Ok, so here’s my Skeletor costume. I started working on it in September and finished it a few days before my Halloween party (October 28th).

Here’s my take on Skeletor…

I guess I was inspired by a lot of things to make this costume. I always loved the Masters of the Universe: the toys, the books, the show, the movie, etc. I also watched CKY religiously over the summer and saw the Skeletor/Beastman video (for those of you not familiar with this, check out Youtube) a million times. While watching Brandon DiCamillo, dressed as Skeletor, dancing on a desk, I said to myself, ‘I want to make a bad ass Skeletor costume.’

So I gathered all the inspiration I could. I grabbed the old and new toys. I watched the movie and cartoons a bunch of times. I searched online for as many Skeletor pictures as I could find. Then I decided how I wanted him to look, and what ideas and designs I would borrow to create this.

Here are the two pictures that inspired me most:

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I always saw Skeletor as a magician or warlock, not a muscle-bound swordsman. He didn’t need the Schwarzenegger physique to be imposing or to be a warrior. I can easily picture him with a Marilyn Manson stature (hmm). And that kind of made me happier to do this project because I’m as scrawny as they come. Though I did jog every other day and did about a hundred sit-ups every day to make sure I didn’t have a gut sticking out. But back to my point, Skeletor should have bony elbows and witch-like fingers complete with long, scraped up fingernails. It just gives him a creepier appearance. The new Skeletor figure kind of achieved that, but despite his bony appearance, he still had Hulk Hogan-like biceps.

I then thought about his clothing. I always love to make things look old and worn. I think it’s a true art. So when I thought of Skeletor, I saw him with a little bit of royalty, but at the same time, I can see him crawling out of a rain filled ditch. So I figured he would be clean for the most part, but he still wore his ravaged clothing to show that he has been in battles. Think of a king of the hobos. He’s just as poor as the next guy, but he has a history in his clothing that makes him better.

So as I put that all together, I took some aspects from the toys, cartoons, and movie. I obviously stuck with the blue skin, purple armor, and yellow skull motif. I felt that if I didn’t do that, people would just think I’m the Grim Reaper.

I’ll now explain what I did to go through this painstaking process, and what things influenced me throughout.

Let’s start with the clothing…

The leather pieces: The chest piece, shoulder pads, belt hangings, gauntlets, and shin guards were all cut out of leatherette and sewn together. There were subtle designs sewn into each piece (i.e. skull on belt, spine on back of chest piece, bat on the front, etc.). I painted over the pieces with purple paints with a sponge to give that worn effect. When I painted over the leather pieces, the sewn on designs were ‘haloed’ by black, which was something I really liked.

The cloth pieces: The black cape was cut from a queen size bed sheet. The hood was cut off of an old hoodie sweatshirt I had. I also cut up an old pair of shorts and attached some extra black cloth to them on the sides. I wore a modified (cut) turtleneck under the chest piece, mainly just to hide my neck. I also wore black socks on my arms under the gauntlets and under my shin guards. Pretty much all of these cloth pieces were cut and torn in a ragged fashion. I wanted Skeletor to look like his clothes were freshly washed; yet they were torn and frayed from previous battles.

The cross-bone chest piece: Quite possibly the hardest part of the costume, I searched every pet store for the perfect femur bone to use for my chest piece. I also looked everywhere for a giant red gem. No luck. So after many failed attempts at making my own bones out of existing plastic Halloween props, I just carved them out of wood. This was a lengthy process, but paid off in the end. Then I found one of those circular photo frames (the kind you can hang or use as an ornament), and painted that up to make it look all spiffy. After I super glued those together, I stapled the bones to the leather chest piece as well as the large black elastic bands and created that memorable Masters of the Universe chest protector.

The makeup…

The skull: I was hesitant to buy a skull mask, because I wanted it to be entirely my own creation. But I’ve yet to work with latex, and just plain old face makeup wouldn’t have done Skeletor’s cheekbones justice. So I decided to buy one of those half masks. I modified the skull mask by cutting off the teeth and repainting the entire thing. It gave a good effect to my eyes because it looked like my eyeballs were floating in the eye socket cavity (wow, that sentence was terrible).

I wore fake nails, which I painted a mixture of black and dark blue. I also wore fangs, which can’t be seen in this photo.

I painted ¾ of my body blue. It was tough getting it to evenly spread, but at the same time, it added a cool effect. It almost made me look sickly, or maybe battle wounded (bruises and cuts), which adds a bit more to the Skeletor character. But yes, I was pretty naked. It pisses me off when I see costumes that are supposed to expose skin and people just wear tight clothing.

I tried to match my jaw (which was exposed) to the skull mask as best I could. I’m not entirely happy with how it came out, but people complimented me on it regardless. My face looks really round in this photograph, I don’t know if it’s the mask or what.

The (only) accessory…

The ram skull staff: Speaking of tough, Skeletor’s havoc staff gave me some trouble. I was just going to buy a ram skull from E-Bay or someplace that sells stuff like that, but I wasn’t going to spend fifty bucks on one. So I decided to make it out of foam core, masking tape, and paper mache. I painted it silver, made it look worn, and attached it to this six foot silver pipe (which I also painted to make it look worn). I glued some black cloth underneath the base of the skull (to add a shaman/witch/sorcerer feel to it).

I didn’t want to make a sword because I always felt Skeletor was so much cooler just having his havoc staff. I mean there’s a huge ram skull on the top of this long rod, I certainly wouldn’t want to mess with him. And I felt that he was always more of a warlock anyway, and the staff was perfect for a character like that.

In all, the only thing I didn’t modify were my boots, although I did put boot coverings over them. So I guess in a way, I did ‘modify’ them.

My take on the entire process…

It was long and I came across a lot of roadblocks. But that’s bound to happen no matter what costume you’re making. My fingers killed everyday from sewing, I took up the entire table with paints for two months, and I covered my couch in leather and cloth for just as long. But this is my passion. My dream job would be to work in Hollywood making costumes or props similar to this.

In all, I’m somewhat satisfied. I’m glad that I made my own version of Skeletor. I’m happy with the cloth, leather, my staff, the blue paint, etc. The only turn off is my skull face. Though everyone else complimented me on it, I feel I could have done better if I knew how to work with latex. Maybe I’ll be able to bust this costume out in a few years after I learn how to make latex masks.

Ok, this description is way too long, but if you read the whole thing - thanks.