Ben Cooper's "Chattermouth" series of Halloween costumes was a fun concept (and definitely better than the Hoot 'n Toots!), though seemed somewhat short-lived. Take for example this neat Robot from 1977, highlighted by the animated mask with "the mouth that moves when you talk." Interesting mask design, you'd tape the bottom half to your own chin so that when you talked the hinged mask would make you look more alive. Even better is the frock smock image, though the "comin' atcha" perspective of the left arm seems like a weird choice. Great box design here, with the Rocky Horror style lips creating the window on the lid, plus the typical additional character illustrations on the lid sides: witch, skull, devil, and clown. I had another Chattermouth years ago, a Super Spy character that looked like Dick Tracy, not sure where that costume is now though...
8 comments:
Huh. Never knew these were a thing! Kind of cool.
Yeah wow, that "robot head tucked away inside a human mouth" look of the box lid is super outre! I love it. I'll take that on a tee shirt, please.
I love the frock, too. That nice scratchy colored lines artiness is pretty impressionistic for this kind of thing. I love the inkling that somebody was striving for a higher level. And of course the cool Ben Cooper clip arts on the sides of the package are dynamite, too.
I've got the spy version. My favorite part is that is says "Secret Agent" right on his hat.
I wonder if this was an indirect tie in to Star Wars.
The artwork on the sides of the box would have made impressive Halloween decorations. The clown image looks like Pennywise as a Hobo Clown, down on his luck, unable to find any victims for too long a time.
Agreed the frock is great, anything with those high contrast colors and cartoon look really turns my robot gears. I never had one of these, but I'm not sure how well the "tape it to your chin" was going to work, especially sweating it up in a costume.
Still, that's one rally cool robot design!
Yeah, the Secret Agent... same! haha
And agree, I guess anything "robot" in the 70's seemed likely to be cashing in on Star Wars, though this robot (according to the frock illustration) seems to be more in line with the giant robots stomping their way into the US via Japan since the 60's, ie Gigantor, Johnny Sokko, and especially the Go Nagi robots like Mazinger which would be renamed the Shogun Warriors here, etc... who knows!
>I'm not sure how well the "tape it to your chin" was going to work
Well, there's always spirit gum too
Somehow I find the Chattermouth Robot a lot creepier than some other Halloween costumes
Post a Comment