P. B. MacReady

Last year PB came to me asking for a last minute Halloween costume where we started out with a ho-hum pirate but then elevated to P.B. Plissken (Snake Plissken from 'Escape from New York').  I was quite taken aback with how much I thought PB really looked like Kurt Russell.  Earlier in the month of October he jokingly brought it up that he should be another Kurt Russell character this year.  Since 'The Thing' is one of my favorite movies I decided that I was going to take on that challenge!

The main signature item you need is an oversized goofy hat with really long straps...

and a bottle of J&B...

Dynamite...

and then test your blood to prove you are not The Thing!

If you are lucky enough to have a flamethrower that would really do it up right but I'm fresh out at this moment.  But for those looking to make one I bet a couple of empty soda bottles could be the gas tanks and one of those long arm trash grabber deals (also known as a Kryptonite Deactivator) would work well for the long handled trigger.

That was at least my plan.

  I did however last minute come up with these 3 other props that worked out perfect:

The J&B bottle is a label printed from the nets hot glued onto an empty plastic green bottle that originally contained some nasty Dollar Tree nonalcoholic sangria.

The dynamite is an old wood broom stick Mr. Husband sawed into pieces and I painted, added waxed thread as the wick and bound together with black electrical tape.

The MacReady blood test petri dish is my favorite creative prop in this bunch.  It's the lid from a tub of icing!  You know the ones that have the bonus sprinkles? The blood is Halloween vampire blood.

The oversized hat was kind of a wonky build.  It's base is a foam cowboy hat from Dollar Tree with a large sheet of craft foam to extend the rim, I then covered it all with some brown felt which was originally a flower pot costume that we picked up from a thrift store for a buck.  I also had to glue some pipe cleaners to the back of the bent back brim to get it to hold shape.  It's a hot wonky mess and was only made for the photos.   

The photo location is the machine shop on the grounds where Mr. Husband works.  I thought it looked alot like the Outpost's interior from the movie.

I think it's really fun to make costumes and props from cheap crap and discards rather than being all pristine, precise, and overpriced about it.  

We all had a good time working on the pieces and doing the photos.  I'm glad PB still enjoys costuming even with him being older.  We'll have to see if Kurt Russell makes an appearance next year.  The 'Big Trouble in Little China' look is off the table since no respectable male over the age of 4 should be wearing a tank top.