Halloween, Pt.1. No really!

Heh, I know it's a day early and there might not be a Pt.2! Tomorrow is the first day back at work and I have no idea what that is going to bring so I thought I'd get my Halloween blip in early. This is me in my costume...

... I wish!

Meet Bob. He was a rash purchase from Sideshow Collectables one evening following a night out and is rarely out of his box (looks good though, so he might be out a little more in the coming months :- ) ). Very nice, I hear you cry, but what the hell does a stormtrooper have to do with Halloween. Well.....

Being a child of the 70's everything was Star Wars. None of this rebel alliance crap though. What I wanted to be was a stormtrooper. They were the coolest thing I'd ever seen. Yes, they may have been the security red shirts (Trekkie ref.) of the Star Wars universe and they may have shot even worse than the A-team, but they... looked... cool!

So one Halloween I declared that I wanted to go out guising as a stormtrooper. Now I'm a bit of a perfectionist (in some aspects of my life) and that I get from my dad! This costume wasn't going to be a couple of cardboard boxes with holes cut out for eyes and arms, oh no. My dad had a project and it was going to be perfect! Only trouble was, it was October 30th!

Cardboard did play it's part but as I recall it was a finely moulded piece of kit. The Pièce de résistance though, was the helmet. It too was "fashioned" from cardboard. A proper pull on helmet! I even took the plastic lenses out of my play sunglasses which were an uncanny representation of the triangular eyepieces of the stormtrooper.

The final touch was the paint job. Gloss white. Oh, did I mention that it was now October 31? Now here in Scotland, damp, dark Scotland, paint doesn't dry so well, so it was a rather sticky, smelly stormtrooper that departed the family home that night with strict instructions not to bump into anything in anyone's home.

Yes, remember the days when you actually had to trick or treat on Halloween, not just turn up at the front door, sweetie bag open. Kids today... easy life! I don't recall what my party piece was that year, nor unfortunately are there any photographs to share.

I didn't care. For one night in this universe I was the coolest person on the planet!

Thanks dad!