We've had some good times today poking fun at store-bought Halloween costumes for kids, but once again, the Internet has proven homemade costumes are way more awesome than anything you can find at the store. Case in point: the fantastic Rocketeer costume made by Jim from Sweet Juniper for his three year-old son Gram. Not only is it a pretty amazing recreation of Dave Stevens' high-flying, Nazi-fighting hero, but accoding to Jim's list of materials, he was able to build it out of stuff he had laying around for about $20. Check out more pictures after the cut!The Rocketeer costume is something of a sequel to Gram's costume from last year, where his desire to be a robot led Jim to create what is probably the most adorable version of a Paul Verhoeven film I've ever seen: Two Year-Old RoboCop:



I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that Gram probably hasn't seen the source material for his costume, but it's pretty awesome nonetheless. And hey, if nothing else, being RoboCop on Halloween allows you to modify Clarence Bodicker's most famous quote into the significantly more appropriate "Witches leave."

This year, though, the hyperviolent social satire was put aside in favor of something Gram's definitely more into: The action-packed pulp style story of stunt pilot Cliff Secord and his jetpack, and the results are pretty fantastic:



As Jim reveals in his description, the materials he used to build the costume include a BMX helmet, an Iron Man mask, ethernet cable, a couple of Pepsi bottles, two hundred pushpins, a leather jacket modified into the Rocketeer's signature look, and even a plastic holder for urinal cakes used as the middle section of the jetpack:



Don't worry, though: Even though most of the pieces he used were recycled, Jim bought that last one new.

He even plans to load the jetpack with dry ice and a fan to blow it out of the exhaust tubes on Halloween for the smoky takeoff effect! The entire thing is just absolutely fantastic, and easily one of the coolest costumes I've ever seen, regardless of age. The only thing I don't like about it is that it has made every Halloween costume I've ever worn look absolutely terrible by comparison.

For more awesome pictures and a breakdown of which parts went where, check out Sweet Junpier for a full rundown!

(Via RJ White)