It’s nearly Halloween! While the COVID-19 pandemic may see us celebrating a little differently this year, it is still high time to be thinking about Halloween costumes. For dinosaur lovers, this inevitably means a dinosaur-inspired costume. To help you, we’ve put together a list of the best and most creative Halloween costumes for dinosaur fans.
I have a confession to make: Germany does not celebrate Halloween (Australia does not traditionally celebrate it either). However, the fifth season, or Carnival season, officially starts here on 11 November (at 11:11 a.m.) and culminates in large celebrations and parades on the weekend before Ash Wednesday (20 February 2020 and 11 February 2021, it varies depending on Easter). For five or six days, Carnival is an excuse for many to dress up in their most extravagant costumes.
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1. Dinosaur Halloween costume
We’ll start with the most obvious. Go as a dinosaur. There are various options:
- The full-body outfit/onesie. These come in all shapes and sizes and there are even different dinosaurs, such as this Triceratops, this Dilophosaurus or this carnivore.
- The inflatable costume, such as this T-Rex. Most of these are for adults and tend to be T-Rexes, but here is an inflatable Stegasaurus costume for kids.
- The partial costume, perfect for those who might have to rug up with thick coats and scarves to go trick or treating or to a carnival parade. They should include a mask, claws and a tail. Capes, frills, etc. are optional.
- The DIY costume. I’m good with paper crafts, but not so crash hot at sewing. My favourite dinosaur costume DIY tutorials are this one and this one. And this for socks and claws.
2. Dinosaur fossil Halloween costume
Another easy and fun Halloween costume for dinosaur lovers is a dinosaur fossil.
Go the easy route and buy a dinosaur fossil costume. Or make your own.
What you need
- Black top and pants – with a skeleton on them if available
- 1 pair black opaque stockings for the tail
- White felt – to cut out bones of the fossil
- Hot glue gun – to stick the bones to the top and pants
- Large plastic milk bottle (minus the milk) to cut into a fossil hat/mask, using this T-Rex skull craft inspiration
- Sharp scissors
- White spray paint
3. Robo Rex
Alternative Halloween costume for dinosaur fans #3: robot dinosaur.
There is a pre-made costume you can purchase.
How to make your own
Save your boxes from your Prime Day purchases and use them to make a robosaurus costume using this tutorial. Paint it in grey or silver paint to look more robotic. Add with grey clothing and some grey or silver dinosaur feet made out of tissue boxes (use this tutorial and skip the decoupage).
4. Dino rider
Neanderthals were not around when the dinosaurs roamed the earth. Still, there is nothing to stop dinosaur fans from dressing as a dino rider – whether in ‘matching’ neanderthal look or as a more modern jockey.
Go the easy route with this costume (for the Neanderthal look) or this one (for a more modern look).
How to make your own
Go the much cheaper DIY route for your Halloween costume for dinosaur lovers. You’ll need:
- A large cardboard box to form the body
- Some cardboard to make a neck and head and a tail
- Ribbon or elastic or something to use as “braces” to go over the shoulders and hold the dinosaur up around the waist
- Paint – in the colour(s) you want your dinosaur
- Pants in the same colour as the paint
- A pair of stockings (or long socks) in a colour that will look like the rider’s legs
- Something to stuff the stockings
- A stapler to attach the stocking rider legs
Follow this tutorial to make the body. Stuff the stockings to make legs and attach them to the dinosaur body with staples to make the rider legs.
5. Pterosaur costume
Why haven’t I included this in with the other dinosaur costumers? Technically, pterosaurs, such as the Pterodactyl or the huge Quetzalcoatlus are not dinosaurs (the later was the size of an F16 fighter jet).
Pterosaurs or flying reptiles – there are around 130 valid genera – lived in numerous locations across the globe. The appeared in the late Triassic period and roamed the skies until the end of the Cretaceous Period, becoming extinct around the same time as the dinosaurs (228 to 66 MYA).
Modern birds didn’t descend from pterosaurs but from small, feathered, theropod dinosaurs.
There are numerous Halloween costumes available if your little dinosaur lover wants to be a pterosaur. This Pterodactyl costume is quite gorgeous. For a more traditional look, try this Pteranodon costume. There are pterosaur fossil costumes too.
