Becoming Phwoarty - Heroes and Villains party

I really wanted to have a party to remember my 40th by so chose fancydress. Thankfully my wife came up with the theme of Heroes and Villains which allowed a wide-interpretation. It wasn't all smooth sailing with the planning and preparation. Finding a decent venue in Brighton before Christmas proved to be expensive or couldn't offer a late closing time. Fortunately, good friends Paul and Sarah stepped in to host it.
Rejected costume ideas for me were Link from Zelda, Snake (with cardboard box) from Metal Gear Solid, Han Solo, Mad Max, Tron or a Galdiator/Trojan Warrior. Instead I kept it simple and played it for my look-a-likee, Simon Pegg having done Shaun of the Dead at a previous party. So, discounting films like Paul (not that funny), Run Fatboy Run (as a jogger?!) and Star Trek (love to but too geeky) I went for Sergeant Nicholas Angel.

Hot Fuzz costume

Possibly the most iconic part of the costume which had to be just right was the Police stab vest. I'd seen quite a few on ebay ranging from new ones around £300 to second-hand vests finishing their auction around £70 with loads of different sizes on offer (we're talking real ones that actually protect you from stabbing). After losing out on a few and worried about getting the wrong size I finally found one at Denbigh Army Supplies for £65. Bizarrely, there's an American Ebay trader who makes the iron patches for Sandford Police.
Basics like the white short sleeved shirt and black combats were easy. Ebay came to rescue for the gun holsters with the leg strap and belt ones easy to buy. Cheap aviator sunglasses were also easy to find and buy. I'm glad I spent the extra on some reasonably priced boots to get the look right. Guns were a little tricky but found a pair of £1.99 hand pistols (Poundstretcher) that fitted nicely into the holsters I'd bought. Finally, the epaulettes were a tricky one and could have turned out to be very expensive if I wanted to be really genuine due to be very collectable. Luckily the stab vest already had the black clip-on shoulder flaps so I found some sergeant stripe badges via ebay. The chrome/silver officer numbers were just not worth it in the end.

Battle of the Planets (Gatchaman or G-Force ) Princess or Jun costume

My wife went for a more ambitious outfit which involved weeks of sewing machine and pattern cutting training plus a lot of time and stress sourcing and creating a helmet. We'd found an American website offering cosplay custom-made helmets and took the risk of the long lead time needed to make and ship. By the time it came for the latest date to ship a phonecall to California revealed that the helmet was still being made in China and they had no way of contacting the supplier! Plan B was to find a suitable helmet that could be painted and adapted with a visor. Ski helmets were the chosen for their lightness and reasonable cost. More stress added with the Royal Mail playing silly delivery games and an angry misunderstanding between neighbours but we eventually got there.

Heroes and Villains costume party

Here's the evening's results including a lot of great friends going the extra mile for an excellent night:

Piñata Party

Another highlight for the night which I wanted to do was having a Pinata. Instead of the colourful paper-made donkey I found and adapted one shaped as a vinyl record. Here's the video of me bashing the crap out of it (filmed by Mark Allison):