Carbon Costume

Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck is a main character in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He is a Hobbit who joins the Fellowship of the Ring and its quest to destroy it and defeat Sauron. Although Merry is actually one of Frodo‘s cousins, Pippin is his constant companion. They like to adventure and pull pranks together, and while more silly than resourceful, they’re the ones who form an alliance with Treebeard. Merry himself even fights in the Battle of Pelennor Fields, and helps Eowyn kill the Witch King. He likes boats and ponies, while also taking interest in the maps of Middle Earth. In the movie adaptations of Tolkien’s novels, Dominic Monaghan plays this role.

Signs was something of a cultural phenomena when it came out in 2002. A genuinely scary movie with a twist that most did not see coming, it set the tone for the next decade of horror movies. Part of its appeal was a cast that delivered consistently strong performances. This included Joaquin Phoenix as the washed up local hero Merrill Hess.

Once destined for baseball greatness he now lives and works on the family farm without much ambition toward anything. His clothes – work jeans, work boots, and a dark henley – are all ideal clothes for working on a farm. And when the aliens touch down, he’s one of the first to accept the idea that it’s aliens and reach for a tin foil hat. Of course it’s his trusty bad that really makes the costume and with a little help from Etsy you can have your own Merrill Hess slugger ready and waiting! Just don’t forget to keep a glass of water nearby.

Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson is the rebellious teenage protagonist at the heart of Greta Gerwig’s semi-autobiographical film Lady Bird.  Lady Bird dreams of a big life in a big city on the East Coast, but her family struggles financially, which often causes tension as Lady Bird’s mother thinks she is not grateful enough for what she has.  Lady Bird’s clothing is a mix of simple pieces and vintage thrift store finds, giving her a cool ’90s vibe even as a high school student in the early 2000s.

Annie Porter (played by Sandra Bullock) is one of the main protagonists of the film Speed.  With the help of police officer Jack Traven, she is responsible for keeping the passengers on her city bus alive by driving them through downtown Los Angeles and maintaining a speed of at least 50 miles per hour.  Annie wears a grey tank top, combat boots, and a floral dress.

Mitsuha Miyamizu (voiced by Mone Kamishiraishi and Stephanie Sheh) is the main female character in the anime movie Your Name (Kimi no Na wa).  Mitsuha lives in a small town and begins switching bodies with a high school boy named Taki Tachibana who lives in Tokyo.  Mitsuha is an adventurous girl who feels confined and restricted in her hometown of Itomori.  She performs duties as a priestess at her family’s shrine, and her father becomes mayor, which further strainst heir relationship as she feels more restricted than ever.  Mitsuha can often be seen wearing her school uniform, which includes a red bow and dark grey skirt.  During the epilogue, Mitsuha wears peach-colored capris, low yellow heels, and a star necklace.

Megamind (voiced by Will Ferrell) is a one-of-a-kind villain. It might be that he was based on both Batman and Lex Luthor. Or maybe it’s that he isn’t actually a bad person. Either way he’s in a league of his own. And his fashion choices are no different!

Getting a look like Megamind’s takes a little bit of DIY but it’s worth it! The first DIY part of the costume is altering the cape so that it attaches to the underside of the leather shoulder guards. You can also add a silver “M” to the front if you can find one at your local craft store.

Next you will need to alter the navy body suit by painting a blue lightning bold on the chest.

The last bit of DIY should be done right before you want to debut your cosplay. You will need to enlarge your head with a prosthetic conehead. Once that is in place you will have to paint it with light blue body paint that you will have need to apply to your face and neck. Then, using black body paint, you will need to paint on his goatee and eye brows.

Voila! You’re ready to rock out to AC/DC and take over a whole city … then become its hero.

If you haven’t seen Grease by now, you’re missing out. Not only are the songs catchy and the lines almost infinitely quotable but the costumes are iconic. And perhaps none are more so than those of the Pink Ladies. Rizzo, Frenchie, Jan, and and Marty are sort of the girl gang of Rydell High. They more or less pair up with the T-Birds, the school’s unofficial greaser representatives. Of course there’s Sandy Olson too, though she doesn’t join until much later. And, alas, she never gets that iconic Pink Ladies jacket.

You can get one, though! In fact a Pink Ladies Jacket is more or less the one piece you absolutely need in order to pull of this costume. All of the girls change their clothes throughout the movie but that is one thing they are almost never seen without.

To finish off the look you could choose a classic ’50s A-Line dress, pearls, heels, and hair bows like Frenchie wears. Just make sure you get one of these ’50s hairstyles going too.

Or you might prefer the more daring look of capris, flats, and a button down like Rizzo wears.

No matter how you style it, as long as you’ve got the jacket and the attitude, you’re a Pink Lady through and through!

Originally written by Robert Heinlein in 1959, Sony adapted the novel Starship Troopers into a 1997 film that tanked in the box office only to gain a cult following. The film follows Johnny Rico (played by Casper Van Dien who later went on to make several cameos in other Starship Trooper films) as he graduates high school and enlists in the army. Unlike military service in America today, however, military service is required to gain full rights as a citizen, prompting Rico to join despite his parents’ protests. Rico and his friends go on to fight Bugs and Arachnids, members of an insect-like species that have been fighting humans for control of new planets since the beginning of off-Earth human colonies.

The most unique piece of the Starship Trooper uniform is the helmet. It’s modeled on just about any other military helmet of course. But the specific styling is what really sets aside a Starship Trooper. Unfortunately a premade unit is pretty pricy. There are a few other options though. You can get a 3-D printer file for it here. Or you can find craft foam tutorials like this one on YouTube.

From there, the rest of the costume is fairly easy. Grey tactical pants and, a black t-shirt and a chest protector The chest protector listed above is very close to the version the Troopers wear but it has white detailing. Black acrylic paint will cover that up since the protector is made of nylon. And of course you’ll need your trusty laser rifle.