1 The Muppet Mindset: Muppet Halloween Costume Spooktacular, Pt. 2

Oct 8, 2009

Muppet Halloween Costume Spooktacular, Pt. 2

View Part 1 of our review here!

Welcome back to The Muppet Mindset for Muppet Halloween Costume Spooktacular (great name, eh?) Part 2, where we review Muppet and Sesame Street Halloween costumes released for this fright season. We judge each costume on their Likeness, Fun Factor, and Scare Factor. Each factor receives a score of up to 5 points. Let's get started, shall we?

INFANT ELMO COSTUME - $32.95

LIKENESS:  Well... it's red, and there's an orange nose in there somewhere. The costume on its own does indeed look like Elmo, but once you put a chubby toddler in it you can say hello to distortion. Quite frankly this looks like an unaired episode of Elmo's World. "And now, Elmo will ask a BABY! Hi, baby!" *ELMO EATS BABY* 3 STARS
FUN FACTOR: I don't know about you, but I think it would be a delight to dress my unknowing toddler in an Elmo costume. Look how cute that pudgy-faced kid in the picture is--don't you want that to be your pudgy faced kid? I think it would be fun to do a whole family of Sesame Street costumes. Dad can go as Big Bird, mom can go as Susan... 4 STARS
SCARE FACTOR: C'mon... this isn't scary. It's a baby dressed up like Elmo! It's one of the top five cutest things in the world! (Right behind Grover, the real Elmo, Robin the Frog, and this.) 2 STARS

BIG BIRD ADULT COSTUME - $49.99


LIKENESS - So THIS is what Big Bird looks like without any feathers. Can you imagine how it would've sounded hearing the bird get plucked? Good thing the only curse word he knows is ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ... But seriously, I like the eyes and the feathers atop the head, but are some yellow gloves and orange and pinked striped pants too much to ask for? 3 STARS
FUN FACTOR - Well... the dude in he picture looks like he's having fun--but if Big Bird actually stood like that, wouldn't he topple over from being too top-heavy? Just an observation. This just doesn't seem like an adult costume. I love Big Bird, but I just don't see any self-respecting adult parading around in this--even if your wife agreed to go as Cookie Monster! 2 STARS
SCARE FACTOR - Odd looking? Yes. Poorly made? Yes. Scary? ...Not so much. The scariest part about this is that it looks like the world's tallest man attempted to don the Bird and his head just poked out of Big Bird's mouth. *shudder* 1 STAR

COOKIE MONSTER ADULT COSTUME - $49.99

LIKENESS - Umm... well the head kind of looks like the Cookie Monster Collect-a-Pal toy. There's more stuffing in that head than in Grandma's Thanksgiving turkey! Look at that thing! You could go bungee jumping and use this costume as your helmet! (Please don't do that--and if you do, don't sue me.) But obviously the most disturbing part here is the man's head coming through Cookie's mouth. I never thought I'd say this... but the Miss Piggy mask is starting to look like a better solution! Well... at least it's blue. 2 STARS
FUN FACTOR - Don't you want to be the life of every party you attend by wearing this costume? You could run up to all of the tables filled with pumpkin and ghost shaped cookies and shout, "ARRRUMM NUM NUM NUM!" as you just crumble them up in your hands and toss them everywhere. And if someone punches you in the head, you won't feel it! 3 STARS
SCARE FACTOR - The Sesame Street monsters have the distinction of being some of the only non-scary monsters in pop culture (yes, the ones in Monsters vs. Aliens are scary--Seth Rogen is ALWAYS scary!) (Hey! I mentioned him in both posts. Go me!). Even Cookie Monster, though he may eat your laptop, is adorable. I guess this costume is huggable... but I'd still be concerned that if I hugged it my fate would be the same as the guy already in Cookie's mouth. 2 STARS

THE COUNT ADULT COSTUME - $49.99

LIKENESS - This is probably my favorite of the Sesame Street costumes. Although the head is gargantuan and bulbous, how can you not want to wear a Count cape and suit? The beauty of this costume is that even if you ditch the head, you can just paint your face purple, slick back your hair, toss on a monocle and some vampire teeth and you've got a perfect costume. But I don't want to know what you would do with the remaining Count head. 4 STARS
FUN FACTOR - The Count is one of the most fun Sesame Street personalities. You could drive kids nuts by asking to count how many pieces of candy they have in their buckets. Or, by counting the number of Hannah Montana and Spider-Man costumes--"That's one! One little girl who probably wears that costume every day! Ah ah ah!" Extra points if you get accompanying thunder and lightning! 5 STARS
SCARE FACTOR - While The Count is a vampire (much better than Edward Cullen, thank you very much), he doesn't have the lust for blood like his cousin Dracula. The only reason The Count would crave blood is to count the white blood cell count. So, yeah, this costume isn't terribly scary--again, the scariest part is the dude's head poking through the mouth. ...Hey! I think they use the same guy for all of these! 2 STARS

