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

Marvel Comics Superhero Costumes

They're fast, strong and have groovy superpowers... superheroes you just have to love them and some of the very best have to be Marvel Superheroes. There is a huge range of fully licensed Marvel heroes fancy dress costumes available. With characters like The Hulk, Spiderman, Captain America and Iron Man.

Incredible Hulk Costumes
The Incredible hulk costumes are based on the story of Bruce Banner who gets caught in a gamma bomb blast, absorbing massive amounts of radiation making him transform into the Hulk every time he gets angry.

Iron Man Costumes
There are also officially licensed Marvel Iron Man Costumes available. This superhero costume is made up of a one-piece fancy dress jumpsuit, realistic looking foam padded chest, abdomen, deltoid, bicep and triceps muscles. The Iron Man is usually found as part of the Avengers and possesses powered armor that gives him superhuman strength and durability, flight, and an array of weapons.

Pimp my Iron Man Costume

Other Superhero Costumes
Then there are the old favorites of Batman, Robin and Catwoman who tend to have a love/hate relationship. Catwoman spent her early years helping out Batman fighting crime, but returns to her life of crime and becomes a true Batman villain. The Catwoman fancy dress costumes have evolved over the years, in fact Catwoman wore no costume or disguise at all in her first appearance. The current Catwoman costume on has a much more hi-tech look and includes a mask, jumpsuit, belt and boot tops. Unlike the Catwoman costume, Batman costumes have, apart from some details, remained consistent over the years.

Did you know that the image of a bat on the Batman fancy dress costume is there to frighten criminals... woo scary stuff!

UK Shoppers:
Superhero Costumes on Amazon.co.uk

US Shoppers:
Superhero Costumes on Amazon.com

X-men Origins Wolverine Costume

With the new X-Men Origins: Wolverine film due to be released on the 1st of May, it makes for an excellent opportunity, if you are going to a fancy dress party, to dress up in a Wolverine Costume.

The Wolverine Costume
What is interesting is that the costume for the Wolverine has changed over the years and sometimes more often than a contestant on "America's Next Top Model". So what costume should you wear if you want to be the Wolverine?

I think the most iconic look, and the costume that most people think of, when they think of Logan (Wolverine), is the blue and gold costume. It is also the the Halloween costume that is most often sold by fancy dress companies. This Wolverine costume has a long history as it made it's first appearance way back in 1975, in the Marvel Comic Book Giant-Size X-Men #1. Logan was to wear this costume again for a long period during the 1990's and that is why I think this is the costume that most people think of, when they think of the Wolverine.

Other costumes over the years have included a brown and tan costume, a biker look with plenty of black leather, and in X-Force Logan wore a blue red and gold costume.

Where to buy the Wolverine Costume:
Shoppers in the USA:
Wolverine Costumes on Amazon.com


Shoppers in the UK:
Wolverine Costumes on Amazon.co.uk

Check out my previous post: The Wolverine costume, for the X-Men Origins: Wolverine Trailer and if you want to learn a little more about The Wolverine character.

If you are in the USA, you may wish to check out this page on the X-Men Origins Wolverine Costume

Wolverine Costume

Continuing on with the fancy dress films theme, another film to hit the big screens with a fancy dress link is a new X-Men film entitled X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Of all the X-Men Characters, the only fancy dress costumes that I could find were for Wolverine and the female Storm Costumes.

The official Wolverine Super Hero Costume comes with the one piece yellow and blue jumpsuit with the muscle padded body showing off ripped abs, chest, biceps and deltoid muscles. The Wolverine claws are made from PVC, held in place with elastic straps and the foam face mask is held on via a Velcro strap at the rear. For the legs the Wolverine costume comes with foam boot tops with a printed boot effect that finishes at the base of the trouser leg so ideally you will need a pair of black shoes to compliment the costume.

