Harry Potter Wands

I thought that with Harry Potter mania sweeping the nation just before the release of the new Half-Blood Prince movie, I would take the time to write about some of the accessories to go with your Harry Potter Fancy Dress costume.

Harry Potter Wands
Probably the most important accessory of all if you are a wizard is the wand. In most wizard stories, it is the wand that chooses its wizard, due to the unique character of each wand, which must match that of the wizard. When trying out different wands, an aspiring wizard may cause some damage when he encounters wands that don't get along with him!

I am not sure if any will choose your little wizard, so you may have to do it for them!

There are a bunch of wands available and on Amazon I counted over 20 different types and so this is a great place to start:

Shoppers in the UK
Harry Potter Wand on Amazon.co.uk


Shoppers in the USA
Harry Potter Wands on Amazon.com

New Harry Potter Fancy Dress Costumes

As most of you will know, Harry Potter is far more just about the J. K. Rowling books and films, there is a massive array of merchandise: Harry Potter Games, Harry Potter Pictures, Harry Potter calendar, Harry Potter figures, Harry Potter quizzes, Harry Potter toys... you name it, if man can make it, there will be a version of it with with this little wizard on it.

So what about Harry Potter Halloween Costumes and Fancy Dress? Plenty of that too, I wrote a blog post a while back on Harry Potter costumes, but with the release of the new Half-Blood Prince film, I thought it may be an idea to update things a little and see if there are any new Harry Potter fancy dress costumes available.

The good news (for parents) is that unlike football merchandise, and Superhero costumes, Harry Potters outfit does not really change every time a new book or movie comes out. As far as I can tell the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Costume will be the same as his others, this is great news if you already have one.

So if you or your child already has one, but you still want to get something to add to the costume, you are spoilt for choice, below are some ideas:

Harry Potter Costume Accessories:

• Harry Potter Wands
• Harry Potter Broom
• Harry Potter Glasses
  
• Harry Potter Tie
• Hogwarts Banner
• Harry Potter Scarf

If you don't already have the Harry Potter fancy dress costume, probably the best is the Premium officially licensed Harry Potter Gryffindor Robe Child Costume (picture in this post)

This premium deluxe hooded robe is made of luxurious black velvet and lined in burgundy satin with a front clasp and the Gryffindor Crest on the front. Perfect for Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and any of their other members of the Gryffindor House at Hogwarts! It is available in child sizes: Small (4-6), Medium (8-10), and Large (12-14) and only includes the robe, you will have to buy the glasses, Wand, Scar Kit and School Tie separately.

Shoppers in the UK
Harry Potter Costumes on Amazon.co.uk


Shoppers in the USA
Harry Potter Costumes on Amazon.com

Transformers Costumes

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
The new Transformers release date for the film is Friday 26th June 2009. The movie is also sometimes called Transformers 2 and is one that both big and small kids have been looking forward to.

Transformers Fancy Dress Costumes
As with all big films these days, there is always a bunch of official merchendise to go with it and Transformers is no exception. With everything from Transformers coloring books, Transformers games, Transformers toys, transformers masks, helmets and of course Transformers Costumes. The two main costumes available are for the two main characters: Bumblebee and Optimus Prime. These are available in both childrens as well as a few adult transformers costumes available.

Transformers Optimus Prime Costumes
Optimus prime is a great role model as is in the story of Transformers, he is the leader of the Autobots (The heroic Transformers). Optimus Prime and the other Autobots come from the planet Cybertron where they are constantly pitting themselves against Decepticons (The Bad Transformers) for peace in the universe. One of his famous quotes is "Autobots, transform and roll out!"

The fancy dress costumes (main image) are available in both adult and childrens sizes. The officially licensed Transformers Optimus Prime Deluxe Adult costume comes with a character jumpsuit, mask and sculpted chest piece. The adult vesion is available in one size only, but should fit most adults (42-46)

The Childs Optimus Prime Costumes are available in two styles, the Animated version as well as the movie version:

The Optimus Prime deluxe costume comes with a red, blue and gray jumpsuit, chest piece, toy arm weapon and face mask.



The Transformers Animated Optimus Prime Deluxe Child costume consists of a jumpsuit with attached foam chest and upper arms, two foam arm cuffs and a Optimus Prime mask.

Transformers Bumblebee Costumes
In the Transformers univese, Bumblebee is the "little brother" of the heroic Autobots, he is always trying to prove himself to the taller, stronger robots, especially his leader, Optimus Prime.

Like the Optimus Prime Costumes, the Bumblebee costumes are available in both adult and childrens sizes, in both the classic movie styles as well as the animated versions. The best costume is the Bumblebee Movie 3-D Deluxe Costume that has a black, gray and yellow jumpsuit with 3-D armor that looks like real robot parts as well as a robot mask that matches the costume and completes the look of an autobot. It is available in child sizes: Small, Medium and Large.

Where to buy Transformers Costumes:

Shoppers in the UK
Transformers Costumes on Amazon.co.uk

Shoppes in the USA
Transformers Costumes on Amazon.com

For those of you in the US, you can take a look at the Halloween 4 Costumes page on Transformers Costumes >>

Transformers vs Harry Potter Costumes

Forget Alien vs Predator, the real battle this summer is Transformers vs Harry Potter.



Unless you have been living on a dark planet somewhere on another galaxy, I am sure that you are aware that both the new Harry Potter and Transformer films are soon to be released. What is exciting for me is both these movies offer an exciting opportunity for fancy dress with plenty of Transformers Costumes and of course Harry Potter Costumes available.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Also sometimes also called Transformers 2, The Transformers release date here in the UK is Friday 26th June 2009.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
This new Harry Potter (Harry Potter 6) film is due for release on the 17th of July 2009.

