It’s a bounteous season of great videos on MyDisguises, and people need to check this out.

I’m not a Trekkie by any means. I think I may have seen an episode or two. I think the thing that turned me off was seeing one of the old episodes from the 60’s. I was a bit turned off by the cheesiness, but the did what they could and with what they had to work with. Rewind a bit to the 30’s and here’s what they saw our fashion to be. Oh, and women apparently don’t wear anything but dresses still…

Capes, spiral bra dresses, huge hairdos, and apparently a microphone for a hair accessory? I can’t say I’m sad that these fashions never made it. I can’t say I’m totally happy either. There would have been a bit of humor in it all, right?

If somehow these ever made it to the modern market and became popular, I’d totally own a pair. It’s one thing to intentionally dress up for a party or holiday, but it’s totally another thing when you find yourself in a silly costume even though you’re being totally serious.

I introduce to you the Wonder Sauna Hot Pants…

Could this be a battle of the ages? Transformers and Star Wars both held significant interest in the eighties, albeit branching into different interest groups. Both have also received modern adaptations for a significant injection of retro love on the silver screen. Fans come from all walks of life on both these two series and so we decided to put these costumes in the ring and battle it out. Which one comes out on top? Which one will step down?

Darth Vader - If you want to get a Vader costume going, you have to go all the way. Despite the fact that it could set you back hundreds of dollars to get your geeky fanboy Vader loving self into one of these getups, it’s still impressive. Call it obsessive, but who doesn’t love some Darth Vader?

Optimus Prime - We picked Optimus Prime for opposing reasons to the Darth costume. You can’t really buy an Optimus Prime costume. Well, not a good one. That doesn’t stop DIY fans everywhere from making their own and making it awesome. Optimus Prime gets points for originality and creativity, but does it stack up against the authentic Vader getup?

Cast your votes and see who wins…

2007 brought us upon some of the coolest sites we have seen in a long time. We thought we’d pay a quick visit back to some of the big ones and see just what’s up…

Project Rooftop

I fell in love with this site immediately, as it’s something I’ve never seen before. Comic book artist Dean Trippe put together this blog with the endeavor to re-costume some of the most well known super heroes in pop culture. In the end there are some terribly clever adaptations on classic looks that we have seen on Project Rooftop.

Rooftop likes to host contests for wardrobe redesigns and new looks. I browsed a few of them and must say they attract the most creative artists and gung-ho enthusiasts.

Most notably is the Fights, Flights, and Tights contest. This is where they trade pen and paper for fabric and mask. The annual costume contest brings in some of the more clever comic fans, so you can expect some real classy looks.

Don’t miss the contest and leave some comments. There’s sure to be a MyDisguises reader that will be submitting to the contest soon enough.

Handmade Detroit

Handmade Detroit isn’t quite all about costumes. However, they have their share of content that is great for anyone who is into the DIY thing. Whether you’re dressing up your body for Halloween, your house for the holidays, or your wardrobe with something flashy, it’s good to get tips here.

Since we were last at Handmade Detroit, we noticed plenty of posts covering the Holidays. Regrettably, I personally didn’t get the chance to implement any of the suggestions for my own personal holiday celebration. However, there’s always good content flowing in and out of the site.

My personal pick for the Handmade Detroit contribution not to be missed is the “12 Days of Crafty Projects” segment. It’s classy and looks like a lot of fun.

retroCRUSH

Ahh retroCRUSH, I love you. This site is worth more than all the Garbage Pail Kids you can muster (Actually, I bet they’d love to see your collection). It’s a respectful, light-hearted, and amazingly fun tribute to all things of the past worth remembering. I get a warm feeling every time I even peek in to see what’s going on.

retroCRUSH always has gems, and it’s hard to pinpoint their best. Personally I’d take a look a few particulars.

First is the retroCRUSH Toy Box of Glory. Here you’ll find all the cool toys you played with as a kid and couldn’t let go of. Slinkys, Stretch Armstrong, Weebles, Ouija Boards, you name it. The gallery is pretty comprehensive and there are videos and pictures to accompany everything.