Where to buy the Wolverine Costume:
Shoppers in the USA:
Wolverine Costumes on Amazon.com



Shoppers in the UK:
Wolverine Costumes on Amazon.co.uk


About Wolverine
The story of Wolverine in the comic series is quite interesting, even if you are not an avid comic book reader and it is easy to see how they are going to make a film about him. Wolverine is a mutant, with enhanced animal like senses and abilities that include retracting claws made from bone on his hands and a healing ability that allows him to recovery very quickly from any wounds. This ability also alws Wolverine to have a much longer lifespan than the average human. Before he was a mutant, Wolverine was born James Howlett and is commonly known as Logan.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine
The new X-Men Origins: Wolverine film that is due for release on 1st May was mostly filmed in New Zealand and Australia and once again stars Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. The film follows Wolverine when he was part of Team X, about 20 years before the formation of the X-Men and before his skeleton was stuck together with an unbreakable metal called adamantium.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Trailer

Check out the official X-Men Origins: Wolverine Trailer of the film, it actually really looks good and well worth watching:

Fancy Dress Films in 2009

My last post on events before April 2009 where dressing up in fancy dress is not only acceptable, but encouraged: Fancy Dress & Halloween Costumes 2009 got me thinking into what other fancy dress ideas for the coming year are there? Films are always great for fancy dress themes, so here are the films that I could find that will be showing at a big screen near you that can also be used at a fancy dress party:

Films Due For Release in 2009
Another great fancy dress idea is to dress up in blockbuster film of the moment, here are a few films that also have great potential for fancy dress in 2009:

The Pink Panther 2 (February 2009)
With an all star cast that includes Steve Martin, Jean Reno, John Cleese and Andy Garcia, there is hope that this return of the Pink Panther could be really good. What is always strange is that there is no actual Pink Panther in the film, it is in fact a diamond! Still there are plenty of really Pink Panther costumes available that I think make a fun fancy dress costume.

Shoppers in the USA:
Pink Panther Costume on Amazon.com


Shoppers in the UK:
Pink Panther Costume on Amazon.co.uk



Star Trek: May
A new Star Trek film id due for release in May this year, to be followed by a TV series. Winona Ryder will play Spock's mum, Amanda Grayson. Simon Pegg plays Scotty, and Zachary Quinto from TV’s Heroes plays a young Spock. With the new star Treck film, you can expect tricky time travel shenanigans, freak transporter accidents and a clever, ubiquitous and ultimately slightly annoying viral marketing campaign. There are plenty of Star Trek costumes out there already and I expect, the closer we get to the release of the film, the more we are going to see.

Shoppers in the USA:
Star Trek Costumes on Amazon.com


X-Men Origins: Wolverine: May
Superhero costumes are always popular and the release of a new superhero film always makes that particular superhero costume sell like hotcakes. This year instead of Batman costumes, will we see everyone wearing a Wolverine costume? The new film follows the early years of Logan, the indestructible mutant who will one day be X-Man Wolverine. Cameos from future X-Men and the chance to see how Logan acquired his deadly claws and curious hairdo suerly make it worth seeing alone!

Shoppers in the USA:
Wolverine Costumes on Amazon.com



Shoppers in the UK:
Wolverine Costumes on Amazon.co.uk


Terminator Salvation: June

Yes!, the much anticipated ‘future war’ part of the Terminator series, which was previously only hinted at in the first three movies will hog the storyline of this killer robot film. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said he was too busy running California to play the main part of the iconic cyborg killing machine, which will be taken by Roland Kickinger. A Terminator costume makes an excellent idea for a fancy dress outfit, lets hope they bring out a few new ones this year. For more info check out the Official site & Trailer

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: June

Let's hope that this year with the new film, that somebody out there creates some Transformers costumes. Thissequel to last year’s film is said to offer even more action, more laughs, and more shape-shifting robots.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: July

Harry Potter fans are eagerly awaiting the sixth film in the hugely popular series of films adapted from JK Rowling’s incredible books. Harry Potter costumes have always been popular and I predict that they will get even more popular this year.. sometime around July!

G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra: August

G.I Joe is big name in the US, just think of Action Man and you will get the idea, this film could be interesting and if they don't develop an official G.I Joe Costume, it should be pretty easy to create an army or action man costume.

Nottingham: November

Robin Hood costumes are great and I think in some ways are timeless. The release of this new film where Russell Crowe will play the role of Robin Hood.

Pimp my Iron Man Costume!

The Ultimate Iron Man Fancy Dress Costume for Kids?
There are plenty of official and not so official Iron Man costumes for both children and adults available for sale. But none have the gadgetry of this one.

