Every year, I am impressed not only by the dedication and technical skill some people put into their Halloween costumes, but also the cleverness and ingenuity employed to come up with some of these!

1. Happy Mutant Three-armed Baby

Four-month-old Corvidae sprouted an extra arm for Halloween last year! Canida posted how this mutant baby costume was created at Instructables. She was part of a group costume called Nuclear Family.

2. Headless Marie Antoinette

Nicole Magne, who wore a gaping abdominal hole in a previous costume, made this awesome Marie Antoinette getup last Halloween. Of course, it wouldn't be so awesome if she hadn't been decapitated! See the process of building this costume at Etsy.

3. 8-bit Gary

Kiel Johnson and Klai Brown created this 8-bit costume out of foam cubes glued onto a cardboard suit for a Toshiba ad in which the "real" Gary was pixelated into a low-res version of himself. The process is documented in photographs.

4. Bender

We've seen Bender costumes before, but Marty not only won a costume contest with this one, he also posted the process of making it so you can replicate his success!

5. LEGO Minifig

Instructables member Kaged Konbat made himself into a LEGO Minifig. The head is made from a tube sold as a form for concrete -strong but still lightweight. The wearer sees through the facial features, which are covered with mesh speaker fabric. Your buddy could accompany you as a LEGO brick.

6. Darth Vader TIE Fighter

(Image by Flickr user Kevin Tostado)

I was blown away by this Darth Vader costume spotted at Downtown Disney in Anaheim for Halloween 2007. Someone took a lot of care in constructing a TIE fighter around a wheelchair. See more Halloween costume ideas for children in wheelchairs.

7. Steampunk Iron Man

(Image by Judy Stephens)

Steampunk Iron Man won the Marvel costume contest at Comic Con just this past weekend. Within the next few weeks, we should see some information about how it was done. Meanwhile, you can see more costumes from Comic Con at Agent M Loves Tacos.

8. Double Rainbow

This costume was obviously inspired by the double rainbow meme from Paul Vasquez's video recording his awe at seeing a double rainbow at Yosemite.

9. Mad Max

Karol Bartoszynski has been many of the characters from the Mad Max movies. He became a fan as a teenager, and over the next twenty years turned his enthusiasm for Mad Max into a career as a costume designer, and now organizes Mad Max fan gatherings and re-enactments. Bartoszynski runs the fan site Mad Max Costumes, where you can draw plenty of inspiration. Imagine showing up looking like this at your local Halloween party!

10. Reverse Trick-or-Treat

The greatest Halloween costume idea ever was one related in this story from Mefite np312. Apparently no pictures were posted from that Halloween long ago, but Doc Pop took the idea and illustrated it in a comic. You can see the whole thing at Flickr. I hope someone picks this up and runs with it this year.

See also: 10 Awesome Homemade Halloween Costumes, Halloween Costumes to Inflict Upon the Innocent, and Ten Epic Halloween Costumes.