1: How old are/were you when you did this?

Christie: This was in October 2009, and I was 31.

Robyn: I was 27 at the time.

2: Photos of your Costume Group have been seen on Deviant Art/Cosplay.com: You must make costumes regularly. What are some of the other costumes you have made and enjoy?

Christie: My sister and I have good and evil fairy costumes (I’m the good) that turned out great, we also have Star Trek dresses. I just made a My Little Pony costume, which was my first major sewing effort. I have many more planned now that I’ve gotten officially hooked to cosplaying!

Robyn: I -love- making costumes! I’m a huge fan of going to conventions as well and dressing up, so there is never a shortage of opportunities to dress up! Halloween 2008 a group of us went as Batman characters (my sister included ), so I dressed up as Catwoman. Whatever character we chose to portray we gave it our own flare, much like we did with the Rainbow Brite characters. Other recent costumes I’ve made were a “bad” fairy (to go along with Christie’s “good” fairy), a Star Trek medical officer, a Steampunk fairy and various characters from different animes.

3: Are you “Rainbow Brite” Fans?

Christie: Yes, of course! I used to watch it when I was a kid, and as you can tell by my age, was right from the start! I loved my Starlite stuffed animal! It was the only Rainbow Brite merchandise I had, I think!

Robyn: I’ve always loved Rainbow Brite as far back as I can remember! I vaguely recall watching the movie, Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer when I was very young and loving it!

4: How did you come to do this for Halloween?

Robyn: I believe it was my sister, Christie’s idea. We’ve always enjoyed doing group costumes and this seemed like a great fit!

Christie: I’ve wanted to do the Color Kids for a couple years or so before this…I thought it would be a good, fun group thing to do, with a lot of characters to choose from

5: Where you fans, or was this something you agreed on as a group?

Robyn: I’ve always been a fan of Rainbow Brite! I remember watching it all the time when I was a little girl in the 80s. We found a few other friends who are also fans of Rainbow Brite and enjoy dressing up for Halloween in groups and it went from there.

Christie: I like Rainbow Brite, I know at least the other girls in the group do too. I still find it miraculous that we were able to recruit guys!

6: You kept each character similar to the original with a modern flare, yet STILL made them recognizable. Was this by accident or did you discuss it?

Robyn: We definitely discussed it before-hand. We thought it would be fun to put a modern, “grown-up” flare onto their costumes. I’ve always enjoyed having original costumes, something that no one else has ever done before. I choose Patty O’Green because it’s one of my favorite colors, and I figured when she grew up she’d have a punk look to her.

Christie: The goal was to portray the characters “grown up,” so we basically all came up with our own designs, based on the original cartoon.

7: How much of your costumes were store bought and how much did you make on your own?

Christie: I bought pretty much everything, as did a lot of people (Lala Orange actually made her dress and coat). I dyed the socks and shirt, and repainted the glasses and shoes.

Robyn: For mine personally, I’d say it was about half and half. I’m not that great at sewing, so I try to buy clothing fashioned how I want it to look and dye it if necessary.

8: There are a bunch of classic items (Sprites. etc) you used. Did you buy those online, or were they childhood mementos?

Christie: All the Sprites belonged to Lala Orange! She’s a huge Rainbow Brite fan and already had all of them

Robyn: One of the girls in our group, the one portraying Lala Orange, owns all the sprites and keeps them in her house. She owned all the Sprites well before we even planned these costumes!

9: Where did you wear these costumes at? A party/special function?

Christie: We wore them to Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween party at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, Florida

Robyn: The only time we all were able to wear them together was for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.

10: If you could do it again, what would you change, what would stay the same?

Christie: I would keep mine the same, I do believe. I’m pretty happy with mine. I would love to come up with my own designs for all the others, though, just for fun!

Robyn: I really liked how my costume turned out, but I’d probably buy a green wig if we decided to wear them again. I inhaled enough green hair spray to last a week after that party! Not to mention scrubbing green spray from my bathroom floor was a pain!

11: How much planning when in to making this happen? Was it on the spot, or did you research and plan for a few weeks?

Robyn: We planned for at least a couple months. As for any costume, we like to make sure that we have enough time for materials to get delivered or to sew costume pieces to get them to look how we desire.

Christie: We planned for a while, just so we could have time to try and get people in on it. We actually had a full roster until 2 canceled at the last minute!

12: What are your thoughts about the new Rainbow Brite re-launch?

Robyn: I think it’s awesome! I think Moonglow would be a really fun costume to do!

Christie: I like the idea of her coming back…you can tell my generation is in charge, we loved our cartoons and toys and we’re trying to bring ’em back!….but I wish all the Color Kids were there too.

13: Are there any other cartoons/anime/video games you enjoy?

Christie: Many of the cartoons of the 80s are nostalgic to me, even if some aren’t as good as I remember!….plus ones like Freakazoid, Animaniacs, Avatar: The Last Airbender….I love all the Miyazaki films, Unico…..as far as video games, I always enjoyed the Spyro the dragon games, any Mario games, Zelda, Animal Crossing

Robyn: There are too many to name! The cartoons I’ve always enjoyed are My Little Pony, Ducktales, Chip & Dale’s Rescue Rangers, Gummi Bears, etc…I could keep going with those! Within the past few years I’ve gotten into anime, some of my favorites being Fruits Basket, Berserk, Trigun and Elfen Lied. As for video games, I’ll pretty much play anything from old school Mario to Gears of War!

Thank you both very much for allowing us to feature you. You did a fantastic job!
Have a Rainbow Day!
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Christie and Robyn’s Images used with permission