Classic, Plastic Costumes
January 15th, 2009 by John Wolfe
“This was taken on Halloween in 1980… or possibly a few days before Halloween (trying on our costumes). The Empire Strikes Back was all the rage. I was dressed as Chewbacca, and my brother Dave as Yoda. We generally went for cheap plastic costumes back in those days, but note that I had deliberately chosen a brown shirt to wear under it. That was my way of ‘completing’ the costume–that brown was meant to be Chewie’s hairy arms.
“Also note that these awful costumes had the faces of the characters on them. At least the Chewie costume had fur and a bandolier. The Yoda costume didn’t make any pretense of having the kid wearing it look like Yoda, beyond the mask. And since when does Yoda have blue skin?”
The above image and explanation belong to the Flickr user, mgmcinnis. I love this shot because it reminds me of my experience during Halloween 1980. Like mgmcinnis, I too paraded around in a plastic, sweat-box of a costume and mask (you had to love the rubber band on those things), only mine was the Incredible Hulk.
It was at this time, when the television series, starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno, was hitting the airwaves. I’ve searched for a picture of that costume online, but it’s difficult to locate now that the Hulk has witnessed a resurgence in popularity with the release of the films.
