Countdown to Halloween Day #14: Vintage Star Wars Halloween Costumes

For today's countdown, I thought I would share some of my vintage Star Wars costumes.   Growing up, I never had a store bought costume.  My aunt was great at sewing and she always made our costumes.   Looking at these, store bought costumes have come a long way.  But they aren't the same. These have a wonderful retro quality that has to be appreciated.

All 3 of these were Ebay purchases and have been in my collection for about 10-15 years.  I got all them very reasonably priced.  All were around $20 each.  I was checking prices on Ebay the other day and I think I got a good deal.  

All of the costumes were made by Ben Cooper, who was a Star Wars licensee from 77-83.  The costumes are pretty cheesy.  The outfits look like they were made out of vinyl table clothes paired with plastic masks that surprisingly survived all this time.  A couple of my costumes still have their original price tags ($4.99 ).  

C-3PO is the oldest in my collection.   The first Ben Cooper costumes released were Luke, Vader and C-3PO.   These costumes were a mix of vinyl and a light weight fabric.  You can see how the legs on my costumes are discolored a dark brown color.   On the bottom of the box, it also calls 3PO "Golden Robot".  I guess that was to help moms in the 70's get the right costume.  

My first Leia costume is "newer".  Often the original version of this Leia costume is found to be a tan color.  The vinyl version holds its original color   When I purchased it, it came in an Empire box.   From what  I have read about the history of the costumes, the original Leia dress was made all the way through "Return of the Jedi".    Which could explain why it came in an Empire box.  

The third costume I have is another example of a Leia costume.  It is the Hoth outfit but it came in a "Return of the Jedi" box.  But, I guess like the original Leia outfit other outfits lasted longer through the run.  It is a vinyl one piece costume with the mask.  This costume has also held up well, with no discoloration.   

There are several costumes that I would like to add to my collection.  Of course, anything R2-D2 makes the list.  But, I would also like to find an Admiral Ackbar, Wicket, and an early Vader costume.