The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

So, the costume contest pickings have gotten slim. No offense to Ro-Man, but when the same costume wins year after year, clearly things need to change.

Anyone planning on entering the contest this year? I've got an idea on the back burner, but I'm unsure if it'll be ready in time.

The costume contest died with the Drexel North. I have been saying that for years. There used to be a line a mile long of people in customs back than, now we are lucky of 2 or 3 people really dress up and the other 4 or 5 people in line are using a gimmick and are not really in costume.

I think the name of the contest should be changed from "costume contest" to "Improve Contest" or better yet "Hot Girls Flashing for applause and money contest"

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Jaws3dfan®
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We could definitely use some actual costumes/cosplay, I agree. I'm getting a little tired of the "Hehe, I think I'm clever with my one liners" stuff.

It's not hard to put together a costume/cosplay. There are tons of things you can put together for cheap that still look good...

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Alright. Well then, I will be entering an honest-to-goodness costume this year.

So there.

Uh, Tim (ahem, ahem) I beg to differ. While the old days at the North did include a larger average number of participants, the following years have been more inconsistent than dreadful. As you can see from some of the pix in the Archives section, the Riffe Center years ('96-'98 ) still had a healthy representation, and there have been some Horror Marathons (notably the last few at Studio 35) where there's been somewhat stiff competition.

In fact, I'd wager to say that even though each Marathon's costume contest tends to have less participants on average, the quality of the costumes that do appear has often been fairly high. In the last few years alone we've had a great full body Mothra suit, Master Shake and Frylock from Aqua Teen Hunger Force and my personal favorite, the insanely detailed and accurate trio from The Devil's Rejects. Now, two of these three lost to Ro-Man, so maybe some of the blame should be assigned to the uber-ironic voters in the crowd. But that's part of the contest's beauty.

Aside from the audience being effectively halved in the post-Drexel North years, one of the bigger factors in diminishing the costume contest has probably been the elimination of the $100 first prize at the Sci-Fi Marathons. We resurrected this incentive at the Studio 35 Marathons, but it still took a few years for people to catch on again. And hey, you'd think that in economic times like these, loyal Marathoids would be chomping at the bit to pocket ten sawbucks.

On a side note, one of the interesting results of the poll we took at last year's Horror Marathon was the intense dislike that a vocal minority had for the scream contest. The reason? The same two ladies keep winning! Full disclosure: one of the perpetual winners is a longtime friend of mine and member of the decorations committee. But come one folks, those two gals aren't superhuman! All it would take to unseat them is the right set of pipes (which the scream queen from the 2002 Studio 35 Marathon had....although we never saw her again after the 2003 Marathon.)

As one of the many beaten by Ro-Man (and one who did try very hard and go all-out in making a Mothra costume), I would say, if you want other people to bother dressing up, stop voting for him. Personally I don't see the point in entering a contest when I know the same guy is going to win for the same costume every time.

He brings like 30 friends and they all cheer very loud, Which I actually think is cool but maybe he should step down and give others a chance

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For me that the last three Costume Contests for both thons was a time to check on my pizza order, get beer, stretch my legs, ect. I was one of the persons who keep on cheering the guy who dress up as Ro Man just to get the silly thing over with and moved on. I do hope Arron will enter so I've someone to cheer on.

The Costume contest jumped the shark when Gamara pushed the dude off the stage at the Riffe Center.

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Ah yes, the poor ST Ensign....

We had some good entries at the Rife Center years. I recall one of those three years I entered as Space Ghost while someone else entered as American Maid. (I don't think either of us won, mind you. Well, I *know* I didn't win.)

I also remember a year way back in the Drexel Days when we had a killer Darth Vader get booed off the stage. I'm kind of ashamed that we did that, especially since it was won by a snarker.

EDIT: Oh, and Juliana? I cheered for Mothra.

Not that I'd ever rig the contest in advance, but if I had the opportunity I would've done so for my dear longtime pal Juliana, who's been cranking out great costumes like this for awhile now.

Of course, I'm obligated to make this statement after my doppleganger beat her Elvira at last year's Horrorthon Costume Contest. But that's a different pile of bones to fall into...

The $100 prize has been back for the last couple years at the SciFi and 3 (or 4) years at the horror. It seems to be working at the horror. Even though I missed the 2010 marathon for personal reasons I was glad to hear it seems to have a new lease on life.

I actually put my money where my mouth was on costumes and I do have to admit being somewhat frustrated by Ro-Man's dominance at SciFi. I hate the thought of saying once you've won you can't win for the same costume again. In his defense, didn't he modify it last year so it wasn't just Ro-Man?
And I'm not sure it is the guy in the suits fault. I'm not sure if he evens knows that weird cult of Ro-Man fans who finally got their guy in the Hall of Fame and who loudly vote for him to win.

I've been incredibly busy and never made up my mind on costume money for this year's SciFi, and it is too late to make the fliers, so I'll skip this year.

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The wages of sin are royalties.

Less than 12 hours until I'll be in line, and the first test fitting of the costume is completed. I'm content with it. Hopefully it'll get some cheers tomorrow.

my wife is hot gluing the leather to the handle of mjolnir, and then my Thor outfit will be complete!!

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"Ernest Hemingway once wrote, 'the world is a fine place, and worth fighting for.' I agree with the second part"

Squeak! XDD

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Six side is heaven/Nine side is go