YOOO.

I'm only 35, but I made it in on the very tail end of stores having those costumes that were like, a mask of what you were supposed to be, then an inexplicable plastic smock screen printed with a picture of what the costume was supposed to be of, and then the actual WORDS of what the costume was supposed to be of.

Even as a little kid, the concept baffled me.

I had one that was supposed to be a glow in the dark dinosaur costume, it had the dinosaur mask, which glowed in the dark, the smock also glowed in the dark and just had artwork of dinosaurs on it, but 25% of the front of the smock was taken up be a huge logo that said "GLOW IN THE DARK DINOSAUR".

I had pictures of me in this, but they were lost in a flood.

I actually asked my mom to just cut some holes in an old sheet so i could be a Charlie Brown ghost. :P

Those things were the costume equivalent of the dishes in the restaurant scene from "Brazil", where you get a plate with three scoops of colored glop and a picture of what the dish is supposed to be.

It was the costume equivalent of Tiger handheld games.

When E.F. Hutton talks...

People run.

"At Smith-Barney, we make money the old-fashioned way... we steal it." And they did.

Bwahahahahahahahahahaha...

Vix

Not as scary as "Bob The Used Car Salesman".

Or the scariest of all "Larry the Lawyer"!

Yes, I remember those cheese costumes back in the day.

Lisa: "I don't think the real Radioactive Man wears a plastic smock with a picture of himself on it."
Milhouse: "He would on Halloween!"

I was not aware that this trope made it into The Simpsons.

I just love how the mask is drawn!

"And who are you supposed to be?" So you don't embarrass the kids by making them explain.

Ed has a nose like a phonograph needle...

The only advantage for those weird plastic smock 'costumes' was that the people handing out candy never had to guess what the trick-or-treater was. I mean it was all spelled out for them.