# Problem with Creature Reacher costume (Giggles)



## rickdilorenzo (Oct 7, 2008)

I just went all out this year and spent about $229.99 on buying a Creature Reacher on Ebay from a reputable seller (won't post their name yet as I'm still working on contacting them for support).

But I'm having a big big problem, the clown shirt doesn't seem to match up with the arm extenders. I think they sent either the wrong clown shirt, or when they made this shirt they did a big mistake with the arms being too short. Anyone else have this problem? My bare arms are showing totally.


----------



## rickdilorenzo (Oct 7, 2008)

Below and too the left is how it *should* look..the arms of the shirt must be going past the person's elbow, since on the left of the picture you can see he's bending his arm, and the white part of the arm extender happens after or at the elbow. But the version of shirt I have, the shirt arms only go 5.5 inches, about half way down my biceps. (I'm 5 feet 11 inches tall, 195 lbs)















Also if you look the shirt on the left you'll see the shirt arms are yellow & purple squares, while my shirt's arms and collar have different color patterns. Doesn't matter to me the color differences, but just leads me to believe they made a mistake with the shirt.
Below you can see the shirt, with a tape measure showing it only goes about 5.75 inches before feathering out, thus only going partially down your shoulder/bicep, never reaching your elbow or further...















Another picture this time of the other arm. The costume is really ruined when your real arm/elbow is showing like that.








I think the main problem is the shirt they sent is just wrong... The arm extenders though also look like they have a lot of foam in. Especially the open-hand one, I can only get my wrist in, not any farther. But even if there was less foam in the arms, with the shirt having such small arm sleeves it still wouldn't work.















Anyone else order a creature reacher and have this problem?? The shirt label does say Rubies, with the arm extenders saying Collegeville/Imagineering Enterprises (Masterpiece Series).
I'm going to try and see if the Ebay Seller can help me first, he's a fairly large seller and I believe he drop-ships items directly from a large wholesaler of Rubies I think (it was shipped to me from "Alarming Products" company in Charlotte, NC.

This really sucks because I really wanted this costume to work for a halloween party and am so disappointed after spending so much money to get something that looks totally miss-matched. Has anyone else ever had a problem with a creature reacher costume? Or giggles? Has anyone else who ordered giggles creature reacher got a shirt that has different colors from the advertising picture? All of the reviews of creature reachers I read here previously seemed very positive/supportive.


----------



## Don of the Dead (Jan 20, 2005)

That sucks man, I really would love that costume but don't have the $$$.

Good luck wiht getting it fixed!


----------



## Ugly Joe (Jan 13, 2004)

Hope you can get the costume company to provide a fix for you in time for Halloween - however, on the off chance that they can't / won't / other, perhaps you should check out a local fabric shop for some similar patterned fabric, and make yourself some sleeve extensions that will stretch far enough to cover the arms / gloves.

But I agree with you, that what you have seems to be a bit different from what is represented in the pictures of the promised product.


----------



## rickdilorenzo (Oct 7, 2008)

Ugly Joe said:


> however, on the off chance that they can't / won't / other, perhaps you should check out a local fabric shop for some similar patterned fabric, and make yourself some sleeve extensions that will stretch far enough to cover the arms / gloves.
> 
> But I agree with you, that what you have seems to be a bit different from what is represented in the pictures of the promised product.


That's an idea. Thing is I don't know how to sew or do things with fabric at all. But worse case scenario I should be able to do *something* with some fabric to cover my arms, but still won't look as good as it's supposed to. I can't see me duplicating the pattern or the way the edges should be cut like that in the pictures.. 

Just so disappointed that they could make this mistake, have to wait and see if they can correct it before I need it, I wanted to use it for something on Oct 29th.


----------



## Ryadread (Oct 24, 2006)

rickdilorenzo said:


> That's an idea. Thing is I don't know how to sew or do things with fabric at all. But worse case scenario I should be able to do *something* with some fabric to cover my arms, but still won't look as good as it's supposed to. I can't see me duplicating the pattern or the way the edges should be cut like that in the pictures..
> 
> Just so disappointed that they could make this mistake, have to wait and see if they can correct it before I need it, I wanted to use it for something on Oct 29th.


Sorry to hear/see the problem with your costume. Sometime's it can be such a gamble to shop online just for those reasons.

If worse comes to worse, the positive thing is that it would not be difficult or expensive to have those sleeves fixed by Halloween. If you are unable to sew yourself, you could easily take it to any seamstress and have the sleeves completely removed and redone with different material. From the look of the costume, there is a headpiece with a collar attached right? So you wont really see the different colored pattern of the collar attached to the costume when fully dressed? If that is the case you could easily take those sleeves off and use even a black satiny fabric (or whatever the material is) and have someone create new sleeves for you. That is of course if your ebay seller cannot make good by Halloween. 

