Guardians of the Galaxy Costume
It’s finally here, it’s time for my favorite post of the year! There are few things we love more than putting together family Halloween costumes! I keep a list of ideas I think would be fun, and after the 4th of July it’s go time to start planning, organizing, and creating! When my favorite holiday, flexing my creative muscles, and my favorite people all coincide, it’s just a beautiful thing.
We believe in extra Halloween costumes! And even though Halloween looks a little different this year, we knew this was one of our favorite traditions in life we refused to cancel. Even the year 2020 couldn’t stop us from putting together family Halloween costumes!
Last year we did something very extra and flew on location for our Up Costumes at the Real Up House. This year we kept it safe and shot on location close to home. But the location and a little bit of Photoshop work from our friend and photographer Chrissy did just the trick for making this year’s Halloween costume dreams come true!
So without further adieu, it’s time for our 2020 Halloween costume reveal! This year’s theme is…
Guardians of the Galaxy Family Costume
And might I recommend blasting this song while you read the post and view the pictures for full effect!
We start almost every costume off thinking of an animal our babies/toddlers can be. As fun as it is to pull off a group costume, we love to make sure they are cute as a standalone costume.
Guardians of the Galaxy Peter Quill and Gamora Couple Costume
Additionally, we love it when there’s a great couple’s costume (we’re all about the couple’s costume ideas) that we can wear without our kids. So far we’ve only had family Halloween parties, but I’m sure the day will come when we attend a couple’s event or party in costume.
Avengers Family Costume Theme
With two little boys and a preschooler who is starting to have opinions and really cares about giving input, it was time to start talking superhero costumes. Even though he’s never seen Guardians of the Galaxy, he’s read about them and learned about them from cousins and friends. He loves Groot, so we knew this idea would highly likely be his choice for our family costume. And Marvel’s Guardians it is, the unlikely hero group of misfits makes a really great and fun family costume!
Peter Quill Costume/Star-Lord Costume
Peter comes together pretty easily with a few key pieces! You can buy all kinds of custom items, but for a Star-Lord cosplay, you’ll want to get his shirt, jacket, and blasters as close to the movie wardrobe as possible!
Peter Quill Costume Sources
Shirt: His printed Yeah Baby Star-Lord tee is one-of-kind Peter Quill and a must for his costume!
Jacket: This red mixed pleather jacket was perfect and one of the best prices we found for a Star-Lord costume
Pants: We used black jeans we already own. I’d highly recommend buying a pair you’ll wear again or thrifting a pair of black pants.
Belt: This Mission Belt has held up for years, and the buckle is perfect!
Headphones: I was thrilled to not have to DIY these and found the perfect throwback pair with all the perfect details and colors on Amazon
Star-Lord Gun (get two): These blaster guns come in a white and orange style (probably so they don’t’ look real!). We grabbed some metallic spray paint and black spray paint to make them fit the Peter Quill costume better.
Other items:
- Vintage Walkman (which we happened to have!),
- Black boots (we used vinyl black fabric and rubber bands to extend them higher)
- Wire hanger to bend into two invisible holsters to hold blasters in pockets.
- Eyeliner pencils in various eyeliner pencil shades of brown to make Peter Quill’s signature facial hair
- Star-Lord Mask: we decided to ditch the Star-Lord mask prop due to AZ heat. However, it’s an easy way to be the character with little effort!
Gamora Costume
Gamora has a few looks depending on the movie. Due to living in Arizona and the AZ heat I decided to go with her look in Guardians of the Galaxy 1 without her signature jacket.
Gamora Costume Sources:
- Black pleather leggings: I took this opportunity to invest in this pair I’ll wear long after Halloween! Here are some less expensive options if you only need them for the costume.
- Fitted Black t-shirt: Get a fitted layering tee to make the vest look like Gamor’s top.
- Black pleather vest: I loved this one with lace-up details much like Gamora’s original outfit has.
- Black belt: I actually layered two. One black studded belt and one black waist belt. They were easy to weave together to give the look of the holsters Gamora wears.
- Wrist Guards: This pair matched the vest perfectly!
- Gamora Wig: I looked at hair chalk and decided to go with this wig. It was easy and worked perfectly!
- Gamora Makeup: I’m going to do a separate post all about this! But green body paint and some dark green or black lipstick are musts!
- Knee Boots: I wore a pair I already own. Any knee boots you love that fit work perfectly!
- Sword: Gamaora’s sword is called the Godslayer and has a very unique look to it with multiple prongs. It also adapts size in the movie. You can buy this custom from cosplay shops for more money than I wanted to spend. I honestly considered it though! But I found a big sword with markings on it and a unique shape on the handle at Party City (no longer linked online) and called it good!
