I'm 4 hours into creating my costume. I have most of the torso and about half of the legs done. It's going to be huge!

Where are the pics?

Soon, very soon. He's looking to stand over 8 feet tall!!

Ok, here he is. For reference. I am 6'4" and I see out of his chest.



I wanted to go with an ugly asymmetrical look for his head. I think it kind of looks like I didn't do it on purpose. I might rework it for tomorrow night's competition, but this is how he is going out tonight. Wish me luck!

Crazy cool!

That sucker had to take a HUGE amount of time.. Plus all the hours planning and testing the proto types..

I totally dig the tak weaved arms. Also the weaving on the body and pants/legs is very, very well done. This looks great in the picture, but I bet it even looks better in person!! I hope you win the contests!

First!!!

Northeast Ohio's largest Halloween party for 7 years. Over $20,000 in prizes over 2 days. First place $1200 cash, and $1200 in prizes.

I walked out the door with 12 $100 bills and a nice little goodie bag.

Thanks for the compliments guys.

Tons of repairs for the next contest.

Dude you rock. I was inspired by your whole process but I'm not threadjacking so I'm starting a new one.

Jeff,

Mega Congrats!! Without even seeing the other costumes, I feel comfortable saying you totally deserved to win!!

Thanks, you two.

Just thought I'd share an interesting process that I'm going to do tonight to repair my costume. It was news to me when a friend told me about it. I'm going to spray Armor All onto a rag and polish the balloons to remove the oxidized fading. My friend, Allen Stay, said it works like a charm but to be sure I get the whole balloon so it doesn't look spotty.

So maintenance was a pain in the butt. I've done repairs on plenty of past projects but this costume was the worst. I don't remember my costume from last year deflating and popping this easily on the second day. Perhaps I sweat on it a bit more this year, but if I looked at some of the balloons the wrong way, they were popping. Oh well, it's all set to go for round 2 now. I think at the end of the day the layperson will be impressed with it even if it is slightly deflated.

Over a month ago, I had asked for advice on what to make for Halloween that would appeal to the masses. I eventually decided it didn't matter the subject as long as the "wow factor" was fully intact. I believe that it was with my sculpture. I won at the biggest costume contest in northeast Ohio and felt confident going into last night's smaller competition. Unfortunately, "by round of applause" has felled me for a second year in a row at this venue and I came in second again. I've decided to try to avoid places that vote solely on applause in the future. Without a doubt, I had more people impressed with my costume than with my competition's, however a concentrated group of drunk people can cheer louder than a whole room of polite, appreciative fans. It was unfortunate and I was told by at least 10 people on my way out that I was absolutely robbed, the DJ hosting it even said, "That really surprises me."


And the mighty costume that defeated me in the land of Cleveland, the mistake on the lake, the city that hasn't had a championship since the invention of penicillin, the proud home of a baseball team that won about 10 games this season? Yep, you guessed it, Rick "Wild Thing" Vaughn. Tribe jersey, glasses, trademark haircut, $1000.

I'm a little bummed, but all in all, I had a great weekend.

I'll do my best to only attend judged competitions next year, or I'll just have to make a 10 foot tall Lebron James.