Thursday, October 24, 2013

Pumpkin People in Costume!

So you think you'd like to be a Pumpkin Person this Halloween?  No problem; your local costume shop has you covered.
This is your IDEAL
As I have established previously the main requirement is a pumpkin for a head, preferably a jack o' lantern.  Clothing can be quaint, old style, scarecrow, western, or anything you like.  Some choices are obviously better than others.  The image above of Samhain from the Ghostbusters RPG was my template for my own Pumpkin Man costume of a few years ago:

Knee breaches, colonial shoes, puffy shirt and waistcoat along with my wolf's head cane were the elements of my interpretation of the refined Pumpkin Man.  It is not easy to achieve the elegant Pumpkin Man ideal and many of these items I had from pre-existing costumes and such.  So what are your "out of the bag" pre-made options?
Gaze on.
This is your REALITY
There are not very many choices on the market but a quick search finds these three that I am willing to show you.  I saw a few more but they were wretched.  On the left we have a strange sort of Pumpkin Man.  He wears a robe, which is always good for Halloween.  Robes bring to our minds images of the Grim Reaper, evil cultists, and are cheap and nondescript.  A robe is universal.  This particular costume bleeds.  In fact it is made from the mold (and a recolored robe) of a bleeding Grim Reaper costume.  This explains the orange bones and orange skeletal hands.  It makes for a Pumpkin Man stripped of its vegetable flesh to reveal the skeleton beneath!  I guess.
In the middle we have a bobble head Pumpkin Man.  The face is at once cute and spooky with its befanged mouth and yellow eyes.  The dirty black robe and hood looks so much like a monk and the rope belt completes the picture.  Let's face it, this is the leader of the Pumpkin Cultists in your favorite RPG.
On the right we have the Bad Seed Creature Reacher costume.  This one is expensive and it shows.  An oversize mask of a grinning demonic pumpkin, all to happy to consume your soul, oversized extended arms that combine woody fingers, viney veins and orange "flesh" make this a fine costume at the start.  Combine this with the burlapesque tattered sack shirt and you have an excellent demonic scarecrow style Pumpkin Man.  It is probably uncomfortable to wear for long periods but it looks great.
The only drawback to these outfits is footwear.  A Pumpkin Man in sneakers is not very impressive...unless you consider that he has an advantage in chasing you.

Screw it; I'll just get a mask
Okay, so you don't want a kiddie Pumpkin costume and you have plenty of clothes, like a nice pair of Liberty Overhauls.  So rather than get a full kit you think a mask will do fine.  There are several mask options out there but I am providing two samples, one good, one not so good.  I really can't say more than the pictures tell you, I'm afraid.
But I will.
See how the guy on the right has STUPID HANDS?  See how the basic black looks STUPID?  You wear that thing on the right and you will win the costume contest prize for lamest limp dick stupid head stupid at the party.  And you don't want that.
And the subtle guy on the left?  He's cool, but you will have to "tip your top" all night at the party.  Which you should do, to ladies, because that is what a man with a hat should do.  It's the rules.  Doff your cap, you bastard.  It's called respect.
Oh what the hell, it could be worse, right?
And again we have Jack, the (former) Pumpkin Mascot of Howl-O-Scream.  He's a grand old lad in the cliched Irish style.  Okay, maybe he's not so bad after all.  You could do a lot worse for your Pumpkin Man costume.

Good luck and keep your pumpkin head lit.

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