How to make your own pterosaur costume
- Pants and a hoody in the same colour
- A cape in the same colour, with two hooks to attach each corner to the wrists
- A mask. A Pteranodon had a long pointy face (like a huge chicken beak) and a comb out the top of its head. You could make your own paper mâché mask, or you could do a very simple mask out of cardboard instead. For that, you need a regular mask shape with eye holes and a “comb” sticking up from the middle of the face. It will look a little like a skinnier mini shark-fin, like this.
6. TV and film characters
One easy way to ensure that your dinosaur lover’s costume is easily recognizable is to make it resemble their favourite dinosaur from a TV show or film. Possible Carnival or Halloween costumes for dinosaur fans include:
- Dino from the Flintstones
- Arlo or Spot from The Good Dinosaur
- Rex from Toy Story
- From the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World franchise: Indominous Rex, Blue the Velociraptor, Owen, their trainer and the hotdog man (from the Jurassic World Lego series). Don’t forget the branded sand pail for trick-or-treating!
- Tiny or Buddy from Dinosaur Train
- One of the characters from Power Rangers Super Charge, like the Red Ranger, Tyler Navarro
- Revvit or one of the other Dinotrucks
- Dino Dana – make your own with a bright blue and white striped t-shirt, a yellow long sleeve t-shirt (worn underneath), cargo pants, boots (one laced with a yellow shoelace and one with a bright blue shoelace), a backpack (plain) and a palaeontologist’s vest. If you have the time, you could make a brooch with a felt dinosaur on it.
7. Dino keeper
Like a zookeeper, but for dinos. This creative Halloween costume for dinosaur fans can be styled on Owen from Jurassic Park or just a normal zookeeper. Take this normal zookeeper costume, for example. The zookeepers at our local zoo wear jeans or cargo pants with polo shirts with the zoo’s logo on them. Change the patches to be dino appropriate and you are good to go. This Jurassic Park Ranger patch or this one of a dinosaur would work well.
8. Paleontologist
Perhaps the pinnacle of Halloween costumes for dinosaur fans (if you are not going in a dinosaur Halloween costume) is the palaeontologist costume.
One of the best things about this costume is that there are really no rules.
How to make a paleontologist costume
Everything should look like it is used to getting dusty.
- Jeans or cargo pants
- A shirt (polo shirt, denim shirt, check shirt or sand-coloured work shirt)
- A vest, if desired
- If your palaeontologist is digging somewhere warm, you might like to add a hat, sunglasses and a neckerchief.
- Boots
- A tool belt and tools including a measuring tape, magnifying glass, toothbrush, paintbrush or pastry brush, hammer, trowel, notebook/sketchbook.
- Flare, fossil and replica Utahraptor claw are optional.
9. Dino doctor
This costume was a hit in our house – our Little Dinosaur Aficionado (LDA) went to Carnival last year as a dinosaur doctor (and enjoys playing doctor to her dinosaurs generally).
How to make a dino doctor costume
- A vet or doctor’s costume. We found a vet costume on sale at H&M. It two pockets printed on it, one with carrots sticking out and one with a bunny rabbit peeking out. Our LDA shocked her kindergarten teachers by telling them the carrots were for the Brachiosaurus and other herbivorous dinosaurs and the bunny was a snack for T-Rex.
- Cover or hang any references to vets or dogs or the like. Use patches, or otherwise paint or cover the references. In our case, we added “Dino” in front of the “Vet” – painted it on a piece of fabric and stitched it on. You could use paint to change puppy paw prints to become dino footprints, for example.
- Add some doctor’s instruments. We have a dino vet set, with stethoscope, syringe, reflexes hammer, and a animal carrier. It came with a small dinosaur inside. There are a number of similar ones with toy dogs.
- Our dino vet also needed patients. We put a Triceratops in the pet carrier and put bandages on a Brachiosaurus’ neck.
Dinosaur Halloween costumes for dinosaur fans
Young and old, boys and girls, even dogs: there is a dinosaur Halloween or Carnival costume for everyone. Whether you plan to buy or DIY your costume, I hope you have found the perfect creative Halloween costume for dinosaur fans in this list.
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