So like my previous posts of Battle of the Movie Costumes and the Sequel, Battle of the Movie Costumes 2, I have decided to pit the genius that is Harry Potter against those crazy robot car, helecopter, plane things to see who is more popular at the moment:

Google Insights: Harry Potter vs Transformers
Once again I have used Google Insights to see which film is being searched for more often (click image to resize):



And as you can see over the last three months, Harry Potter overall has been more popular, but just over the last few days, the Transformers have been fighting back hard, with both films gaining in popularity.

Harry Potter Costumes
I have already written an article on Harry Potter Fancy Dress Costumes that has links to where you can buy them both here and in the UK, which you can find here: Harry Potter Costumes >>

Transformers Costumes
With Transformers Fancy Dress, the most popular costumes are Bumble Bee and Optimus Prime costumes. Easily found in childrens sizes, but I have also seen an adult Optimus Prime costume. Read more about Transformers Costumes here.

Shoppers in the UK
Transformers Costumes on Amazon.co.uk

Shoppes in the USA
Transformers Costumes on Amazon.com

Scooby Doo Costumes

For those of you who have been living on Mars since 1969, Scooby Doo is an animated cartoon staring Scoobert "Scooby" Doo who is a great dane.

Scooby Doo Characters
Scooby Doo is not the only character in the film, he is only part of the Mystery Inc. team that consists of Fred "Freddie" Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley and Norville "Shaggy" Rogers.

Scooby Doo Costumes
Not only can you get Scooby Doo fancy dress costumes of Scooby himself, but also some excellent outfits for all of the Scooby Doo Characters, but lets start off with the main character:

Scooby Costumes are available in both adult and children's sizes:

Adult Scooby Doo Costume
This one size costume consists of a one piece fleece jumpsuit with attached headpiece and comes with the 'SD' dog tag.

As mentioned, the costume comes in one size and will fit a chest size 40" to 46", Waist size 32" to 38", Inside Leg to 32" and an ideal Height 5'10"

See links below on where you can buy the costume:

Kids Scooby Doo costumes
The Childrens Scooby Doo costumes are available in a number of different sizes, including Toddlers, small child Scooby costumes for ages between 3 and 4 years, a medium size to fit children aged 5 to 7 years and then a larger one for older kids.

UK Shoppers
Scooby Costumes on Amazon.co.uk

US Shoppers
Scooby Costumes on Amazon.com

More info on Scooby Doo Costumes as well as more places to buy Halloween costumes for all the Scooby Doo Characters in the USA can be found on Halloween4Costumes, check it out as it is an excellent resource on everything Scooby, with not only costumes, but the Scooby Doo soundtrack, Scooby Doo T-shirts and much more.

Star Trek Costumes

With the new Star Trek film id due for release on the 8th of May, to be followed by a TV series, I thought now would be a good time to take a look at what Star Trek Costumes are available as well as delve a little into what the film is going to be about.

Star Trek Film
The film will chronicle of the early days of James T. Kirk and his fellow USS Enterprise crew members. There is a new cast of fresh faced actors including Hot Fuzz's Simon Pegg taking up the role of Enterprise engineer Scotty, the revamped outer space odyssey is already generating huge buzz among film fans. Star Trek, directed by JJ Abrams (Cloverfield and Lost), is certified 12A and runs for 127 minutes.

The New Star Trek Costume from the Movie
The only place that I so far have found that sell the new Star Trek uniform is BuyCostumes.com in the USA - They can however ship to the UK and they say you will receive your order within 2 to 4 days which is really good. The have the full range of mens Star Trek uniforms - just no female ones yet! (click on the banner below to take you to their shop)





Other Star Trek Costumes
As for the other uniforms, Amazon.com have pretty much the entire range, including all colours of the Next Generation Uniforms for the retro look, Star Trek Voyager costumes as well as the Deep Space Nine Costumes including a Deep Space Nine Commander Sisko costume and a Dr. Bashir Star Trek Costume.

Star Trek Costumes on Amazon.com

If you are looking for more information on then check out this comprehensive guide to the Star Trek Costume and Uniforms

Battle of the Movie Costumes 2

Back in February, I wrote an article called Battle of the Movie Costumes, where we took a look at the popularity of films about to be released, using Google Insights and is based on the amount of people searching on the web for each film. I thought that with a few of the films having been released and a few about to be released, it would be interesting to compare them again and see if there have been any changes. In this way if you want to wear a fancy dress costume that has a current movie theme, you will know which is the most popular.

Films recently released that you can find fancy dress costumes for:

• The Pink Panther 2 (Feb 13th)
• Friday the 13th (Feb 13th)
• Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (Feb 27th)

And then a few about to be released:

• X-Men Origins: Wolverine (May 1st)
• Star Trek (May 8th)

Google Insights - The Most Popular films of 2009
Once again I used Google Insights to compare the search terms from February until today:



What is interesting is back in February, Street Fighter and Star Trek were neck and neck as to which was the most popular, with Street Fighter just edging it.

Street Fighter
Now we can see that there was a huge spike in the number of searches for Street Fighter, just before and then just as it was released on February the 27th and even though it was released over 2 months ago it is still more popular than the Pink Panther ever was - So a Street fighter costume is definitely cool.

Wolverine & the X-Men
This film is due for release tomorrow (May 1st) and whilst there was a spike in interest in early April and the number of searches continues to increase the closer we get to the release, it is never going to match Street Fighter. So a Wolverine Costume is still cool, just not Super Cool.

Star Trek
Next in line, just behind the Wolverine is Star Trek, it still has a few days before it's release and whist it is popular, It again is never going to reach the heights of Street Fighter. Check out the Star Trek Costumes on Amazon.com