year. Looks pretty familiar---I'm just saying.
While sitting in the theater at the midnight showing of The Dark Knight on opening day, I saw Heath Ledger's Joker in the nurse costume and knew that would be my 2008 costume. It was tough getting all the details correct because the movie had left theaters by October and hadn't come out on DVD yet. But I found some pirated footage on youtube and it turned out great.
A lot of people remember this one as my best. I saw a whole of Jokers that year, but no one else as the nurse. I won the most contests in 2008. I'm really surprised they never made an action figures or anything with this Joker.
In 2009 I thought, I have such long hair, let's dye it orange. It seem I go back to the action figure shelf often for inspiration.
I made the Sword of Omens from another costume sword I found. I used a reflector for the Eye of Thundera and it shines great in pictures.
I also went to the extreme and got a spray on tan on my body but not my hands.
Won more contests in this one.
I pulled this costume out in 2010 for the New York Comic Con. Afterward, Jeff and I saw the sights. I took this picture in Times Square and fell victim to a great photobomb. That guy behind me nailed it. I thought it was the greatest photobomb of all time until this happened:
All right! I fit a Dukes reference in to this post!
In 2010 I decided it was time to cut the hair. I didn't tell anyone my plans and showed up for Halloween as Baywatch David Hasselhoff. No one could believe the locks were gone. The costume took second fiddle to the short hair.
But it was a great costume.
Last year, I decided to honor the late Randy Savage. I also used the costume to justify buying a real WWF Winged Eagle Championship Belt. Man do I love that thing. My mom worked really hard sewing it all together. It came out perfect.
Great job Mom.
Chad was Marilyn Monroe.
Which brings us to Halloween 2012. I owe a little inspiration to Chad on this one. He wanted to be the Rock and needed a WWF Big Eagle Belt. I got a great deal on that as well as the World Heavyweight Belt so I decided to slap some black paint on it and be nWo Hollywood Hogan. I was red and yellow once, so it would be cool to bring it back as the bad guy version.
I decided against the muscle suit this time. I think I pulled it off.
Chad's Rock turned out great too.
How about those tattoos? We drew them free hand with sharpies.
We went out last night and saw quite a few wrestlers. None on our level though. I saw two other Hogans that both bowed down when they saw me. I am going again tonight. I just love Halloween.