Groot Costume
We wrestled with the idea of doing a DIY Goot costume. It would only take some brown pajamas, puff paint, and cardboard to create! But as we ran low on time and found some great costume sales, we opted to buy a kid’s Groot costume instead.
Groot Costume Sources
I love the kid Groot look, it was perfect for my little guy! There’s also teenage and baby Groot costumes available to fit whatever look you’re going for.
Rocket Costume
Having a toddler be Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy was all too perfect! It was equal parts cute and funny!
You can buy a toddler Rocket costume already made. But since we still have a baby, I thought a more cutesy approach to Rocket would be a good fit.
Guardians of the Galaxy Rocket Costume Sources
Raccoon costume: Some years you can buy this costume directly; they bring it back about every other year. We were out of luck this year, but managed to find it on eBay and Poshmark no problem! I just loved the brown hues that go so perfectly with Rocket’s coloring.
If you are going bigger than a baby, there are several Rocket Raccoon Costumes with accessories ready to go.
Pajamas: Under the costume, we added a pair of plain black pajamas. Brown or tan would work great too! Confession: These are skeleton Halloween pajamas turned inside out. It was like a two-for-one costume with this approach!
Shoes: We love Freshly Picked mocs.
Inflatable Gun: I couldn’t stop laughing at the idea of our baby holding this giant almost beach ball blow-up version of Rocket’s stinger gun. He tossed it around while we took pictures like it was a beach ball which made for a lot of personality shots: just like Rocket has!
Additional Characters:
If you have a group of people ready to join the guardians and need to slide in a few more characters, here are some great add-ons:
- Mantis
- Drax the Destroyer
- Drax’s 5 Horsemen of the Apocalypse outfit
- Nova Corps
- Nebula
- Yondu the Smuggler
- Star Lord Bad-Lord outfit
- Thanos imperative ready for world annihilation
- Cosmo the Space Dog
- Ronan the Accuser
- The Collector
- Nova Prime (Nova-lord)
- Thor, God of Thunder
These all make excellent cosplay costume or Halloween costume additions to a group Guardians of the Galaxy costume.
Guardians of the Galaxy Halloween Costumes Photo Shoot
For those wondering, we shot our Guardians of the Galaxy costume primarily outside the Arizona Science Center. They have amazing setups with views of the sky for the galaxy feel. With a modern vent ceiling, open pipes, a cool concrete pillar, and a ledge ready to resemble a cliff- it was about the perfect loctions!
There’s also an area with stairs and lights that felt very Guardians of the Galaxy. It’s just outside the entrance/exit of the Science Center. That’s where we shot the picture above.
Although a waterfall, modern-looking platform, an elevator, inside a small cave, or a studio with a black room to look like the black vortex would all be excellent options too!
Also, we went to a mural in Downtown Phoenix off Rosevelt Row to snag our mural shots. A modern fun mural with aliens and a space them felt very appropriate for the golden guardians.
The talented Chrissy Blake who a master at themes shot our pictures. She also kept this secret for months and put up with a lot of hot pleather and fur-wearing Whitings during a 104-degree day in Phoenix. Yes, it was so hot, but getting these pictures in such a fun location made it 100% worth it!
Guardians of the Galaxy Costume FAQs
A Yeah Baby Star-Lord tee is one-of-a-kind Peter Quill and a must for his costume! Add in a red pleather
Black pleather and green face paint! We have an entire DIY Gamora Costume post with tons of specific details.
Absolutely she does. If you plan to do a Guardians costume, plan on at least one pod of green face makeup to turn yourself green.
And for those wondering, we’ve gone all out for Halloween every year since the year we got engaged. It’s like a new game for us every year to come up with fun costumes and the perfect location to shoot them at. If you want some fun blasts through the past, here are the other costumes we’ve had a blast pulling together through the years.
PAST FAMILY COSTUMES
2019: Disney/Pixar Up Family Costume
2018: Jurassic Park Family Costume
2017: Pop Star Icons Family Costume
2016: Princess Bride Family Costume
2015: Emperor’s New Groove Family Costume
2014: Back to the Future Marty and Doc Couples Costume
2013: Arrested Development George Michael and Maeby Costume
2012: PBS Stars Bob Ross and Julia Child Couples Costume
2011: Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton Couples Costume
AND FINALLY, IF YOU WONDERED WHY WE GO ALL OUT WITH OUR HALLOWEEN COSTUMES, YOU MAY ENJOY THESE POSTS:
Extra Halloween Costumes: Why We Go All Out
Over 150 Couple’s Halloween Costume Ideas (With Family Costume Ideas Too!)
Halloween Costume Pictures: Pre Trick-or-Treating {Free Halloween Printable}
Photos by: Chrissy Blake
And a reminder they are copyrighted. If you would like to use any images in roundups with links back, please email for written consent.
