Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Halloween 2021 - Skeletor! Lord of Destruction

 


I think this is my favorite costume I've ever done.  This year I went as Skeletor!  I am so proud of this costume.


He-Man's sworn enemy has been on my list of costumes I've wanted to do forever.  I'm so glad I finally pulled it off. 


The make-up was done so perfectly by Natalie that it looks professional. 


My favorite part is without question the Havoc Staff.  To me, it looks just like Skeletor's.  Man, do I love this costume.  


Masters of the Universe has had such a big year.  If you go to the toy aisle at Wal-Mart right now you will find Masters of the Universe Origins, Masters of the Universe Revelations, and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe toy lines.  


That's three different types of He-Man figures!  I got a Skeletor chocolate bar at New York Comic Con earlier this month.  


I am so happy about how this costume turned out.  Let's take a look behind the scenes at how I brought the Lord of Destruction to life. 


I knew the Havoc Staff had to look good for the costume to work.  I found this ram skull thing at Spirit Halloween and there was no looking back.  I think whoever made this prop had to know someone was going to use it as the focal point to Skeletor's magical staff.  


Spirit also had the perfect cape.  I definitely look better in it then this person.  


If you remember my White Walker costume from 2017, I used a Morphsuit as the base.  I figured I might try to dye the grey suit blue to use as Skelly's skin, but I read online that wouldn't work.  Luckily I found Morphsuit's Blue Orc Jaw Dropper costume and knew it would make a great base to the costume.  I guess it's from a few years ago because I had trouble getting it.  The first one was from a second party seller on amazon and they mistakenly sent me a child's size costume that was pretty funny when I tried it on. I sent that one back and found the correct size on etsy for much cheaper so I was happy.  
 

I based the costume on a mix between three Skeletor figures.  From left to right we have the 2021 Masters of the Universe Revelations figure, the 2020 Masters of the Universe Origins figure and the 2009 Masters of the Universe Classics figure.  I basically buy every He-Man and Skeletor that comes out.  


The chest piece was the hardest part to figure out.  Did I want to try to use football type pads that went over my shoulders?  Did I want to use foam or rubber like I did with my He-Man costume way back in 2007? In the end I decided to use poster board and material and it worked great.  


I bought a bunch of material that was the same color as the cape.  I also ripped off the Blue Orc's yellow teeth.  


The parts on the havoc staff weren't easy to find.  I thought about using funnels but couldn't find any basic enough.  We happened upon this flag football set in the sporting goods department at Wal-Mart and the end zone markers were exactly what I was looking for.  


Somehow I was able to drill a perfect hole in the base of the skull where I was able to screw this piece of PVC pipe connector into.  It was pure luck that it worked so perfectly.  


The base of the staff is just a five foot piece of PVC pipe.  The entire staff was super cheap to make.  




The goal markers were a little tricky to attach, but some electrical tape and gorilla glue got the job done.  


The staff is menacing unpainted, just wait until it's purple!


I bought a bag of mini bones at Spirit Halloween but they didn't look right for the cross bones center piece.  I couldn't find any Halloween bones that I liked.  I checked the pet aisle and found thes e Nylabones dog bones and they worked great.  


Skeletor has a bat on his chest in the comics and on the figure.  In the classic cartoon they left the bat off.  I wanted my chest to have the bat.  I tried to make it as least Batman-y as I could.  


After cutting, the pieces really started to look like relics from Snake Mountain. 


I forget what this round thing was originally.  A large button or something.  Natalie found it at Wal-Mart and I love how it looks hand made.  I used more gorilla glue and a wire to attached the cut Mylabones.  


Then it was time for painting.  I don't spray paint that often, but I had a really fun time purple-ing up all this stuff.  




I decided to paint the poster board bat cutout so I could just attached it on top of the fabric.  It worked really well.  





That's a lot of spray painting. 


I was so pleased with the results.  




How great is this staff!!  Man, do I love this thing.  


All three Skeletors approve of the chest piece.  



Just wow.  


The Morphsuit looks great under the trunks, belt, and cape.  I used the same trunks I made for the He-Man costume all those years ago and just covered the belt from the He-Man with purple material.  Mattel reused pieces and all the original figures, so I figured I would too.  


I wanted to make sure the weight of the cross bones wouldn't rip the poster board so I glued a piece of cardboard to the back.  


That way the heavier cross bones thing could hang from the chest piece freely. 


Gluing this material proved to be very difficult.  My mom was able to get the material glued to the chest piece but these smaller pieces that hang from the belt and shoulder were impossible to glue.  After trying and failing, I had the stroke of genius to use a stapler and everything just started to come together so much better.  Who knew?  A stapler,  


All the materials were done and it was time to get dressed.  


I reused the sandals from the White Walker with new purple material.  I didn't like the white bands around the arms and legs so I covered the wrists with purple material and found a pair of purple stretchy toddler pants at Wal-Mart that I cut into leg-warmers for my legs.  


The only thing left was the make-up!


I've seen other Skeletor costumes online that use a standard skull mask painted yellow.  I don't want to wear mask; I want you to think I have a mask on but then surprise you when you see my eyes.  That's exactly what happened.  Natalie did the face paint and it was perfect.  Several people thought it was a mask.  She did an excellent job.  


Finally it was time to storm Castle Grayskull!  I managed to steal the nincompoop He-Man's Power Sword and the Castle was mine!  I started my siege in the parking garage under the Castle.  

 
Along the way I ran into another Bad Guy, Razor Ramon.  Chad's costume was oozing machismo!


He painted all the decorations and did a great job.  


I had to wait around a little before we went to the club so I contemplated life with and old friend.  







I also watched some Masters of the Universe Revelations while I waited.  It is such a good show.  If you are a He-Man fan, I highly recommend it. 


Craig even came out.  He borrowed my Cobra Kai costume from last year.  


One thing I didn't expect was how hard it was to take pictures with the Morphsuit gloves one.  I really had to press hard on my phone screen.  Because of that I didn't take too many pictures of other costumes at the dance club.  My costume won a prize and I became the Master of the Universe.  All in a days work for the Lord of Destruction.  



I've had some costumes in the past that a lot of people have really enjoyed, but I think this is my best work.  Natalie, my Mom, and my sister Kate helped out so much and I couldn't have done it without them.  I am so proud of this costume and I'm bummed Halloween has come and gone.  Maybe I will resurrect this one for a Comic Con or something.  I really love my Skeletor costume.