{"id":668373,"date":"2026-10-29T01:28:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T01:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/668373\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T01:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T01:28:14","slug":"burguer-clown-plumber-guy-and-mrs-scissors-is-there-no-escape-from-cheap-halloween-costumes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/668373\/","title":{"rendered":"Burguer Clown, Plumber Guy and Mrs Scissors \u2014 is there no escape from cheap Halloween costumes?"},"content":{"rendered":"

THERE ONCE WAS a time when if you needed a painstakingly detailed rubber pig\u2019s head mask to wear to a fancy-dress party or to a wedding or whatever, you could get one in Dublin all year round.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There was a time when there were permanent fancy dress shops all across Dublin, including Fun Place next to the Gaiety Theatre, which showcased a range of horrifying masks in its storefront all 12 months of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a teen, I would pass that store and I would think to myself, \u2018Surely demand for these grotesque masks cannot be sufficient to pay the rent on this place?\u2019 Then, in early 2024, the Fun Place closed its physical store, moved entirely online<\/a> in a clear demonstration that pig masks (they did sell more than just pig masks, to be clear) aren\u2019t quite enough to pay the bills in the modern economic climate. Whether that\u2019s because rents are too high or because demand for pig masks is too low \u2014 who\u2019s to say? It might have also had something to do with the advent of online shopping.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"7456
\n Leah Farrell<\/p>\n

Leah Farrell\n<\/p>\n

In lieu of a permanent costume shop, those of us who wish to do our costume shopping in person must rely on the phenomenon of pop-ups. Naturally, this becomes especially relevant in the lead-up to Halloween.<\/p>\n

This year there are at least three Halloween HQ shops operating in Dublin city centre \u2014 two on Henry St, about 100 metres apart, and another on the ground floor of St Stephen\u2019s Green Shopping Centre.<\/p>\n

Upon entering one of the Henry St locations this week, I was immediately greeted by the sounds of Bat Out of Hell by Meat Loaf. Because I\u2019m not the sharpest tool in the shed, my initial reaction was \u2018What an odd song to be playing in a normal shop\u2019. Around two minutes later I figured it out though, and I thought to myself, \u2018What a thematically appropriate song to be playing in a Halloween shop\u2019. You win this round, Halloween HQ.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The three Halloween HQ shops offer much the same thing. Hundreds if not thousands of ready-made costumes wrapped in plastic and ready to be worn. In the most judgment-free way possible, it is a perfect situation for anyone who wants to dress up for Halloween while putting absolutely zero thought or effort into what they wear. You can be a pirate. You can be a mustard dispenser. I didn\u2019t see any pig masks, but they were surely there somewhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Halloween HQ stores sell costumes for all ages and it\u2019s easy to see the appeal for any parent under pressure to come up with costumes for the slate of school parties, trick-or-treating and other events that abound at this time of year. However, there is perhaps something a little bit sterilising about outsourcing our costume-based creativity. Roughly 100% of the costumes seem to come from international costume wholesalers like Guirca Creations (a company based in Barcelona) or Smiffys (a UK-based company that has apparently been operating since the late 19th century).\u00a0<\/p>\n

A hallmark of modern costumes is that they are all designed in such a way as to be unmistakably analogous to universally known pop culture figures without crossing the line into copyright infringement. A costume in the style of Ronald McDonald, for example, is marketed in Halloween HQ as \u2018Burguer Clown\u2019 (that\u2019s not my typo, it\u2019s theirs, or maybe the fake Ronald McDonald is also French?).\u00a0Wednesday Addams is \u2018Strange School Girl\u2019. Various Super Mario costumes are packaged as \u2018Red Plumber Guy\u2019 (Mario), \u2018Green Plumber Guy\u2019 (Luigi), \u2018Yellow Plumber Guy\u2019 (Wario) and \u2018Purple Plumber Guy\u2019 (Waluigi).<\/p>\n

\"IMG_5087\"<\/p>\n

One of the ready-made costumes was titled Mrs Scissors, prompting this reporter to wonder, not unsalaciously, if there happens to be a Mr Scissors. A quick scan of the costumes revealed that there is indeed a Mr Scissors, apparently based on Freddy Krueger. I\u2019m sorry to have bothered you, Ma\u2019am. In the next Halloween HQ shop I also noticed a \u2018Scissors Kid\u2019 costume which was undoubtedly\u00a0the progeny of Mr and Mrs Scissors. How close I came to breaking up their happy home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Honestly, the main lesson to be learned from all of this is that you can pretty much make any of these costumes yourself, or piece them together from things you probably have in your wardrobe. There\u2019s not much more to a Mario costume than a red top, a red cap and some blue dungarees. You may need to pull out some stops to get your hands on a moustache but with enough forward planning, many of us can grow one ourselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the average Halloween HQ costume costing somewhere in the region of \u20ac25-40, it does seem like the prudent and prepared fancy-dresser would probably think better of spending the cash and simply replicating these outfits with things found around the house. The Jesus costume, for example (the Jesus costume is simply marketed as Jesus, they don\u2019t call him like\u2026 Bearded Crucifixion Carpenter) is little more than a white robe and a red sash, something that you could probably reconstruct by repurposing your bedsheets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are other products on sale besides costumes. Spooky cloth, for example! If you\u2019re wondering what spooky cloth looks like, I\u2019d encourage you to imagine a worn, grey rag, but in packaging that describes it as \u2018spooky\u2019, \u2018ghoulish\u2019 and \u2018fangtastic\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What is ultimately for sale at Halloween HQ is convenience above all else. A way of getting through Halloween without having to worry about it too much. Hard to blame anyone for indulging, particularly with Christmas coming around the corner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At least by then the Christmas pop-up shops will be ready to go, and we\u2019ll have no trouble getting into the festive spirit after we\u2019ve all spent \u20ac40 each on our Jolly Finnish Red Man costumes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THERE ONCE WAS a time when if you needed a painstakingly detailed rubber pig\u2019s head mask to wear…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,46085,615,21008,283100,61,60],"class_list":["post-668373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-costumes","tag-dublin","tag-halloween","tag-hollow-een","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}