Halloween, oh the bother!!

I can't believe how stressed out I was about Halloween this year. For the first time in many, many years, my family and I were invited to a costume party. Some friends of ours are having it and it is a family thing, so kids will be there as well. Their son is one of Tim's best friends, so he is really looking forward to it.

We had a hard time trying to figure out what we wanted to dress up as. We decided a group theme was important and it is something Tim would want to do. Tim wanted to do Star Wars, but Marilyn had no real desire to be a Star Wars character.

As it turns out, she has recently been hooked into a show on the Sci-Fi station that we never watched in its 10 years of running, Stargate SG-1. We watched the original movie and I loved it, we even have the DVD and I've seen it probably 6-10 times. But for some reason, we never got into the TV show. Well, Marilyn is now into it deep. She watches it 5 times a week and wants the entire DVD collection so we can watch the entire series from start to finish.

So when I brought up the idea that we go as the SG-1 team for the party, she was all over that. Took a bit of convincing to get Tim into it, but he is now all ready as well.

So now you have to worry about cost. How much is too much to spend on Halloween costumes? When you are buying stuff from scratch for 3 people, the cost can skyrocket really fast. We decided a budget of $150 was enough, but we knew we might have to go to $200.

First thing we did was started looking at pictures of the SG-1 team that were posted on the internet. As it turns out, they didn't wear the same outfits from show to show. Similar to real military, it varied from mission to mission depending on the terrain. Everything from the basic olive green to desert cammo gear. Boots, pants, belts, shirts, hats, vests, weapons, etc...

The list was long and expensive to do a full mock up of their attire. We decided a more non-combat mission was in order. We picked their most common attire which was the solid olive green. And we decided to leave off any vests and weapons. I had boots as did Marilyn and Tim could wear his sneakers. But the most important part had to be the Stargate patches they wear on their shirts.

Careful study of several dozen pictures and we came up with the following. They wear a Stargate world project patch that looks like this:


It goes on the left arm just below the shoulder.

There is then the SG-1 team patch that goes on the right shoulder.



There was also another patch of air force wings under the team patch, but it was only there about 50% of the time, but we decided to get it also if available.

Onto getting the items. We found the patches on the SG-1 website but at $9 a piece, for 9 patches, we were looking at $81, this seemed ridiculous to us.
I then found someone on eBay selling them for sets of 3 for $10. OMG!! This was such a deal, but they were in England and with only 2 weeks till the party, I was afraid it was going to be a problem. I emailed her right away and she informed me there was a huge postal strike going on as well. Nix that seller.
I found another guy who said he could get them, but at $6 a patch, we decided to nix the air force wings and just go with the 2 main patches. Still looking at $36 but not that bad.

In the mean time I head to the local Army & Navy store to find the green shirts, pants, belts and hats. That is when I saw the $25 per shirt and $25 per pants cost. There was our $150 budget already and we hadn't even gotten the hats, belts or patches yet. So the next step, we dropped the pants and belts. These costumes are getting slimmed down fast, but bluejeans would probably be more comfortable anyway.

So I picked up 3 shirts at $25 a piece and 3 army baseball type hats at $5 each. Major Carter in the series wore this specific type a lot as did Dr. Jackson. Col. O'Niell usually wore a more traditional baseball cap, but we decided looking the same here was OK, and we went with that look.

Tuesday comes and goes, no word on the patches.
Wednesday comes and goes, no word on the patches.
Thursday comes and no word on the patches. I email my supplier and ask what is up. I have only 9 days till the party and no word yet.

As it turns out, he doesn't have the patches, they never came in and he is not sure when he will get them. His mail comes at 3:30, he will let me know.
So I find another supplier. Patches will be $7 a piece. Ouch. Up to $42. So I email him and ask him how he wants to do this, since he didn't have three of each patch listed on eBay. Buying my time until 3:30.

3:30 comes and goes, no message. 4 PM comes and goes, no message. 4:30, I email him, whats up, did they come. He answers pretty quick. Sorry No patches. Great.

Email my backup supplier, I need to do this today. No response still. Its been almost 5 hours.

I go online and find a real distributer. A great little online store called the Intergalactic Trading Company. You need anything Sci-Fi and they got it. You can buy anything there. They had all the patches and also at $7 a piece. So still $42 but at least I can just go online and buy them. So I do and pay. Get my confirmation. I email them and ask how fast they will get out. 8 days and counting and Marilyn still has to have time to sew them on.

No email this morning from them, and I'm starting to get nervous. Sometimes stores can take their times getting things out the door. I go back to their website and start scanning every bit of fine print I can find about their shipping policies. Then I find it. Usually ships in 2 business days and then 3-9 days for delivery. Ouch. This fell outside the range of the party. What was a guy to do???

So the next step, find a phone number. I do and its even an 800 number. A quick phone call and I talk to a very nice young man who said because of Halloween, he had come in today and already had my order printed off and it was going in the mail today. HUZZAAAA!!! Victory is ours. With any luck the patches will be here Monday or Tuesday at the latest.

Total cost was pants: $75, Hats: $15, patches: $42. Total cost: $132. And even with tax and shipping costs we were just under the $150 budget.

So with any luck, we will be all dressed up as SG-1 in a week and ready for some serious partying.

Until next time...