We loved to dress up like popular cartoon characters like The Incredible Hulk, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Wonder Woman and Bugs Bunny — and we thought we were so cool!
The more inspired of kids even tried to make our own creations with everyday items like cardboard boxes and aluminum foil. (Who else went dressed up as a TV set or a robot?)
Retro Halloween costumes decade-by-decade
We’ve gathered up some fabulously retro Halloween ensembles that will take you back in time! Jog your memory of those golden olden days with this collection of costume ideas from the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s.
DON’T MISS: See the retro melted plastic popcorn Halloween decorations popular in the ’70s
With a few cardboard boxes and some aluminum foil, you can make this retro Halloween costume robot that will be the hit of the party.
Some easy-to-make masks of aluminum foil helped make each costume a little different.
Trick or treat! See some of the retro Halloween costumes & masks you could get at the drugstore back in the ’60s & ’70s
For the peeps who were handy with a sewing machine, Butterick, Simplicity and McCalls offered a few different retro costume designs, and many variations were possible.
Dressing up like popular 70s characters like Wonder Woman, Starsky and Hutch, or Bullwinkle and Benji seems like nice, wholesome fun, right?
But the Shadow knows that when you see the make-believe next to their real-life inspiration, you’ll see why the kids dressed up as these ’70s TV stars were actually scary!
Here’s how to make homemade face paint the ’80s way! This step-by-step recipe uses everyday corn syrup and tissue paper to make a non-toxic face paint for Halloween or a school play!
Did you ever have one of these vintage Paas Halloween makeup kits from the eighties, so you could go trick-or-treating looking like a vampire, clown, werewolf, witch, pumpkin or ghost?
Here's a look back at these old-school drugstore makeup kits!
Retro Western costumes for Halloween and fun from 1981
Trick-or-treating in 1984
ALSO SEE: Quick Halloween desserts: Make a ghoulish graveyard dessert & some creepy jigglers
One Response
I remember wearing those “drug store” costumes with the tiny holes for breathing in the mask and the costume was made of plastic. I would be sweating but had such a great time trick and treating I didn’t care.