Shopping For Cosplay During Halloween: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

As much as I warn people to stay far, far away from the ‘costume’ fabrics aisle at Joanns and as much as the sight of a Party City wig makes me cringe, Halloween can be a good time of year to do some cosplay shopping. When else can you find ridiculously huge plastic chains for that oversized sword prop, already pre-painted and weathered, for 40% off?

If you’re the kind who plans way ahead on their costumes, Halloween can potentially be the most rewarding time of the year (apart from Coupon Commotion Week at Joanns, maybe) depending on what kind of costume you have slated. Some things, like fake blood, fake teeth, etc., are simply easier to find at this time of year. For example, I have a silver cream makeup tube that I bought at (gasp!) Party City. After trying a few different techniques, it really does the best job of making my eyebrows appear silver whenever I cosplay Kuja. Especially if you happen to live near a costume shop already, the items that appear in stock will likely be more than just bottom-of-the-line, low-quality materials.

Of course, it’s really easy to fall into the trap of ‘well, I need a scythe, and there’s this one right here… it doesn’t look anything like what I need, but it IS right here…’

Just like shopping for materials at any other time of the year, you have to use good judgment. If something isn’t up to standard, no pumpkin stencil on a sale banner is going to make it better.

But if I’m cosplaying Seras Victoria from Hellsing and I need those fangs sooner or later, I can bet now’s a pretty convenient time to go out and purchase them. And I’m all for having one less thing to worry about.