How A P-5000 Aliens Power Loader Saved Our Halloween

I was almost afraid that this would have surely been my last Halloween I celebrated with my son. Afterall, he was a teenager now and I wasn’t quite sure how his generation had interpreted the whole let’s dress up, go out, and get candy sorta thing.

Ever since he was a little boy he had become the unwilling participant of whatever my ex and I could dream up for that year: a rogue from Pirates of the Caribbean, zombie boy, an exhausting Lord Business attempt, and even Marty McFly complete with his flying Delorean.

It wasn’t until last year’s Pac-Man game machine fiasco that I felt our Halloween truly needed a complete overhaul if it ever had a chance of perpetuating itself. I feel my son and I have a good rapport and can talk about many things.

This year I was going to be all ears. What he wanted to be was a P-5000 Power Loader from the movie Aliens. For me, it was a monumental task. Many, many years ago when I was only slightly older than my son is now, I was one of four people in charge of one of the largest haunted houses in the state. I had always thought that to be very challenging at the time until this request. It was going to require every cell in my brain and then some.

At first, I will admit, I was a bit taken back. This wasn’t going to be your average spray-painted, washing machine box special. It was going to require every cell in my brain and then some. First of all I had to consider who would be wearing it and what it would be like for them. How it needed to move, flex, and especially weigh. A vast majority of the costume would be built around a sturdy backpack harness. Next would almost certainly come the duct tape and cardboard.

After a couple of months, we were finally seeing the costume take its shape. It wasn’t long afterward that we premiered it at our first comic con where it was well received.

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