On Friday, we all went to a 21st Birthday, fancy dress party.

The theme was “Come As Your Favourite Movie Character”.  Of course, that also translates as “Come as whichever movie character you can get a reasonably priced costume for”.

We were given plenty of notice, so after much umming and arring, I eventually settled on one of my favourite characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Anthony Edward (“Tony”) Stark.

Over several days, I built myself an Arc Reactor – the centrepiece of my costume.  Of course it wasn’t a real arc reactor. The “real” one was made from some sort of Titanium alloy and was powered by a Palladium core. My version was made from MDF and a plastic milk carton and was powered by three AA batteries but, from a couple of feet away, it looked the part. I cut a hole in an old T-shirt for it to poke through and strapped it round my chest with some wide elastic.  It kept falling down as I moved, so I added an extra strap over each shoulder. It felt like I was putting a bra on, but it also felt strangely comfortable – I didn’t even know I was wearing it. And the reactor stayed in place.

Tony Stark also has dark brown hair and a small anchor beard. I have neither of those, so over the course of several weeks, I grew a beard. A full beard. Urgh. I hated it. How you hirsute types put up with it, I don’t know.

Then, with the aid of a bottle of Just For Men (other male hair dyes are available), Mrs M dyed it all.  It came out slightly too dark, but at least I no longer looked like I was aiming to go to the party as Father Christmas!  Some hair clippers and a razor gave the desired look… well, almost: I would have needed anorther two months to get my hair long enough.

I bought a jacket from Amazon, that replicated the one he wore in Avengers – Infinity War and a pair of replica glasses from ebay.  Funnily, no-one picked up that I had a Mk1 Arc Reactor but was wearing Infinity War clobber.

The kids went as Clark Kent and Lara Croft, whilst Mrs M went as Pepper Potts – Tony Stark’s girlfriend… a somewhat older Pepper Potts, who had let herself go.

But let’s face it, I wasn’t exactly portraying Tony in his prime!

There were a number of Blues Brothers’; several Ali G’s; a couple of Shaun Of The Deads; a Don Corlione; a Little Mermaid and a whole host of others that I can barely remember… because the bar served Estrella Damm on draught.

It was a great night, on a Good Friday.