Collecting Halloween: The Ben Cooper Costumes

If you grew up between the Nineteen Fifties and the Nineteen Eighties, likelihood is you wore a Ben Cooper model costume for Halloween. Ben Cooper is a Halloween icon, and their easy but efficient costumes — a plastic masks and a plastic smock — outlined Halloween for generations of children. Ben Cooper himself was born in 1906, and based his firm in 1937. The firm did go defunct in 1992 however has since made a comeback lately. The impression Ben Cooper has on popular culture is fortunately nonetheless celebrated at present. Spirit Halloween at the moment has brand-new Ben Cooper costumes in shops, and plenty of clothes firms use masks designs of their clothes.

Ben Cooper costumes are extremely collectible and intensely wanted.

I actually personal a number of of his Archie ones, however Ben Cooper did extra than simply myrth of a nation costumes. You may very well be something, from a variety of superheroes, together with The Flash or Batgirl, you could possibly be Frankenstein’s monster, the Phantom of the Opera, Ringo Starr, or your favourite Disney character. These costumes are completely nightmare gasoline, particularly while you see classic images of them. But they’re nonetheless enjoyable, and most Halloween lovers love them.

Many of the costumes additionally got here in varied field designs. Spider-Man, for instance, was accessible with over 5 completely different field variants. Some options basic Halloween icons and a few function superheroes. If you’re seeking to begin your personal Ben Cooper assortment, you’ll have your work lower out for you.

Here are a number of of my private favorites, which may be discovered on web sites resembling eBay and Etsy. I’ll solely be specializing in the basic masks and smock costumes.

Spider-Man

His tackle the favored wall-crawler, Spider-Man, contains a crimson face masks, crimson/yellow smock high, and blue pants — however some costumes had blue and crimson pants. Spider-Man additionally got here in a variety of packing containers as talked about earlier than, however all of them appear to fall across the identical worth factors.

In October 2022 alone, Spider-Man costumes ended at $17, $24.95, 14.99, and $79.99 — the final costume got here with a Marvel heroes-specific Ben Cooper field, however once more, the entire costumes are the identical. If you’re solely in search of the masks you’ll fare higher. In October of 2022, a masks bought for $.99, whereas a masks again in July of 2022 bought for $16.

Dracula

Ben Cooper had a number of completely different Dracula designs — there’s a very pale Dracula, a Dracula with rooted hair, a Dracula with inexperienced pores and skin, and a Dracula the place the hair is part of the general masks. There are doubtless extra examples of Dracula on the market. and so they’re all as frightful as you possibly can think about and often go for a big chunk of change.

In October of 2022, a whole in-box Dracula with out the rooted hair bought for $240.50, whereas one other bought in August of 2022 for 162.50. A Dracula masks by itself bought for $29.95 in October of 2022. The Dracula costume with rooted hair appears to be simpler to seek out and is extra reasonably priced.

In August of 2022, two completely different full in-boxes, rooted hair Dracula bought for $60 every.

Batgirl

My favourite DC hero, Batgirl, was really inspirational to me as a child. The Ben Cooper Batgirl costume is really nice. It contains a black smock outfit with yellow accents and a Batsymbol that claims Batgirl within the center, together with a blue cape. The masks contains a smiling Batgirl with crimson hair peeking out beneath her cowl, which additionally says Batgirl on the high.

In August of 2022, a whole in-box Batgirl set bought for $30, and in October of 2022, a Batgirl smock bought for $25. On Etsy you’ll find full units of this costume — one is with out the field for $85, whereas one other is with the field and is listed at $335.

The Phantom of the Opera

This costume will really ship shivers down your backbone! Ben Cooper’s tackle the Phantom of the Opera contains a masks that appears prefer it was impressed by Lon Chaney’s model from the 1925 silent movie Phantom. The masks is a ghoulish inexperienced, and the smock options the Phantom in all of his creepy delight, whereas the general print mimics a tuxedo.

In October of 2022, two bought on eBay for $349.99 and $565.55 — and each got here with their packing containers. These are tougher to return by, so while you do discover one, seize it!