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[way more]

Hey, it's me! Jaws: The Movie at your door.

This crap was ubiquitous. Cheap, plastic, commercialized shit of the cheap, artificial, commercialized cartoons we would watch. He-Man was named He-Man because it was the most generic name the creator could come up with. He's literally the the lowest common denominator. Now kids have shows with actual jokes, absurdity and meaning in them. Even for kids the 80's were a shallow and uncaring.

Sure kids are still buying costumes of TV shows they watch but there is a semblance of craft and won't break apart in 90 minutes.

"I don't think the real Radioactive Man wears a plastic smock with a picture of himself on it."

 

[ilfait]

Haha you could call those crappy and you wouldn't be wrong, but it also wouldn't be wrong to call them amazing. That He-Man mask is terrifying. If I woke up in the dark to someone standing over my bed wearing that I'd probably have to give them an A+ on horror factor (and an A- for eroticism).

 

[Wheeljack539]

Ah yes, I can recall being Digger the Mole (bottom right) from Shirt Tales in my Kindergarten year.

Man how time flies...

And speaking of Halloween I was at the supermarket earlier today and they've already got Halloween themed candy up! It really does get earlier every year!

 

[haxan7]

I imagine the quality of these costumes came down to the manufacturing methods available at the time. Notice how they are all a thin molded plastic mask with an apron for a body.

That said, these were my early costumes and there is not a force in the universe that could convince me they are anything less than the best things in the world.

 

[ilfait]

Notice how they are all a thin molded plastic mask with an apron for a body.

Lol. I'm imagining you standing next to a happy kid who's dressed all proud in his costume, saying "notice how they are all thin molded plastic mask with an apron for a body.", casually tapping on his mask and pulling at his apron.

 

[Wheeljack539]

I imagine the quality of these costumes came down to the manufacturing methods available at the time. Notice how they are all a thin molded plastic mask with an apron for a body.

That said, these were my early costumes and there is not a force in the universe that could convince me they are anything less than the best things in the world.

Fast and cheap. I always used to hate how the rubber band for the mask kept breaking before Halloween night was done.

Spoiler

But oh god it was bad when the strap for the plastic jack-o lantern bucket for the candy broke.

 

[brap]

I'm not an old man but I remember at Kmart they always used to have those plastic masks with an outfit that looked like a black garbage bag. Shit was atrocious. I can't find a picture of the Barbie one I'm thinking of but I swear it was one of those cheap masks with a black garbage bag in the shape of a shirt. They didn't even come in a box like you privileged kids got.

 

[chaos789]

What is an Xennial?

 

[brap]

What is an Xennial?

Old snowflakes that don't want to be called millenials.

 

[haxan7]

Old snowflakes that don't want to be called millenials.

how dare you

 

[ilfait]

Old snowflakes that don't want to be called millenials.

Puddles.

 

[BossLackey]

I rocked the Red Ranger as a 5 year old. Shitty plastic mask and spandex pajamas basically.
It was awesome.

 

[Spheyr]

Those "costumes" are what the poor kids wore. Maybe 1 or 2 off my classmates ever had such a low quality costume. We mocked the shit out of them.

The rest of us had amazing costumes that wouldn't be too out of place at a convention today competing in a cosplay show. Our parents were very competitive with trying to make sure we all had the coolest costumes at Halloween.

 

[haxan7]

Those "costumes" are what the poor kids wore. Maybe 1 or 2 off my classmates ever had such a low quality costume. We mocked the shit out of them.

The rest of us had amazing costumes that wouldn't be too out of place at a convention today competing in a cosplay show. Our parents were very competitive with trying to make sure we all had the coolest costumes at Halloween.

I would love to see some pics of your late 2010s cosplay-competition level 1980s kids Halloween costumes.

 

[Wheeljack539]

Those "costumes" are what the poor kids wore. Maybe 1 or 2 off my classmates ever had such a low quality costume. We mocked the shit out of them.

The rest of us had amazing costumes that wouldn't be too out of place at a convention today competing in a cosplay show. Our parents were very competitive with trying to make sure we all had the coolest costumes at Halloween.

I would love to see some pics of your late 2010s cosplay-competition level 1980s kids Halloween costumes.

I'll chime in with haxan7; Please show us how you rich kids did it back then. Did you guys give out the full candy bars and not the bite size bits too?

 

[Spheyr]

I would love to see some pics of your late 2010s cosplay-competition level 1980s kids Halloween costumes.

All of those photos would be hundreds of miles from me in random boxes of photos

I'll chime in with haxan7; Please show us how you rich kids did it back then. Did you guys give out the full candy bars and not the bite size bits too?

Oh yeah, full bars aplenty and there were lazy people who'd just give every kid a couple bucks instead of going out and buying candy

 

[Wheeljack539]

Oh yeah, full bars aplenty and there were lazy people who'd just give every kid a couple bucks instead of going out and buying candy

who'd just give every kid a couple bucks

Wat?

On one hand I can't really imagine this...

On the other I don't think I can express the envy at both that and full candy bars when back then we were lucky to get some actual brand name bite size stuff mixed with the horde of cheap shit candy that we barely touched amongst the candy corn.

 

[Spheyr]

We didn't have thousands of kids in our area and this was back before parents in poor areas forgot gas costs more than candy and drove their kids 20+ miles to the nicer areas. Even at a buck or two a kid it wouldn't have been more than a couple hundred dollars for them

 

[haxan7]

All of those photos would be hundreds of miles from me in random boxes of photos

Shoulda said they could compete with Heidi Klum's costumes.

 

[brap]

I feel funny

 

[Catphish]

I still remember the smell of the masks, and how that thin rubber-band strap would yank at my hair.

Goddamn.

Yet, for all their obvious awfulness today, they we're the greatest things in the world in 1980.