Hallowe'en has come and gone, but it's always the right time for hats that make you look like your skull has been removed, exposing your brain!

It's best to study pictures of the human brain before tackling this project in order to best mimic the brain's convolution patterns when caulking the cap.

Weighing a little less than a pound and a half, this costume is still lighter than most professional bicycle and motorcycle helmets. Use a cap without an adjuster to ensure a perfect fit.

Project: Gory Brain Cap

MIT student Tyler Christensen created a musical Tesla coil hat for his Hallowe'en costume (it played the Mortal Kombat theme and the Harry Potter theme while discharging semi-tame lightning). While freely stipulating that this is "a really bad idea," Tyler is still generous enough to document his project for others who might follow in his bad footsteps.

Really, it’s just a DRSSTC. Nothing less, nothing more, nothing fancy. It was a bit tricky to make a bridge appropriately sized, and even harder to make a boost converter for it. In fact, the boost never truly worked. If I play a mid to high note for a few seconds, the boost can’t keep up and it fades away. I think this is due to saturation of my boost core, but I haven’t really taken the time to do much on this since now I’m back in the gate driver world and also have to throw together my 6.131 power electronics final project. I’ll fix hatcoil in February.

Hat Coil (via Engadget)

Harrison Jones created this fabulous green army man costume (which included a coating of green latex paint on his skin, yowch, suffer for your art!), and worked a full shift at a grocery store while so attired:

Harrison started by picking out the perfect green tarp, then taking it to the hardware store and having them color match a quart of semi-gloss interior latex paint. He then painted the air soft helmet, boots, and gun with several coats of the green paint. Next, he cut out cardboard in an oval shape, painted it green, and used duct tape in a loop to stick to his boots.

As for the uniform, he picked out a long-sleeve shirt and a pair of pants he was willing to sacrifice, and cut them both along the seams. Harrison then spread the chopped shirt and pants out on the tarp, pinned them to the tarp, and cut around the fabric, leaving about a half inch of extra tarp (the sleeves were done separately). He used duct tape to “sew” the tarp back together, leaving half of the tape’s sticky side exposed and putting it on the inside of the seam, and then connecting the matching part of the tarp, adjusting to the right fit.

Rad Green Army Man Costume

Flickr user Leeloo's "Artoo Tutu" costume may be the single cutest thing I've seen this Hallowe'en.

Artoo Tutu (via Neatorama)

Brand sez, "My little girl (age 8) put together her costume this year based on her favorite video game creature: the Minecraft Creeper. I've seen a few creepers this year, but none as good as hers."

Sad Creeper has a candies (Thanks, Brand!)

Redditor JonXP made this wicked "Princess Vader" costume at his five year old daughter's request: "I painted the helmet, and sewed the cape (my first sewing project ever). It was fun to put together."

My 5yo daughter wanted to be a Princess Darth Vader for Halloween. So proud. (imgur.com)

Delia Creates made this awesome kids' Frankenstein's monster hat for her son, Owen. She started with an off the peg Frankenstein suit and then modded for great excellence.

(via Craftzine)

Seen at New York Comic-Con, which I'm presently attending: Yaya Han's hand-cut foam cosplay wings, which come in a variety of styles, including devil, fairy, angel, cherub and steampunk. They're darned cute, and I bought a set of batwing devil versions for my daughter.

Etsy seller WeirdlyCute (an apt name!) makes these "Zombie Stitch" necklaces that make it appear that your head has been sewn on. Alice and I went as Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein last year, and this would have made a dandy addition to my Sugru neck-bolts.

(via Neatorama)