DesignTaxi featured a list of the most popular Halloween
costumes of the last 30 years as measured by Spirit Halloween. Written by Thia Shi Min
and entitled, “Chart: The ‘Most Popular’ Halloween Costumes for the Last 30
Years,” the article does a nice job of tracking the trends.
I analyzed the list and found that nine
originated as movies, eight as television shows and eight as comic books. The rest derived from music (Lady Gaga and Miley
Cyrus); politics (President Obama) as well as books, wrestling and greeting
cards. The small and big screens obviously rule and are what make the comic book based characters so hot.
It's interesting to see how many
of the characters and brands have either stayed around or been reinvented. The most dominating media franchise was
Batman with four characters appearing (Batman, the Joker, Cat Woman and
Robin). StarWars and Spiderman each had two top placements while Star Trek, surprisingly, only had one.
So, what is the common denominator in becoming the top Halloween character? I think, in most cases, it derives from
the character having a stand out and therefore quickly identifiable physical feature. Jus think of Princess Leia’s honey buns, Elvira’s cleavage or Freddy Krueger’s blade like
fingernails and you see what I mean.
Here they are with original medium in
parentheses:
1983 Princess Leia (Movie)
1984 Freddy
Krueger (Movie)
1985 Hulk
Hogan (really?? Hulk Hogan, really??) (Wrestling)
1986 Care
Bears (Greeting Cards)
1987 Where’s
Waldo? (Books)
1988 Elvira
(Television)
1989 Batman
(Comic Books)
1990 Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles (Comic Book)
1991 The
Terminator (Movies)
1992 Cat
Woman (Comic Books)
1993 Barney
(Television)
1994 Power
Rangers (Television)
1995 Star
Trek (Television)
1996 Batman
& Robin (Comic Books)
1997 Scream
(Movies)
1998 South
Park (Television)
1999 The
Matrix (Movies)
2000 Austin
Powers (Movies)
2001 Saturday
Night Live Cheerleaders (Television)
2002 Spider-Man
(Comic Books)
2003 Pirates
of the Caribbean (Movies)
2004 Sponge
Bob Square Pants (Television)
2005 Star
Wars (Movies)
2006 President
Obama (Politics)
2007 Spider-Man
(Comic Books)
2008 The
Joker (Comic Books)
2009 Vampires
(Movies)
2010 Lady
Gaga (Music)
2011 Jersey
Shore (really?? The Jersey Shore,
Really??) (Television)
2012 The
Avengers (Comic Books)
2013 Twerkin’
Teddy (projected) (Music)