One very lucky and cute kid had his father spent two months modding and pimping out the standard child's Iron Man Costume available on the market.






Not only did he add a CO2 air compressor to fire missiles or repulsor waves, but a complete BeagleBoard computer running a makeshift JARVUS along with an Arduino board to handle all of the advanced suit functions.

Below are all the additions made to the IronMan Costume:

• Missile launcher - Uses CO2 air pump can to launch a paper missile.
• SA magnetic switch sensor lights his repulsor hand light and fades out and in his glowing eyes.
  
• Sound Effects - configured Elightenment17 to playback sound effects using Mplayer script. Mouse buttons activated by Arduino Digital output triggered by sensors.
• A LED night light from Costco embedded in his the chest of the Iron Man Suit.
• Powerful Computer - With BeagleBoard already running in JARVUS box on the back of the Ironman Suit they plan to add more features including a Web cam, mobile router with hotspot and a head-mounted display, VoIP, streaming video of Iron Man view.

The standard Iron Man Costume is available from Amazon.com - is still pretty cool, even without all the extras'

Sexy Batgirl Costume: Superhero Costumes

As a fancy dress theme, superhero costumes are one of the most popular, it seems that everyone secretly wishes that they had superpowers. Well if you can't manage to learn how to fly or lift cars with your small finger the next best thing is to dress up in a Superhero costume and pretend.

Batgirl Costumes
One of the best selling superhero fancy dress costumes for women is this sexy Batgirl costume from the super sexy secret wishes DC super hero's range. The costume includes the black one piece dress with attached cape and embroidered bat logo, two burnished glovelets, rubber belt, matching knee high boot tops plus the distinctive Batgirl eyemask. This Batgirl outfit comes in most adult sizes including plus size and there are also teen versions of the costume as well.

I guess one of the reasons that the Batgirl fancy dress costume has become so popular has to do with the Batman film The Dark Knight. Since the release of the film both Batman and The Joker costumes have become extremely popular, this is especially true for the Joker Costume which was one of the best selling Halloween costumes all around the globe this year. So I guess why should the girls not join in the action with Batgirl? Created by Bob Kane and Sheldon Moldoff, Batgirl first appeared in a Batman comic (#139) way back in 1961 where her name was originally "Bat-Girl"

US Shoppers
Batgirl Costume on Amazon.com

UK Shoppers
Find the Batgirl Costume on Amazon.co.uk

If you are looking for a similar costume, sexy and still a Superhero, try the Catwoman Costume

oogh and one last thing: Did you know that the image of a bat on the Batman and Batgirl fancy dress costume is there to frighten criminals... woo scary stuff!

Joker costumes popular this Halloween

So far this year, one of the most poplar fancy dress costume for Halloween is the Joker, based on the Heath Ledger's character from the Batman film, The Dark Knight.


Some people have gone as far to wonder if it is a macabre attempt to exploit his death or a way to honour the late great Australian actor? What ever the case according to sales statistics leading up to Halloween the Joker costume has been flying out of the door. There are even some Halloween shops in the US that just can't stock enough of the costumes. Across the pond in the UK, on-line fancy dress companies are also experiencing the massive increase in sales of the costume. "The Joker Costumes are definitely one of our best selling lines this Halloween" This is according a representative of Jokers' Masquerade fancy dress and Halloween costumes in the UK.

The Joker Costume

With the release of the new Batman film: The Dark Knight, there will be many people out there going to a fancy dress party dressed in a Batman costume. Trying and be a little more original but still keeping within the batman and superhero costume theme have you thought of trying a Robin Costume although Robin does not feature in the new Batman film. If being a villain is more your style why not consider The Joker Costume?

Heath Ledger played an excellent part in The Dark Knight and I feel that his character of the Joker makes a perfect fancy dress costume. The whole of The Dark Knight film is much more darker than previous batman films and the Joker is no exception, The Joker costume is pretty scary and the film actually starts with the Joker robbing a mob-owned bank with several other accomplices, whom he tricks into killing each other.

