Green Hornet Costumes and Costume Ideas
The best Green Hornet costume ideas on the Internet.
Green Hornet Costumes
The Green Hornet started out as a character in a radio drama in the 1930s, became a comic book hero and star of movie serials in the 1940s, a TV star in the 1960s, and is now the title character in a feature film as of January 2011.
The original Green Hornet, the character that came out of the 30s radio drama, was the alter ego of newspaper publisher Britt Reid. Newspaper man by day and crime fighter by night, The Green Hornet fought crime with the help of his sidekick Kato and their awesome crime fighting car The Black Beauty.
The Green Hornet is a superhero in the line of Batman. His superpowers are more natural, like the fact that he's a genius, a crack detective, and highly skilled at hand to hand combat. Like Batman, Green Hornet sometimes used gadgets to fight crime, like gas guns and bolos.
The recent feature film starring the Green Hornet character has
launched the character back into popularity, with vintage editions of
the comic books popping up for sale on eBay and renewed interest in the
old Green Hornet TV show.
Here are some ideas for Green Hornet costumes, sure to be popular next Halloween thanks to the recent movie.
How to Make Your Own Green Hornet Costume
The standard Green Hornet costume consists of a green jacket, green hat, green eye mask, hat, pants, tie, and shoes. It is important to find the right shade of green. This isn't a bright or cartoon green, it is more subdued. Think forest green or any green that is so dark it is almost black. A big part of making your own Green Hornet costume is making sure all the green colors match. It's also important to find the right hat--Green Hornet always wore a fedora. A fedora is the hat you always see private eyes wear. Remember, Green Hornet is basically just a private detective with genius intelligence, karate skills, and some awesome gadgets.
The Green Hornet's mask is easy enough to make on your own. Green Hornet's mask is a little larger than the standard Halloween eye mask that you can buy for 99 cents at any costume shop or retail toy store, covering the top of his nose and the space around his eyes. You can buy a smaller mask and add to it, preferably with thick poster board, card stock, or foam that you then paint to match the green color of the rest of the costume.
To further outfit your Green Hornet costume, dig around for some Green Hornet style accessories. Green Hornet's gas gun looks a lot like steampunk guns--it has a gas cartridge below the short barrel and a pipe running over the top of the barrel that supplies the gas to the gun. You probably won't be able to build it, but lots of online costume suppliers have steampunk-style guns for sale that would work well for this purpose. Spray paint it a dark green to match the rest of your costume.
How to Make Your Own Kato Costume
What is Green Hornet without Kato? Famously played by martial arts expert Bruce Lee in the 60s TV series, Kato is a vital part of Green Hornet's crime fighting skills. Kato is also an expert at hand to hand combat and karate-style gadgets. Here's how to put together a homemade Kato costume. Going to your next costume party as Green Hornet will be even more impressive if you bring along someone dressed as Kato.
Kato's most identifiable costume piece is his hat. In the TV series, he wore a vintage style chauffeur's hat that looks kind of like a policeman's hat but isn't ribbed or creased or adorned in front like a cop hat would be. The front of Kato's hat should be as smooth as possible.
Kato doesn't wear the same green color as Green Hornet--his jacket is black, a long 10 button style jacket that is slightly tapered, not a straight down Chesterfield style jacket like Green Hornet. Kato's jacket also has horizontal flapped pockets. The sleeves of Kato's shirt show two buttons at the sleeves and a high black collar. According to costume websites, Kato's jacket is a 1930s style chauffeur's uniform.
I've found that this particular style of jacket can be hard to find,
so if you buy a standard white 10 button chef's coat and paint or dye it
black, you can pass it off as the perfect Kato jacket.
Comic book fans will notice only one thing about a good Kato costume--the gloves. Kato's black gloves were usually unadorned in the old TV series, but more recent comic books and movie adaptations saw the addition of a white stripe running from the wrist down to the ends of the two middle fingers. Each glove has one thick white stripe, probably to better show off Kato's awesome hand to hand combat skills.
Kato also wears formal shoes, black pants without cuffs, a mask identical to Green Hornet's but in black, and black leather gloves. If you can add a few throwing darts or a pair of nun chucks to the costume, you'll look even more like Kato.
Other Green Hornet Costume Tips
Like any classic comic character, there are lots of different versions of Green Hornet and Kato. In earlier comics, for example, Green Hornet's classic green color is a lot more rich, closer to pastel green. More recent versions of Green Hornet use a more understated green color, probably because it is difficult to fight the criminal underworld in a bright green jacket. You can choose either color of green for your Green Hornet costume, just make sure all your greens match as much as possible.
Don't forget that Green Hornet is a part of the criminal underworld. Like Batman, Green Hornet often has run-ins with legitimate law enforcement, who see his underhanded tactics as being bad for the community. That's why Green Hornet wears a mask, and why he has to keep his activities a secret. Anything you can do to your costume to represent that Green Hornet isn't a mainstream cop will help make it more authentic.
Green Hornet's gas gun is a big part of his mystique, and since it would be nearly impossible to recreate at home, you'll want to look for a version of it online or in a costume shop to authenticate your costume. A quick Google search should give you a dozen or so online costume retailers that carry an item called "Green Hornet's Gun" or something like that, and they sell for around $20.
The Green Hornet has been around longer than most other classic comic book heroes, since he started out as the star of a radio drama in the 1930s. The release of the new Green Hornet feature film and new story lines planned for Green Hornet comic books, the popularity of the enduring comic book hero is increasing. This next Halloween, Green Hornet and Kato costumes will likely be popular choices for both kids and adults.