Costume Spotlight: The Shadow

 

 I gotta say, I've got nice friends. This month is always a bit of a stretch to come up with a whole month of Halloween updates. Enter my pal Matt, Shadow collector extraordinaire (check out some of his cool collection here) .

While I knew Collegeville made a Shadow costume, I had no idea how many. I'll let Matt take over here and explain the differences after the jump.

1978 Collegeville Halloween Costume Catalog

With it being October, I tend to get a little nuts with the Halloween costumes especially my favourite company Collegeville.

1978 was a fun year for Collegeville, sure they didn't have Star Wars but did Ben Cooper have the Hardy Boys? Not a chance. The 1978 Collegeville catalog is exploding with characters and creations that made the 1970s great including Jaws, Grizzy Adams, Farrah Fawcett, Superjoe, TV Super teams The Osmonds, Laverne and Shirley, Starsky and Hutch and the Monster Squad, just to name a few. It's like some weird TV special that probably happened...

Rob Reiner has one of these somewhere. Click on any image to check out all the fun of the 1978 Collegeville Costumes Catalog.

More Costume Catalogs:

1979 Collegeville means KISS (and some Cylons)

Awww yeah, we wrap up our month of Halloween with our third dip into the "Collegeville barrel" with this grooving catalog from 1979.

'79 saw some great new additions to Collegeville as they scored some major licenses most important at the time would be KISS, the rock band that wore Halloween costumes 24/7. For the space kids, Collegeville had the good guys and bad bots of Battlestar Galactica and for you fantasy nerds, The Lord of the Rings!

Oh my goodness, I need to own this badly. Click on any image to check out all the fun of the 1979 Collegeville Costumes Catalog.

More Costume Catalogs:

1973 Collegeville Halloween Costumes Catalog

Followers of this site and blog will know that Collegeville is a favourite subject around here, that's likely because I got a ton of these as a kid combined with the fact that they got some really cool licenses.

1973 was a cool year for Collegeville, in addition to their line of generic monsters and familiar looking superhero designs, we got stuff like The Phantom, H.R. Pufnstuf, Pebbles and Bam Bam, Ultraman, Hot Wheels, Big Jim and my personal favourite of the lot, the SHADO pilot from Gerry Anderson's U.F.O.

Oh my goodness, I need to own this badly. Click on any image to check out all the fun of the 1973 Collegeville Costumes Catalog.

More Costume Catalogs:

1974 Collegeville Costume Catalog

When it came to Halloween costumes, the two biggest names in the 70's were Ben Cooper and Collegeville. If one didn't have a specific license, the other surely did.

In the mid seventies, Ben Cooper had a lock on some prosperous licenses namely The Universal Monsters and Superheroes from DC and Marvel houses.

This left Collegeville with some interesting choices and a great deal of "imitation brand" characters. Concentrating on cartoon characters and popular toy brands, Collegeville has a real mix of fun knock off costumes that would be fun to collect.
While looking through this catalog, I was shocked to discover that much of my trick or treating involved Collegeville. It must have had a lot to do with my proximity to a Woolco.

Enjoy the 1974 Collegeville Halloween Costume Catalog

And if you still want to look at Halloween Costumes, check out these other two galleries:

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1981 Collegeville Costume Catalog

Followers of this site and blog will know that Collegeville is a favourite subject around here, that's likely because I got a ton of these as a kid combined with the fact that they got some really cool licenses.

This is a Canadian version of the Catalog (by a company called Norbin) and I highly suspect that some of the masks and other sundries come from sources other than Collegeville.

1981 was an interesting year, we have staples that have been around since the early 1970s and  hot new licenses like Thundarr the Barbarian, Mightyman and Yuck, Fangface, Star Trek: The motion picture, Clash of the Titans and many more.

Click here to see the 1981 Collegeville Catalog


More Collegeville Costumery (It's a word)

Hairy, Scary Monsters from Collegeville

1982 saw the Universal monsters depart Ben Cooper and move over to Collegeville for a glorious rebranding. The monster were all given weaves, gorgeous new packaging and Collegeville even added the Metaluna Mutant to the mix.

This Friday's Pod Stallions is all about Store Bought Costumes of yore, hope you'll check it out.

For more on the Collegeville Universal Monsters, check out the 1983 Collegeville Catalog here.

Pod Stallions 22: Store Bought Costumes

As the title suggests, episode 22 delves into the wonderful world of Halloween costumes but none of that "Home made with your mom's love" kinda junk, this talks about the good old "smock and mask" stuff you got at places like Woolco or Kresge's.

In what is probably our most visual episode, Jason and Brian go through the many catalogs on Plaidstallions from companies such as Collegeville, Ben Cooper and Kusan.

From deep discussions about Grizzly Adams, The Village People, Hee-Haw, Tattoo from Fantasy Island and of course, Flash Gordon. This one doesn't leave many 70s stones unturned. Look for cameos by your favourite Star Wars characters Yada, Darth Vadar and Baba Fett.

Download the Show Here

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Show Links:

• 1974 Collegeville Catalog
• 1978 Collegeville Catalog
• 1979 Collegeville Catalog
• 1983 Collegeville Catalog
• 1980 Ben Cooper Catalog
• The Ad for Village People Costumes
• Denys Fisher Cyborg toys based on Henshin Cyborg.

Plenty more content on the PodStallions Facebook page!

We'll be adding Halloween Costume photos to Facebook.



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The 1983 Collegeville Halloween Catalog

Lots of new faces (well, in the form of Masks) could be found in the 1983 Collegeville Catalog, while the company was still selling various knock offs such as the Spider (a very healthy run since I wore that same suit in the mid seventies) there was also a staggering amount of licensed goods available.

From dependable favourites such as the "Peanuts" to newbies like "Shirt Tales" and "Joanie Loves Chachi" and eventually hitting rock bottom with down right bizarre items like Atari Games and Rubik's Cube, Collegeville had managed to cover a great deal of bases.

Perhaps the biggest get here is the Universal Monsters line, an array of both childrens costumes and rubber masks which bring back a pile of fond memories for me.

Check out the 1983 Collegeville Costume Catalog

As an added bonus, I've compiled all the retro Halloween shots I got into one big gallery on the site, check it out here or click the image.

Oh and have a very Happy Halloween, I want to say kudos to all my blogging brethen (and sistren) for completing the Halloween Countdown. A month of monsters has worn me right out and i think I'm going to blog about kittens for a long while. But for now, I have to go explain the "Daddy Tax" laws about candy to my kids....

Identified!

I am really excited to say that I've made a major find and it's timing couldn't be better seeing as it's a Collegeville costume that I didn't think was real. More after the jump..

Costumes:1999

My pal Corey (who always has neat stuff on Ebay) sent in some really cool photos of the different costumes produced for shows created by legendary TV producer Gerry Anderson and well, there is no better time to look at these, just gonna seem weird tomorrow. More  Collegeville/Ben Cooper fun after the jump...

1986 Collegeville Halloween Costume Catalog

Collegeville was one of the leading Halloween costume manufacturers of the late twentieth century. 

 This extensive 1968 catalog really demonstrates the powerhouse licenses they were rocking in the 60s, including Labyrinth, The Transformers and the Go-Bots, WWF Wrasslers, Wuzzles, Rainbow Bright and the Peanuts, it's a good group and some solid 1980s nostalgia.

1986 Collegeville Halloween Costume Catalog