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The Best Places to Buy Halloween Costumes Online That Don’t Suck


Graphic: Shep McAllister

Thanks to the ever-growing cosplay subculture, costumes aren’t just an October affair for some stores. All year-round, you can find everything from cheap, knock-off versions of your favorite characters, to expensive, highly detailed costumes that look like they stepped straight off a movie set. We’ve rounded up stores that cover the full range of options, so no matter what quality or price range you’re looking for, you can find it here.


Amazon’s Halloween Storefront


Amazon Halloween Store
Screenshot: Amazon

Technically, Amazon doesn’t make its own Halloween costumes, so everything you’ll find on the site comes from somewhere else (including some other stores on this list). However, ordering through Amazon has some perks, including that sweet, sweet Prime shipping. If you absolutely have to become Spider-Man overnight, then check Amazon first.

Spirit Halloween


Screenshot: Spirit Halloween

Of all the costume stores that build their entire business around the spookiest holiday of the year, Spirit Halloween is one of the better ones. They’re one of the big companies that occupy empty stores for a couple months out of the year, but their online store has a wide selection. The company is particularly good at keeping up with modern trends. So, even if you’re still trying to figure out Fortnite or JoJo Siwa, Spirit Halloween has plenty of costumes your kids can choose from.

Rubie’s Costume Company


Graphic: Rubie’s Costume Company

You might have seen Rubie’s Costume Company around when it’s made costumes for your dog or weird word salad costumes. However, the company has a wide selection of licensed characters. Rubie’s isn’t quite as up to date on popular children’s franchise trends—not having a Fortnite collection in 2018 seems like a missed opportunity—but there are still tons to choose from. Unfortunately, while you can browse Rubie’s for costumes, they don’t sell them directly on their site. This is one of those companies you’ll frequently find on Amazon, though. So browse on Rubie’s site, then check Amazon (or another online retailer they sell through) for the specific costume you want.

MICCostumes


Screenshot: MICCostumes

If you want to step up just a hair in quality from the usual cheap costumes you might find in the previous stores, MICCostumes offers a smaller selection of better-looking options. You won’t find as many licensed characters here—and, in fact, the company skews pretty heavily towards anime franchises—but the ones you do find can look pretty amazing. Some costumes might be cheap, like this children’s Deadpool costume (wait, hang on), but others like this Mei costume from Overwatch is $220, but it comes with a detailed coat, pants, gloves, boot covers, and even a utility belt. Note that some of the images on the site show elaborate props that are not included in the price of the costume.

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MICCostumes also has a robust Amazon storefront with Prime shipping, that’s worth checking out if you’re in a hurry.

CosplaySky


CosplaySky
Screenshot: CosplaySky

CosplaySky offers a similar tier of costumes to MICCostumes, but with a somewhat larger, less anime-centric selection. You can find a number of good quality licensed costumes from movies, TV, and video games. The site offers a number of photos for each costume, which is especially helpful since many of them are pricey enough that you’ll want to see them from every angle before you buy. This isn’t the store to buy from if you’re looking for something cheap to give the kids, but if you’ve got some money to spare and want something that at least looks like the low-budget TV version of your favorite characters, CosplaySky can help.

EZcosplay


Unlike some of the other sites on this list, with EZcosplay you don’t order an off-the-shelf package of a costume. Instead, costumes from this company are made to order, and tend to be of a higher quality than the kind you’d find at some of the other sites we’ve mentioned. This also means that they’re more expensive and can take some time. If you need a costume soon, there are faster options, but if you need a Spider-Man costume that fits you perfectly, EZcosplay is a good way to go. You may need to come prepared with your measurements, so keep that in mind.

XCoser


XCoser is another in a long-line of costume stores that’s a bit too expensive for your average Trick-or-Treater. While the company has a few solid, high-quality costumes, their real stand out feature is masks and helmets. For example, the above Darth Maul latex mask costs $60 and comes with detailed horns and facial features. A good mask can often make up for phoning in the rest of the costume, so splurge on this mask, buy a black bath robe, and you’ve got yourself a dirt-cheap Maul that still looks great in the low light of your Halloween party.

Zentai Zone


A zentai suit is any suit designed to cover your entire body with skin-tight fabric. It might sound niche, but you can dress as everything from Power Rangers to superheroes with little more than a cheap zentai suit. Zentai Zone offers relatively cheap zentai suits for Black Panther, Spider-Man, D.Va from Overwatch, or you can design and print your own.

Party City (For Props)


Recommending Party City for your entire costume is a bit like recommending Wendy’s for a cheeseburger. Technically, it will do the job, but you can get way better somewhere else. However, Party City is pretty good when it comes to props and accessories. The site has hundreds of helmets, swords, shields, gloves, brooms, makeup kits, and more. While you might not be able to find everything you need in a high quality here, you can often find the piece or two you need to finish off your costume.

Arda Wigs


A good helmet or mask can turn an otherwise mediocre costume into a great one, but what about characters that don’t wear masks? If you just need a new hairstyle to complete the look, Arda Wigs offers one of the widest selection of high-quality, yet still affordable wigs around. Most of the wigs come pre-styled, but you can also adjust them if you need to tweak one to fit the character you need. Arda doesn’t sell licensed wigs for specific franchises, but the company will often recommend certain wigs that work well for certain characters.


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