Based on Have I Taken Halloween Too Far? from November 30, 2018.
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It’s somehow mid-October already. The weather is getting cooler, the leaves are changing, and I am 110% in the autumn headspace. I’m embracing my most basic self. I’m ready for decorative gourds and warm spices and sweaters. I’m not proud of it, but I am definitely not ashamed of it, either. The thing I am simultaneously the most and least ready for is Halloween. I love Halloween. I always go big for the kids’ costumes, and this year, I’m wondering if maybe I’ve taken it too far. And as it turns out, this is not the first time I’ve asked this question.
It’s really almost quaint how contemplative I got over the costumes in 2018. If anything, I doubled down on the complexity and polish afterwards. Which makes sense, given the conclusion I came to. Not too long ago, my wife referred to these as “cosplay-quality Halloween costumes,” and that seems about right, in hindsight. A very flattering way to put it, really.
Following the publication of the original Have I Taken Halloween Too Far, I sewed a coat for the eldest’s Scarlet Witch costume in 2021. Fake leather, multiple fabrics with different textures, a full lining. A huge swing, and it turned out great. She even practised some of the spellcasting poses from the Avengers movies for photos.
Photos to come.
In 2022, I did sewing, foam fabrication, 3D printing, lifecasting, sculpting, moldmaking, and resin casting for my middle kiddo’s Damian Wayne Robin costume. This involved sewing a full black cloak with a yellow lining, and vest with a bunch of piping and other details. We made a quick and dirty plaster lifecast of their face to clay sculpt a mask on top of, modelling it after the deeply underrated masks worn by Robin in Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. Those movies are not great, but I will defend those costumes to the death. We made a silicone mold of the clay sculpt which I used to slush-cast a couple of masks out of black resin. We used EVA foam for armour for the arms and legs. We experimented with Platsti-Dip sprays and paints to create a rubberized, iridescent green effect on the foam and plastic bits. And for some finishing touches, we 3D-printed some hardware to glue to the vest and utility belt. This was such an interdisciplinary process and we did so many unique pieces for it.
Photos to come.
Then a pile of 3D printing, finishing, and painting for their Jason Todd Red Hood costume the following year. Another Batman character, another Robin with a very different vibe. That was a less elaborate process, mostly 3D printing and painting, but the results were incredible. Glossy armour in metallic paints that shone, a full-face helmet, lots of weathering techniques. A full character, and again, they looked amazing in it.
And then, for the littlest, in 2023 and 2024, we took a Halloween costume that had been made for me in the early ‘90s and upgraded it with new parts and repairs. We used puff paint to add web lines and texture. made an all-new mask and face shell using two types of 3D printing, sewing, and some very cool mixed materials for the eye lenses that I was very proud of. I resin-printed web shooters from the Spider-Man video game and we painted them together. The whole costume fluoresces under black light and glows in the dark. The littlest continues to wear the Spidey costume to play, even as she grows out of it, and has brought it to multiple costume days at school.
Photos to come.
I’ll put some photos of all these costumes on the website in the post for this episode. I haven’t shared hardly any of them on the site, and I really should! I’m really proud of these, especially the Robin costume and the Spidey one.
These were all big projects. And this year, I’m back at it again, with the project I’ve been calling TRONtober – a fully light-up TRON: Legacy costume for my littlest, combining 3D design and printing, foam fabrication, some sewing, and more electronics work than I’ve ever attempted for a costume before. At time of writing, I am surrounded by flexible electroluminescent panels and tape, wire, prototypes of the 3D-printed identity disc, rolls of EVA foam, and paper patterns for her vest. It’s a lot.
In other years, I haven’t thought twice about projects this big. While it’s always a big undertaking, I do it for them, for the moments where we’re working together, and like – for myself. I love satisfying my curiosity about materials, processes, and techniques by recreating and riffing on designs myself. It’s rewarding.
We’ve had some more challenges in the past couple of years than we have had before, though. At the same time, our littlest is a high-energy five-year-old. It’s meant that evenings are harder to fit work into. Weekends require more hands-on time. This September just evaporated in a fugue of health issues, car and appliance repairs, and coordinating schedules. From late August, where I felt very confident about the build, to now in October, when I feel under the gun, it’s been a whole lifetime of little and not-so-little challenges.
And yet, I’m still excited about this project. Still excited for the next fitting with the littlest. Still encouraged by the tests and learning I’ve done to this point. Still proud of the whole child-sized identity disc toy I designed for her, the way I hacked a dollar-store light into it to provide the electronics for only a few bucks, and the way I systematically tested my way into understanding how the AliExpress EL panels are actually wired.
Photos to come.
No matter how hard and stressful things get, those things are still so joyful. The joy of discovery is not blunted by the stress of our current day-to-day, and so it’s important to keep plugging away and to keep including the littlest (and the big kids too) in the project as much as possible.
The joy of discovery is not blunted by the stress of our day-to-day.
At the end of the day, no matter how far I take Halloween, I seem to take it just the right amount of too far. It comes together, we get that moment where the kids see themselves in a whole new way. And for a while, we get to spend high-quality time together, learning new things, and creating artifacts of a time when we were deeply, intensely connected around something we love.
That’s the show. You can find the original article and the post for this episode at lovemakeshare.ca along with show notes, contact info, links, and much much more. I’ve been Trevor, this has been Love Make Share. Thank you so much for listening, makers. And we’ll talk to you again real soon.