More about The Joker and The Joker Costume

The Joker first appeared in the DC Comic books in the first Batman comic book, published in 1940. The Joker was created by Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson and he has always been Batman's arch enemy. The Joker is a master criminal who has become a more and more dark character over the years. His crimes range from almost harmless tricks and thieving to violent murders. The Joker has green hair, red lips and pale skin, this is because he fell into a vat of chemicals bleaching his skin, turn and turned his hair green and lips red. The Joker costume usually consists of a Purple suit and green waist coat and gaudy tie.

Where to find the Joker Costume

As far as I know there are no official Joker costumes for sale at the moment, but I have seen a few scary Joker costumes on the aptly named Jokers' Masquerade fancy dress website that definitely look the part. Just search for Joker Costume when you get onto the website. They also sell a scary Joker wig as well as the Joker wig, so you can easily create a believable Joker from The Dark Knight costume, without breaking the bank.

If you cannot find the whole Joker Costume my advice would be to get the Joker mask and then perhaps find a purplish / blue suit with and waistcoat, you could probably do this by looking for clown costumes and that way you can make your own Joker Costume.

US Shoppers:
Joker Costumes on Amazon.com





UK Shoppers:
Joker Costumes on Amazon.co.uk



A pretty good Joker Mask can be found on Amazon see below:

Catwoman Costume and Fancey Dress

Superhero fancy dress costumes are always popular, especially the male characters like Spiderman, Batman and Superman costumes, but what about woman superheroes (or should that be superheroines?)

Catwoman Costume
Today I am going to look at the Catwoman Costume, Catwoman first appeared in 1940 in a Batman comic and was initially known as The Cat.

The Catwoman costume has evolved over the years, in fact in her first appearance Catwoman wore no costume or disguise at all this then evolved with the character and Catwoman began to wear a cat-mask which had the appearance of a real cat .

In the 1990s, the Catwoman costume consisted of a skin tight purple bodysuit and then changed to a black PVC costume like the Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman costume in Batman Returns.

Most of the current Catwoman costumes for sale have a much more hi-tech look and usually include a stylized cat mask, jumpsuit, belt and boot tops.

Catwoman and the well known male superhero Batman, have tended to have a love and hate relationship over the years. Initially Catwoman spent her early years helping out Batman fighting crime, but later returns to her life of crime and moves on to become a true Batman villain. It is also interesting to note Batman's most enduring love interests, is Catwoman and has occasionally been depicted as his one true love. So an excellent idea for some couples costumes would be to dress up in Catwoman and Batman costumes.

Catwoman Costume on Amazon.co.uk

More female superhero costume ideas
If Catwoman is not your thing, here are a few more female superhero costume ideas for you:
Wonder Woman Costumes - see my blog post on the Wonder Woman Costume
Supergirl Costumes including Sexy Supergirl Costumes
Superwoman Costumes (DC Comics)
Batgirl Costumes and a Sexy Batgirl Costume
Phantom Girl Costume
The Bionic Woman
Black Widow (Timely Comics)
Bumblebee (DC Comics)
The Cat (Marvel Comics)
Elasti-Girl (DC Comics)
Miss America (Marvel Comics)
Storm (Marvel Comics)

Where to buy the Catwoman costume:

US Shoppers:
Catwoman Costumes on Amazon.com


UK Shoppers:
Catwoman Costumes on Amazon.co.uk


If you are looking for a similar costume, sexy and still a Superhero, try the Batgirl Costume

I hope I have helped you with some superhero fancy dress ideas UK and that you enjoy dressing up in your Catwoman Costume.

Fancy Dress Ideas: Wonder Woman Costume

On todays issue of Fancy Dress Ideas we will be focusing on the fairer sex and what better role model than wonder Woman!

This costume is perfect in many ways, as it is so versatile. Wear it to a Superhero fancy dress party or even a 70's or retro party (Wonder Woman became a huge icon firstly in the 70's in the US, but later also became very popular here in the UK.

This sexy outfit probably sums up the term "If you've got it, flaunt it!" Not only will you look stunning in this fancy dress costume but it will also make you look smart! Wonder Woman was all things, both beautiful, strong and smart!

Where to get it you ask? I found this and a whole bunch of other Super Hero Fancy Dress Ideas on Jokers' Masquerade Super Hero FancyDress.

So if you harbour any fantasies of becoming a Superhero for the night this has got to be top of the list for your Fancy Dress Ideas.

Take a look at another super hero post of mine on Catwoman Costumes