[Editor's note: craineum is at it again with his Halloween costumes. Last year, he made his kids Mega Man and Kid Icarus outfits. This year, his kids are dressing up as Yoshi and Mario. Sweet! -- CTZ]

I really like doing themed costumes for my family. Last year we went as members of the Captain N: The Game Master television show. While that was fun and very successful, I wanted to let my oldest pick who he wanted to be this year.

He started off saying that he wanted to dress up as Mega Man again. I talked with him about how much fun we had building the Mega Man costume, trying it on and seeing it become this really cool suit. Then I explained to him we could build something new so we get to have all that fun over again. He was sold.

We did some research trying to work in the themed idea. We got it down to two options: Yoshi or Astroboy. It really wasn't much of a competition, Yoshi was his choice. I was hoping that he would choose Astroboy since it would be pretty similar to the Mega Man costume, but in hindsight I am glad he didn't.

With Yoshi we were going to make his little brother be Baby Mario. Actually, my oldest wanted his little brother to be Luigi (I am guessing because the little one has a Luigi plushie while he has a Mario), but the little one really liked the idea of being Mario.

I wanted to dress up as something, but didn't think I would have the time to do Bowser, which seemed the obvious choice. I also didn't want to take away from the kids. So this year I will go without.

With the costumes decided I went to work on design. Baby Mario would be pretty easy, so my main concern was Yoshi. I wanted to build Yoshi to scale, ie Yoshi's head is about the same size as his body. My 4-year-old is the perfect size and strength to be able to pull this off. I hadn't seen a costume like this out there, and thought it would be really fun to do.

From there I started working. I failed hard with the first attempted Yoshi head. But my sons words of wisdom kept me focused. We finished up everything just in time and you can check out how both costumes were made after the break. 

[Editor's note: craineum talks about trading games with his friends for the January's Monthly Musing topic. Also, lol at his avatar being on the front page. -- CTZ]

When I was a young videogamer, working hard mowing lawns or shoveling cow crap at the neighbors farm was my only way of making money before I could drive. This did not afford my life with many videogames. In fact, this is why I only could only afford games for one system. I had to maximize the value of my money, and buying multiple platforms was just not in my best interests. Growing up in the middle of nowhere with no good place to rent games also limited my ability to play different titles. These facts forced me into the world of game trading.

I had just moved to a new school and went from being a pretty douchey jock, to a huge dork. I don't remember how that transformation happened exactly, but I think it involved a divorce, some super snotty kids, and the fact that I played videogames. Needless to say, as an outcast I did not have many friends. This made sharing of games a bit hard, but I was determined to play as much as I could, so I persevered. Luckily my system of choice at the time was the ever popular NES. Because of this, it was not to difficult to find kids that had it.

I found another huge dork that had a nice rich mommy and daddy (at least rich compared to us). I also found a couple of friends that would not publicly acknowledge the fact that they knew me, but would tolerate me so they could play more games. Over time, I slowly added more reliable and more enjoyable friends. Add this all up and I had a network of gaming geeks that I could play/trade with.

[Editor's note: craineum's epic Halloween costumes are finally done! Check out craineum's entire process in making all three costumes and follow the links at the end of the post to find out how exactly he made the fantastic Mega Man costume. -- CTZ]

Ever since I got out of high school and into college, I realized that I should not be ashamed of the geek inside. Once this revelation hit me, there has been a desire building inside of me to create my own Halloween costumes. But there was always something that stopped me ... time, money, idea's, or just being plain lazy. I never had the right motivation. It is amazing how having kids will motivate people to do things they normally would never try.

This year was going to be the first year that I really sat down and created my costumes from scratch. My oldest son (now 3-years-old) is at a point where he can help a little and it was something we could do together. I also wanted to include our youngest son (1-year-old) in a combined/group costume. I wanted the costumes to work together as a group, and to be close to size appropriate. I couldn't come up with any idea's that I thought I could handle making. I wanted to do a Bowser/Mario/Koopa set, but that seemed like a stretch for my abilities. So I opened it up to the Awesome Destructoid Community.