OSCAR THE GROUCH ADULT COSTUME - $85.00

LIKENESS - Look, kids! It's everyone's favorite infomercially advertised character, Oscar the Snuggie TM! Wear Oscar the Snuggie TM anywhere you might be cold and might want to make a fool of yourself--your child's soccer game, the homecoming football game, Antarctica! Our new Oscar the Snuggie.2 TM model comes with a protective head cover for all of your head protecting needs. Oscar the Snuggie TM even comes with a fake looking trash can so people aren't tempted to throw away candy wrappers inside of you! 2 STARS
FUN FACTOR -This costume should be fun... emphasis on should (hence the underlining), but it's just... weird. No one in their right mind would want to stand around looking like this. I can only assume it's hot as Hades within that costume and Hades is never fun (unless when voiced by James Woods in a Disney movie). I'm sure people will also make fun of you constantly for wearing this thing. 2 STARS
SCARE FACTOR - The scariest thing about this is the $85 price tag. Who wants to pay $85 to look like this for one night out of the year? Not I, said the obsessed Muppet fan. The eyebrow is also sort of scary... but in a "that thing might jump off of his face and eat me" sort of way. 2 STARS

ERNIE ADULT COSTUME - $49.99

LIKENESS - It's basketball head Ernie! Watch him dribble in his sleep! (Get it?) I like the shirt, even though the stripes are WAY too wide, and the facial region isn't horrible (albeit grossly over-sized), but what I can't get past is that creepy smile. They really couldn't make a somewhat see-through black fabric to put there instead of white? That just looks scary. Even eye-holes would've been welcome over that mess! 3 STARS
FUN FACTOR - This costume would only be fun if you got someone to go with you as Bert. Imagine the hi-jinks you could get into on Halloween night! Building a statue of Bert and stealing the nose off of your friend's costume, watching your friend play checkers with a pigeon, building a snowman using all of Bert's clothes... well, okay, maybe not that last one. 4 STARS
SCARE FACTOR - The scariest part about this costume is the fact that the costume description says "pants not included." Granted, Ernie blue jeans are easy to come by, but for $50 you think they'd at least throw you a pair of pants. I know Ernie likes to take baths, but this is ridiculous! 2 STARS

BERT ADULT COSTUME - $49.99

LIKENESS - Does it look like Bert? Yes. Again, the stripes on the shirt are way too wide and more could've been added, but it looks fine. My only other gripe is that the human hands. Would it kill 'em to toss a few yellow gloves our way? I don't think so. I also don't like the eyebrow, but it's not a big deal. Kudos to the photographer for including Bert's loafers! 4 STARS
FUN FACTOR - When paired with Ernie, this costume could be a lot of fun. Going fishing, collecting bottle caps, praising the letter W--you can do it all in your very own Bert costume! Why does Bert, the most boring of all Sesame Street characters, have one of the most fun costumes? I guess Bert has always been a mystery wrapped in an enigma! 4 STARS
SCARE FACTOR - Bert sort of has a naturally scary air to him, doesn't he? I think it's the pigeons. This costume isn't all that scary. Though it does suffer from the same white mouth malfunction as the Ernie costume, it's not worthy of calling this costume "scary." 1 STAR

SUPER GROVER ADULT COSTUME - $90.00

LIKENESS - Well... it does look like Super Grover, you can't deny that. But it also looks like someone trying to escape from Super Grover's stomach. I really like the cape and the helmet though. The face would be nice too, if it wasn't all bulbous and distorted. Wouldn't it be funny to see Super Grover wearing this costume as a disguise to outwit a bad guy? 4 STARS
FUN FACTOR - This costume looks like it would be really, really fun. I know that I would love to traipse around the streets shouting, "It is I, your furry neighborhood super monster here to save you!" and then stealing their candy and running away. Ahh... good times. 5 STARS
SCARE FACTOR - Again, the only scary part here is the $90 price. My goodness! Who are they expecting to buy this costume? Donald Trump? ...How funny would that be?! I'll be severely disappointed if Mr. Trump doesn't go as Super Grover now. I just hope he reads the Mindset... 1 STAR

Well, that's all I've got. I hope you've enjoyed this look at some Muppet Halloween costumes this year--even though they're not all fantastic, how awesome is it that there are Muppet Halloween costumes out there? Now if only Sesame Workshop would learn that giant character hoods are not the way to go...




8 comments:

  1. Oscar the Snuggie - I cannot stop laughing at this, it's hilarious! I had too much fun reading these reviews and laughing out loud at my desk at work. I'm sure my co-workers think I'm nuts and well...they're probably not wrong in that opinion!

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  2. They're better than the Muppet ones. I really think just a nice hoody/pj sort of costume works best. I'm all for comfort and simplicity.

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  3. If having your face showing out of someone's mouth is a concern, you could always buy one of those see-thru "trick" hoods that cover your entire head, THEN put the headpiece on. They're relatively cheap.

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  4. Am I the only one who thinks the heads in the mouths really don't matter at all? Especially on the Count. I'd far rather be able to breath and see and be seen, than have an accurate costume...But maybe I'm just no enough of a fan :P

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  5. Excellent costumes. We should all go as the Muppets!

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  6. The guy in the Oscar the Grouch Costume doesnt look too happy!

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