That Time of Year Again...

This is the first year I've really been indecisive about my costume idea. While last year commitments stopped me from getting a start on the costume until mid-September, I pretty much knew I wanted to be T-1000.

I began this year with an idea that had been floating around my mind from the previous Halloween; none other than the Mayor of Halloween Town himself, of The Nightmare Before Christmas fame. The film is an old favourite of mine, and who better to embody the spirit of Halloween? I immediately began to think of how I would construct him and nail his features; most notably his swivelling head, which rotates depending on his mood (see above, left).

My indecisiveness raised its head when I started playing Bioshock on the PC. I got sucked into the game (more addictive than a barrell of MSG) so naturally my mind started wandering to Bioshock-related costume ideas. Pretty soon I decided I wanted to be a Big Daddy. I mean not only was it a Bioshock costume; it also satisfied my usual criterion of being utterly ridiculous. Inspired by some amazing attempts by others, I was pretty sure this is what I wanted to be. My mind kept drifting back to the Mayor though; in addition to the fact that my girlfriend had decided to go as Nightmare's Sally. In the end I conceded that it was a better idea than Big Daddy, and got down to work. Huzzah, I had made a decision! I drew some concept sketches, mostly to figure out how I'd make myself as big around the waist as the plump Mayor.

As the summer went on though, I just didn't feel inspired to get started. The idea had lost some of its novelty on me, and I wasn't too excited by it. So, when my girlfriend asked if I'd consider going as Zurg from Toy Story 2 (we are both huge Pixar nuts) a little light bulb went off above my head. I had found my costume idea.

For the last few days I've just been figuring out how I'm going to go about doing the costume. I think it has the advantage of being very doable, while having the potential to be totally ridiculous. I think it ranks ahead of Ash and T-1000 in terms of ambition, but definitely behind my Alien and Predator reprisals in previous Halloweens. Updates to come as they happen.