Halloween 2022 - A Triple Threat of Carnival of Thrills, Skeletor and Cobra Kai

 

This Halloween has got to be one of the best ever!  I had so much fun donning three different costumes and giving out and receiving awards for best costume.  

My previous posts looks at the Halloween in Hazzard Costume Contest at Cooter's and shows the Carnival of Thrills outfit.  This was my big creation of the year and what I put all my effort into.  I am very proud of the Carnival jumpsuit and knew it would be a hit at the Dukes event, but I didn't think it would make a splash at Halloweening in the wild.  I decided not to wear it for the non-Dukes Halloween world.  It will be back at future events and will definitely have a prominent place in my Dukes collection.  

Thursday night I helped out with a Trunk or Treat event at the elementary school and decided to go with the quick and easy Cobra Kai costume that I wore in 2020.  This is an actual gi from the same company that makes them for the show.  Man, I love Cobra Kai.  It so great that adults and kids both love the show and it was a hit with the grade schoolers.  

I'd never been to a Trunk or Treat event.  People go all out with their trunks!  Here is a great minimalist It trunk. 

There are so many Stranger Things details to this one.  I just kept spotting more!

I really loved this Jurassic Park (of World) set up.  The use of the standard raptor mask, but giving the illusion of an entire raptor in hiding, worked so effectively.  

Cleaver girl, and trunk!

There were a lot of great ones and I only took a few pictures.  This one was bonkers and I loved it.  This suv is hungry!  I had a lot of fun at the Trunk or Treat and look forward to next year.  I need to step on the game and think of a great idea for our trunk!

Looking through the blog, I realized that I didn't write a post about Halloween 2020.  The Cobra Kai costume was just store bought, but high quality and I didn't put my own twist on it, but it deserves some recognition!  I had a lot of fun with it that year and it remains a great go-to in a pinch.  A friend wore it last year and I got more use out of it this year.  Plus I get to live out my karate dreams while wearing it!

Saturday was the big day for me.  We had Trick or Treating in the afternoon and partying in the evening.  I decided last year's Skeletor was so good, he deserved another Halloween to shine.  Plus we missed the costume contest last year, but more on that soon.  Natalie did an even better job on the face this year.  Several people asked me if it was a mask.  I don't think there could be a better compliment about face paint than that.  

I still prescribe to the early Masters of the Universe lure where He-Man and Skeletor both had halves of the Sword of Power and when combined the two halves can unlock the mysteries of Castle Grayskull, so my Skeletor has the Power Sword as well as the Havoc Staff.  Also I like carrying a sword. I really love this costume!

Just out trying to capture Grayskull.  Most of the Trick or Treaters didn't know who Skeletor was, but all of their parents did.  One kid said he knew Skelly, but only from memes.  That made me laugh.  It was a really fun afternoon in costume. 

Because our Trick or Treat is during the day, and I was planning on going out to a club in the evening, I had the face paint on all day.  I call his leisure Skeletor.  Jeff was happy to see this San Diego Comic Con exclusive Super7 T-Shirt that he got me years ago.  It fit the motif.  

Chad went with a pretty awesome Randy Orton costume.  It was totally last minute and included a bunch of overnight shipping, but it came out great.  He went with 2000s era RKO and included the Spinner Championship title.  We both have a few WWE belts, but the Spinner is without question the heaviest.  I'm glad I didn't have to carry that thing around all night.  The Havoc Staff is much easier to transport.  

We went to a great bar north of Pittsburgh that had an '80s band.  The crowd was a lot of fun and there were some great costumes.  I loved this Sloth!

It's a given that you are going to see a few Mario costumes, but this crew changed it up by giving it Mario Cart twist.  They had light up scooters and balloons flying behind them.  It was a lot of fun.

This Hagrid was really well done.  He even had the cake from the beginning of the Harry Potter tale.  

 

Not just a great Burt Reynolds costume, but a Celebrity Jeopardy from Saturday Night Live Burt Reynolds!  Great Job!

Roger and Jessica Rabbit!

I saw a lot of Peg and Al Bundys at the venue.  

I really liked this '90s Rouge and Gambit couple.  Though it's extremely cartoon and comic book accurate, the face covering thing that Gambit wears really doesn't translate to real life.  Still love the costumes.  

These guys did a great Varsity Blues team.  Tweeder and Mox were fun, but their Billy Bob was great.  I'm guessing the whole costume was based on this guy looking like the actor Ron Lester.  He did a fun "Ten" impression too. 

These two costumes were the competition.  Above is a frozen hiker that had great full white contacts.  He had a partner and the looked legitimately dead.  The next picture is Krampus, the evil version of Santa Claus and a kidnapped victim.  This costume was for real scarry.  They stayed in character all night and did an excellent job.  I knew that these would be the biggest foes for Skeletor for the evening.  I was summoning all my evil powers preparing for battle the likes Eternia had never seen until...

Bumblebee walked in.  The Autobot from Cybertron leaned over to fit through the door and everyone in the bar stopped to look at him.  There went anyone's hopes of taking home best costume.  Bee was nine feet tall and seriously one of the best costumes I had ever seen.  The ability to move so easily was the most impressive part.  These pictures don't do the costume justice.  I had to take some video of Bumblebee in action

He was even a good dancer!  

Chad and I took a picture with the soon to be best costume winner and so did everyone else in the bar.  Poor Bee took pictures all night.  That's just the way it goes when your costume is that amazing.  In the end, Bumblebee took home the top honors, and me, Krampus and the frozen hikers were the runners up.  There was no competing with this Transformer.  I talked to the man inside the machine afterward and had a really good time.  He said my costume was his favorite, so I got that going for me.  I had a great time out this year! 

There is a house near mine that friends of the family owned when I was a kid and I spent a lot of time there.  A few years ago I sold it to new friends and they go all out with their Halloween decorations. I stopped there late on Saturday night and took some pictures with their skeleton crew.  It was fun and I think I scarred some people driving by.  I wish I could have had someone else take some non-selfie pictures for me, but it was pretty darn late after I dropped Chad off and drove home from Pittsburgh.  I'm still happy with these pictures.  

Getting to wear three great costumes made this one of the best Halloweens ever.  I had so much fun with each one.  I love Halloween and love dressing up.  Halloween 2022 is going to be hard to top.