I’d say that the Gallery of Retrobabes is something for the guys, but there’s just too much good nostalgia for women to not appreciate. On the costume side of things, it’s real fun to see some of these old actresses and celebrities decked out in some of their famous garb from popular films. It’s an enthusiasts hot spot.

Heck, even the web site’s layout and design is pleasantly retro.

Costume Craze

This is some sponsor love, because we really mean it. Costume Craze has had a wonderful year, and they are growing to become one of the fastest growing and reliable companies in the U.S. today. Over the past year, they really expanded their costume offerings, and have done a great job keeping our blog alive. How else would we deliver such consistent content?

Since we last checked in with Costume Craze, there’s been a lot to see. What’s most notable is the exclusive offering of custom costumes by Valerie Tabor Smith. There’s absolutely no other way to get costumes this cute for your kids.

We try not to be too preachy, but we owe it to Costume Craze for being so great and for having such a wonderful catalog. Check out the exclusive costumes you can even stock up for next year ahead of time.

Let’s hail back to a better time. A time when T.V. was about moral messages, McDonald’s was king, and Eddie Murphy was a factory of hilarity. You know it well. It’s the eighties.

I guess my memories of the eighties are youthful ones, so I may be biased in this segment. We’re going to take 2 iconic 80’s characters and pit them against one another in an all out brutal battle of the costumes. Think to yourself, “what would I wear?”

Contestant #1 - Waldo

For someone who sticks out like a sore thumb, it’s ironic we were always looking for him. He had a knack for unintentionally getting lost in massive crowds. If you were neurotic enough to try these books, you loved him. Other’s who failed to find the fun in Waldo knew him as mental pain. Either way, you know who he is.

Contestant #2 - The Noid

It’s funny how many people forget the Noid. When you buy a pizza, it comes with that little plastic piece that keeps the top of the box from touching the pizza. Yeah, some marketer from Domino’s Pizza decided it was called the Noid, gave him a personality, and put some weird red tights on his head to simulate massive weird alien ears.

All things considered, it’s time to get down to the core of these costumes. In an epic face off, who comes out on top? We’ll try to get votes and see what the community thinks. Voting can be based on any criteria, but just be sure to put your reasons down in your comment. The gloves come off!

I try somewhat hard to not be a total segment freak when it comes to the blog. Alas, despite some of my best efforts, I have yet another segment to add to the blog. This time, we’re going to call it “retrofit”.

It seems these days that throwbacks are always in. I suspect it will always be the same. Take any good piece of pop culture and bring back fond memories, and you’re sure to have a hit. This year for Halloween, I was lucky enough to see a few good retro costumes to make me say to myself “self, you should write about retro costumes!”. Therefore, the birth of retrofit. Hopefully I’ll be able to find some really knock-out costumes, instructions, news bits, or anything else retro/costumes for y’all to read. Once again, I do have to stress that we’re all about the collaboration. If you have an idea or something, please submit and we’ll include it as always.

Anyway, here goes.

The Illustrious Functioning Operation Costume

I had a huge notion to do a piece on retro looking photos to get that creepy old horror movie feel when taking pics of your Halloween costume. While I was busy scouring for ideas, I stubbed my toe on this article…

I didn’t ask permission to publicly praise this effort, but I will be contacting the admin at Avoision.com to hear more about his experience with making the Operation costume. It looks like to took a good amount of time, plenty of ingenuity, and a huge post activity mess to deal with.

For those of you who maybe weren’t alive during the eighties, Operation was a board game where you had to use endlessly steady hands to carefully extract the body parts of a sickly man. If you hit the sides of the openings where the tightly fit plastic organs were, you got buzzed at viciously like you just went out the emergency exit of a museum. Now, just imagine the same thing, except attached to a human body…

You have to give the guy credit for the work he did. And it’s fit to mention that there’s much more incentive in pulling a Reese’s from the costume than it would be to walk away triumphant with your own aorta. Everyone has their own thing though I guess. Either way, this is a classicly good retrofit for the blog, therefore it shall be the initial entry to this new segment.

Take a peek at the photos and please be sure to jump over to the actual article. The work is so clever, it needs no further explanation.