That's a pretty cool costume! Hope things work out so you can scare the crap outta clown hater's like myself.


----------



## share the scare (Sep 12, 2007)

I checked our creature reacher ( scarecrow) and I think your main problem is there is way too much foam in the hands. The foam in ours just barely goes below the fingers of the prop and I can get my arm in to my elbow. I think they make the sleeves too short. This one seems to barely go below the elbow. If you end up having to use that costume, I think I would buy a yard of a solid color fabric and make a couple of tubes. Then I would tack one underneath the sleeve of the costume and then try it on and shorten to desired length and cut zigzags at the end. So you have a double sleeve. I don't know if I am making sense or not. You could buy fabric glue and wouldn't have to sew. But I agree that you definitely have a defective costume.


----------



## SouthernBelle (Aug 30, 2004)

I have 4 creature reachers and they all do the same thing. In the site pics (where I ordered from) the costume sleeves hang much longer than they do on the actual costumes I received.

I'll keep checking this thread to see what solutions are offered to you, maybe I can use them, too.


----------



## Jon (Feb 16, 2004)

Ok, So maybe I can help out here. We just got our giggles creature reacher costumes 2 days ago directly from rubies as we are a wholesaler. I checked the costumes and it seems to be the same thing as yours. It does seem like there is a little to much foam but its not much more than then ours. It does seem that way with all the other creature reachers as sotherbelle said. I also own like 5 creature reachers myself. My suggestion would be to get a long sleeved red shirt. I think that rubies needs to fix up the costume. I will try and take some pictures of the costume for you. -Jon


----------



## rickdilorenzo (Oct 7, 2008)

share the scare said:


> I checked our creature reacher ( scarecrow) and I think your main problem is there is way too much foam in the hands. The foam in ours just barely goes below the fingers of the prop and I can get my arm in to my elbow. I think they make the sleeves too short. This one seems to barely go below the elbow. If you end up having to use that costume, I think I would buy a yard of a solid color fabric and make a couple of tubes. Then I would tack one underneath the sleeve of the costume and then try it on and shorten to desired length and cut zigzags at the end. So you have a double sleeve. I don't know if I am making sense or not. You could buy fabric glue and wouldn't have to sew. But I agree that you definitely have a defective costume.


 Hmm...based on that I can get a knife and try to very-very carefully start hacking away at the foam in the hands. Taking out some of the foam will help... I can only get my hands up to the wrist in one of the creature reacher hands.. if you can get up to your elbow in there then you must have a lot less foam than mine does. Thanks for the info.

I won't do that yet though, still hoping either "Alarming Products" (the distributor) or the eBay Seller will stand behind the product and send a replacement or something quickly enough...That's my hope... Worried if I start making modifications to it right now that if they ask me to re-courier it back to them or something they probably won't accept it if it's been modifed by me.


----------



## rickdilorenzo (Oct 7, 2008)

Jon said:


> Ok, So maybe I can help out here. We just got our giggles creature reacher costumes 2 days ago directly from rubies as we are a wholesaler. I checked the costumes and it seems to be the same thing as yours. It does seem like there is a little to much foam but its not much more than then ours. It does seem that way with all the other creature reachers as sotherbelle said. I also own like 5 creature reachers myself. My suggestion would be to get a long sleeved red shirt. I think that rubies needs to fix up the costume. I will try and take some pictures of the costume for you. -Jon


 If they're doing it to all the new/recent sales than that really sucks. The pictures on Rubies website don't match what they actually send you. Rubies website shows the sleeves going much further, up to your elbows, when what you actually get only goes part way down your biceps. From the pictures I couldn't tell if the foam-part in the hands was wrong or not, but sounds like it is from other owners who have copies with less foam.

If your a wholesaler, what do you do with your creature reachers? Could you call Rubies and ask them why the product they send you doesn't match the pictures? Since your a wholesaler thinking a call from you would matter more than a call from a lonely single customer like myself.


----------



## ZMoe (Sep 13, 2010)

I'm a couple years late, but for anyone who purchases this costume moving forward, I had to wear a cloak over mine when I had it. I thought the cloak would take away from the look but it actually added some creepiness to it.

Below are 2 pics wearing the costume. The one with George Bush shows the cloak better.

EDIT: I apologize for bringing up an old thread (especially as my first post), I'm usually one who hates that, but I had the same frustration with the Giggles costume so I couldn't resist. I also had trouble keeping the mask upright once the heat started building up inside. I really wish they used foam blocks like in the Peter Rottentail mask to keep it in place. I would have kept my Giggles if the mask had blocks, and just would have bought a different clown shirt to go with it.


----------

