One of the most important things to remember is: you have to get your costume from point A to point B in one piece. Normally, anything short of carrying your costume in a grocery store bag will suffice, but here are a couple of good ideas you can use.

Use a hard container

Visit your local discount store and pick up a large, hard plastic container and some "egg-crate" mattress pads. Line the inside of the container with the mattress pad.

If you'd like to make individual compartments for each, individual piece, you can cut pieces of plywood to use as dividers. Use "L" brackets and bolt the plywood to the inside of the container, then line the inside.

If you're having problems finding a plastic case that is large enough to hold your gear (especially if you have a backpack) you may want to look into having a custom case made, or using a case designed for musical instruments. You can either visit a music store or the case manufacturer. Either establishment may have a "scratch & dent" room where you can buy a case for significantly less. If you visit the manufacturer, they would be able to sell you a case and then custom cut your foam to assure you get a perfect fit.

You can find your local case manufacturer in the yellow pages under "Cases".

Identify Yourself

Make a label for the front and/or sides of your costume transport. A sample is shown here. In the unlikely event of you losing your costume, someone may be nice enough to call you and arrange for you to pick it up. Stranger things have happened... Don't forget to laminate the front and glue it on the case.

Keep your costume away from the heat!

I can't stress this enough. Heat can do irrepairable damage to your costume. Never leave your costume in the car on a hot summer day! Even leaving your gear in the trunk is a bad idea. Heat can cause the adhesive to return to it's liquid state and you can guess what that will do!